Airbnb Offer Worldwide Refunds Due To Corona Virus Outbreak

The Coronavirus continues to adversely affect both global health and finance, and companies in many different sectors have been adversely affected.

Airbnb being a startup that thrives on tourism is one of those companies you feel is missing out on significant revenues. Despite this, the company has shared a full refund policy for reservations made across the globe.

The policy will apply to all reservations made before or on the 14th of March with check-in dates of upto 14 April.

We don’t want guests to feel like they have to travel because they cannot get their money back.
Second, our hosts have acted like heroes during this time. The majority of hosts have chosen to give their guests a partial or full refund at their cost.
Brian Chesky – Airbnb CEO via Twitter

Lastly, the CEO also mentioned that they are working on figuring out how to support Airbnb hosts who depend on rentals they make from the platform;

Third, we know our hosts depend on money from Airbnb. 50% depend on it to pay their rent/mortgage. We are working on some bold ideas to support hosts, and we will have news very soon.
Brian Chesky – Airbnb CEO

The company statement issued out by Airbnb urges travellers to also be careful when using their platform and selecting cancellation policies;

While we greatly appreciate that millions of travelers are still booking trips on Airbnb for all types of local, short-term and longer-term stays, we strongly advise all travelers to carefully review and select cancellation policies that are right for them given the COVID-19 outlook.
Airbnb Company statement