Airbnb landlords suffering the pain of the Covid-19 impact
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Summer is canceled — at least for the thousands of Airbnb hosts who have seen their entire year’s income disappear due to the coronavirus crisis.
As people cancel their holiday plans in droves and demand refunds, hosts say the house-sharing platform has left them stranded, and responsible for covering cancellation costs.
POLITICO reports that at the moment, Airbnb has put all the pressure on the host.
Airbnb, which Europe’s top court has defined as an internet service company, offers limited help for cancellations and has reserved extra aid to its top-rated hosts who rent out their primary or secondary residences. When the coronavirus crisis hit, Airbnb said that guests would be able to receive full refunds for trips between March 14 and April 14.
The policy overrode any cancellation policies hosts may have had, which Andersson said prompted a flood of messages from people wanting to cancel and asking for their money back for dates outside the window Airbnb has provided — which has now been extended to May.
“Airbnb could have been more prepared without putting hosts into such a position. Without hosts, Airbnb will not survive,” said a person who has two central London apartments listed on the site.
Some hosts say that Airbnb’s decision to impose such a policy without discussing with them first shows so much disregard to hosts, they are threatening to leave the platform entirely.
At the end of March, Airbnb announced it would reserve $250 million to help hosts cover cancellation fees by paying a quarter of what they would have received normally through their cancellation policies.
In a letter to hosts, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky apologised for the way the company had first announced their cancellation policy, saying the approach was chosen for health and safety reasons. Airbnb also promised $10 million extra funding for its “superhosts,” or people with higher-than average ratings and a one-percent cancellation rate.
The platform’s status as an “information society service” allows Airbnb to operate with more regulatory freedom across the European single market. As an online platform, Airbnb’s role is to work as an intermediary between hosts and guests.
These types of scheme are becoming increasingly popular in the sharing economy. Uber drivers are another example, often leasing out fancier cars in order to meet the platform’s entry standards.
Hosts are calling for better insurance, or at least a better opportunity to negotiate with guests about postponing travel dates and sharing the cost of cancellations.
Airbnb has promised trip insurance for hosts and guests, “programs to deliver demand to help rebuild your business,” and is setting up a fund that allows former guests to send donations to hosts.
But such measures may not be enough to ensure the loyalty of professional hosts, who are facing serious financial pain, with mortgage and rent payments often conditioned on bookings that have now disappeared.
