20k is awful! I’ve had about 6k in cancellations so far. I’m learning that cancellation policies are very different for everyone depending on their market. I’m in a very touristy city, so it’s not that hard to get bookings at the last minute. People rarely cancelled before all of this, but when they did it was often rebooked. I started out with a strict policy and got tired of the doctor’s notes and requests for refunds. I decided it was easier to go with moderate. I can see how other markets would require a stricter policy though.
I read something a couple weeks ago that said insurers will cover it only if the policy had “Cancel For Any Reason” coverage. I guess the question is who actually pays extra for that? Not many Americans are willing to buy travel insurance in the first place, I wonder how many would pay even more for the extra coverage it would take to get paid out for the pandemic.
I did find a travel insurance website that offered the appropriate coverage. It said that it only pays out 75% of the non-refundable part of your travel and it had some other limitations that make me wonder how many people would pay extra for it.
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My current prediction is more Americans die from this than the US Civil War (military casualties which are estimated to be between 620,000 to 850,000 and most of those were from disease and infection not the actual wound.) I don’t know what that does to the economy and this is global in nature. It’s a beast unlike any we have seen before.
I agree with you, @KKC.
Here we are—so many of us—whining that we can’t get the brand of bread or laundry detergent we want. We can’t go sit at a bar or go to a theater. We can’t go on vacation. We’re stuck at home. We’ve lost income.
Don’t get me wrong. My husband and I are whining about those things, too.
But I think ahead to the coming months. I think about the losses that virtually every one of us will experience.
Chilling.
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Hosts with a strict cancellation policy should not benefit more than those with a moderate cancellation policy. The great majority of Covid cancellations will be done way before the booking start date. We should be treated equally.
I agree with @KKC, we are in a shit load of trouble & I’m more worried for my children than my business.
The current strategy appears to be. Let everyone catch the virus in a controlled manner by switching lock down on and off over the next 9-12 months. This should minimize riots and panic in the streets that would happen if we just let everyone get it all at once.
If no vaccine is found it could be 2022 before we are globally stable enough to continue a normal life again.
Its a long read but explains quite a lot.
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You have a feeling…don’t go by feelings when you’re making a judgement call. The moderators are very good at letting members express their opinions on a subject and allow a healthy debate.
You can ask any Doctor and Healthcare professional how well the U.S. President has done in providing sound judgement and leadership through this pandemic, and they will all say he has done poorly. The rental industry has tanked. People don’t trust this country to get a handle on the spread of the virus because our fearless leader is too arrogant to keep his mouth shut and let the Doctors and Scientists call the shots. We are worse off because the Commander in Chief keeps talking opinion and not fact. End of, as the Brits say…
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If you gave people the ability to cancel within 5 days of arrival with a full refund and that’s what they did, why should you get anything? If someone cancelled in a way that it went against your policy, sure, but otherwise, it doesn’t make much sense to me why you would get something…
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My thoughts are with you. I never thought I’d be more pleased to have no children.
This has been a double edged sword hasn’t it? One tries to soft pedal so people maintain equilibrium but instead they take it as “well, I got this replacement booking.” I want to scream but if you do that then people think you’ve lost your last nuggets.
Be well, Airhost forum friend. I hope we all meet again on the other side and make fun of my overreaction. Such a happy day that will be.
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@Chris You seem to have a very limited view of what consitutes the “vacation rental market”. Like it’s all “big money”. Seems like you’re only thinking in terms of what, huge villas on the beach?
I live in a super popular touristy beach town- tourism drives the entire economy here. Every single one of my guests, for the 3 and a half years since I started hosting, is coming here on vacation. No one just “passing through”, no one coming on business, or to study. So my private room/bath home share listing is absolutely in the “vacation rental market”. Yet I’m a really small-time host.
@RebeccaF No kidding. I’ve been reading ad nauseum, several hundred host posts over the last couple weeks, that keep saying “The guests should have taken out travel insurance”, even though these keep being countered with posts pointing out that almost no insurance covers pandemics.
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@hostess1 I have a moderate policy as well, always have. Yes, If someone cancels 5 or more days before check-in,. they would always get a full refund. But that doesn’t happen very often, at least not to me. In fact, I’ve never had a guest cancel around the 5 day mark- the few who have cancelled their bookings in the past, cancelled at least 2 weeks previous, which gave me the chance to rebook, or cancelled after the 5 day mark, and I got paid 50%.
The reason hosts with flexible and moderate policies are upset now, is because the number of cancellations far exceeds anything we’ve ever experienced before.
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That’s fair. I see what you mean. It is very unfortunate that we’ve all been hit with this challenge, and even worse, that life is turned upside down indefinitely. I just hope we all make it through with our health. Whatever happens with the Airbnb, it will be okay. I would love to recoup some of my lost income but it feels up in the air. Maybe they will consider others who had more flexible policies too.
So they’re getting rewarded because they lost the most. Even though Airbnb does everything in its power to discourage hosts from having strict cancellation policies. I’m happy for the hosts with the strict cancellation policies, but, man, I would’ve gone the strict route long ago too had I not been discouraged by Airbnb not to. Seems quite shit to me.
I don’t do anything that Airbnb pressures me to do. I run my business the way it works best for me. It results in a lot less regrets.
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Actually, I imagine hosts with Flexible and Moderate cancellation policies actually lost more income due to cancellations. However, what hosts with Strict cancellation policies lost is income that they were led to believe was protected by their cancellation policy.
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Because Covid 19 is a special case.
Any host with more than 2 rentals gets nothing. Gee, I have 4 listings, that’s 4 times the loss. How do they come up with this criteria??
We don’t know but it makes sense. They have a limited pool of money. If they give more to people with 3+ listings that shrinks the number of hosts who will get anything.
Your energy would be better spent thinking of how you are going to make a living during the Covid Depression.
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How would that help. Pandemic like this wouldn’t be covered.
Does your home insurance for STRs include loss income cover which cover pandemics @Redhouse65 ?