@Helen3 Thank you for you response.
We were all firmly told by the Gov that Christmas was allowed with certain conditions & the bookings were appropriate to this or I would not have accepted the bookings, we believed it was viable to welcome guests hence why I ensured decorations & all preparations were in place as a special treat.
The SW of England has never been a high infection rate area & still remains a lower risk area.
My guests did not plan to be out and about other than in the grounds, woods & ordering takeaways.
The guests had all made plans to finally be with family who they hadn’t seen for this year so far following Gov guidelines for the previous months.
As we all know the introduction of a new tier was out of the blue...
Only one person was definitely trying to make me feel guilty, I am not harsh, just honest although I understand you see matters differently.
I was waiting for guidance from Airbnb & have followed the advice when it was offered later.
Other holiday let businesses have advised guests to rebook at a later date, plus offered total re funds only if they can get other bookings such as local guests or workers needing accommodation to use which is possible to self isolate in.
Ours is such a property as there is much separation & multiple bathrooms.
I shall now take my children there for Xmas as we are able to travel there due to travelling from tier 1 to tier 2 & now cannot afford a separate Tree, decorations etc otherwise.
As I have said in a previous response we could maybe have afforded the losses better but we were hard hit earlier when we had work /live guests who cost us thousands of pounds of losses & damages which still has not been resolved by Airbnb. We haven’t even received the guest deposit yet.
The property is a significant investment & we cannot support such losses, particularly this year as it has caused mortgage arrears, so it is being sold.
A certain amount of good will & trust between us & Airbnb is at risk. I do not wish to have long let’s or work/live let’s again as a result.
my other work as a flower farmer supplying and providing floristry design for weddings/special events/cafes/hotels/markets has also been hard hit with cancellations so I cannot support our holiday let business from this income as we have no profit this year despite working hard to diversify to survive & support my family.
I’m sure many other hosts have had a very difficult time also.
As a self employed single mother I work incredibly hard & Airbnb had always previously been a fantastic, supportive network. This year I have been disappointed to feel I am expected to be so generous & giving with little back up from the Gov for self employed people.
I have given much time, maintenance & repairs funds, flexibility, consideration, discounts, extras etc as well as experienced exhaustion achieving the Covid cleaning standards & yet still been giving away free flowers wherever I could to offer love & cheer those in isolation or worst financial difficulties.
Now I must look out for my children & myself as we have little financial or practical back up to keep us afloat. I have not been told by Airbnb that cancelled bookings merit full refunds yet? Where did you find that information?
