In this May 31, 2020 weekly update, Enrico Schaefer outlines a coordinated legal campaign to challenge Airbnb’s unilateral overrides of host cancellation policies during the COVID‑19 pandemic. He explains the mantra “collective action, individual arbitration,” arguing that while Airbnb forbids class actions, filing tens of thousands of individual arbitrations can impose massive arbitration fees that will force Airbnb to honor its own terms. Schaefer reports ongoing arbitrations involving tens of millions of dollars, notes that Airbnb’s legal defenses are inconsistent with its public statements, and expresses confidence that hosts have strong legal claims. He emphasizes the broader power imbalance: hosts collectively own the platform’s value, yet lack a seat at the table, and continued unilateral policy changes threaten their livelihoods. To scale the effort, Schaefer announces the launch of 10,000Hosts.com, a self‑help platform enabling hosts to file arbitrations for a modest fee, aiming to reach 10,000 filings. He urges hosts to maintain high service standards, keep strong guest ratings, and stay organized, framing this moment as a unique opportunity for hosts to hold Airbnb accountable and reshape the short‑term rental ecosystem.
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Today is May 31st. My name is Enrico Schaefer, and this is your weekly update. Today I want to run you through a few things, let you know what's going on, but really take some time to reinforce the message, the, the effort that underlies the effort. Why are we really doing this? What are we really after? Yes, getting compensation for improper COVID-19 refunds to guests is part of what's happening. We're filing arbitrations on those. But there's something so much bigger, so much more important at stake here. This is a moment in time for hosts that will never happen again. The fact that so many hosts, hundreds of thousands of hosts, were affected by the exact same issue— Airbnb overriding cancellation policy of hosts and forcing refunds or credits to travelers without host permission, against the terms of service, against the cancellation policy, without prior notice of a change in policy, etc., etc. If we let Airbnb continue to do what they do to hosts, which is essentially whatever Airbnb decides on a whim on any given day, if we allow Airbnb to continue to override the cancellation policies of hosts, then this will go on forever, and it doesn't need to go on forever. So let's jump in to today's update. So our mantra has been collective action, individual arbitration. And that is still our mantra. And what that means is this: under the terms of service, Airbnb says no class actions allowed, no collective arbitrations. Everything has to be individual arbitration. By getting 10,000 or 20,000 or 100,000 hosts to file arbitration, the transactional costs of that to Airbnb are potentially $100 million or $1 billion just in arbitration fees. We believe that that will get Airbnb's attention, that that will force Airbnb to account to hosts, to follow the terms, to change the terms in a way that's more meaningful and practical, accountable, transparent to hosts. So we've been busy. Every day we file more arbitrations. Right now, for the hosts and property managers that we're working with, there are tens of millions of dollars in refunds that we're arbitrating. We are also analyzing the defenses that Airbnb has lodged to some of the early arbitrations, and there's good news. There's no surprises in the defenses that are being lodged by the attorneys for Airbnb. In fact, the attorneys are actually trying to explain the refunds in a way that is completely different than what Airbnb has told you, has told guests, and has told the world. So classic lawyer behavior, right? Legalese, formalistic, taking a position that even Airbnb didn't take. So we're very confident that these hosts have really legitimate claims, that there is law that supports the arguments that are being made here, and that these arbitrations can be won. So collective action, individual arbitration— why is this important? And this is what I really wanted to talk to you about today because I think it gets getting lost in the, you know, let's file the arbitration, let's get the arbitrations in play, let's tell other hosts that they can win these arbitrations. Let's take a big step back for a minute. Why are we doing this? Why are hosts bringing these arbitrations? And this is what I believe. This is a moment of opportunity for Airbnb hosts and for guests and for Airbnb to change the game. For too long, Airbnb has simply done whatever it wants, empowered by the fact that any host filing a single arbitration has zero impact on Airbnb. Even the big property managers, even the big hosts get absolutely no traction with Airbnb management with their complaints. It's as though Airbnb treats hosts like they don't even exist, like you don't count. Like you don't matter. Airbnb is just a software platform. It's a bunch of lines of code. It's a booking platform. The sharing economy is you. It's hosts making their homes and properties available to guests, creating experiences for guests. Sharing rooms in their homes with guests, doing the cleaning and the property management and the improvement, taking on mortgages and debt and employing real people to be able to perform all the jobs that are actually required in order to share. Airbnb is just a platform. It's the hosts that make Airbnb possible. The hosts are the only ones in the ecosystem actually doing work, actually taking on debt, actually employing people to do the cleaning and the maintenance and the improvement. There's this conception that somehow Airbnb is so big, it's such a big company, how is any individual host going to take on Airbnb? And the answer is you can't. You can win every individual arbitration from here until the end of days and it will have zero impact on Airbnb. But 10,000 hosts acting collectively filing arbitrations on the same COVID-19 refund issue, that's a game changer. Here's the news. Here's what you need to know. Airbnb is not big. It's not a big company. You know what a big company is? You know what big is? It's all of the hosts put together. It's all of the people that those hosts employ in order to make it happen, in order to allow the sharing to occur within that sharing economy of homes. Hosts put together are so much bigger than Airbnb, and it's time to show the truth of that statement. It is time to show Airbnb that we are not in servitude to them. They can't interfere with our relationships with guests. They don't get to simply do whatever they want because they're a software platform. They don't get to take our money, which they're just holding in trust for us, and And do whatever they want with it. They don't get to interfere with our contracts between us and our guests that have already been agreed to and redo those contracts or throw those agreements out or change the terms. They're not even a party to that contract. That contract is between hosts and guests. It's time to remain— remind Airbnb that they are just a platform. The same thing they tell every municipality and every city that comes knocking. Mm-hmm. Hey, Airbnb says we're just a platform. We're not property managers. We're not hosts. We don't own property. We're not subject to zoning. That's interesting because when it's convenient for them to to say that to municipalities and to cities, they say it. But then on the other side, they're like, hey, we actually can control everything about what hosts do, the businesses that are built on the platform. We get to change the rules of the game at any time because we're the platform. They act as though they're the property manager. They act as though they're the host, and they are not. So we can improve the short-term rental and sharing economy for everyone if we stand up now, because this isn't unique to Airbnb. I mean, Facebook, Google have the last 3 to 5 years tried to be very responsive to their users. They've really Taking it up a notch and another notch and another notch to become more accountable and more transparent. But guess who hasn't? Airbnb hasn't. They did not get the memo that times are changed, that platforms can't simply do whatever they want with data, with your information, with your agreements. You are building businesses on the software platform. It's your business that counts. Airbnb is just a platform. Hosts provide the magic. Hosts make Airbnb possible. The interesting thing to me in talking to all of you is that hosts don't even have a seat at the table. And of course, I'm a host, but I've got one property. I've been using Airbnb for about 5 or 6 years. You know, they're very frustrating. There's no question about it because they do things they don't tell you why. There's no transparency. Transparency, there's no accountability. They seem to just simply do whatever they want, whenever they want, and say, nothing you can do about it, host. So how is it that we ended up doing all the work, taking all the risk, betting, betting our mortgages, our retirements, our kids' college educations, and the businesses that we're building on this platform How is it with all of that in play, we have no seat at the table? We have no say in the policies. We can't even force Airbnb to comply with their own policies. How is it that hosts who are so much bigger than Airbnb have gotten to this point in time where they have zero leverage, where they don't exist as far as Airbnb is concerned? So hosts have no visibility into why refunds are provided or what justification's being offered by guests. Hosts have no ability to get involved in the exchange of money that Airbnb is holding when they decide to reroute that money to someone else. Could you imagine a credit card company? You're running a business, you have a store, someone comes in, buys a good, pays for it with their credit card, leaves with the good, and the credit card company says, Yeah, but you're using our credit card. Sorry, we're gonna process this transaction backwards. We're gonna give the consumer back their money and let them keep the goods. That's best for us, the credit card company, so we're gonna do that. Or a bank saying, yeah, I know they wrote you that check for rent, but we've decided since you're using our checks that we're not gonna process that transaction. And yet that's exactly what Airbnb does day in and day out with these refunds. Individually, hosts are nothing. Collectively, hosts are everything. So collective action is important because, because your business success, because your mortgages, because your kids' college educations, because your retirement are all at risk if Airbnb is allowed to continue doing whatever it wants whenever it wants. With the money that belongs to hosts. That's what this is really about. Yes, we're gonna try and get you your, your COVID-19 refund money back, and yes, we feel very good about that. We would be doing it on a contingency fee basis where we don't get paid unless we collect, unless we didn't believe we can and will win these cases. But there's other things at issue here, bigger things at issue. This is a moment in time that will never occur again for hosts. If hosts do not If you do not get organized and start acting collectively, you will be at the mercy of Airbnb's whim for the remainder of days. All right, so let's see what happens next. In our world, we continue to file arbitrations for hosts like you every day. Hosts with bigger claims, we're taking those. Hosts with smaller claims, we've got some big news tomorrow, Monday, June 1st. May even be today, the day that this video issues. We are launching the 10,000Hosts.com platform Monday, June 1st, which will allow self-help for hosts with smaller claims. So you can pursue your own claims. A very small fee of $150 to use the platform, $200 filing fee under the terms of service to start your arbitration. And we're not only going to get you filed, but we're going to help you win. We won't be your attorneys, but we've got a self-help platform that we've developed in order to get to 10,000 host arbitrations. The other thing is that we just continue to talk to hosts every day. Hosts that, that like you who, who are in contact with us, and new hosts who are being referred by hosts like you to us because they also lost money on COVID-19 refund. So we continue to expand our Collective Host community as we continue to grow. We continue to get traction. We continue to proceed in arbitration. We continue to learn more about what Airbnb's attorneys are going to say to try and defend their actions. So here's what I need you to do. Continue to do the good work that you do for guests. Be the great host that you are. Work hard for those 5-star ratings. The 5-star ratings that you work hard for every day that drive your customer service. No one's rating Airbnb. No wonder their customer service is terrible. They shouldn't be doing customer service. Stay out of it. You're a platform. Someone needs to know how to use your software, get involved. Otherwise, you're not a property manager. You're not a host. Stay out of the relationship between hosts and guests. If a host ends up with a 3-star or 2-star rating, we know what happens to those hosts. They're out of the system. They're out of the algorithm. That's all that is required in order to make the ecosystem work. So stay tuned for the big news tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions. Keep sharing. We're in this for the long haul. We know this is a very important, very unique moment. moment in time created by COVID-19, and that hosts have an ability to stand up for the very first time and be accounted for by, by Airbnb, to get a seat at their own kitchen table. My name is Enrico Schaefer, and we'll see you next time.
