Last week, we held another series of global listening sessions to hear your recommendations, make sure your feedback is taken into account, and give you another way to directly connect with us and one another. This kind of face-to-face communication is always important, but it’s especially crucial now as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues. We know this has been a difficult and confusing time for Airbnb hosts, and we’re working around the clock to give you the support you need.
We’d like to thank all the hosts who joined and provided valuable feedback. Here are five main takeaways from last week’s sessions:
- You have questions about our extenuating circumstances policy, and you’re hurting because of cancellations.
Whether it’s policy updates, unemployment benefits, or a crisis fund that guests can contribute to, many of you asked about how Airbnb is going to help you get through these tough times. You also want more transparency around how our extenuating circumstances policy is determined.
- You want more clarity and help around local laws and Airbnb policies.
Economic-relief plans for small business owners vary so much by country. Many of you requested that Airbnb provide more clarity on what you might expect as a host—and you asked for more help in advocating for you. Many of you also wanted to learn more about hosting guests during local “shelter-in-place” and “quarantine” orders, and you offered helpful suggestions for how Airbnb should handle cancellations and refunds.
- You want better tools to help you continue hosting during the pandemic.
From getting help marketing your listing to reducing guest fees right now to encourage more bookings, you offered valuable ideas for how Airbnb can better support you.
- You want more education and clearer communication, now more than ever.
Specifically, many hosts requested a standardized COVID-19 cleaning checklist for their listings and asked for more host involvement in decision-making. (We’ve since created the cleaning checklist for you.)
You also gave us helpful feedback on how to improve the listening sessions themselves. Moving forward, we’ll plan on devoting more time to small group discussions.
Some hosts also offered words of encouragement. Here are two quotes we found particularly inspiring:
- “Guys, let's stick together and learn from what has happened here. We are a great community and if all we can do is offer moral encouragement, that will help to get us through this rough patch where we are all feeling a bit abandoned!”
- “Thanks so much for putting this together. I know it is hard in unprecedented times to even know what to do. Really appreciated being part of it. I do love this community!"
Thanks so much again to all of the hosts who joined. You’ve told us these listening sessions are helpful, and we’d love the chance to hear from more of you, too, so we’ll be offering additional sessions in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for the schedule.
In the meantime, if you’d like to connect with other hosts about COVID-19, visit our dedicated Community Center board, which we’ll continue to monitor for more helpful feedback.