@Robin4
I thought I had a creative moment this afternoon, turns out it was a long winded solution causing more problems than it solved.
I've been most moved by many new Hosts posting on this forum and have followed them and helped in the conversations over on the 'Airbnb Hosts United' group on FB. When some Hosts who rely on their income from Airbnb to pay their mortgage, feed the kids and pay the bills and then the income just stops, dead, with no other income - you can surely not want to help.
One case in particular, a host had a whole month of bookings obliterated due to the EC policy - and then, a guest who cancelled prior to the EC policy active dates was refunded too! Thats like being given a paycheck then having it taken away.
So how do you help? The Airbnb community is massive, you could set up a Host relief fund... Guests who cancel could voluntarily donate a % of refund to the relief fund to then help the Hosts most in need. But, how is that collected and distributed? What are the requirements to provide aid to Hosts? Who manages the fund? It would be a massive and complicated undertaking just to get cash to Hosts. Too big to handle, too complicated to administer and too slow to be effective, it needs to be small.
It comes down to this; Don't give a 100% refund to guests. The Extenuating Circumstances policy does NOT specify that a 100% refund will be made. A tiered refund could be provided, a block refund could be provided, but those Hosts relying on Airbnb income NEED something. For Hosts who don't really NEED that something, they could have an option to donate all or a portion of their share to more needy Hosts. The pot then gets shared equally amongst the other Hosts. Almost like a dividend payment.
66% refund to guests would do it I reckon. I think 50% might be too much. To start, thats simple ! Some Hosts might elect to only receive 10- 20% leaving a greater amount for more needy Hosts. More needy Hosts will survive by getting near 50% and we will prove actually to be a real community.