When did Airbnb send a mass-message allowing guests to cancel free of charge?

Mark SimpsonHelping short-term rental hosts get the tools, tactics and training to grow direct bookings with confidence

The Risk and Reward of Building Your Income on OTAs

30 Sept 2023 · 1 min

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Mark Simpson (speaker) warns that relying heavily on online travel agencies (OTAs) for bookings is double-edged: easy bookings are a blessing but leave hosts vulnerable to platform decisions or external events that can suddenly remove large portions of income. He cites examples including a platform-driven mass cancellation policy in March 2020 (Airbnb sending a group message allowing guests to cancel free of charge) and anecdotal reports of hosts losing tens of thousands of dollars. He uses a vivid metaphor (Thanos) and mentions bad reviews or global events as triggers.

Questions this video answers

March 2020

Chapters

It is so easy to get bookings that you become over reliant, you know, and it's a blessing on that extent, but it's also a curse because then you are literally building your house on someone else's land. You are playing by their rules and at any point in time they can just click their fingers like Thanos and they could just evaporate 50% of your of your income, which we've all seen the stories, we've all seen the post, we've all seen the forums talking about it. And it can be anything. It could be a bad review from a guest about a guest experience, or it could be the global pandemic, which we all know in March 2020, Airbnb, without telling any host, just sent out a group message to every book in every reservation, every guest saying, doesn't matter what the policy is at the property, you can cancel your stay right now free of charge. And I know so many people who didn't make it out the other end of that because they just lost tens of thousands in revenue because there was no warning, no prior warning.