Air B&B has been making changes that are unfriendly to hosts for a several years now. They're also changing the cancellation policies and removing one of the policies that best protected hosts. They only answer to their shareholders and their support is non-existent. Seems like they want to now control how and IF hosts get paid.
Any legal challenges to these changes in the works? This sounds like a case of "let's see how far we can push before we get pushed back." I'm no legal expert, but I can't imagine that no one is challenging this in court and that all of this will stand.
I couldn't agree with you more!!! There has to be a way for hosts to band together and fight back. Because I can't think of anything more screwed up. Hosts have ZERO interaction with the credit card transaction. We don't know what method of payment guests use, let alone the credit card issuer. If there was a chargeback, hosts wouldn't even be able to contact the credit card company to present their case with proof so they can fight back and rightfully be paid. Would the credit card company even talk with us?? Because the transaction never occurred with us, the transaction was made directly with Airbnb and we're some third party sitting in the background. We would be left holding the entire bag of crap, while Airbnb sits on their high horse with THEIR fee intact.
The bigger question then comes...what happens to the guest?!?! What, if any, recourse falls on the person who stayed at someone's place then tries to declare it fraud in the future?? Will they be flagged by Airbnb??? Will they be able to continue booking other stays with other hosts??? Will hosts even know the guest's financial history of chargebacks?? Will hosts be given the option to filter out guests who have had a chargeback in the past?? And even more importantly, will hosts be given the opportunity to publicly update their guest review about the chargeback so other hosts are warned ahead of time?? Hosts are already limited in the reasons why they can cancel a reservation (and for good reason, because we all know discrimination does exist), but will hosts have the opportunity to turn away potential guests who have a history of chargebacks? I know it's not the same thing, but at least as a landlord you can check someone's credit history and learn for yourself if the person has an eviction on their record. There's no such thing for short-term rental hosts.
According to the stats I found online, as many as 58% of hosts on Airbnb have only one property listed. And only 17% have multiple properties. We are truly moms-and-pops, so we could be devastated by shouldering the financial burden of credit card chargebacks. I'm sure I'm not the only host out there who is just trying to make enough money to pay the bills. How do we collectively fight back against Goliath???
Airbnb guests are awful...always complaining and trying to pull some fast one on hosts. Some are vultures who come up with a problem, then try to scam for a stay credit or free somethingorother.
This is shocking and yet I’m not really surprised. A couple of years ago I had an Airbnb guest overstay. She refused to leave and then after leaving she refused to pay. Airbnb was zero help and I was left with not getting paid. This is when I stopped renting my condo which is in a beach town and I live out of state. I now lease it and make overall more money with zero hassle. I’ll never Airbnb again unless it would be on my own property where I have influence over what’s going on. But then again maybe renting through other platforms makes more sense for me.
This move by AirBnB reminds me of Ebay. I’ve been an eBay seller since 2000 back when eBay felt like a real community of buyers and sellers. Now it’s a corporate mess that is buyer-heavy friendly where they punish sellers with stacked fees, take a cut of shipping, throw in arbitrary flat charges, and bury our listings under promoted content and algorithmic garbage.
AirBnB is becoming Ebay with this move, holding hosts responsible for the sins of renters when they can charge back for a visit weeks or months later. What to do? Rent only to seasoned renters with a good track record? Invest in proper insurance? In other words, spend more money and reduce your customer base...just like Ebay.
Perhaps it's time for Investor Action. Let's flood their inboxes with feedback on how this is NOT OK. They would not have Guest Bookings without our Listings. They need us for their business. It's no different than Zillow trying to take full control of the MLS system. These Behemoth Cabal Run Entities need to have a strong wake-up. How do we peacefully make this happen? I'm not a technical lady, but we need a group of Investors to create a new equitable Platform, that can create the shift, sooner than later. I do have 2 Luxury Listings with Airbnb and one week, in high season is nearly $17,000.00. Having that magically disappear from the LLC bank account, at a later date, could be devastating. I'm disgusted with all these changes. Thankfully VRBO is where most of my Guests book, but I still feel like all us hosts need to start REALLY pushing back on AIRBNB. And, what's to say that VRBO won't turn around and do the same thing? https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback . Let's have them hear us now, so we have that documentation, because I see this tyranny potentially leading to a class-action suit against them and in discovery, having this documented, is crucial.
Very well put...whenever small business owners rely on a platform, eventually the platform moves to squeeze the people earning money on their backs to the point where they just make more money and the individual is sweating. Build a platform of your own to ensure your margins, and ride AirBNB for as long as it lasts. Ask anyone who has operated an Amazon business in the last 10-15 years how they feel about Amazon.
For years, I have maintained that Airbnb couldn't care less about the hosts- and it's the main reason I have for the most part reduced much of the business I do with them as a host.
This just drives the point home even further. It's horrible.
Thank you for this excellent summary! I am having difficulty finding the new chargeback provision in the Terms. Can you point me in the right direction?
It is my suggestion that as hosts, everyone should ban together. As hosts, we continue to get the short end of the stick from Airbnb and their policies. We already have guests frequently trying to create scenarios to get free rent or deep concessions "Because something wasn't "as advertised" in the listing". Hosts cannot operate a business with these new policies and be successful. It is my recommendation that there is strength in numbers. Airbnb would have to take notice and start creating more policies that favor the hosts, if their guests didn't have anything to book. I would suggest that every host collectively come together and block their calendars going forward starting on Sept 8, 2025. If there is no availability for guests to book, Airbnb will have to change these policies to support the host in a more favorable manner. In the meantime, while calendars are blocked, there are other platforms for the hosts to use such as VRBO, Bookings.com, etc.
I had a similar experience with Paypal. A client of mine received our services according to our contract, then declined payment through his credit card co. I told Paypal I had all receipts, contract, etc., they said we'll contact you if we need that information. They never did and I ate a $3,500 bill. This element of Airbnb taking money, and holding it has been a sore spot for me for years - they used to pay hosts when the guest paid - up front. Then they changed to a couple days after check-in. Hopefully our cancellation policy still holds as how guests can - or not, be reimbursed should they cancel. We'll see.
I’ve been thinking more about direct bookings, but this finally pushed me over the edge to make it happen. Higher end properties cannot afford this risk.
Etsy does the same thing to its sellers. If there is a new store and there is a spike in sales, it will hold part of the earnings for a period of time. My question is why in the world would they punish a seller for getting a spike in sales like it's a bad thing??? This is soooo ridiculous!!!
This sounds like Etsy, when they can hold your funds partially because of a spike in sales. Why would they do this? It should be a good thing to get a spike in sales. Sounds like they want the host to bring them the properties, but stell there money. I don't like this at ALL!!!!!!