AirBnB has announced that anyone who booked reservations on or before March 14 can cancel them with no charge or penalty. That’s great news for AirBnB guests and the right thing to do in the midst of the Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.
But it also means that hosts are losing thousands of dollars.
“In response to the extraordinary events and global disruption to travel caused by COVID-19, today we are announcing updated coverage under Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy,” the company said yesterday. “Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy allows hosts and guests to cancel eligible reservations with no charge or penalty.”
A vacation beach spot
Photo by Fallon Michael on Unsplash
That makes sense.
Air travel and borders are shutting down, meaning that guests may not even be able to make it to the cities and countries of their intended stays.
Just today, Germany announced that it was largely closing its borders. U.S. air travel between many countries, including European nations and China, is also mostly shut down. And multiple nations such as Canada and Israel are announcing mandatory quarantines for visitors or returning citizens, which of course will tend to discourage tourism.
But it is challenging for AirBnB hosts, who spoke on out Twitter.
They changed a policy for us without our permission. These were contracts with our guests. Airbnb had no right to change them. I’ve lost $4000 so far. We have bills to pay too! 100% of the cost shouldn’t be on the hosts!
Essentially, AirBnB is between a rock and a hard place, just like many other companies trying to navigate our current unprecedented global cancel culture. The challenge is real for hosts, like the one quoted above, who have invested their “life savings into renovations” in order to host guests, and now have lost out on expected revenue.
Some of those hosts have banded together to potentially initiate a class action lawsuit against the company. Their point — not without validity — is that they are bearing the brunt of the costs of the COVID-19 cancellations that AirBnB is enabling.
AirBnB is not unaware of the problems, and is promising some kind of action.
“We understand that this announcement will impact hosts around the world, many of whom depend on the economics they generate on Airbnb,” the company said. “We will be working in the days and weeks ahead to identify tools and initiatives to support our hosts during these very challenging times.”
While it’s a tough hit for hosts, who have plenty of company in travel, retail, service, and restaurant industries which have also been hit hard, AirBnB has to think long term.
“Thank you for doing the right thing,” Adam Glassman, an AirBnB guest, said on Twitter. “While this may hurt your revenue in the short-term, I — and millions of others like me — are now more inclined to continue using AirBNB for future trips.”
It’s worth noting, thought, that there can be a lack of equivalence in the pain of these cancellations.
For guests, it’s typically discretionary vacation funds that are being refunded. For many AirBnB hosts, it’s mortgage, rent, or food money, Kaitlyn Aliano-Weisberg said.
Like any business, treating the customer right is the best long-term option.
Now it’s in AirBnB’s court to also treat its partners right so that it has rooms available for short-term stays when everything eventually returns to some level of normalcy.
And, as some noted on Twitter, it’s time for others to make similar decisions.
“Your move, VRBO,” said Cam Jung.