I don’t. There is no way Airbnb is going to start paying tens of thousands of hosts 50% of a cancelled coronavirus-based cancellation. This is a worldwide crisis situation. We can’t expect that things will just be dealt with as normal.
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It was already reported in Business Insider that Airbnb has said they may defer the IPO to 2021.
And someone posted about it here on the forum this week.
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They haven’t changed policies mid course @Rapunzel they have had the EC policy for years. It has always trumped what cancellation policy a host has in place.
Within days Airbnb is going to extend the Extenuating Circumstances Policy worldwide, at their sole discretion, as outlined in the TOS. It’s going to be impossible for them to vet and process all the claims with paperwork.
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I’ve been “negative instead of proactive” for years now. This post summarizes some of the threats and “health scare” is on the list. Forewarned is forearmed. Asking Airbnb to mitigate a global disaster is folly.
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Everyone involved in the travel and hospitality industry is suffering and will continue to suffer financially until this situation runs its course. I don’t see how Airbnb would have any obligation to make hosts whole for a natural disaster in the shape of a pandemic, or whatever you want to term it. As an analogy, if your roof blows off or your plumbing becomes nonfunctional, Airbnb will allow you to cancel as a host without penalty but does not guarantee your income for the cancelled rentals. That’s what insurance is for – some hosts may have loss of rental income coverage that would apply in this situation if they have a commercial insurance policy.
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Just saw something interesting.
Chinese American guest wanted to cancel his booking due to virus fears. Host has strict policy and said no. Guest changed his profile location to China and then rang CS and got his refund via EC…
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Oh, I’m sure a huge number of guests who want to cancel their booking, for whatever reason, are going to be conniving and milking this to get full refunds.
I honestly don’t think it matters as Airbnb is going to refund everyone who wants a CV19 cancellation. And quite a few of us don’t want guests who are anxious about it either.
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Every disaster has its profiteers, and those who take advantage, sadly.
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I pointed out in a different thread that hosts who have commercial insurance should consult your policies. You may be able to collect on these reservations if you have a traditional innkeeper policy.
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Quite frankly, they don’t give a s**t. The folks who run AirBnb are “disruptors” who don’t care about anyone but themselves. I’ve never assumed that they are in business to make money for ME, but rather they are in business to make money for THEM, and taken precautions accordingly. I could rent my Air space this weekend for the entire summer as an apartment, but I prefer doing Air, not only because I make more in a 5 month season than I made as a long term rental, but because I really enjoy the great variety of guests — and if I have an occasional unlikeable guest, I’m not stuck with them until a year lease runs out, since I have a 7 day maximum stay.
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Someone posted recently about BDC policy, this is the latest from them. Sorry, can’t link to the page as it’s an internal partner page.
JF
To protect the health of our partners and guests in regard to Coronavirus, we have declared Force Majeure/Forced Circumstances.
At Booking.com, the safety of our partners and guests is of utmost importance. As a result of the official travel advice about the Coronavirus, guests are unable to travel to or stay at accommodations located in areas that are severely affected by the recent Coronavirus outbreak. Please note, travel throughout certain areas is heavily impacted or forbidden at this time.
In addition, a number of international travel restrictions is currently placed on travellers who have recently been in areas severely affected by the Coronavirus (in most cases, within the last 14 days). These restrictions, currently implemented in over 60 countries, can include bans on entry, mandatory quarantine on arrival, or the suspension of on-arrival visas.
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 .
The FC conditions apply to the following reservations
- All reservations made for properties in or by travellers from Mainland China with a check-in date on or before 31 March 2020 .
- All reservations made for properties in or by travellers from one of the following regions in Italy: Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Piemonte and Trentino Alto Adige, with a check-in date on or before 31 March 2020, all reservations made for properties in or by travellers from one of the following locations in South Korea: Daegu and Cheogndo County, with a check-in date on or before 31 March 2020 .
Reservations made by travellers who have been to an area affected by Coronavirus, and have subsequently been banned from entering the country they intended to travel to, are also subject to the FC policy. In addition to the above-mentioned areas, FC also covers individual cases wherein a traveller cannot reasonably be expected to travel/stay (e.g. an infection in a hotel outside FC regions mentioned in this communication).
We will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure the safety of all partners and guests and will update this communication regularly.
Due to the high volume of inquiries, customers might experience delays and try to reach out to your property directly for cancellations. Information on how to handle these reservations can be found here.
If you have any questions, you can reach us 24/7 via your extranet inbox.
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I think Airbnb’s announced policy on this is entirely ethical. As @KKC said once before, a bigger worry is not guests cancelling, it is guests coming who should stay home.
The decision we may face is whether or not we cancel guests booked in our Catskill Mountain Airbnb or stay in NYC as the virus spreads. If the infection rate picks up later in March or April (after hard freezes are over) we may be able to stay in our seasonal guest house and avoid cancelling guests.
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Hijack here. I’ve lost two demo jobs and one merchandising job so far in the last two days, most likely due to the Corona Virus. Kroger demos. Lowes merchandising. And I still don’t have a renter in my personal home. Now I’m waiting for the other shoe to fall on the home I manage, where the calendar is filling up nicely. So far…
Yes, time to find a way to augment my meager income another way.
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Door to door homemade disinfectant sales?
I jest. Best of luck during these trying times, y’all.
Dearest AirBB
Don’t you realize that the Hosts are the people that make your whole business possible? WTF
Good thing there are other alternatives
Signed
A fed up host
I wonder how they go about informing the guests about the policy? I’m not a host but what if they know about the policy and want to cancel for other reasons but see that they can use covid-19 as an excuse to get out of paying cancellation fees? That’s what I’d be worried about as a host.
People who aren’t naturally scammers aren’t going to start now, for the most part. I don’t depend on Airbnb income to live so easy for me to say but…now more than ever, if people don’t want or need to be here I don’t want them here.