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Right, thanks for posting the link (I had already read that new policy, but others may not have).
It’s a good one if Airbnb actually consistently honors it. But nowhere does it indicate that the guest won’t get their money back if Airbnb cancels the booking.
And I think JJD is smart, funny and really helpful. It takes all kinds and sometimes we have to tolerate people we don’t want to tolerate.
Pretty much everyone has attractive and unattractive character traits. Someone can be helpful and knowlegeable and also sometimes be abrasive or insulting. And online communication can often be perceived differently than how it was intended- i.e. sarcasm is not always perceived as such and what someone intends to be funny may come across as being mocking at someone else’s expense.
People need to have or develop a thick skin to survive on public forums. The over-sensitive, those with little sense of humor, who think they know it all, or who take themselves way too seriously don’t usually survive long.
Just because a response is blunt with no social niceties or sugar coating doesn’t mean it is rude and that one should take the abruptness personally.
But there’s a difference between tough love unvarnished truth, and being mean or purposely insulting. If we inadvertently or purposely offend someone we are responding to and make them feel attacked, that serves no purpose and an apology is in order, rather than some defensive explanation or making light of it. “I apologize. That was out of line” or “Sorry you took it that way, it wasn’t my intention to make you feel bad”, shouldn’t be that hard to say. In any walk of life. I’ve had close dealings with several narcissists in my life and one of the common traits I have noticed is that they can never simply say they are sorry.
(The exception, for me, is when people post the sort of stuff that you do censor here- they deserve whatever snarky feedback they get)
Remember that when you book a hotel room, it’s easy and there’s not much to read. Rolf is obviously a reader/writer but some of our guests are not.
Some of my guests even fail to read directions to the cottage and end up in our driveway instead–not an easy mistake to make even if you don’t read my directions!
From a retired professional writer and editor:
“Please upload a screenshot of your vaccine cards ASAP, either in a message here or text the photos to xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you!”
Delete all the rest of it. The stuff about not letting them check in without proof belongs in your House Rules.
I attended both Zoom meetings with ABB officials regarding the policy changes announced in November.
I don’t have any official word, but I do believe if you put that your require proof of vaccination against Covid into your house rules, ABB will back you up if you want to cancel.
But too many host cancellations and you can expect to hear from ABB. They are extremely serious about this, Wall Street analysts have flagged host cancellations as a problem with the business.
This is golden. And you are so right about ‘reading’. Again, all, thanks for these responses.
Perhaps my ‘long winded’ version is what I send out as response #2 right before I ask airbnb to phone them to respond. FYI air will cancel a guest without penalty (I IB so I certainly count the cancellations and I have NEVER done one of the ‘free’ 3s, ever) if a guest basically responds that they will not follow your house rules, similar to a guest saying they will smoke if your rules say no.
And you are right I am a reader. Most of the guests that do not respond etc are either trying to ‘skirt’ it (I also say over 25 only) and hope I will acquiesce or clueless and needy. I was hoping my humor in reply and lightness would work more for airbnb CSs (they might see how hard I tried to make it work for the guest) than a guest who very obviously did not want to interact.
The reason I have asked for help on the forum is that for the last year I had a similar sentence in my house rules and in my first message after booking, and it worked for most folks but the few that did not basically held my room days ‘hostage’ until it was cleared up and they sent info or cancelled. I have a combination of ‘one day’ guests and 4-5 day guests who booked a week max in advance and it was invariably someone booking one night on a Wednesday while a possible all week booking was lost because of the clueless guest.
So I just got a request from a guest with a bunch of great reviews. I responded saying the usual Thank you for your request, blah blah, and that I assumed that since she was such an experienced guest with great reviews she had read all the listing info and noticed I ask for guests to please be vaccinated, due to the shared kitchen, and accepted. She responded that she would have to cancel, as she couldn’t fulfill that requirement. 
Now she has messaged again asking if I know of any other similar places that are in a quiet area, but hasn’t actually cancelled yet. I should never have accepted without waiting for her vax reply, I had a momentary lapse of judgement since she had so many good reviews. This might be the first time I have to call Airbnb and fight with them about cancelling penalty-free. 
Good thing you did ask the question. I wouldn’t share with anyone not vaccinated.
Update us, please! How did this play out? Did she cancel or did you have to get Airbnb involved?
Oh, sorry, forgot to update. She cancelled that evening, but only after I nudged her. I messaged her asking if she could please cancel sooner rather than later, as her booking was blocking my calendar from bookings from guests who could comply with the vax requirement. I sweetened it with saying I’d let her know if I heard of anything else in this area, but I actually don’t know of any other possibilities.