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I would love to hear how the fires are affecting any of you who care to chime in. Even if not in the direct fire zones it has to be emotionally devastating and having a financial impact as well.
My thoughts are with all of you. I feel that your continent is the canary in the coal mine for our planet and the lack of attention and action reminds me of how bleak I think our future will be.
The current fires are about 600 kms from where I am on the mid north coast of NSW. A few weeks ago we did have massive fires inland from where I am, the closest being about 30 kms away which could have impacted our small country twn but so far have not. They are still burning. Tomorrow looks like being another horrific day for the fires down south. We have an incompetent government who doesn’t believe in climate change but is a happy clapper who believes in god. It is only the start of the fire season as well which is pretty crazy.
I am about an hour and a half from Shanghai. We had serious issues until Xmas day when we had a reasonable amount of blessed rain. Watching the situation down south is heart breaking.
One amusing post on Facebook was a host wanting to know if they could claim EC so they could still get paid…
Our closest Airbnb call centre is Indonesian and it would seem they are not handling the cancellations very well .
As far as bookings… very, very quiet.
I am on the west coast of NZ, thinking of our neighbours in Australia with heartfelt compassion. Even though we are over 2000km away, there is a haze in the air here caused by the smoke blowing across the Tasman Sea. It is more visible in the evenings when the sunsets are intense red. It is incredible that not enough was been done in advance to prevent these fires getting so out of control. Stay safe people, we are thinking of you.
Usual thing - guests cancelling because of the fires / smoke and not getting full refunds, hosts cancelling and being penalised and the call centres having no real understanding of the fires, where they are, the one road in and out situation and just being the usual untrained fools.
Thank you for thoughtful post KKC. We are located in the tropical north east of Australia and our distance from the fires in Victoria is the same as Key West to New York. Our weather issues are usually cyclones.
We’ve had quite a few Canaries in the Coal Mine fall off their perches over past few years in Australia. In our region the bleaching of corals on the Great Barrier Reef is the best publicised evidence of a changing climate. I think it will take Eagles in the Economies before there is any meaningful international response to climate change.
In our own backyard we have noticed a steep decline in insect life and the species that depend on them such as frogs and birds. We see very few of the beautiful Rainbow Bee Eaters these days for example although this Great Green Tree Frog in our garden still finds enough to eat. This photo was taken just now.
Given how long Air has been in business you would think that by now they would have emergency response support strategies in place for guests and hosts when weather, wars and whatever interrupt business as usual.
Our thoughts go out to our hosting colleagues in the bush fire zones.
Beautiful picture. I’m happy to hear that there seems to be no effect on your Airbnb business so far. Although I was aware of the great distance having flown from Melbourne to Cairns in 2003, I didn’t know if fires would be impacting tourism all over or not.
When I was there, the GBR was suffering from a Crown of Thorns starfish outbreak.
In the Australian Tropics it is not so much canaries in the coal mine, but frogs in the rain forest. We have lost so many populations of frogs in various areas.
I actually leave my porch light on for my frogs and a dish of water… we have a door frog.
Yes there always seems to be something. A poem that we all had to learn at school included this verse:
“I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!”
We have had a few canceodue to people not being able to get here because of the fires where they live. I have happ,in refunded and most nights have been rebooked. We planned to go to Japan when the tsunami and nuclear meltdown happened. All accomodation was refunded plus fares covered by travel insurance so we are just giving back now.
It’s incredible how bad it has got own there:( Mass evacuations and people sitting on beaches and their boats overcrowded watching the homes burning. Wild animals fleeing before the towering flames. Eucalyptus trees are so innately flammable!!
We live in a seasonally very fire prone area with many days of no humidity and winds above 50mph. We enjoy the protection of the bravest professional firefighters, we are so thankful for and indebted to them. I hope these great teams are going over there to help in Australia! Everybody there take care and evacuate early!! 30 km not far enough when it’s windy!!! Note the dirt all around the house which is behind me. We are mandated to brush clear 150ft.
Airbnb and the cancellation process has actually made our financial papers today.
They are looking at each cancellation individually … as a 100 thousand people have to evacuate
