Hi Catherine, thank you for the update. There are a lot of positives to be taken from it and thank you for listening with your big Mickey Mouse ears!
It's great that the issue of unauthorised parties (no a problem I deal with, but clearly a problem for many hosts recently) is being addressed and that we get to keep our Superhost status regardless of number of bookings.
I do have some questions though.
RE the ECP, I have not signed up for this as there are several things that seem entirely unrealistic within it and not based on current expert scientific opinion and many other hosts seems to think the same. I know that it probably took a lot of time to develop, but I don't believe it reflects the current situation. I prefer to be honest, but I am pretty sure that a lot of hosts have signed up for this and got the badge, but are NOT actually following it (as attested by some guests on the CC), thereby putting the rest of us at a disadvantage. Will this be updated to reflect actual current scientific guidance?
Good to know that cancellations will not automatically be applied to post March 15th bookings, unless the host/guest is sick with COVID-19 or the host is unable to accommodate the guest. That is not what I understood when reading the policy, but I assume that has now been updated?
However, one thing that has particularly concerned me of late is the whole policy of letting guests "attest" to extenuating circumstances, rather than prove the, in which case they get an Airbnb credit that Airbnb benefits from, but the host of the original booking does not. It would be great if you could please address this issue in your next update on cancellations as it doesn't really seem ethical to me and maybe not even legal.
I know that part of the reason for doing this was probably due to lack of CS staff and not being able to cope with going through all the documentation of proof if guests were actually required to provide this, but a cynical person (me?) might say that this policy is very much in Airbnb's interests. In an ideal world, where a guest has not been able to provide proof of EC, and does not go on to use their credit with another booking, the original host should be refunded part of that payment. Airbnb should not be keeping accommodation fees under any circumstances! They belong either to the guest or the host and, in fairness, should be divided between the two, not go into Airbnb's coffers...