A Message From Our Founders - Airbnb

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
e-richard
Posts: 5008
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:33 am
Location: Algarve, Portugal
Contact:

A Message From Our Founders - Airbnb

Post by e-richard »

I'm sure many of you got this letter today form the 3 founders of Airbnb where they once again reiterated THEIR decision to enable free Cancellations outside of all previous or private cancellation policies.

What I particularly enjoyed was reading how "We are partners, and we will get through this together". The letter was addressed by name to individual hosts who bear the brunt of this decision and was signed personally by all 3 billionaire founders of Airbnb.
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
Sam V
Posts: 1707
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:45 pm
Location: Villa in Gale, Algarve, Portugal. At home in Fetcham, Surrey, UK
Contact:

Post by Sam V »

Nope, nothing to me yet.

Ive got two bookings totaling £+2.5k going poof then. So they're happy to see their hosts go poof too then. Hope this comes back to bite them permanently on the bum. How very c**ty of them.

:evil:
TA lurkers walk among us; the LMH Walking Dead

dont mess in the affairs of cats for they are subtle and will p on your computer.

www.algarvevillatrinity.co.uk
www.facebook.com/villatrinity
www.gardenerscottage.promotemyplace.com
Joanna
Posts: 1091
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:12 pm
Location: Chester, North West England & Sidmouth, East Devon
Contact:

Post by Joanna »

Yes saw that email and still fuming. If they cared about owners then how about a 50% refund so we share the cost?

Our ABB calendars are now completely blocked out and set to 'dates unavailable by default'.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
vtflats
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 6:29 pm
Location: Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
Contact:

Post by vtflats »

We have been severely affected by this as well and lost £1000s of GBP in cancelled Airbnb ABB bookings spring and summer 2020. This has affected mostly our London rentals but also our Bulgarian ones.

The guests all claimed "extenuating circumstances" to Airbnb to get a full refund.
Airbnb then sent us the following message:
"We are writing on behalf of your guest XYZ. XYZ was able to provide sufficient documentation of an extenuating circumstance, we have cleared your calendar for these dates, and refunded your guest in full. As such, we will not be able to provide you a payout for this reservation. In a situation like this, in order to cancel under the extenuating circumstance policy we would have to prove that it was valid, and we were able to do so. We received documentation from your guest that clearly stated they would not be able to travel. Therefore, in order to cancel we would not need a confirmation."

When we demanded that Airbnb provide us with proof and documentation of the guest´s extenuating circumstances, the answer from Airbnb support is:
"I am sorry due to this being personal information I will be unable to give this to you at this time. In order to ensure the safety of every user information reissuing the document is illegal and cannot be done."

We find this Airbnb practice completely unacceptable and it will continue to wreck havoc on host finances.
Many hosts globally have been stung by this and as long as Covid-19 will be around there will be no end to whimsical guest cancellations being fully refunded by Airbnb, they only need to claim Covid-19 to get a full refund.
We are looking into what can be done to legally stop Airbnb from acting like this. Of course we can unlist from their platform if we are not happy but we feel that our booking commissions over the years have made Airbnb the successful platform it is today and loyal hosts like us should not have to leave - Airbnb needs to start treating hosts fairly!

If you are interested in learning more, in the link below there are several YouTube videos explaining how Airbnb change and make up their ToC as they go at the expense of hosts.
These videos provide legal advice to Airbnb hosts.
(Please note that we vtflats are in no way affiliated with the legal firms but we want to spread the word to as many Airbnb hosts as possible so we all know what options we have to fight back.)

https://www.youtube.com/user/theinterne ... yer/videos
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Re: A Message From Our Founders - Airbnb

Post by AndrewH »

e-richard wrote:...What I particularly enjoyed was reading how "We are partners, and we will get through this together". The letter was addressed by name to individual hosts who bear the brunt of this decision and was signed personally by all 3 billionaire founders of Airbnb.
How about this: "We are bullies and we don't give a damn whether you get through this or not".
Post Reply