25% refund discriminates flexible and moderate policies

[Mark3205]

I’m probably very late to the party here as i have only just heard about the 25% refund scheme, however how can this possibly work with most hosts. ALL of my booking post March 14th, April and May have been cancelled due to covid-19. Of course they have, guests rightly need to plan ahead. My diary is now empty but it seems i won’t receive a penny of the refund as my cancellation policy states i am only refunded if the cancellation is within 5 days

this is ludicrous (if true)... i’m in central London, all of my guests are international travellers and tourists, so of course in these horrific circumstances they are going to cancel well in advance as they will have flights etc that will also need to be dealt with

surely the solution is very simple, the 25% refund should apply to all covid-19 cancellations that aren’t re-booked?

i sincerely hope this is an oversight by airbnb and not a cynical trick to severely limit the refunds they are going to make

[Sarah977]

@Mark3205 Unfortunately, your last sentence would be correct. Not an oversight- it's what Airbnb considers to be acceptable, since those with moderate and flexible policies wouldn't have received anything from bookings being cancelled outside of the dates to get paid 50% anyway. 

[Mark3205]

Sarah i don’t understand your response tbh but it seems in some territories things aren’t being quite felt the same as others

so lets confirm the situation in London....i  had a completely full book for the whole of March, April and May... my last guests left on the 16th March, every single booking has cancelled beyond this date.. in my opinion this is not acceptable not to be included in the refund scheme, all my cancellations are due to covid 19, and all of them by intelligent guests who understand the situation and are rightly cancelling well in advance

airbnb are basically saying ‘if your guests are so stupid that they cancel within 5 days of their arrival date then we will compensate you, however if they are intelligent people who wish to plan ahead and sensibly due to this appalling situation then we won’t’ ..... 

completely crazy

the solution is so very simple...... APPLY YOUR AMAZING BRILLIANT AND GENEROUS 25% REFUND TO ALL COVID-19 CANCELLATIONS THAT AREN’T RE-BOOKED.....so easy, surely

[Sarah977]

@Mark3205 Yes, of course that would be easy and fair. But it comes down to Airbnb's bottom line- if they can eliminate the hosts with moderate and flexible policies who have had COVID cancellations before the cut-off date for withholding 50%, of course that's less money they have to pay out. 

Airbnb has a long history of applying policies unfairly to hosts- it's nothing new. 

Yes, it seems we are being punished for having intelligent guests who cancelled before our policies would have charged them 50%. 

[Chelsey36]

This is completely unfair. They are going to cancel way in advance due to this.. if it weren't for COVID-19 we would have this income. Airbnb is being so sneaky about having all these funds to help us but then you read the fine print.. I have bookings and reservations that fall within the dates they specified - that part is fair! The part where they only refund if the guest cancels past your cancellation policy - completely wrong! They wouldn't have a business without hosts and this is incredibly hard on all of us who rely on this income. The least they can do is pay 25% of all bookings made before March 14 with check ins between March 14 and May 31. I don't want to make my cancellation policy extremely strict.. that hurts my chance of getting future bookings which I am desperate for. 

[Mark3205]

Absolutely right, in fact to take it further they are actually discriminating against decent honest hosts who might advise guests to cancel well in advance in favour of those who go quiet or even encourage guests not to cancel on the basis that everything will be fine by the time of their visit

really poor 

[Sheila350]

Even worse, in mid-March, Airbnb started an aggressive campaign to get all hosts to switch their settings to more flexible cancellation policies!  

All hosts were equally harmed by their COVID-19 cancellations, especially since many of us were not (and still are not) legally permitted to accept re-bookings for those dates or any new bookings for the foreseeable future.  

Hosts with strict cancellation policies are not any worse off than the rest of us, in fact, they are the ones who refused to follow Airbnb's demands that we switch to more flexible cancellations, so why are they being treated better than those of us who followed Airbnb's own guidance?

The consolation prize of 25% should be applied to all hosts equally, period.

[Mark3209]

I'm in the same boat here as well with full bookings from Mid March through May 30th.  I've been hosting for 6 and a half years and feel something should be done for us.  I guess as per the cancellation policy legally they have the upper hand.  Do we have any course of action?

Mark

[Jen5]

I understand your frustration, but I also understand why Airbnb is doing things this way. It's not about "helping" out hosts, it's due to the fact that they forced a new cancellation policy on hosts with strict cancellation policies without notice. For those with moderate or flexible cancellations, the guests cancelled according to the cancellation policies the host and guest agreed to at the time of reservation so Airbnb's new policy doesn't change anything. But Airbnb overstepped its bounds in breaking the contract for strict cancellations and frankly, I think this 25% offer is simply to avoid a class action lawsuit.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jen5  I agree 100%

Pandemic is not Airbnb's fault.

our cancellation policy is our choice, not Airbnb's

Don't get me wrong, I have moderate cc and all my bookings are canceled as well.

[Daragh4]

Rock of sense, @Jen5

What think ye @Susan17

[Mark3205]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I agree, i’ve said on various posts its not airbnb’s fault and they have no obligation to compensate  BUT if they are going then it should be fair and benefit everyone affected and not pegged to cancellation policies

this is a unique event and should be treated as such

i am moderate too, and given my location (tourist hotspot) i can expect cancellations to be re-booked quite quickly, that is clearly not the case in the current circumstances, we are all in the same boat

all these people saying ‘you benefitted for years with your choice of cancellation policy’ are missing the point entirely.. 

[Dave52]

Of course any of us with moderate cancel policies are in the same boat, myself included. I'd love to agree with you,  but I'm not sure what Airbnb's obligation is here, other than some "feel good" gesture to all of us loyal hosts who got more fully refundable cancellations in a month than we had ever got in several years!  But honestly I wonder if "feel good" is on the top of airbnb's priority list right now.  After all, they had to be pushed into the 25% for the strict cancellations they unilaterally overrode in one master stroke.  Those are my thoughts.

[Noreen18]

I agree with Mark. They have no obligation  to pay out but if they are going to, make it fair and include everyone. Very few hosts have strict cancellation policies so I don't think they will even burn through that 250 million. Just a PR stunt.

[Dave52]

@Noreen18"very few hosts have strict cancellation policies".  Does anyone know the approx percent of Airbnb hosts with moderate/flexible vs strict/superstrict cancellation policies, overall?  I suspect it probably varies by region, but would be interesting to know the overall number.  For example 80/20 or 60/40.