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There you See the difference between the experienced OTA‘s coming from the Classic Hotel industry, and the new unexperienced coming from online sales and Marketing.
BDC only send advices to host, but stayed out of the whole discussion between host and guest.
Giving refunds is really up to the host.
How is it breaching airbnb’s policy. It clearly states when you sign up that you are signing up to the EC policy which including penalty free cancellations under these sort of circumstances @Brett_Garrity
I’ve been involved with Air Hosts Forum for several years… and, I too don’t agree with political posts on here. I’m principally here to learn more about STR hosting. That being said, I’ve learned to scroll past what I don’t agree with and pay attention to what’s pertinent to me and my hosting situation.
There’s a lot of different perspectives here to learn from… just tune out the rest. And there was some really good info above on how to mute those you don’t want to hear from.
Just to add my voice. I have had 5 cancellations due to Covid. I set my cancellation policy as moderate as I wanted to give my guests flexibility. Everyone is cancelling early for Covid due to government recommendations and flight cancellations. Why should someone with a strict cancellation benefit and those with moderate not get anything. I would rather we were all treated equally and got nothing.
Well call me a cynic, but the strict cancellation hosts are probably more likely to be high demand, resort, longer stay properties that are higher priced. I don’t think Airbnb discounted the effect of losing lucrative properties, indeed their portfolio of more luxury properties which they’ve been focusing on to expand their customer demographic, to VRBO.
I am glad they made the gesture of a grant program for those who depend on Airbnb to keep/maintain their personally-owned properties. Don’t care if it’s PR – it will help those folks out.
So you would skip an entire geographical region because of their customs? Literally nobody in my comp set was offering flexible cancellations when I first listed and I spent 2 years studying their listings and I do mean literally. That only changed after the discounted strict/higher priced flexible rate options were introduced and now a tiny handful of hosts offer that.
TL;DR: Strict cancellation policies are the norm in our area. Your loss. 
It’s the inverse here, the vast majority are not on a strict policy. Curiously, the ones who are, are mostly the agency style hosts.
JF
I get a great deal from this place, even from moderators with whom I share very little in the way of agreement on the subjects we are taught not to bring up in polite small talk. I value their opinions about the things we have in common. Where we disagree, I understand that their feelings on topics come from good, well intentioned places. I assume that people with whom I disagree on politics and spirituality are good people with different ideas, vs. thinking of them as bad people with bad ideas.
Take what you need and leave the rest.
It is Holliday vs citytrippers.
I’m my area almost no one is on flexible, only a few b&b’s that accept 1 night stays.
All others are on strict. Our guest book 6 to 18 months in advance, I do want a guest that blocks my calendar for 18 months and then cancel a day before arrival.
And AirBnB needs the vacation rental market, there is where the big money is. They do not need to invest in the “flexible” host, they are already desperately bending over backwards by accepting that kind of cancelation policy, these host will stick with AirBnB anyways.
It’s the Hollidayhome/Stroct host that will leave Air and move to HomeAway and BDC.
Yep ours is a drive-to, rural, weekend market whose only commerce besides ranching and agribusiness is tourism. I am happy if the place rents 2 weekends a month.
I can’t just replace the money lost with a last minute booking, and am out money not just lost income. I have to pay my people to get it ready because even when every weekend gets booked, it’s still vacant 3 to 4 days of every week. It takes at least 45 minutes of just blowing leaves, wiping dead bugs out of windowsills, knocking down cobwebs, etc. and that’s only if someone just left on Sunday. The longer it’s been empty, the more it takes to get it ready.
The yard mowing, for example, gets neglected until there are guests coming or it’s so tall my dad can see it from the street when he drives past which means it’s already a jungle on the back of the parcel where the vegetation is denser. 
So I have already incurred labor costs before the guest ever checks in that had nothing to do with the prior guest.
I don’t know that AirBnB needs me, but I know there was a thriving vacation rental industry in our area that long predates the existence of the Internet. I don’t think it “needs” AirBnB.
Have you tried Airbnb Community - it’s a really good resource if you want a forum that focuses on helping your learn more about STR hosting, without the wider banter and other stuff that goes on here.
I have a strict policy. Not sure I’ll get anything back. Don’t care at this point. Over $1,000 down the drain here.
It would be fine if ABNB simply included within their policy that travellers must have travel insurance in place when booking. It then protects the client and the Host. It’s normal practice with all travel operators to have such a clause in their booking form. In the Uk insurers expect 400,000 claims from the cancellations due to the virus alone.
I’d like to paint this on a roadside sign that could be seen from space:
Many travel insurance policies in the US don’t cover pandemics!
If travel insurance policies in the UK and other countries cover Covid-19, more power to them. US travelers are probably not that lucky.
Mine was 20k in bookings for March and April. I hope I get a little something back. I was really depending on the income…
Almost every property in my area has strict. I notice some have changed it now but in the past, everyone held strict policies. We have a high season and if you rent your place, generally you are booked. If you let people cancel, it would probably get rebooked but it’s a hassle. I have to do paperwork for the city and pay taxes, communicate with people, set up lock codes, organize cleaning and any personal requests, make sure stuff is stocked…
Most people know if they are traveling in March/April by Dec. I was solidly booked before that. It’s not fair to have people take up your high season and then cancel. There is limited availability and I think you should pay something to hold the home. If you don’t want to hold it, wait until everything is booked up and take your chances a few days ahead… That’s how it goes. I rented a home in high season and I didn’t want to pay a deposit, or lose anything, so I waited until 3 days ahead and paid a little more, but I got something. People are welcome to do that.
I will probably go back to strict once this blows over.
Aviva insurance is one of the biggest insurers in the world and is American owned by Athene Holdings US since 2012. Aviva have protected a UK client of ours who was forced to cancel because the pandemic prevented his and his wife’s travel. It could be just down to the premium people pay. If someone has a 2 dollar insurance it probably covers little, but bona fide companies and policies do cover cancellations for such disasters. We have a second client also able to obtain compensation too from another provider via their credit card. Would be odd for the US o be excluded from what is normal insurance practice of protection against cancellation.
I have been on a strict cancellation policy since I started; not in a high demand resort, I don’t attract longer stays - just an ordinary homeshare host, offering a room in my home. @dpfromva
I can’t find any articles about travel insurance written after 13 March. I wonder how many insurers will go bankrupt and if trip insurance will be affordable? Surely it won’t be able to continue to cover pandemics unless the traveler is the one who is ill.
We are not benefiting. We are just getting the policy enacted as it was promised to be. Really, it’s not even going to be enacted the way it was supposed to, but we may stand to get half of what we were promised.
it’s tricky anyway. A few of my people, I worked with to reduce the rates to make it more affordable to cancel, then we ended up working it out as a cancelation without any penalty, so will I get the 25% on the original booking amount? (I think I should) Or will I get the 25% on the reduced rate? I have no idea.
As of now, it still shows that I have no bookings and no $$$ coming.
Of course, not surprised at individual situations. I was just speculating on general characteristics of what the population of strict policy properties might look like; I don’t have data, just some anecdotal experience of booking beach vacations which seem to routinely have stringent cancellation rules.