Airbnb Response to Coronavirus

Hi Colleague, Airbnb asked me that question and asked about refunding the partial payment. It seems that they are refunding those out of my account even though I’ve been paid out without my knowing.

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Stakeholders are not necessarily employees.

I know that. But I think of Airbnb as working for me. It’s just a different approach than yours. It worked well for me and I don’t know what the future holds. I’m truly sorry for everyone who is going to suffer and is suffering now. It’s perfectly normal for people to want to blame Airbnb or someone.

Be well.

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Whenever I hear people claim that both parents need to work to make ends meet, I always wonder how true that really is. When both work outside the home, they each generally need a work wardrobe, a vehicle (cost of vehicle, maintenance, gas and oil, insurance and registration, perhaps parking fees) , day care or after-school care if there are children involved, they spend more money on food and drink (think Starbucks coffees on a daily basis, restaurant lunches with co-workers, take-out meals because they don’t have the time or energy to cook, etc.), they may employ a housekeeper since they are too busy to clean regularly themselves, they tend to buy their kids more stuff to make up for the fact that they don’t have much time to spend with them.
This pandemic is going to be a big wake up call for those who have been living beyond their means, or indulging themselves in buying whatever strikes their fancy. At least it will for the smart ones. I’m sure many will simply go back to their old ways once things are “normal” again, assuming it was just an inconvenient blip in their lifestyle.

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@colleague, I don’t get the point of the post. You must’ve received the e-mail from Airbnb on March 17 titled “A Message From our Founders” saying this:

It’s been 1 week. It will take some time to come up with a plan. Longer to come up with a good plan.

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Hi Brian,

I have not received that email but thank you for sending it to me. It is reassuring to know that they contacted us about the situation.

@KKC posted the entire e-mail here:

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They get up to 20% from GUESTS, they change us 3% - Guests are the cash cow, of course they are going to look after the guests, because they want the guest to have confidence to book again. Hosts will line up anyway and are easily replaced.

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To AirBNB you are not a stakeholder, you are just a resource. Don’t be fooled that they care about you.

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It’s wise to have a Personal Line of Credit or Home Equity Line of Credit for situations like these and for those times in which you need/want to make a capital improvement on your home or rental. If you don’t have one it’s not too late. A local bank or credit union is a good place to go to open a credit line and rates are low right now. This is where your good credit history will help you. But don’t use the credit line for general living expenses like a credit card. You will get buried and the funds won’t be there for emergencies.

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Thank you Robert.

I am thinking over my options and that certainly is one of them.

Best regards,

Margaret

I’ve totally changed my booking strategy and I’m getting some bookings that will help me get through this time. I don’t want anything from air apart from sticking to their updated cancellation policy. Adapt or die.

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Guilty as charged :joy:
But I also paid down a significant chunk of my loan and I have radically changed my spending habits over the last few weeks. As they say fail to prepare - prepare to fail.

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I was able to add my website to my address on Google maps (for free) so ppl looking for this location can find easily.

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Hosts will be ruined if they are over-leveraged - bought multiple properties to rent out full time as STRs; don’t think cutting out a few Starbucks coffees will make up that kind of shortfall…

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I chose not to do this and I will tell you why. On Air and VRBO where I am listed, a person has to acutally have been a customer to review me. Creating a Google listing then allows any rando with a Google account to review the business. Then somebody sees my listing, gets mad about something, or is an unscrupulous local competitor, calls in the merry brigade of trolls to one-star me into oblivion.

I got a one star Google review on an old LLC, three years after stopping using that LLC, from a person I have never met or heard of. There are a number of similarly named companies so only the rando knows who it was actually directed at. That experience was what made me decide to never list our VR on Google.

Just something to consider.

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I had a “guest” who booked direct when I was out of the country and showed up with 9 people in my 6 person max listing and when I kept his deposit he left me a 1 star google review. I answered it and pointed out what an entitled asshat he was then I went to the last ten guests who stayed with me and left 5 star reviews. I explained to them what happened and that I needed their help to bury the review. All of them did and brought me up to 4.5 on google in less than a week. People like to help, and have a sense of fairness for the most part.

RR

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A troll here actually did this to one of our forum members.

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“…if things ever return to normal.”

We actually just listed the home that we bought as an AirBnB investment in order to realize our equity gains before the other vacation homes in our neighborhood flood the market. It is clear this will take a minimum of 70-day national shutdown to come back (Wuhan was 70, Italy is at day 21 and just surpassed 10,000 deaths with no signs of slowing) The US is still at day zero! We just can’t wait any longer.

Then there’s the whole contamination fear. My friends who frequent AirBnBs as guests keep saying that they’re gong to travel less and be skeptical of how clean their lodging really is. They’re talking about making sure there are 3 days between stays! That would ruin our profit model. especially in summer!

So essentially, you’re placing profit before safety?

There is a likelihood that, by encouraging folks to travel to your area, you are assisting the spread (geographically) of CV19.

We are day 15 of a full lock down (in Spain) and still haven’t got full control over infection rates nationally. Quite sensibly, all STR are closed, apart from those housing key personnel.

JF

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