5 ms·

"Airbnb Will Give $250 Million to Hosts Who Lost Income to Virus" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/airbnb-will-give-250-million-to-hosts-who-

"Airbnb Will Give $250 Million to Hosts Who Lost Income to Virus" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/airbnb-will-give-250-million-to-hosts-who-lost-income-to-virus https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-30/airbnb-wi...

DevKoala 7y ago
When you write it like that, they sound generous. In reality, they tried to pass the hit for Coronavirus related cancellations to the hosts and then realized they were in for legal trouble if they followed through.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- hkmurakami 7y ago
  Iirc they passed the costs from the end user to the hosts by enforcing a much more lenient refund policy than what many hosts had put on their listings?
  - DevKoala 7y ago
    https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/43/what-happens-if-my-guest-cancels https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/43/what-happens-if-my-gu... > Guests who cancel are automatically refunded according to YOUR cancellation policy—unless the cancellation qualifies as an extenuating circumstance or falls under our Guest Refund Policy. Exactly. And they were not legally allowed to do that. Which is why they are reimbursing hosts. They were flooded with cancellations and did right by the renter, but wanted the host to take the hit, when in reality the broker (AirBnb) is liable.
    - slenk 7y ago
      Still screwing people though. We had reservations that fell outside of their "coronavirus window" (the 24th) so they wouldn't give us a refund. When Trump extended his guideline, they only offered half the cash back or all of it in credit. That doesn't even feel legal to me.
  - foobar1962 7y ago
    Yes, particularly those with "strict" policy which was originally no refund, then Airbnb degraded it to 50% refund if cancelled before 14 days, then degraded to 100% refund if the guest had an "extenuating circumstance", then a full refund when virus-related things were added to the ECs.
    - thelittleone 7y ago
      Amazing. What worth does a policy have if it can be changed at will?
- bogomipz 7y ago
  Might you or someone else be able to elaborate? Did they simply tell hosts that they were responsible for refunding the money or was it that hosts were on the hook for AirBnBs percentage of the bookings?
- eisa01 7y ago
  Why would they do this? I thought this is what travel insurance is for, at least in Norway I think they are liable for the bill when the government deems an area unsafe to visit
  - gnopgnip 7y ago
    This certainly varies by country. In the US and many other countries travel insurance typically excludes pandemics.
  - xchaotic 7y ago
    PR and they thought they could get away with hosts shouldering the costs

DevKoala 7y ago

When you write it like that, they sound generous. In reality, they tried to pass the hit for Coronavirus related cancellations to the hosts and then realized they were in for legal trouble if they followed through.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
hkmurakami 7y ago
Iirc they passed the costs from the end user to the hosts by enforcing a much more lenient refund policy than what many hosts had put on their listings?
- DevKoala 7y ago
  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/43/what-happens-if-my-guest-cancels https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/43/what-happens-if-my-gu... > Guests who cancel are automatically refunded according to YOUR cancellation policy—unless the cancellation qualifies as an extenuating circumstance or falls under our Guest Refund Policy. Exactly. And they were not legally allowed to do that. Which is why they are reimbursing hosts. They were flooded with cancellations and did right by the renter, but wanted the host to take the hit, when in reality the broker (AirBnb) is liable.
  - slenk 7y ago
    Still screwing people though. We had reservations that fell outside of their "coronavirus window" (the 24th) so they wouldn't give us a refund. When Trump extended his guideline, they only offered half the cash back or all of it in credit. That doesn't even feel legal to me.
- foobar1962 7y ago
  Yes, particularly those with "strict" policy which was originally no refund, then Airbnb degraded it to 50% refund if cancelled before 14 days, then degraded to 100% refund if the guest had an "extenuating circumstance", then a full refund when virus-related things were added to the ECs.
  - thelittleone 7y ago
    Amazing. What worth does a policy have if it can be changed at will?
bogomipz 7y ago
Might you or someone else be able to elaborate? Did they simply tell hosts that they were responsible for refunding the money or was it that hosts were on the hook for AirBnBs percentage of the bookings?
eisa01 7y ago
Why would they do this? I thought this is what travel insurance is for, at least in Norway I think they are liable for the bill when the government deems an area unsafe to visit
- gnopgnip 7y ago
  This certainly varies by country. In the US and many other countries travel insurance typically excludes pandemics.
- xchaotic 7y ago
  PR and they thought they could get away with hosts shouldering the costs