Am I the only one who doesn't want to host during Coronavirus pandemic ???

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I am very surprised to see so many angry hosts who worry about the money more than about their health and life. Do you really want to host during a pandemic? You would risk your health for a few bucks? Are you so desperate? Money means nothing if you will die or live with damaged lungs for the rest of your life. Think about it.

I really don't want to risk mine and my daughter's life and clean after potentially sick guests. I don't want us to be infected because we touched their towels and sheets and inhaled the air in the room where infected guests spent a few days. We can't protect ourselves by wearing just a pair of rubber gloves, without even a proper mask not to mention the whole protective suit. Do you?

And, no matter how much we try, we just can't sanitise and disinfect the entire apartment from top to bottom. It is not a hospital room with just a metal bed and a metal nightstand on the vinyl floor. We have carpets, upholstered furniture, curtains,  full kitchen with cutlery and plates for 12 people.... We can't wash every single item in 70% alcohol after each guest and this virus will stay on surfaces for days .

We closed our calendar for all future bookings a few weeks ago. We offered our guests a mutual cancelation and most of them already canceled. Others contacted Airbnb and we are still waiting for their answer for days. I am happy for each cancelation and I hope the rest of my bookings will be canceled as well. Maybe we will rent long term. Maybe we will keep our property empty until everything is over. We don't know yet but we plan to survive 🙂

I am happy Airbnb allows penalty-free cancelations and my opinion is - it should be free for all bookings until September so hosts can rent their places long term if they want to until this pandemic is over.

We all need money but for us, our health is the most valuable thing we have.

Be reasonable, this is not the flu, THIS IS VERY CONTAGIOUS and it can easily kill you so take care.

[Sandra126]

Exactly, @John1574 . We don't know. Hence, caution, please. And for all the young ones thinking it's all so irrelevant, news like that might give those people pause for thought. Painting my veranda today, putting on some music.

[Trevor243]

Over here, the over 70s are being advised to avoid social contact for 3 months - we don't have any lockdowns or anything yet. Several over 70s I've spoken to in person (at a "safe" distance) said they are carrying on as normal. They say they lived through the blitz and the Nazis didn't get them. They say "it's only the bl**dy flu". Of course, it's their choice .....

[Geni4]

if I knew airbnb wouldnt adhere to their own offer of no charge to me or affect  on my superhost status for cancelling within certain dates Iwould have asked my guest to please cancel. I am not asking for any compensation for loss of bookings...BUT I find it really low that they are charging me!! I host right inside my home...come on Airbnb where is your Integrity?? I Am losing money as it is without you taking more of  it from me. I have always been happy with Airbnb until now.

[Sandra856]

Hi @Geni4

You should be covered under the Corona Virus cancellation policy and you should contact airbnb CS so they can remove the penalties/fees you got. I also had problems when I needed to cancel penalty free the other day. You can contact airbnb via the reservation - find the help link. It will probably take a week or two before they answer you because of the Corona crisis.

Best, Sandra 

[Sandra126]

@Geni4 , there is an answer. I tried to do my own cancellations but was getting billed etc.  So i rang, it took several goes and an extremely long wait, hours. The first response person said it was hard to cancel from a host perspective, but easy if you are a guest. He said he could not do it and forwarded me to a supervisor who cancelled everything, was simple, took a minute. But I was so frustrated I admit to actually crying to the first guy., because all he could say to me was how little he could do. Told me to ask guests to cancel. I had already done that, but tomorrow's guests were refusing. However, let me assure you that they can and will do a blanket cancel if you ask. I promise. Just be prepared for a wait.

[Denice0]

Thank you for writing this post.  After reading the majority of posts against the Airbnb refunds, I'm guessing - by new hosts who have never weathered a natural disaster or downturn, I really started to worry about community spread of this virus.  How can hosts choose money over protecting themselves, loved ones, the people they hire to clean their properties, co-hosts, the guests who may become sick by travelling or may get stranded as more flights are cancelled.

I have been critical of many Airbnb actions and disregard for the hard working hosts - not paying hosts (been there), refunding a reservation  - when he was a no-show and then claimed to be sick - been there.  But this week I commend Airbnb for taking a stand, and doing the right thing to save lives.  

After 9 years of hosting -this is no different than the wildfires of 2012, or the flood of 2013 in the Rocky Mountains.  Business stopped and we voluntarily refunded our guests who almost all cancelled.  People lost lives, the communities came together, rebuilt and recovered.  We made less money, but our small family owned business survived.  We also don't have 3 mortgages - we lived through the 2008 financial crisis.  If Airbnb should be criticized - it is for encouraging far too many hosts to over-leverage themselves with the promise of easy money.  I believe they were also encouraging loans to fix up properties.  Every host / business who hopes to succeed needs a plan and a safety net.

I've contacted guests who are arriving before April 14th to let them know they can cancel 100% - they cancelled.  I've blocked my calendars through April and will need to extend.  If Covid-19 lasts until July or August or later in the US, I hope Airbnb continues to do the right thing and refund travelers who booked prior to mid-March.  I've had 1 inquiry since mid-February and I am now preparing for another low income year - as we head into peak season.  A good time to reflect and work on the property.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

thank you @Denice0 exactly my thoughts

[J-Renato0]

Denice0

Do you want to mock the other hosts when saying "How can hosts choose money over protecting themselves..."

Do you think we hosts are insane? It is what you are saying!

What is in question is that, only the hosts has to afford with the losses.

Nobody is insane and want to host infected people, unless they run a hospital.

What hosts say is that, it is unfair that only the hosts have to have losses becouse of the epidemic.

Moreover, there are lots of confusion between "epidmic zones" with cities and countries that has implemented measures to prevent an epidemic.

What the sane hosts stands for is that - It is NOT FAIR that policy = 100% risk and responsibility for host and 0% risk and responsibility for guest.

And Yes, I can succed because I do owe nothing and I have savings. It is not because that my situation is not the worst one that I think that it is fair to have the burden to have losses.
It is not because I know on how to manage my listings that I will think it is fair to leave other hosts out in the could!

There is what is right and wrong! It is not right to favour just one part and take advantage of the other part.
It is the most basic sense of justice.
It is my honest opinion.

[John1574]

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@J-Renato0 

I appreciate how passionate your feelings are on this topic.

I wonder, in your opinion, what could AirBnB have done differently that would make you think that their approach was fair?

They had to address concerns in the travel industry vis-à-vis cancellations.

How would you have handled it if you were AirBnB?

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[Juan63]

Exactly what VRBO did. Offer guests 100% credit for future stay or 50% refund.

[Patricia2604]

A fair way would be a 50/50 loss on both sides.

[J-Renato0]

@John1574 

I would NOT say I am passionate. I would say I am rational and downtoearth. I thing I have sense of justice that does not change depending on the circunstances.

I do not understand very well your position on this matter. Sometimes it seems to me that you agree with the hosts that are in panic before the possibility of being infected. They are so frightened that they can not think rationally. It happens in times of war, great danger and epidemic.

Getting to the point and answering your question.

First of all I must say that I am an off-site host, so my opinion may not be suitable to home-share hosts.

If there is a contract (cancelation policy), since I was a child I was told that I have to accomplish with whom I have a deal with. If there is a contract, there are clauses that must be accomplished, even in case of cancellation or interuption.
It is a business between HOST and GUEST. Both have agreed with the cancellation policy.

I will consider 2 situations in the two following paragraphs.

As for me, I would propose to the guests who can not travell (That are from zones that are not epidemic):
1- The guest can change the frame dates.
2- If the guest wanted to cancel, I would return 25% only. I would have the right to have 50% (strict cancellation policy). However I and the guest would be compromising. It is not fair that only the host have a loss. The guest knew it in advance, since the guest accepted the strict cancellation police. And becouse this type of cancellation policy they get better prices. So they decided to take the risk because they wanted a better price.

If there was guests from epidemic zones that was to arrive soon, and wanted to stay in my listing I would do as following:
1- I would ask the guest to cancel and I would refund the guest all the money.
2- If the guest did not want to cancel, I would do it. By doing this I would lost my Superhost Status and I would understand that it is a consequence in accordance to the terms.
I was told to honour my contracts!

I want any guest and any host in safe conditions.
It is not necessary to overule a contract to be safe.
Anyone can be safe and also acommplish with their obrigations.
Hosts and guests are adults, and know that the strict cancellation policy involve loss of money for both parts, not for only one part.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@J-Renato0  I just checked on worldometers https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and I see Brasil has just 2 confirmed corona cases per 1.000.000 people, that's 1: 500.000.

Italy has 521 / million and it is  1 : 1.920

I know you would/will think differently if/when the statistic change.

I don't feel I am penalized or losing money with this Airbnb cancellation policy. Guests will not stay and I will not be paid. It will be the same as they never booked, or as it is out of season. I can still rent my apartments on a monthly bases if I want to. 

It is not the same as they booked, kept my calendar closed and then canceled last minute in a regular top season preventing me to rebook. This is different.

Besides, this policy allows hosts to cancel as well, if they want to rent long term for a few months because it is too dangerous to host or because it's more profitable then to keep just one 2-nights booking per month.

I would feel at a loss ONLY if I would be penalized for cancellation by losing my SH status, fined with 50-100 Us$, an lose my search position and ABB priority helpline.

We are off-site hosts as well but we meet our guests at arrival and we clean after them. There are no face masks to buy in Croatia, alcohol is sold out, disinfectant products are sold out and we can't protect ourselves using just a pair of rubber gloves. It wouldn't be fair if we should choose between protecting our health or being penalized for cancelation. 

[Mark116]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Not everyone can rent their airbnb unit long term, and the fact remains that airbnb, as it always does, put hosts last.  Someone posted on the 'founders' thread what VRBO is doing, which is first, they're refunding their fee, second, they are encouraging hosts to either give a credit for travel later this year or 100% refund if guests will  not agree to a credit and they say they will provide a search boost to those hosts who offer full refunds and/or credits once things go back to normal.  That is a good, balanced, much, much more fair policy that implicitly recognizes that hosts are an integral part of the business.  Per usual, airbnb, treats hosts like robot drones, easily replaced.

I wonder if this isn't going to be a huge opportunity for VRBO to get thousands of disgruntled airbnb hosts, like me, who until now have been too lazy to make the switch.

I don't really want to deal with hosting right now, but that doesn't mean I condone airbnb's top down 100% guest centric policies.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Mark116  yes, I have seen VRBO's cancelation policy from now until April 30. They gave more options as you said. They tell hosts if they can't host in this period they can cancel automatically and offer at least 50% refund to their guests. I don't know what to think about it... if I were a guest and my host cancels because he doesn't want or just can't host me due to pandemic I would expect to get 100% back, not just 50%, wouldn't you?

It is very hard, maybe impossible to completely satisfy both sides. We just have to realize that everyone in the world will feel some losses in the next few months.

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EU closed its borders for the rest of the world, Shengen is over, states within EU closed their borders as well. From midnight we will live without restaurants, cafes, all shops except groceries, without concerts, cinemas, all public events... for at least 30 days, schools are already closed...

Italy has 4200 new cases and 475 deaths in the last 24 hours and 60 mil. people are trapped in their homes.😞

If someone's biggest problem is a few refunded cancelations - he is a very very lucky person.