Our Main Hosting Concern

[Lisa-and-Mack0]

First I have to say that I am a little gobsmacked by the hosts complaining about not getting full cancellation fees.  Every guest we had reservations for April and May has cancelled.  Why on Earth would I want to charge people a fee for either obeying travel restrictions or just just protecting their health?  We all have skin in this game, and I am sorry if you are heavily leveraged after investing in STR properties.  That's on you.  Hosts with multiple properties are the dark side of this business if you ask me.

So, my biggest concern is to have a guest become ill while in my rental.  I could not in good conscious throw anyone out, not to mention potential liability issues if I tried.  First, I raised the minimum days for a stay, and I allowed three days after for no guests.  I had to turn off instant booking because it became unwieldy to manage my calendar.  I get that the app is still doing what it is programmed to do, but really AirBnB needs to not ding me for turning down guests right now.  I don't want anything from AirBnB in the way of compensation...not their fault, just allow me to manage our property as we see fit to protect our own health.

As usual, YMMV.  Thanks for reading. 

[Leslie----Tony0]

Exactly

[Juan63]

@Lisa-and-Mack0 Then you are not understanding the whole argument. As much as you and others try to make this a black and white issue, it isn't. The whole world was not shut down in all places at all dates and times, not everyone was flying in from or to an affected area, and not everyone was traveling in March, April and May. This was an a once in a lifetime event that the EC was not meant for. Brian said as much. As a company they never planned for this. It should have been treated as such and the resolution should have involved the hosts. There is many different ways to handle this situation, and Airbnb chose the worst of them.

[Lisa-and-Mack0]

This caught very smart people off guard, and I'm less inclined to assign blame than I am in protecting the percentage of hosts that want to do the right thing.  What would you have upper management do?  Worldwide travel is affected, and AirBnb may not survive this.  We can always market our properties on our own. 

[Juan63]

@Lisa-and-Mack0 Involve the hosts! Your right thing is not necessarily the right thing. I think most often than not the host would have provided an acceptable remedy, like I did. My guests were happy. I could assist them much faster than airbnb. If the hosts didn't do the "right" thing, Airbnb could have offered incentives. Fee free bookings, higher visibility, free photography and many other ideas.

[Jennifer681]

Some of us invested in making our business with Airbnb. We rely on the income booked. Under no circumstances do I think people should have traveled, but the hardship is not one sided. Airbnb should have stood by their hosts and split the loss evenly... now they say 25% of what we would have received under the normal cancellation policy we have in place. ...So for me 25% of 0-50%..is pennies or nothing at all. They could not even just do 25% of the payout. 

[Lisa-Myshall0]

Hi Jennifer, 

I too am heavily invested as I design and manage 10-16 listings in SF Bay Area. Has anyone heard if ABB is starting the process of 25%?  Also, do you know Regards to SuperHost applying for loan through Airbnb?

Many thanks,  hang in there!! Lis

[Lucy187]

Exactly. I made several complaints about the relief not being distributed equally as all hosts suffered. 

[Jonathan1257]

Who cares if Airbnb can't survive this. You should be running a website alongside any Airbnb listing, to compete. All Airbnb does is take traffic from your website and repackage the booking back to you with a cut and a huge fee for the guest to pay. I'm amazed how many people put up with their fees.

They've never made a yearly profit after 10 years. Call centre staff in far flung places who have no authority as seen during this crisis. This crisis is serious and we are abiding by all lockdowns and don't expect a recovery this year. If Airbnb can't cut it after all that funding then boo-hoo to them.  They're about as smart as Snap, WeWork, and UBER who all received billions but can't turn a profit. In the old days it was called a pyramid scheme.

[Juan63]

@Jonathan1257  I have some problems with Airbnb but it's crazy to think your personal website could compete with Airbnb and completely underestimate what they do. They have created a globally recognized brand. A huge effort not to mention the insurance protection & 24/7 customer service it provides a host. 

[Jonathan1257]

@Juan63 Hi Juan, over time we take share off them. We are not too far from London and the place is really a weekend retreat. Initially we would would get 5% via our site and 95% via Airbnb as they have gobbled up the market. After 3 yrs we do about 15% through our site.....pretty good to say we are a website on an internet of millions.

Here is the feedback we get from Airbnb guests.....'why are you charging me £300 extra on top of your price for a 10 day stay'......this happened not long ago. We told the guest that is the Airbnb charge......the guest was referred to our site with no booking fee and we go the business.

As for the customer service....it is rubbish. We have no call centre in UK, we speak with Asia or South America....make sense...no!

We have our own insurance taken out with a UK provider. The brand like boutique hotels originally looked good but is fading as they can't get the image away from cheap places to stay. Jut look at the marketing for Airbnb Plus......those places were no match for our site. Airbnb keep sending me mails to reduce my price because a room in a crap house is offering a cheaper price. If their algo was so smart they'd see we have one acre of land. 

As for the brand it  makes no money. WeWork was cult like, Airbnb ain't too far behind.

[Nanxing0]

If the world is as simple as you thought, then all hotels should be shut down at this time. However the reality is not. On the contrary, most hotels around me are offering ridiculously low price to guests since demand is low. We are living in an economic world that everybody need to make some money to sustain life. As a matter of fact, in my idea hotels are way more dangerous than Airbnb properties. Most hotels have tens or hundreds of rooms sharing the lobby and hallway while most Airbnb properties only have a couple, at most a few and we don't use front desk/lobby for check ins.

As for if a guest gets ill during the rental, it's a possibility but I don't see it as an issue. People can get sick everywhere, including passing by an infected person when walking on the street. As a matter of fact the possibility of getting a guest infected is very very low as long as you take all necessary disinfection actions during cleaning and the guest is cooperating with you. 

[Jennifer681]

We have several hospitals around us. We stay open for business with huge precautions and income loss to support those who do still have to work...like nurses and doctors, emergency works, those who need to self isolate after a trip and can not return to their family home. Be realistic. It is not black or white. It is safer for a person to stay in one of our two apartments as they will not come in contact with another person during their stay at the house. We clean extremely well and leave more than 72 hours in between stays. We still have bills to pay.

[Mark116]

@Lisa-and-Mack0  I wouldn't worry about airbnb surviving.  I would worry more about your fellow hosts who have just seen an entire year's worth of income wiped off their books. 

[Susan17]

@Lisa-and-Mack0 

"So, my biggest concern is to have a guest become ill while in my rental" 

Why not just shut down until all danger has passed then? This is not something you can screen for. And for the foreseeable future, any guest - from anywhere at all - could potentially become ill when staying in your rental.