Hi everybody,my guest want to cancel booking for April due to the virus.She said she wants to cancel due to serious situation in UK (we do not have any serious situation in UK). I know if she was from red zone and eligible to full refund Airbnb would refund her. But what confuses me,her name sounds Asian but on her profile is that she is from Bristol (UK) .She said they will be coming from London.My question is if guests have to provide any proof they will be travelling from red zone area?
We don’t know (as discussed on at least 4 other threads posted in the last week.) Don’t cancel, don’t refund, let Airbnb handle it. I suspect that she and everyone else who wants to cancel claiming CV19 will be allowed to do so.
You should prepare accordingly.
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I just had a guest cancel because the private school down the street her daughter attends cancelled all events and visitors. She is a repeat guest I am refunding her what I get paid. This will get worse before it gets better.
RR
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Thanks.Yes,as you said I will let Airbnb handle it.I just would like to know 
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Let us know what happens.
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I don’t know if you guys have received an email from airbnb in which they state which are the areas they allow fully cancellations from.
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I will. I replied to her and I will wait what happens
I guess everybody received it. I was just wondering if guests have to provide any evidence that they are from those areas
Imagine being an Airbnb manager. In addition to the normal flow of calls you now have a surge in people calling about this issue. You have a surge of cancel requests. The normal EC rules would require submitting documents. Are they going to have staff to process all of this e-paperwork? No. The most cost efficient thing is going to be to allow everyone to cancel who wants to.
In the US we don’t even have tests available for everyone who needs them yet. I don’t even want someone with a cold or allergies here coughing in my airbnb room because the incubation period is 14-28 days and it’s just now entering the exponential growth stage.
Quit worrying about evidence and just hope that things improve quickly.
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Just wanted to add that so far more than 18000 people have died in the US of flu this year. That outnumbers by far this virus, yet people panic. I had my panic moment last week, when I was wondering whether to shut down completely until the virus dies out but after talking to my 3 dr friends and a RN I calmed down.
One dr friend said that in her opinion comes summer the virus is going to slow down - cuz this is what flu virus in general does and I understand this is a spin off flu virus - but it would probably pick up again in the fall, until they can come up with a vaccine, so we should be prepared.
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I’m experiencing the opposite – the IB reservations are rolling in. These are in-country travelers, however, and I can speculate that some are thinking that one suite attached to a private house is safer than a hotel with its large population of guests.
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Why would that confuse you? Are you suggesting that someone with an Asian name isn’t allowed to live in Bristol?
JF
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I’ve been hoping that my month will be as busy as ever. It’s spring break month and March is usually very busy. I’m hoping people cancelling their flights to Cancun will road trip to White Sands and the Grand Canyon instead. 
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With absolutely no disrespect to the OP, I’m wondering just how many threads we need here about this subject.
The fact is that the World Health Organisation, world governments and medical experts know as little about this flu bug than we do. Airbnb hosts are pretty much in the dark and much as we all sympathise with hosts who are having cancellations, we can’t really offer advice or common sense courses of action. We’d all love to help but we can’t.
Airbnb have a page on their site that should answer most questions. But remember that no-one has all the answers.
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@adrienne12, I found this text on Facebook. It’s the best explanation I’ve seen of why Covid-19 is so much worse than the flu:
An excellent explanation from Janice Willard, DVM:
I have a good answer to those people who are chiding others for their concern about Covid-19 by pointing out that Influenza kills a lot of people each year and Covid 19 has only killed a few, so what’s the big deal? To which I say, yes, that is exactly the issue: how good a job have we done at being able to protect against Influenza? What is our track record? We have a vaccine for influenza (has about a 50% efficacy, which doesn’t sound like much but can really help keep transmission at bay on a population level), we understand its biology and have active surveillance and diagnostic tests. We understand how it spreads between people and in the environment. We have experience with how to treat severely affected patients. And it is still on target to kill over 18,000 Americans this year. We have no vaccine for Covid-19, don’t have a complete picture of how transmission occurs or persistence on the environment (although it may be a bit less mobile than Influenza), inadequate diagnostic tests to identify infected people, a longer incubation period, making it harder to track and, currently, a much higher case fatality rate (which is yet another unknown because we don’t have reliable and plentiful diagnostic testing so can’t identify mild cases, who are then able to shed the virus). We have inadequate supplies and a patchwork of unprepared healthcare system. So if with all the known factors with Influenza, we still are on track to have 18,000+ people die this year, tell me how Covid-19, with none of those things in place, is less of a concern? Nor is it “either-or”. How about we start paying more attention to public health in this country and concern ourselves with both dangerous viruses and the lack of affordable health care that so many have to deal with. And the seriously dangerous employment culture that encourages people who are ill to still come to work and so infect others. Our inability to deal with any of these things should be our biggest concern and the places we should be working to improve.
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Unfortunately, for someone like myself, we have 2 young children in our home with an attached studio unit. The risk of a guest coming from a CV19 affected country (China for example) is too overwhelming. (i’m chinese btw)
I had to cancel for the first time today when a chinese guest booked a 14-day stay with us, who is flying directly from China. I suspect the 14-day stay is for the quarantine requirement mandated by our federal government.
Call it discriminatory? Yes, but my family’s health comes before everybody else.
Sorry.
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Oh I agree completely. I’m not referring to the seriousness of the situation but to this forum. I feel bad that we can’t help. So all we can do is point you to Airbnb. We’re just a bunch of hosts - Airbnb should know much more about the global situation and definitely more about how cancellations and so on will impact hosts.
I absolutely believe everyone needs to do what they need to do to feel comfortable at this time. Anxiety is high and it is real. I’ve said before and will say again that from a purely selfish point of view that I’m not closing, I’m not canceling and that I intend to maximize my opportunities. I hope lots of hosts in my city close down temporarily.
I don’t have children, I don’t share the space and I’m not in a high risk group though I am 62. I’d accept a two week booking from someone flying in from China but I’m not likely to get such a booking in my location.
Of course not :-). She said they do not want to travel to UK,because of the serious situation in UK
Well she lives in Bristol,but her parents will be coming from China. I told her it would be best for everybody if she cancelled
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