How do hosts seek help after COVID19 Cancellation Policy?

Julia628
Level 2
Albany Creek, AU

How do hosts seek help after COVID19 Cancellation Policy?

Aussie host here: I'm sure most hosts are like me and floundering a lot at the moment. I've just lost yet another 7-day booking that was due to arrive in 2 days' time, and despite having a strict cancellation policy, I have no financial recourse now after Airbnb's unilateral cancellation policy. The likelihood of me getting that time booked at this late stage is very low, so now I have to find a way to pay the bills without an income stream. I'm feeling very lost, and incredibly unsupported by Airbnb. I would have expected someone to at least reach out to offer some kind of support. 

 

So now my question is - where do we go from here, as hosts? Is there a complaints procedure that we can take up with Airbnb and just flood their inbox? I plan on leaving feedback, but what will that achieve?

 

Is it up to us as hosts in individual countries to band together? How do we manage this? Like many have said, guests are losing out on largely discretionary income, whereas hosts are losing out on essential income used to pay mortgages, electricity, cleaners etc. Surely a large multinational corporation should be considering some kind of support for so many hosts in the same position?

 

What do we do now???? Any ideas???

21 Replies 21

@Julia628 Airbnb's "Extenuating CIrcumstances" policy has always undermined hosts and forced them to be guests' de facto insurance provider. As long as it's existed, it's been a time bomb, but most hosts did not experience prolonged periods of mass cancellations. Now that an event of a truly global scale has occurred, the bomb has detonated. To be fair, Airbnb's actions here are have so far not clearly violated any of the Terms of Service that all hosts agree to (for those few that have actually taken the time to read them), as they do grant Airbnb very wide latitude in terms of refunds and damage claims.

 

Their inbox is already flooded, and they're certainly aware of the outrage among hosts who are suffering major losses here. Airbnb doesn't want to lose its hosts (though a cull was inevitable in oversaturated markets), but nor does it have any intention of providing compensation here. Instead, they want relief to come at taxpayers' expense; see here:  https://www.businessinsider.de/international/airbnb-asking-congress-give-tax-relief-and-loans-to-hos...

 

I don't think this gambit will be successful; legislators know how unpopular Airbnb hosts are with voters, and it's plain to see that what they're really asking is tantamount to a corporate bailout, to preserve the long-term viability of its recession-spurred business concept. Investors are bound to be questioning this too - especially if they see a widespread trend of hosts de-listing and moving their properties either to a competing platform with better terms for hosts, or onto the long-term rental market.

 

Do what you can to protect your livelihood; this is no time for brand loyalty.

Adriano78
Level 10
Seville, Spain

@Julia628Airbnb will never change, before it was the California and Australia bushfire, massive strikes in France,  today is the covid,  tomorrow it will be something else.
Airbnb makes us lose a lot of money every year, the only viable solution for the host  is to use  other platforms that respect host a little more

Hi there!

I feel your pain. I am in the same situation in SF. This is my primary home, my only home, I don't do this for fun, I do this as income. It takes a lot to make accommodations for me and my 3 kids to host and that is why I have a strict cancellation policy. I have now had 2 cancellations and I expect more to come. AIrBnB should abide by our strict cancelation policy and pay for the guests. They should have prepared for such a catastrophic event-they have plenty of money in their coffers. 

Jeffery5
Level 8
Wilton Manors, FL

Sign the petition for a class action lawsuit

 

http://chng.it/JB2SjDNyPS

Emily830
Level 2
Nashville, TN

I'm at a complete loss of what to do. Our AirBnB income was 90% of my family's income and now it is practically gone in a matter of days. We were performing at the top of the market with 95-100% occupancy rates. We have lost about $1100 in March and are looking at a loss of over $3K in April. My husband and I work full time at a small church that can only afford to pay us a couple hundred a month. Are there any protections for us?

So sorry to hear this. I have no further info for you I'm sorry. I've just submitted an application for a mortgage freeze for the next 3 months and I've listed my property for sale. 

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Anonymous is absolutely correct here - the ticking timebomb that was/is the Extenuating Circumstances policy has detonated, spectacularly, and there's no going back now. The damage has already been done - calendars have been cleared for weeks/months to come, legions of guests have been refunded 100%, countless thousands of hosts have been left with zero income for the foreseeable future,  Airbnb is blocking bookings of entire homes in many markets and funnelling the guests towards Airbnb-affiliated hotels instead, and there's little to no chance of things getting better in the near - or not-so-near - future.

 

The promised "bold move to support hosts", as Andrew pointed out, has so far amounted to nothing more than Brian Chesky sending a letter to Congress appealing for a bailout for hosts at taxpayers' expense - to ease hardships created entirely by Airbnb itself - an unfathomable and rather ill-advised move, likely to do the company's brand image, reputation, credibility and future prospects infinitely more harm than good. 

 

There's far too much crazy stuff going on behind the scenes in the Airbnb "ecosphere" right now (much of it against the terms of their own new policies) to get into here, but all the indications are that there'll be no relief for hosts anytime soon. (Encouraged by Airbnb, for example, guests are already seeking - and demanding, in many instances- 100% refunds for cancellations stretching as far into the future as September and October, and some hosts are reporting being penalised for cancelling bookings within the parameters of the recent updated terms) The whole system is one unholy mess right now, and getting worse by the day. 

 

I realise this is not what anyone wants to hear, but it's utterly pointless waiting in hope for Airbnb to make good on this - it's not going to happen and besides, they have far bigger fish to fry at the moment than trying to put things right for small hosts. Everyone needs to list on every other site out there and find alternative ways of monetising their space - asap - because all the indications are, that things are going to get much worse on this platform, before (if ever) they get better. 

 

I'm sorry there's no better news to share, but this is the reality. By all means, keep listing on Airbnb's platform and hope for the best, but the sooner hosts start making alternative/supplementary  arrangements, the better their chances of recovery and/or survival.

 

Juan63
Level 10
San Antonio, TX

I posted a similar topic asking hosts for suggestions on how AIRBNB can get our trust back, guess how many replies, ZERO. It seems that humans are more interested in complaining than developing solutions.

@Juan63 

Hosts have been suggesting solid, actionable solutions to all Airbnb's issues for as long as I can remember.  They've never acted upon them before, why would anyone have any faith that they'd act on them now? 

 

After this latest debacle, that's caused so much damage to so many, there are very few hosts left who could ever have any trust in Airbnb again. 

Maybe, but this is a much but this is a much bigger global event that can effect the brand for a very long time.

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

I was sent this early today, about changes that Airbnb is about to implement for its "Pro" and commercial partners, and again, is a pretty clear indication of the state of play at Airbnb Inc. 

 

From Vincent Breslin of Uplisting, to hosts connecting to Airbnb through his company's channel management system - 


Airbnb SuperStrict cancellation policy changes

 

Airbnb contacted us this morning alerting us to changes in the cancellation policies. These have not been released publicly yet, so a heads up.

Let us know your thoughts and we'll feedback to Airbnb.


Dear Partner,
I would like to inform you about a change that Airbnb will be making imminently to its SuperStrict 30 and 60 Cancellation policies:
Airbnb is removing the ability for new hosts to opt in to SS 30 or SS 60 policies. Timing : expect launch today


For existing listings on SS policy, early payout feature will be removed & payment will be issued 24 hrs after check in, and in turn we will lower the fee by 2%. Timing : ~1 week - 3/25


Ask for partners:
I do understand that this will create more pain to already stretched hosts & potentially increase levels of listing removals. Please keep me informed and continue to share feedback, which I will make sure to share with our leadership and decision makers.


Once again my sincere apologies of further increase of uncertainty during these difficult time. I am available for a phone call of VC call to discuss.

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

This article just crossed my news feed. 

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/airbnb-is-listening-to-investment-pitches-despite-large-cash.html

 

 “Their growth rate was already much higher than their competitors. Now, everyone in the travel industry is reeling but Airbnb, with that management team, will be much more nimble coming out of this trauma.”

@Michelle53   Airbnb's original resource was the bumper crop of households wrecked by the financial crash of 2008. People who were forced to make an abrupt move from relatively stable home economies to the volatile gig economy, that was their bread and butter. The difficulty that working families have in sustaining their own housing was a core feature of their raison d'etre, and remained so even as predatory speculators imploded urban neighborhoods with the promise of tourism profits displacing housing. 

 

Based on the hundreds of polemics posted here in the last 2 weeks, it seems that Airbnb hosts have really internalized the idea that they're a fundamental part of this project. And it's not really their fault for believing the marketing. But as we enter another recession that reshuffles some of the underlying assumptions of how housing instability can be monetized, it might be worth zeroing in a bit on where Airbnb can realistically stand on its hosts' situations. In a bum economy where tourism is likely to be sunk to levels unprecedented in recent decades, where do you really think you stand, as a host in a market totally oversaturated with hosts, where you are completely replaceable?

 

Don't get me wrong, there are some very nice people working for this company who really mean well. But they're not about to rewrite the rules of capitalism to coddle hosts who expected too much of them.

@Anonymous  I think there will be many hosts that have to drop off the platform - for any one of a number of reasons. 

 

Airbnb did a smart thing, from a corporate perspective, and that was to shift the ownership of the real property, as well as the risk of getting filling spaces filled, firmly onto hosts. 

 

Hotels are hurting worse than Airbnb, since they have certain fixed costs of maintaining properties, even if those properties are largely empty.   

 

Hosts are becoming aware of this now, in a big way. 

 

I don't see Airbnb changing what is, essentially, a great business model for them. It's a question, now,  for most hosts, of whether they can last through this, or not.  We are going to need the income more than ever, as this goes on, and we find ourselves, once again, in recessions, all over the world. 

 

In addition, if they've outsourced operations such as CS to other companies, they also aren't dealing with how to staff and pay those people, right now.