@Sharon1417 "In on" what "scheme"?
As I said, I don't look favorably on hosts telling guests they will refund them if dates get rebooked if they have no intention of doing so, it's unethical, but I know that some hosts do this from reading other posts by guests who have had this happen to them. I don't even understand why a host would bother to do that, as if a guest wants to cancel, presumably it's because the guest can't come for their booking, so they would cancel regardless of whether the host offered to refund them if they could rebook. If the host in this case hadn't offered that, would you have decided not to cancel and come anyway? Knowingly having been exposed to Covid?
A guest being held to the cancellation policy is normal- that's what you are accepting when you book. A host lying about refunding is a separate ussue and Airbnb doesn't force hosts to honor a promise to refund, they only go by the cancellation policy.
I don't work for Airbnb and don't make those decisions, nor would I renege on a promise to refund, I don't do things like that to guests, but right or wrong, that is the reality of how Airbnb operates.
FYI it goes the other way, too. Plenty of guests get caught out sneaking in more people than they paid for, or a pet, and promise to pay the extra fee. But if the host doesn't make them pay at the time or get booted out, those guests renege on their promise and Airbnb doesn't force them to pay up just because they said they would.