This tweet is about Vacasa in Delaware. But it seems that round 2 of Covid is going to be just as disruptive as round 1.
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I guess she should have read the cancellation policy fine print and sprung for travel insurance. Honestly, I don’t understand people who book during a pandemic and then whine about losing their money if they opted not to buy insurance.
And if her husband wasn’t vaxed and didn’t take Covid precautions, then I really have no sympathy.
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That’s all I’d need to say.
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Well, if someone books something just to get away from their own four walls and can travel to their destination without coming in contact with others, and won’t be out and about in the community where they have booked (say a quiet country stay they could drive to in a couple hours, loaded up with all the food they would need) then I don’t see it as foolish or irresponsible. Those sorts of bookings have kept a lot of hosts above water.
I did travel to Canada in July, which involved 2 flights. But it also involved a 14 day quarantine on arrival and 3 PCR tests within 10 days, and masking required every step of the way. And I didn’t book anything except the quarantine hotel I had to stay at for the 3 days after arrival. Had my PCR test I had to get before leaving Mexico come back positive, my airline was offering free cancellations and rebookings, and the hotel was also allowing rebookings if made 24 hours before check-in.
Was my trip essential? One could debate that. I hadn’t been back to see my daughter in almost 2 years, she really needed me to look after the one and a half year-old so she could do her 2 week practicum to get her ECE licence, and I had quite a bit of Canadian banking, tax, and govt. business to take care of that I hadn’t been able to do online or by phone from Mexico.
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A lot of travel insurance doesn’t cover covid. Maybe it’s expensive and they rolled the dice.
I have three trips planned and didn’t buy insurance for any of them, per se. I did buy the ticket insurance on the two concerts that offered it. I did look for flexible cancel policies. My Nashville Airbnb is strict and I knew that when I booked. Life is full of risk and I did a risk reward calculation.
I haven’t investigated further on this particular tweeter. I don’t follow her, I just saw someone I follow comment on the tweet. But I would like to know what kinds of risks they were taking (like are they vaxxed) and expect someone else to save their asses. Same with all the folks who expect a hospital bed to be available for them regardless of their personal choices.
But mostly I’m interested in the public relations aspect of non refundable accommodations.
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I didn’t buy insurance for my trip to Canada either. But as I mentioned above, both the airline and the hotel I had to book for 3 nights were offering free rebookings. And if it had turned out I couldn’t go at all in the near future and lost money, that’s the risk I took, no whining allowed.
If someone opts not to get trip insurance (yeah, I think the ones that would cover everything are expensive) they have to accept the possibility of losing money.
Yeah, probably gonna be a lot more jumping up and down about Covid cancellations.
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I’ve got flexible cancellation so these considerations don’t affect my guests. But if they did, I would give a refund or a full credit for a future trip to anyone who had a breakthrough case and sent me a pic of their vax card or other documentation.
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I’m torn. I sucked up a lot the first round…gave refunds against my policy. But we all now know what’s going on and, I’m with @muddy - if you’re concerned get travel insurance (I hope it’s available). I suggest it on my listing. And, there was a tiny lull in booking activity and now it’s buzzing again. We are literally breaking records for hospitalizations, ventilated patients and not enough ICU beds where I’m at. People are just motoring along like same-old, same-old. So, in that case, what to do? I could warm to the break-through case ideology, maybe.
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dpfromva’s idea of asking for a vax card as a breakthough case seems like a good one to me. Like her though, I also have flexible and often get same day bookings so I wouldn’t apply it myself.
This round I’m not planning on closing. I feel pretty confident that I’m not going to get covid from Airbnb hosting. And people are going to travel and I don’t charge enough to decide if each guest is worthy according to my standards. I hope the pro-covid people won’t stay with me knowing I’ll just be giving some of their money to causes they don’t support.
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I had travel insurance in 2020 and quickly found out that neither policy would pay for Covid. One already had “pandemics” called out specifically as these are known risks in that industry. The second one had something vague like “not willing to travel due to a pandemic” and STILL denied coverage as I was already on my trip and had to book a $5K new flight home. So don’t bust people who don’t have insurance…those companies have already exempted themselves from any responsibility. House always wins.
The insurance for my concert tickets does cover if I become ill from covid or have a positive test. So if the spouse had a ticket to the event and tested positive, I think it would be covered. Also if the event is canceled due to covid I can get the insurance plan cost refunded. It’s very limited.
I find it interesting that so many in the “personal responsibility” camp think their accommodation host or booking agency should refund their money.
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I have a trip to NY planned for October and was extra careful to understand refund policies. All the $$$$ expensive shows we booked had great refund policies, so some have adapted to encourage people to not be afraid to book for fear of losing money. Interestingly enough, one theatre has already sent an email that proof of vaccination is required to get in and that masks must be worn. I’m still torn as to whether we go at all, and knew I would be, but without a solid refund policy, I would have never booked in the first place.
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I had a couple Airs booked for New England mid Sept, but decided to cancel, not because of Covid but figuring out to travel with/without cats, which friends can join me at which rental. Things just got too complicated. Fortunately with both of these rentals I was able to get a total refund.
Still hope to get up there, maybe later in October after all the leaf peepers have flown the coop.
Round 2? We’re at round 3 already….
We will have to accept that this virus is endemic, and adjust our business and lifestyle to it.
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If I was going to have a more flexible cancellation policy, I would risk not being able to rebook for cancellations and would adjust my pricing appropriately.
I’ve seen this on other travel booking sites- 2 prices for the same hotel room: one you can cancel up to a day or 2 before arrival and the other one non-refundable. If I was traveling I would absolutely pay more for refundable reservations or take the risk with a lower price and not complain about it later
I’m waiting for the cancellations to start, but keep getting bookings instead. We were open last fall and busy (no contact with guests, masks in the hall) when our state had the worst per capita numbers in the world. We still have the highest cases per capita of all time in the US.
Right now we have one of the highest vaccination rates but also quickly increasing cases, decreasing testing and increased hospitalizations. No mask mandates (except healthcare providers), everything open. I have even been getting international booking requests (no). Should be interesting.
To be fair, the tweet says “ex-husband” so they may share children so there’s forced exposure and I doubt she has any control over his covid vaccination or behaviour. She is being responsible by not traveling but I doubt most hosts are eager to start refunding again.
Has anyone else had a guest contact them for contact tracing yet? We had a woman let us know a few weeks ago that she tested positive about 5 days after checking out here. She was vaccinated but was having moderate symptoms, a late 20s athlete.
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That’s what I heard. In my counting Round 1 is all the people who had to cancel because of the sudden lockdowns, so last Apr-Jul. Round 2 are the people who thought, “okay now it’s safe to make plans” and now there is the delta surge.
I agree it’s endemic but I also think there will be surges, perhaps caused by variants, that require periodic pullbacks. People need to understand that when there are surges the medical system gets overwhelmed, innocent people get caught in the current so to speak. After all this time people still don’t understand exponential growth. So just as people drive in the rain and snow but learn not to drive when there is a chance of a flash flood, or aren’t surprised to see a mountain pass closed in a blizzard, so too will we have waves of covid causing closures.
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The US was a few months behind on Europe.
For me Round 1 was lockdown March-Mai 2020
We reopened mid June
Round 2 was lockdown September 2020 - Mai 2021
We reopened mid June
And now we are going toward round 3.
But I don’t think there will be a 3rd lockdown, it’s to expensive for the government.
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I don’t think there will be a 3rd one imposed by the govt (in the US, in other places like New Zealand, yes) but people will have to cancel their Airbnb reservations at a much higher rate than pre-pandemic rates.