What is going to happen to reservations post 31st May? We need to have a plan.

[Nick-and-Jackie0]

After the initial shock of @Airbnb unilaterally changing the cancellation policies for reservations arriving up to and including 31st May

(which many of us have contrasting views on).

We like many host have been trying to rebuild and recover some sort of order for the remainder of this year.

However we are regularly being contacted by guests whose stays are well after the 31st May deadline (in June, July and August).
They too are asking for 100% refunds. Some are aware of the current policy and ask why we will not offer a 100% refund to them and we have even had a couple of clients who have told us that they will wait until Airbnb extend the date of this policy and then cancel 100% free of any financial burden!

We need to know now what Airbnb's action plan is. We can no longer make plans ourselves as Airbnb have shown that they can and will just rewrite the policies at the drop of a hat and without any consultation, so we must hear from them. 

Will the 100% refund policy be extended past 31st May?

Will a different sliding scale policy be introduced (e.g 50%refund for June reservations, 30% for July and 10% for August)?

Will we return to our normal polices after 31st May?

Will Airbnb offer more protection to its hosts?

We need to know whether we should be trying to encourage the guests to cancel now for them to forfeit their deposits or can we recommend with confidence that they hang on to see how the Covid-19 travel restrictions develop, knowing that then if they still cancel that we will not be left with zero again?

Also what protection do we have if we change the dates for guests? We have some guests who want to deffer their stay to later this year and others want to postpone for 12 months. Effectively they will be extending the cancellation policies.
Will Airbnb guarantee that if at a later date these guests then decide to cancel, that we will still receive the full funds due for these reservations?

We appreciate there is a lot to consider and people from Airbnb are looking into this and are extremely busy, but we do need a plan to move forward.

The loss of nearly three months revenue in our properties has had a massive effect on not only us but the people whom we employ. The season where our homes are is very seasonal. Having lost over 40% of this years season already, we need to be able to limit further damage.

[Susan17]

@Rodney11 

You wrote:

"AirBnB will argue that the force majeure event, as per the EC, allowed them to override their normal cancellation policies" 

They may need to explain one or two naughty little anomalies in their pro-COVID and post-COVID EC policies first.. 

The claims that Airbnb's Extenuating Circumstances policy stated "Epidemic disease or illness" prior to the COVID-19 outbreak are wholly and completely untrue. From March 21 2017,  the language in the original policy actually referred to "ENDEMIC disease or illness".

Somewhere between March 28 2020 and April 2 2020 - without the required clarification, explanation or notice to users - Airbnb quietly and arbitrarily amended the policy to remove the term "Endemic", and replace it with "Epidemic".

Additionally, all existing EC pages referencing "Endemic" were subsequently erased from the website, and interestingly, the company later offered some minimal compensation possibilities for hosts who had refunds forcibly applied and provided to guests, under the terms of COVID/EC.

Endemic refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease in a geographic population. Malaria, for example, is an endemic disease.

Epidemic refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected.

Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.

Coronavirus is an example of an epidemic which became a pandemic, and can not be interpreted as an endemic disease.

[Rodney11]

That's an interesting point @Susan17 , I did not realize they had changed the language so recently. Doubtless the fingerprints of their legal team are all over this too.

Of course, there's also this clause in the Terms of Service: 

19.11 No Class Actions or Representative Proceedings. You and Airbnb acknowledge and agree that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, we are each waiving the right to participate as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class action lawsuit, class-wide arbitration, private attorney general action, or any other representative proceeding as to all Disputes. Further, unless you and Airbnb both otherwise agree in writing, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one party’s claims and may not otherwise preside over any form of any class or representative proceeding. If the “class action lawsuit” waiver or the “class-wide arbitration” waiver in this Section 19.11 is held unenforceable with respect to any Dispute, then the entirety of the Arbitration Agreement will be deemed void with respect to such Dispute and the Dispute must proceed in court. If the “private attorney general action” waiver or the “representative proceeding” waiver in this Section 19.11 is held unenforceable with respect to any Dispute, those waivers may be severed from this Arbitration Agreement and you and Airbnb agree that any private attorney general claims and representative claims in the Dispute will be severed and stayed, pending the resolution of any arbitrable claims in the Dispute in individual arbitration.

I'm guessing this clause might be deemed unenforceable by most courts, at least in the US. But it does show the extent to which AirBnB are going to avoid any class action suits. 

I will watch any class action suit brought by hosts as an interested observer. I don't think a settlement in the US will lead to any compensation for a host like me located in Canada, though perhaps someone with more experience than me in such matters can chime in if US settlements ever include restitution payments for plaintiffs outside the country. Seem like hosts outside the US would need to take action against the AirBnB entity registered in Ireland, so you may have an angle there @Susan17 ! Apparently, China and Japan also have their own, separate AirBnB entities.

Anyway, @Susan17 , I hope you are staying safe and healthy. Hopefully you also have a plan to get through this with your business and property relatively intact. All the best!

[Susan17]

Hi @Rodney11 

Thank you for the response. Firstly, I just need to clear up an error - I copied and pasted my previous comment to you from another thread I'd posted it on, and hadn't realised I'd typed March 28 - April 02, instead of Feb 28 - April 02. The crucial fact remains though, that the wording of the EC policy was changed - without warning or explanation - long after the coronavirus outbreak. 

There are several different groups in both the US and Europe that are currently exploring the possibilities of launching class action suits against the company as a result of the COVID refund debacle - some in more advanced stages of progress than others. The US hosts have a much steeper mountain to climb of course, because of the class action waiver, which as you say, may or may not be enforceable. 

However, there is precedent - in Nov 2016, Airbnb successfully blocked a proposed class action alleging racial discrimination on the platform. The lawsuit alleged systematic discrimination by Airbnb hosts, enabled by various design choices made by the company. Gregory Selden - an African-American guest who originally filed the claim - was sadly denied his day in court by Airbnb and forced into mandatory arbitration instead, at the very same time as Airbnb were requiring all users to sign up to their newly-introduced fuzzy-warm Non-Discrimination policy in order to access the site. Rather ironic. 

No such obstacles exist for European hosts though. In July 2018, Airbnb were ordered by the European Commission to amend several of their terms and conditions to align with European laws - terms which were deemed to be "unfair, deceptive and misleading", and in breach of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Unfair Contract Terms Directive, and the Regulation of the jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters. The European consumer authorities and the Commission demanded from Airbnb a number of changes by tbe end of that year, or face enforcement action - one of which was that they should make it clear that EU/EEA users could take judicial proceedings against Airbnb in their country of residence. 

There have been recent class action successes against the company though - one case taken in Montreal in June of last year in relation to deceptive pricing, and another $200 million case won in Amsterdam just last month, in which Airbnb was accused of double-dipping on booking fees. Currently, there's a separate class action suit ongoing in Vancouver, in which Airbnb stands accused of double-ticketing/differential pricing. So it can be done, and has been done. 

And then there's mass arbitration - the new class action for the 2020s - in which enterprising law firms and savvy start-ups are turning the tables on big companies and weaponising the very systems the corps have used to their own advantage for so long, by filing tens of thousands of arbitration claims against them all at once, thereby completely overwhelming the target company's infrastructure. It's putting the fear of god into the corps, by all accounts, and this new, rather ingenious, way for the little guys to fight back against against their corporate oppressors, has been hailed by many as "poetic justice". An Oakland-based company called FairShake are currently recruiting armies of disgruntled Airbnb hosts (and ex-hosts) at a rate of knots I believe, for what could very well turn out to be the biggest, most public, most newsworthy mass arbitration case the world has seen to date. 

So there are options, and plenty of them. Personally though, the legal route is not one I'm particularly interested in taking. Way too lengthy  and cumbersome an approach for me now. Once upon a time, I'd maybe have been up for it. when I was still daft enough to believe that perhaps one day the courts - and host solidarity - might eventually force Airbnb to behave in a fair, ethical, just and transparent manner. That was before I woke up to the fact that the company just gets more and more abusive with time, and besides, there ain't no unity, in the Airbnb community" (You only have to spend 5 minutes reading through the posts on the CC to see irrefutable evidence of that)

Now though, I just see Airbnb for the bunch of abusive, exploitative, corrupt crooks they are, and believe it's long past time they got their comeuppance, before they can do any more damage to good, decent people or mess up any more lives. And with the company now on the hook for another $2 billion in "investor funding" - mostly debt, on backstreet loan-shark terms -  you can bet your life that things are about to get a whole lot more painful for Airbnb hosts from here on out (if that were possible). 

So the way I see it,  by far the swiftest and most effective way for Airbnb to get their just desserts, is by way of a concerted, calculated, coordinated media campaign, exposing them for exactly who and what they are, and opening the eyes of the world to the truth that this shady, unethical, despicable company absolutely can't - and shouldn't - be trusted. Not one single step of the way. They're in a very weakened, very precarious, very vulnerable position right now, and the media can be a fierce and deadly adversary, when they finally turn against you.

Only when Airbnb is brought to its knees will justice be served for the tens - if not hundreds - of thousands of loyal, committed, hardworking hosts they've used, abused, chewed up and spat out over the years. And it can't come a minute too soon. At least then the market can open up for new, more ethical players, who'll hopefully have learned from Airbnb's mistakes and will treat their service providers with a little more care and respect, rather than as cash cows and serfs. 

Unfortunately, after a decade of exemplary service to the company as a committed superhost, Airbnb's uber-generous 100% refund policy has just hammered the final nail (of many) in the coffin of my hosting career, and decimated the little business I grafted my arse of all these years to build up. So there's no way to survive intact for me now. But not to worry - I do have my plan, or my exit strategy, or my fightback blueprint, or whatever one could call it. I'm not leaving empty handed - far from it. Knowledge is power, as they say, so I'll be just fine. Hope you will be too. Very best wishes to you @Rodney11, - however Airbnb's sordid little story pans out.

[Rodney11]

@Susan17 , you bring such an interesting perspective to the discussion. Obviously you have spent some time battling with AirBnB. Sorry to hear your little business is being decimated, I really do feel for you. It was very enlightening to read about how smaller organizations are using mass arbitration to flip the script on unethical large corporations.

My personal experience with AirBnB has been for the most part positive, but I did come into the arrangement already perhaps jaded. I always assumed the "partnership" was structured as: AirBnB = retailer, guests = customers, and hosts = product. I was always conscious of the possibility that AirBnB, and the short term rental market aimed at int'l travelers could dry up at any time, so my property is set up to transform relatively easily to long-term rental to local inhabitants. I am currently in the midst of making that transition.

I was also uncomfortable with AirBnB's disruption of the local Toronto LTR market by not only providing a platform to move a lot of long-term rentals for locals to short term rental for tourists, but also actively lobbying local hosts to resists the rules the municipal gov't was trying to put in place to re-establish a balance; namely requiring local hosts to register their property and preventing self-contained unit rentals from being offered on STR platforms. 

I'll keep using AirBnB because there is no cost to me, and very little risk. If they can provide me with some LTR, that's fine, but if not there are plenty of other local channels to find good renters. There is also a good chance that AirBnB will not survive this current crisis. So be it.

Anyway, I'll continue to follow your posts here as I find your comments and insights to be very interesting and enlightening. All the best!

[Susan17]

@Rodney11

"I was also uncomfortable with AirBnB's disruption of the local Toronto LTR market by not only providing a platform to move a lot of long-term rentals for locals to short term rental for tourists, but also actively lobbying local hosts to resists the rules the municipal gov't was trying to put in place to re-establish a balance; namely requiring local hosts to register their property and preventing self-contained unit rentals from being offered on STR platforms"

I've posted extensively on this subject over the past several years - Airbnb cynically and dishonestly using small, independent local hosts as their Trojan horse in regulatory battles with lawmakers and municipal authorities in towns and cities worldwide, while surreptitiously slipping in hordes of "Pro", commercial and rogue operators under the radar, to hoover up vast swathes of local housing stock, and make a killing.

While there are, of course, many reputable, exemplary Pro and commercial management companies on the platform, it's the proliferation of the batallions of rogues and scammers, with their unmonitored, substandard listings and anti-social, out of control guests - combined with Airbnb's abject refusal to take responsibility for weeding such players out - that has destroyed local neighbouhoods, persecuted communities, and ultimately, led to the draconian regulations that have resulted in tens of thousands of dedicated, committed small independent hosts being shut down, and put out of business. 

This is the single issue that has caused by far the most damage to Airbnb’s brand image, reputation and sustainability, long before the coronavirus ever came along, and if there's one silver lining in this big black COVID cloud, it's that the rogues and scammers are already going to the wall, one after another. At least now, local residents and families will be able to find somewhere to live in peace in their own hometowns, rather than being displaced by charlatans looking to make a quick buck, and troublemaking interlopers and transients thinking they have a God-given right to "belong anywhere"

You've probably seen this before, but just in case you haven't, here's the story of AJ, a scamming Montreal host, who was outed by Zach Dubinsky of CBC last year, and is a classic example of the swarms of rogue hosts that have run rampant on the platform for years, while Airbnb not only turns a blind eye, but neglects to lift a single finger to weed them out, until forced.

Post Exposing "Host" With 97 Listings, Fake Profil... - Airbnb Community
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Post-Exposing-quot-Host-quot-With-97-Listings-Fake-Profiles...

Who's behind the smiling faces of some Airbnb hosts? Multimillion-dollar corporations
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/biggest-airbnb-hosts-canada-corporations-1.5116103

Airbnb quietly shut down a top host amid scathing reviews, but hundreds of guests were left to stay with him
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/airbnb-montreal-aj-host-suspended-accounts-1.5252233

[Susan17]

@Rodney11 

And a New York Times article on FairShake and mass arbitration.. 

‘

Scared to Death’ by Arbitration: Companies Drowning in Their Own System

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/business/arbitration-overload.html

[Rodney11]

@Susan17 , I was aware of the first CBC link you posted, but not the second one. The second one seem like a bad actor, which there are in every industry, but AirBnB's response to it is worrying. The first post probably explains why the problems in the second post were allowed to go on for so long; these large, pro operators with multiple listings across multiple properties are a cash cow that AirBnB is happy to turn a blind eye to as long as the dollars keep rolling in.

I started hosting in 2015 and I noticed a substantive difference around 2018, with tons of listings flooding the market and driving prices down. Fortunately for me, Toronto is (or was) a super busy travel city, so I was still getting demand, but I did have to return my prices to 2015 levels. I experimented a bit with raising my prices and offering length of stay or other discounts that AirBnB claimed would push my visibility up, but it never seemed to make much of a difference. 

I always had a long-term rental basement apt in my house that I never offered on AirBnB. It provided a steady, predictable income, and housing for locals. The AirBnB rooms provided more income, but with the additional work that goes along with them. I do enjoy interacting with my guests from all over the world, I've hosted over 500 stays and had maybe 3 guests in that time who were a bad experience. Everyone else was wonderful, and many of them I've remained friends with, especially those who stayed with me as their first stop in relocating to Canada, some of whom I still get together with on the regular (when we're not under shelter-at-home orders!)

I always planned on transitioning my second floor from 3 AirBnB short-term rental rooms in a shared space, to a self-contained, long-term rental apartment. At first because of the less work required to manage LTR v STR, then more and more because I did not like the direction AirBnB was headed and what it was doing to the rental market in my city. The COVID situation has accelerated that process for me, and fortunately I put away 10% of the revenue from my AirBnB business which should cover the renos to transition to a self-contained LTR apartment.

The truly unfortunate thing in all of this is AirBnB had such a unique, niche business model that seem to work well and most people felt good about: put travelers looking for a genuine experience in touch with a host who truly knows the ins and outs of their locale, and get some much needed help paying their mortgage. But hey, I guess Mr. Cheskey had to look at ways to grow the business!. He may now be paying the price for his hubris as a "disruptor" in the rental market.

Tell me what your sense of where AirBnB is headed now is. I feel like many of the operators who own multiple properties are over leveraged and with the AirBnB income gone, there will be a massive number of bankruptcies and sell off of properties. This might mean that inventory gets concentrated into fewer, even larger operators. Or AirBnB will buy up a lot of these properties and become an operator themselves. There may not be any market left for AirBnB to offer these properties to. I'm not sure the AirBnB model lends itself well to pivoting from STR to LTR. They would likely fall under a whole host of more stringent landlord tenant regulations they have been able to avoid in most jurisdictions up til now. I actually think smaller operators like me, whose listings are in their principal residence, have a better chance of coming out OK. We'll tighten our belts and put our financial focus on saving our homes because we actually live in them. We might come out of this with AirBnB going back to what made them successful and appealing in the first place: a true experiential homeshare. Or someone may come along and recapture that market while AirBnB heads off to try and be some sort of hotel chain. 

I'd love to hear your opinion on all that.

[Jd41]

Hopefully I’m in the right conversation here but I just discovered AirBNB changed my singilar listings’ cancellation policy from Strict to Moderate without my consent.  I have changed it back but it has obviously affected my previous bookings.  As these bookings are canceling due to coronavirus issues AirBNB is claiming that they are canceling simply to cancel. And thus I am not entitled to any refund under the extenuating circumstances policy. AirBNB says it reverts back to my cancellation policy which they changed unilaterally to moderate, which entitles the host to zero refund with a 5 day cancellation.  Are other hosts experiencing this?

[Elad27]

This is why almost o one will receive the 25% payment! Take a very good look at paragraph 7:

These are our guidelines to support our hosts:

Why didn't I receive a support payment?

There are a number of possible reasons:

1.If your guests qualified for a full refund under your standard cancellation policy, those reservations would not be eligible for a support payment.

2.If the reservation was canceled at your request rather than your guest’s, it would not be eligible for a support payment.

3.If you had a negative balance on your account due to a previous adjustment, the support payment would be applied toward that amount.

4.If the reservation was booked after March 14th, it would not be eligible for a support payment.

5.If the reservation had a check-in date after May 31, it would not be eligible for a support payment.

6.If the reservation was not cancelled, it would not be eligible for a support payment.

7. If it the reservation was paid 50% throught Paid Less upfront.

[Rodney11]

@Elad27 , below are the Hosts who will (theoretically) receive a payout on any cancellation for a booking made before Mar 14, with a check in date between Mar 14 and May 31, as long as the cancellation was initiated by the guest:

1. Hosts with a Strict cancellation policy. If the cancellation happens less that 7 days before check in, the Host will receive 25% of the total value of the reservation. If the cancellation happens more that 7 days before check in, the Host will receive 25% of 50%, or 12.5%, of the total value of the reservation.
2. Hosts with a Moderate cancellation policy. If the cancellation happens less that 5 days before check in, the host will receive 25% of the first night, and 25% of 50%, or 12.5%, of the total value of the remaining reservation. If the guest cancels after the check in date, the Host will receive 25% of 50%, or 12.5%, of the total value of the remainder of the reservation.

Personally, I reached out to all my guests around Mar 15 and requested they cancel their reservations for COVID-19, no matter what their check in date was, and I would approve their cancellation. I believe int'l pleasure travel, which supports most of the AirBnB bookings, is dead for at least a year or two.

[Elad27]

Dear Rodney, 

I have strict policy but Airbnb customer service told me no meter what policy I had, all reservations with 'Pay Less upfront' will not qualify hosts any payment!!!

This is insane. 

[Nick-and-Jackie0]

@Elad27 
From speaking with Airbnb CS we have been told that with a strict policy you will receive 25% from Airbnb. The difference for 'Pay Less upfront' reservations is that you will only receive 25% of what the guests had paid prior to their cancellation.

For example,
If the traveller had paid the full amount before cancellation, you would receive 25%
If the traveller had paid the 50% before cancellation, you would receive 25% of 50%, so 12.5%
If the traveller had paid the 25% before cancellation, you would receive 25% of 25%, so 6.25%

We have screen shots of the CS quoting this, so if you have any trouble, we can send them to you.
But do remember that it will probably take four weeks to receive any payouts.

Hope this helps

[Elad27]

First i would love to have this screen shots.

I didn't choose the Pay for less upfront, Airbnb offer it for the guests because its make them the biggest bank in the world !  can you imagine Millions of bookings worth billions of dollars staying in  Airbnb  bank around 3 month's ? 

Instead to pay us even more for Pay for less bookings they try to avoid pay nothing!

what a sham.

[Elad27]

@Nick-and-Jackie0 

Dear Nick and Jacki,

Can you send me please the screen shots that CS promised  to pay also for "pay less upfront"?

Thanks in advance 

[Rodney11]

@Elad27 the Pay Less Upfront is not an option available to my listings or in my geographical area.

The way I understand it is he guest pays 50% up front in exchange for a reduced nightly rate.

Tell us if that 50% is also paid to you, the Host, at the time the booking is made, and if so do you keep the 50% paid up front from the COVID cancelled bookings, or is AirBnB now trying to claw back the funds already disbursed?