Just wanted to share the rant I've been posting on my social channels recently with other hosts here who can hopefully empathize:
A not-so-quick rant about AirBnB (and guests) from a host:
We have a strict cancellation policy which means you only get a full refund if you cancel within 48 hours of booking. After that, only a percentage of the refund is offered which decreases incrementally the closer you get to the check-in date.
As early as late February our AirBnB was booked nearly solid for the season (May-October) and then Covid happened and AirBnB’s knee-jerk response was to allow ALL guests (who booked prior to March 14th) to cancel their reservations through the end of May and get full refunds without penalty, no matter the host’s cancellation policies. In doing so, they neglected to take into account the livelihoods of literally hundreds of thousands of people who had come to rely on this income to get by. So John and Jane Traveler get their $75 back for the room they’ll no longer be occupying during the silly trip they’d no longer be taking but Bob and Barbara Host don’t just lose $75 on the single transaction, they lose $75 times 180 days ($13,500) or however many days they had originally booked before AirBnB removed all agency in dictating their cancellation policies for their own properties.
Understandably, hosts were panicking and LIVID, and AirBnB goes into damage control mode suddenly realizing that without HOSTS and their PROPERTIES, AirBnB HAS NO BUSINESS. So they quickly offer all hosts 25% (that’s roughly 18 bucks from an original $75/night booking) of each reservation that was made prior to March 14th for cancelled bookings through the end of May due to Covid. Fine.
So all of our guests for May cancel and automatically get full refunds since most of them booked prior to March 14th, which is to be expected while simultaneously receiving these laughable we-care-about-you payouts from the corporation in their ridiculous effort to keep us just happy enough to keep listing our property on their website. Meanwhile, we are getting relentless requests from guests who booked before March 14th for days in the months after May who are asking to cancel and still asking for full refunds, which we’re giving because we aren’t assholes. If they booked prior to the pandemic it's the decent thing to do.
So I’m trying to financially plan for our year with this unexpected financial shortfall and suddenly days that were freed up from past guests cancelling are getting booked again by travelers apparently going on these last-minute trips. We need the money so fine. I commit to taking extra precautions when it comes to cleaning our RV between each guest because I obviously don’t want to get sick, I don’t want my family sick and we certainly don’t want future guests to get sick from past guests. Even before covid, we have to plan our entire lives around this thing during the summer season because we have a 1-year old daughter and two full time jobs on top of the work involved with our airbnb. But what starts happening, you ask? Well, douchebags who literally book our place a week or two before their reservation start calling and messaging us on the day of or before check-in saying they need to cancel “due to covid,” something they knew full-well was going on before booking with us. And you might be saying, “But Becky, if they booked after March 14th, they have to follow your strict cancellation policy which means they don’t get a refund right?” Wrong. AirBnB is STILL giving FULL refunds to every guest who asks so long as they state “covid” as an “extenuating circumstance.” So even if we say, I’m so sorry, John Traveler, but you’re canceling on the day of your reservation and we have a strict cancellation policy so we can’t give you a refund.” They can say, “Oh ok then, I’ll just go tell AirBnB I’m canceling because of covid and they’ll give me all my money back! Have a nice day!” And that’s how that works. And also, we get NOTHING in that situation since they were only giving the 25% of bookings to hosts for reservations made prior to March 14th.
So in summary, guests are totally allowed to act like assholes on the airbnb platform right now, book whatever they want, and cancel whenever they want no matter the host’s cancellation policy so long as “covid” is the reason why. There is no proof required for that, by the way. They literally just have to say "covid" and airbnb jumps to ensure they’re taken care of. Screw the hosts, right?
P.S. Of the four guests we’ve had so far this year, TWO have broken something in our RV that needed to be repaired or completely replaced. THREE have shown up past 10pm without notice. ONE had FOUR people staying instead of the 2 people she TOLD US would be staying and they filled up the black tank so quickly it overflowed (yeah, imagine that for a second) so my husband had to empty their actual **bleep** while they were still here (awkward) and ONE has totally ignored our check-in and check-out procedure requests, which are a bit more involved now with the coronavirus. (Thanks dude, for ensuring I get to clean up your trash because you’re a lazy douche!)
P.P.S. We have a guest checking in today who was mad that we said he couldn’t check in until 4pm because he said our listing stated 3pm (we have never set a 3pm check-in time - we checked and on our end there was nothing that said 3pm but our 5pm time had indeed been inexplicably deleted). I let him know our normal check-in time is actually 5 and we were already letting him check in an hour early. That’s when he sends a screenshot showing that AirBnB lists our check-in time at 3pm. Thanks AirBnB for altering our listing details and then making us look like assholes!
So if you’re a host, BE REALLY sure AirBnB hasn’t altered any off your listing’s crucial details like that because they certainly screwed with ours. And if you’re a guest, be a decent human being and honor your host’s original cancellation policy no matter your reason for canceling, ESPECIALLY if you booked anytime after mid-March. (Here’s an idea: if you think you may need to cancel, FIND A LISTING WITH A GENEROUS CANCELLATION POLICY. Just as you would do with a hotel room.) Most of us AirBnB hosts are not these giant corporate hotel chains (who I actually doubt are offering full refunds for non-refundable rooms booked WELL AFTER this pandemic began) and we can’t afford to put the time, money and effort into this small business venture (totally what this is) only to have all potential earnings swiped from us in the end.
Better yet, just don’t use AirBnB. They’re really an awful company, especially for hosts.
