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.
So what brings you to the host forum then ? 
She cleans an Airbnb. See her post here
As a host and a traveler I can understand both sides. I want the bookings and the income. I need it. I also want to be able to travel with peace of mind. I care about my guests. Their health, their families’ health, and I care about being fair. It is completely cruel to keep large sums of money in a situation like this. I have written to all of my guests informing them that I care. It’s the right thing to do.
“Dear XXXXX, We wanted to reach out to you and let you know that we are aware of the stress many people are feeling with the spread of the Coronavirus. I am also aware of and had some events I planned to attend cancelled due to the virus. I would like you to know that I care about you and your family and if you need to cancel I will refund any funds I would have received. “
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Airbnb is playing insurance company with our money. I’m a pm and have to pay owners upfront so right now I didn’t just loose on bookings decrease, my commission I’ve also lost owners money. Guests cancelled few days before arrival and all money was refunded by airbnb. I have a super strict 60 especially cause I can only work like this.
I really hope more hosts complain and they find a middle way. I agree to loose my commission and can take that but loosing my owner money will just burry me and I’m seriously considering cancelling my self all airbnb bookings even if they’ll disable my account.
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I’ve been lucky enough not to get any objectionable guests, and I have also enjoyed meeting almost all of them- there have been some really amazing people among them. I figured 2 weeks was as long as I could handle having a stranger in my home-share, and it’s been fine so far. But if the STR business was no longer viable, my guest room would just go back to being empty most of the time- I started doing STR because there is no way I want a full-time roommate.
but airbnb allows hosts to cancel their reservations base on coronavirus and without penalty as well. when your place has better arrangement , just cancel it! no need to be stubborn about their policies. At this Moment, Airbnb booking is the last choice
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I agree with you! I think the re-imbursement should be split 50/50 (50% to the host and 50% to the guest), or perhaps 40/60, but to give nothing at all to the host is completely unfair. I recently lost $4,300 because of the coronavirus cancellations. On top of that I took a trip (thinking I had the $4,300 to allow me to travel), so am currently stuck abroad, un-employed and paying rent on a NYC apartment with no one in it. Airbnb refused to refund one penny of it, even though there is a video of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky saying that he wil refund 25% to hosts. Does anyone know if this is true? Because Airbnb Support are offering me nothing. Please help!
The criteria is strict.
Are you a super host?’
Is your listing your place of residence?
Did you have a strict cancellation policy?
Were your bookings canceled due to the virus?
If you meet all of the above you will be invited to apply
And it is 12.5 % of the total booking
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Thank you very much Deb. I do meet all of the above. Hopefully I will be invited to apply. I appreciate your help!