Potential UK lockdown

Susan1092
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Potential UK lockdown

In the UK, it looks as though we are heading for another full Covid lockdown. Will AirBnb be refunding all future guests in full, again? Or will they be leaving it up to hosts on whether to refund or not? I imagine guests to be entitled to a full refund as this will be a Government directive.

31 Replies 31
Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan1092- good question. 

 

@Katie  @Liv @Lizzie @Nick @Quincy any official response? Thanks

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Hi @Susan1092 

 

if the English, Scottish or Welsh government put their countries or areas into lockdown then Airbnb will have to refund guests who cannot travel to or stay at our listings. @Susan1092 

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

Yikes, good luck! Hope you are all safe and well

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Ah thanks @Emilia42 

 

Our Covid levels are much lower than many places but we have a government,  that rightly in my opinion (as someone who works for our NHS on Covid programmes),  takes a more stringent approach to applying lock down measures and restrictions for areas with rapidly increasing cases and deaths. 

 

At the moment we have a few areas in local lockdown. In terms of STRs the only restrictions are of not having more than six guests stay at a time (unless in same household bubble) 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Susan1092,

 

Nice to meet you. 

 

I'm crossing my fingers and toes that we won't have to go back into a full lockdown, but the cases are rapidly increasing so I suppose it's not off the cards. 

 

At the moment, I haven't heard of any thing specifically regarding full lockdown in the UK. But, I imagine it will follow the existing Extenuating Circumstances policy in regards to potential cancellation/refunds and the restrictions locally which in this potential case would impact hosts and guests.

 

Regarding the recent changes to the 6 person rule, UK hosts were recently sent an email regarding the changes, providing information in case the guest can no longer be hosted ie. it's a booking larger than 6 or multiple households etc.. So it is worth keeping an eye on your email inbox, as our Policy team will be trying their best to keep hosts updated as much as possible.

 

I hope this helps and let's all hope it doesn't get to that stage. Stay safe everyone. 

 

Lizzie

 

(Thanks @Yadira22 for the mention - I hope you are keeping well)


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Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Thank you for the quick response @Lizzie ! Hope you are staying and enjoyed your well deserved holiday xx

 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

I appreciate @Helen3's points and think the government is right to be stringent - but my thoughts are with UK hosts and I hope a new lockdown doesn't prove devastating to them.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Thanks @Ann72  just to clarify we are certainly not in lock down at the moment apart from a couple of areas. 

Fingers crossed we don’t see a return to previous measures and that we find potential vaccines which can go through a robust testing process so they can be released and lives saved.

 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan1092  and @Helen3  please note that there is much speculation regarding a government enforced curfew in certain areas of the UK as to prevent a second COVID-19 wave, set for restaurants and pubs right now but may be stage one of implementing a full curfew. Thanks

 

@Lizzie @Katie @Nick @Quincy @Liv  @Helen350 tagging as an FYI. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Well, no one knows what is going to happen in terms of lockdowns and restrictions, but it would be useful if Airbnb could also be a bit clearer on its policies.

 

At the moment, the COVID-19 EC policy clearly states:

 

"Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences made after 14 March 2020 will not be covered under our extenuating circumstances policy, except where the guest or host is currently sick with COVID-19. COVID-19-related circumstances not covered include: transport disruptions and cancellations; travel advisories and restrictions; health advisories and quarantines; changes to applicable law; and other government mandates such as evacuation orders, border closures, prohibitions on short-term rentals, and lockdown requirements. The host’s cancellation policy will apply as usual."

 

So, this means, regardless of any lockdowns, government restrictions etc. any guest who booked after 14th March will not be entitled to a full refund unless they are (and can prove they are) or the host is sick with COVID.

 

However, @Catherine-Powell contradicted this in her video announcement of 18th August (see: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Party-policy-updates-Superhost-status-extensions-...) where she says that the guest will not be able to cancel due to COVID, UNLESS they are sick or you are unable to host due to restrictions in your area. She also mentioned something about Airbnb directly being able to cancel stays outside of the COVID-19 sickness circumstance.

 

So, which is it?? I did ask for clarification following this video announcement, as did other hosts, but what Catherine said both in the video and her responses contradicts what is written in the EC policy.

 

I find this worrying for a start and, of course we know that Airbnb can and will change its EC policy at whim, so who knows what we can expect... Our listings may be blocked again. Guests may be issued full refunds outside of the written policy and guests might end up being able to 'attest' to facts rather than provide any documentation (especially if they are willing to accept travel credit).

 

Your guess is as good as mine...

.

@Huma0  

 

That's the problem, airbnb don't know how to handle the situation, they are changing their mind all the time and that's unprofessional.

 

Everyone how plans a trip in times of covid knows, that the entire trip from booked flights to accomondation is uncertain. And it is also uncertain if restaurants, bars and sights will be open, not to mention if concerts will take place. The situation can change any time in any country or areas of a country. This is nothing new, we all know about this for months. Guests know, hosts know and aribnb knows. It won't be any different in one month or in 3 months.

 

Why can't airbnb come up with a clear policy on this issue and then execute said policy in Customer Service? If there was such a clear policy, then hosts could make clear decisions.

 

Hosts could open up their calendars 1 week, 2 weeks or 3 weeks out assuming that guest who book with such short notice will very likely not cancel.

 

What's the use for hosts to accept reservations 3 months out and then the guest cancels 1 day prior to check-in under whatever „policy de joure“ and the hosts gets a zero payout??

 

 

 

 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Ute42 

 

Yes, we've seen six months of constantly 'updated' COVID-19 EC policies. Okay, I get that the situation is changing all the time so the policy changes accordingly. What I don't get is that the current policy says one thing and then @Catherine-Powell is saying quite another thing here on the CC. I do wish she would please clarify this point. If Catherine is not sticking to the 'party line', then how do we expect all the numerous (sometimes not very well trained or versed) CS staff to do so?

 

Yep, one would think that anyone who books a trip these days would be fully aware that their plans might be scuppered and not expect to get full refunds. However, Airbnb heavily PRed the whole COVID-19 full refunds, and in such a way to lead guests to believe that every single one of them was entitled to 100% back no matter the circumstances because everyone gets one during COVID, right?

 

Today I had a very sweet and polite enquiry from a lovely girl from the USA intending to come in November for three weeks, during which time she expected to visit a few places. She wanted to know if I was accepting non-local guests.

 

I had to write back to her asking her if she was aware that the USA was currently on the UK quarantine list and, if that did not change by November, she would need to self-isolate for 14 days, which means NOT going out and avoiding contact with others. She would therefore not be able to quarantine in my shared listing and that if she needed to cancel for that reason, she would not be entitled to a full refund according to Airbnb's EC policy.

 

I did not get the impression that she had considered any of this. I certainly would not be planning that trip right now if I was her, given that she could end up spending most of it trapped inside or risk losing 50% of her money. 

 

I am under the strong impression that a lot of guests still believe that they can book an Airbnb and get a full refund if anything COVID related interferes with their plans. I have friends who want to plan a holiday. Although it is not until next year, the first thing they said was, let's just book a couple of Airbnbs because we can always cancel if we need to...

.

@Huma0  

 

Under no circumstances would I as a host accept far out reservations these days.

 

Here's the situation we had in Germany this year:

 

I have a vacation rental and in march it looked as if we all would loose the revenue of the entire 2020 season. Till mid may we were prohibited to rent due to government regulations. But post mid may we were again allowed to rent.

 

Starting march this year all traveles in Germany have cancelled their international hollidays, and all of a sudden everyone wanted to spend his or her holliday inside Germany. I have never before seen such a demand for domestic accomondation as I have this year.

 

Early june 1 rented my place for one week at a price of 2800 Euros to 2 families. That's twice my regular rate.

 

In june a guest cancelled 2 weeks in july due to family issues. I put these 2 week up in the market and within 3 days I got 30 inquiries. People were calling until 10pm.

 

As I said, I do not accept any reservations far out into the future right now.

 

 

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Agreed @Ute42 , right now everything is so up in the air, that it really is “plan as you go along”! Personally, for this and other reasons it was simpler to just rent long term with contracts, deposits etc but each to their own (plus I know this would not work for everyone!) Hope you are all doing well. 🙂