My listing is still up, but every guest is cancelling. We rent out a cottage separate from our own house across the courtyard from us. I’m going to wait and see what happens. If I do get any new bookings, I’ll probably block out 1 or 2 days in between for cleaning.
No.
Guest House on property. Los Angeles.
I changed from a 6 month booking window down to 3 months. Yes many cancels, and I expect more as cancel policy window likely moves. Lowering prices doesn’t seem to help, but I do see downward pressure. Currently have reservation at end of July, so will possibly keeps dates blocked after that to convert to a long term tenant… but I really don’t want a long term tenant. I like STR guests! But yes I have expenses. But Los Angeles won’t let you terminate a rental now, even for non-payment of rent, if person claims it is COVID related. Now that is scary.
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So far no reported infections in our town. We rent 2 rooms in our own home.
Once current guests leave this weekend we have no bookings after that for the next month. We are staying open even though it is highly unlikely that we will get any bookings.
We are staying open just in case it affects Airbnb SEO down the track.
Airbnb revenue is VERY important to us.
Go over to the Airbnb CC. Plenty of hosts jumping up and down yelling about organizing, class action suits, and how unfair it all is.
Really? This is a business and Airbnb is just an advertising site!
Everybody is affected, not just tourism/ accommodation and if you are that dependent on one source of income then I feel for you, but there should be always a disaster plan in your business operations.
I have few forward bookings and only 1 direct booking for next week and my team are managing the turnover side.
If I was travelling, I would not want to pay for something I could not use. I am currently waiting on a refund / credit from flights and accommodation booked for next weekend for my sister in laws 60th birthday. This has been planned for months, but we are in self isolation after returning from Japan last week. The restaurant we were booked at has closed as well.
We have not closed. We have a separate guest house on our property and are very remote in a canyon where people come to hike and bird watch. This is our busiest time of year because of the birding. People are not congregating as they come as a couple or alone as being in a national forest on a trail is probably one of the safest places to be. We’ve had a couple of cancellations so far and I’m reaching out to other upcoming guests to see if they still plan on traveling, but I have blocked off all days in between current bookings to give more time to clean and “air” the cabin.
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I am still open for business.
I have two three bedroom apartments in the same house.
They could be rented as single rooms with shared kitchen, bathroom, and lounge. They could also be rented out as an entire private apartment each.
I have had nearly everyone cancel after the first week of March when Airbnb offered 100% refunds to everyone.
Then the cancellations slowed when they stopped doing that and my Strict cancellation policy held up. Only those who came from Italy, China, and S. Korea were allowed a full refund. They now that plus the US and everyone else has cancelled up to and around the April 14th date they set. I have paid the rent for March and will need to pay it again on April 1. So I chose to stay open as a person here and there has needed lodging. I am in New Haven, CT. So, we have folks passing through on their way north or south, picking up their kids at Yale etc. Like someone else here said, we have days in between guests when we don’t need to be at the house to clean. So I do that. If I need to go I wear gloves, handle used linens carefully and bag them up, spray everything with Lysol and disinfect all hard surfaces. I have taken out all nonessential decorative items like pillows, throw blankets, books, etc. These are uncharted waters. So, we need to be smart and take precautions. I also need to still make a living.
When will Airbnb make some adjustments for hosts who are losing money? This way we don’t have to host if we don’t have sufficient space that is separate from others etc? They have added a way for guests and hosts to cancel without penalty and guests get their money back in full. Why not a button for hosts to chose to give almost a full refund or vice versa? Guests could chose to pay a portion to their host for the work they did up to this point. A host’s job does not begin when a guest enters the code into the door keypad lock. It starts way before… The listings don’t just magically appear ready to go for free.
For anyone that hasn’t stopped accepting guests: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/16/coronavirus-social-distancing-why-people-wont-avoid-each-other/5065228002/
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I am seriously thinking of closing my listing for good…I spoke to Customer service about the ramifications of this when I had to speak to them on an unrelated matter. Based on what I was told, I guess it means once I leave it would be difficult to return. There are a bunch of penalties, heafty fees, loss of superhost status, and all sorts of black marks on my listing, having my listing demoted. Blah blah Sigh!
I’ve hosted for many years… I think about 8 years. I would FAR FAR rather host than do anything else.
But I rely on the income and can’t have a zero income.
The Customer Service officer begged me to stay listed. To give it another few weeks.
I really hope things turn around … not so much f or me but for the whole world. But personally, there is only so long I can hang on financially.
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I can understand your position. I’m sorry to hear you’re suffering financially from this. 
You don’t have to remove your listing completely, you can simply block out the days for now (that’s what we did). I have serious concerns about the future of Airbnb as well in this. They’re taking giant financial hits, extra staffing costs, overtime, you name it. Any hope of an IPO is pretty well in the crapper for a long while.
I’m not suggesting they’re suffering more, the hosts who use them to pay their bills, like yourself, deserve all the help you can get. I just don’t know if Airbnb will still be floating when this is all said and done.
ear perk
Hmmmm. Verrrrry eeeenteresting.
Perhaps disgruntled hosts have more leverage than pre-plague.
Edit: I would love to get my eyes on stats re: OP’s question.
Edit 2: I wish the Insider Knowledge Fairy would come back to us. @TheInsider
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I am convinced that the majority of ‘entire place’ listings will soon vanish off the site as they most likely have associated mortgages that the hosts cannot meet. Obviously this is out of AirBnB’s control but I don’t see how people will be able to list them empty for 2+ months. It would definitely be in AirBnB’s best interest to retain as many of these listings as possible.
We can, but we didn’t buy our place to make a business out of it. We bought the house we are going to retire to 9 years sooner than needed, 3 years ago. Doing VR with it was an afterthought.
The money we make renting it out to weekenders offsets the cost of maintaining it, and I am able to use the tax advantages of operating at a loss.
And I could rent it out long term, and in my case I would make more money than with STRs. Regardless, I never will, not so long as the tax code allows me to operate a business at a loss… For a variety of non-“stupid” reasons.
No, we aren’t going to close. If anyone still wants to stay there, we are happy to have them. I wish I could go there full time like yesterday. This CoronaCrisis only underscores everything I hate about urban life.
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That’s a great situation to be in. And like you said earlier, it would be very interesting to see the stats, as I believe the majority of people operating an AirBnB are in it to make money.
Not shut down, but no listings. Our last couple guests opted out, but April is when High Season here fades away anyway. This year a bit more because the baseball Spring Training and season have been cancelled/delayed. March and April we normally get guests that come for the baseball not just the sun and beaches.
LOL…
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Throughout our STR stint, we continued to advertise for LTR (direct). We finally got two great offers for a March 1 lease. It was an easy decision. A high percentage of STR revenue, without the cleaning, laundry, & other “host stuff”). Lucky timing, for sure.
In the meantime, we will finish building out a new guest suite downstairs. This has been our plan for some time, and it is well-suited for STR.
We hope that the C-19 situation resolves asap, for everyone.
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I live in El Paso TX and have wanted to go to the Chiricahua mountain area of AZ for awhile but am always too busy. I know that area is famous for bird watching. Any chance you are near there?
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Thank you. It IS unfair. It’s called exploitation and it saddens me that people can’t see it. They have plenty of money that they made off of us. Now is the time to help US, not try to slink away leaving hosts to suffer alone.
Yeah thanks for the condescension but no. This is a serious issue. I know they’re a “partner” essentially but they have made boatloads off of us. That needs to come with some assurance that they respect our lives including those of us who don’t have “teams” and even those of us who do. This isn’t about me, but if you need an example of how this affects people, I am a single woman working three jobs. I don’t live off my AirBnb but without it I can’t afford key things like, oh, paying rent. Thanks for your lack of support.