Well, I just had an Airbnb guest cancel their booking because one of the 14 guests got Covid. Airbnb gave 100% refund. Extenuating circumstances, 2 days before arrival date.

[Doug741]

This is totally wrong.  Vrbo holds their guests to the cancellation policy that is in place by the owner of the house.  Airbnb will give back 100% of all the money paid by a guest if they claim that any of their guests got Covid-19.  And this applies to any reservation even if the arrival date is in one day.  The homeowner has no say in this.  This gives every renter an out at any time.  In other words, you can just take a random positive Covid-19 test and submit it as one of your guests results and you now can cancel your reservation at any time until you arrive.  This is totally wrong.

[Huma0]

@Doug741 

I agree. It's time for this to stop.

While I don't want anyone who has tested positive for COVID to travel and put others at risk just because they don't want to lose some money, there need to be stricter limitations on this. When you are talking about one person in a group of 14, it starts to become ridiculous, unless there is a specific reason, e.g. it's a bridal party and the bride has COVID. 

I don't expect Airbnb to go into that sort of analysis of every cancellation though. It would never happen. However, it's now been over two years since a global pandemic was announced. Anyone who choses to travel these days is well aware of the risk of potentially having to cancel if they test positive. Why are the hosts still the ones expected to bear the burden of this?