@Maxine0 @LizzieThere appears to have been two events in the past two months which are having a major impact on hosts, and after reading all the posts and, more importantly, gleaning information from our local 'help desk' I have come to the following conclusions!
In the case of sms notifications, the sheer numbers of affected hosts has made it impossible to roll this alteration out in the normal manner
It's extremely disappointing we had to find out the way we did.....in bits and pieces by other users on the CC! Even the CC moderators have been kept in the dark. Phone-in help desk DO know all about it however, but for some reason or other they are tight lipped, as though they have been instructed to keep it under wraps.
The only logical reason I can see for this silence is, the impact of this decision will be spread out over a few weeks, and even months as hosts discover they are not getting message notifications! Had Airbnb made a general statement to the hosting community there would have been such an uproar that their customer support would have had no way of coping with it and the platform would have ground to a standstill!!! By spreading out the impact they have more hope of coping with what will be a major crisis within the company!
Where hosting cancellations are concerned there are obviously legalities that have to be overcome by both local government bodies and by Airbnb. It may well be that Airbnb are being legally 'gagged' and their hands are tied as far as making a statement is concerned. If they announced their intentions there would be a mass of activity from affected hosts trying to circumvent rulings....the legal sands would be shifting all the time making it impossible for Airbnb to comply!
There appears to be a comminality in a lot of these host cancellations and that is the date 9th February 2016. It is possible we may learn a lot more after that date. I think Maxine you have worked a lot of this out for yourself...it would just be nice if someone would 'reach out' to us and let us know what is going on.
It will have a considerable affect on me because I am going to 'Snooze' my listing so as not to do damage to the good standing I have built up over the past 8 months by having some major alteration simply slip by me because someone on the other side of the world felt I was not important enough to be kept in the loop!! Cheers....Rob