Hurricane affecting ALL of North Carolina?

[Stay-Asheville0]

The way Airbnb handles hosts is just getting out of control.   

Has anyone noticed if you call support and just say you're a guest you'll get through to someone in the American cell centers?

The major issue I'm having right now is that I'm in a quiet mountain town called Asheville, which happens to be in the same state that is North Carolina where hurricane FLorence will make landfall in a few days.

So what does Airbnb do?  They're letting guests cancel left and right because the governor declared a state of emergency in North Carolina.  Despite not one time ever having any hurricane damage in the 33 years I've existed in this mountain town that's 400 miles away from the coast and 2500 ft above sea level, Airbnb is letting guests from all over cancel and declaring it part of extenuating circumstances.   We're going to get some rain.  

Not only are they letting guests cancel where the extenuating circumstances policy doesn't apply, they're scaring the rest of the guests who don't realize that we're in a mountain town far from the coast.

I've had 4 cancellations in the 24 hours from people who were traveling here, who aren't even coming from the coast.  One guy was coming from Texas.  But because of the hurricane that's affecting the other side, Airbnb is letting them cancel.

I'm doing my best to hang onto Airbnb, but this may be the last straw for me as a professional in the hospitality business.

[Susan151]

I bet that your guests are being allowed to cancel, not because Asheville will experience this storm, but because they have connecting flights through airports that will be affected. This was certainly the case last year with Irma.

I lived in NC when Hugo came through causing damage far inland. Charlotte and the I85 corridor was hit very hard. The amount of rain in the Western part of the state caused some issues as well.

[Nina204]

I agree with @Susan151  The airlines will ground flights and they are already giving vouchers to people flying different routes through their system that will be effected.   Unfortunate but better at this point your bookings have cancelled, as annoying as it is, than having to evacuate!

[Robin4]

@Stay-Asheville0

Shawn, I feel terribly for you! This hosting business is hard enough handling things we can control without having issues like this we can't adding to it!

Airbnb do need to be held accountable for some things, but this one is a bit out of their control and they are simply trying to do the right thing and allow confirmed guests the option of replanning their trips to avoid potential travel issues.

Shawn, it's tough but I am afraid you just have to ride this one out. It is to be hoped that Airbnb will offer affected guests some sort of incentive to rebook with you when this has all blown away. I hope the company do have your back covered, as they say, and give you a bit of assistance here.

But please don't blame them for creating it.

Cheers......Rob

[Stay-Asheville0]

Rob, 

I totally get Airbnb is trying to do the right thing. However it truly is inconsiderate to both guests and hosts.  After I rationally explain this to an adult, it shouldn't be a problem. Hurricanes in Asheville! What a joke....

It would be like warning people about a blizzard in Maui.  It just ain't gonna happen.

This isn't causing travel issues for any of our guests. You'd have to fly from Wilmington to Asheville for this to be an issue.  They're not cancelling flights from any major or even minor airport that's not in a direct path of the storm that I'm aware of.

I have a messages where I can quote Airbnb as saying "The governor declared a state of emergency for North Carolina.  Asheville is in North Carolina.  Therefore the guest is allowed to cancel under extenuating circumstances." 

The issue isn't that people are having travel issues.  I'm compassionate and sympathetic to that and readily issue refunds and do what I can to accomodate in this situations.

The issue is that Airbnb just doesn't care and is letting anyone cancel who says "hurricane" even when they're not being affected by it.

[Susan151]

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@Stay-Asheville0 wrote:

The issue is that Airbnb just doesn't care and is letting anyone cancel who says "hurricane" even when they're not being affected by it.

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If there are no travel issues, why are your guests canceling?

[Robin4]

@Stay-Asheville0

Shawn it is all very well us outsiders making statements about things they know little or nothing about.

On the strength of your response to me I just did a bit of Googleing.

Here is the current weather information for the next three days for your part of NC. It is based around the Charlotte area but it does affect you.

"There are no current predicted weather warnings for your area"   That's not my words that's what the advisory is saying when I scroll on down!! So Shawn I am siding with you now on this one. While evacuations are mandatory on the coast that is what .........250 Kms away!

If I could make an educated decision in a few minutes as to how much of a risk your listing would present over the next few days, why on earth can't Airbnb!!!

You make a good point...I am with you Shawn. the line has to be drawn where these things are concerned....what do they do next....quarantine a corridor all the way to the Pacific???

Good luck mate, I with you on this one.

Cheers.....Rob

[Louise231]

@Stay-Asheville0hmm,

I'm doing my best to hang onto Airbnb, but this may be the last straw for me as a professional in the hospitality business.

Sorry Shawn but i really think if you were being professional about this you'd understand that this really is the type of event guests will cancel on, and airbnb cannot stop them.

I understand that it hits your bottom line and for airbnb, not so much, and i think maybe airbnb needs to address stuff like this for furture (maybe give hosts a % of the booking where cancellations are from emergencies outside of anyones control)

But for guests to drive/train/fly to a state with warnings to life, is just unrealistic, regardless of how far away you think you are. Guests aren't local, and whats to say they weren't at your's on the way elsewhere through the storm (redundant as they're not going that way now). Or they just want to make sure there closer to home in case they have family affected. Or are worried by transport and road chaos.

My point is when stuff like this happens, its really not up to us to justify what's ok or not, we're not impartial, we want the income (even if it's not our main concern) and we're comfortable in our local area and don't feel threatened by it.

[Stay-Asheville0]

Louise, I would never ever ask someone to honor a reservation when they’re dealing with something as horrific as a natural disaster. 

The fact is,  AirBnB’s obtuse decision making is clearly reflected in the fact that they’re honoring all cancellation requests because of the hurricane that’s affecting the coast. We’re in the mountains. 

Theyre allowing people from Tennessee to cancel, and citing the hurricane. I realize that across the pond you don’t understand the geography, but it might as well equivalent to allowing UK guests to cancel because it’s snowing in Norway. 

[Sarah977]

@Stay-Asheville0  I sympathize with your situation and agree that Airbnb should not allow total refund cancellations for you when the hurricane is nowhere near you and guests have not been required to provide documentation as to having a flight connection or driving route which could be affected.

But I wonder what percentage of the cancellations you're experiencing are due to other factors (i.e. guests claiming for the hurricane, when in fact, they just changed their minds for some other reason) and how many legitimately are too ignorant and fearful not to understand that a hurricane 400 miles from you is not going to affect your listing other than some rain, which could happen regardless of whether there was a hurricane on the coast or not. And do you really want guests that dumb and fearful?

Also, you don't know if some guests were planning to continue on from your place to the coast, and now that they can't, they've decided to cancel their whole vacation.

I get this sometimes as well- haven't had cancellations because of it, but concerned guest messages. They read about violence somewhere in Mexico, or read some State Dept. warning and are scared. That the warning was regarding a Mexican state on the other side of the country (and it's a large country)  which would take 3 days to drive to, they are just ignorant of, nor do they bother to actually look at a map.

[Louise231]

@Stay-Asheville0Actually shawn events in Norway would affect my travellers.

Weather and transport chaos has a massive knock on effect. When the iceland volcano erupted people stopped flying to  loads of places in europe that didn't have an ash cloud blocking airports, even though they were 1000's of miles away. Planes were in the wrong country, trains and roads overrun, by displaced travellers.

French airport strikes cause 1/3 of all of EUROPEAN flight delays, and cancel 100's of flights that neither start nor end in france.

I had Spanish guests in December who cancelled because their flight was stuck in Murcia because of snow in London, No snow in Spain or Manchester, but their flight just couldn't get here. We were both live tracking the flight information untill they just had to give up and go home.

My point is yes it might only be heavy rain for you, nothing too drastic, but large weather events have massive knock-on affects and for someone not familiar with the area, its much better to cancel and come back another time.

[John1080]

@Stay-Asheville0, Air is probably going to ask you to host people for free fleeing the huricane - just wait for the notification! When there were fires in Colorado over the summer, I got such a message despite having a fully booked schedule. 

[Stephanie707]

Hi Shawn et al,

I am just outside of the Asheville area and would like to argue that we are actually getting major warnings about us being affected by the storm headed our way. The issue is not a direct hit from the hurricane itself, rather the issue of amount of rain in such a short time, into soils already saturated. This creates situations where landslides (yes we are a mountainous region), road washouts, trees being uprooted and flooding of our rivers and streams definitely do happen here. 

Personally we are reassuring guests that we have done everything possible to make sure that they are in a safe situation, but have offered refunds if they feel otherwise. Yes, it means a loss of income for a couple of days. But, we would much rather have a guest stay safe and be comfortable about traveling in a situation like this than worry about a couple of bucks. And even in my own home I am doing extra chores to make sure I am prepared... 

Thank you for letting me add my two bits,

Stephanie 

[Robin4]

@Stephanie707

I am not sure where those weather warnings of yours are coming from Stephanie...here is the current 7 day weather information for your area! In fact your area is better off than this indicates....this is for Charlotte to the east and lower than you.....

Although I am half a world away Stephanie there appears to be some hysteria here as far as you folks in the west of the state are concerned...and maybe a lot of people will suffer upheaval here without good cause! I don't doubt things on the coast are not looking good and I am, so sorry for what the state of NC is going to have to go through! But from all the forecast data the rest of the world has available, it should be 'business as usual' for you guys!

Cheers.....Rob

Cheers.....Rob

[John1080]

@Stephanie707 @Robin4, actually with a hurricaine such as this, there will be widespread flooding, with the possibility of over 3 feet of rain in a short period. This hurricane will dump inland, certainly as far as Asheville, if it doesn't turn north upon hitting land. 

https://wlos.com/news/local/asheville-prepares-for-possible-damage-from-hurricane-florence