A lot of new users over the past few days and a lot of them claiming to be experienced hosts/property managers/whatever and giving us all the benefit of their advice, which to be frank, most of it we don’t need.
The majority of members here are experienced hosts, listing on multiple platforms. There are in home hosts, property managers, whole house hosts and occasionally just a man cave in a basement hosts
One or two reckon they’ve even been hosting for longer than I’ve been born, and I’m no spring chicken
All I can say to you is that with Airbnb, you’ve got exactly what you signed up for. Nothing more, nothing less.
There it is, in black and white, so good luck with any class actions. You’ll be tied up in litigation for so long that, by the time it’s resolved, vacation rentals will be something you have to explain to your grandchildren, similar to rotary dial telephones and a Sony Walkman. The alternative is that Airbnb, along with many other leisure/travel related companies, doesn’t survive this global pandemic so your suit becomes worthless anyway.
Any “experienced” user of their platform has been fully aware of how the EC policy is used against hosts, it’s nothing new. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it is how it is.
The only way anything will change is if Airbnb decide to change it. Will pressure from a few thousand disgruntled hosts influence them? I doubt it.
For every hundred hosts who bin Airbnb, there’ll be a hundred new ones to replace them. Airbnb’s focus right now, rightly or wrongly, is on the guest.
For those extolling the virtues of BDC, check the advice on your Extranet:
We expect you to refund any prepayment and waive any cancellation costs (fees, expenses and/or other amounts) in situations where the guests/travellers requested cancellations as a result of the Forced Circumstances (FC). Booking.com will waive the commission in these cases.
As of yesterday there is now a long list detailing the circumstances under which a guest can request a refund based on Force Majeure/Forced Circumstances. Is it a more rational approach than Airbnb… definitely.
Will VRBO/HA do similar? Who knows but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.
Incidentally, we’ve seen thousands of euros worth of booking disappear in the past few days, and if the situation globally doesn’t change soon, thousand more are at risk.
Our bookings are (were!) spread across the above three platforms along with a healthy direct booking clientele.
Anyone whose listing is suitable (and I know many aren’t) for multi platform advertising, and until now have been solely reliant on Airbnb, have been, in my humble opinion, extremely naive.
So, if anyone wants to vent, please feel free to vent here.
JF