Laurie Baratti | (TNS) TravelPulse
The vacation rental company Airbnb is updating its Extenuating Circumstances Policy, now called the Major Disruptive Events Policy, to give travelers more flexibility in canceling reservations due to unexpected events like natural disasters and government travel restrictions.
Under the updated policy, guests can cancel reservations and get refunds for foreseeable weather events that lead to other covered events, such as large-scale utility outages. The policy also applies to unexpected major events like public health emergencies, with the exception of COVID-19, and it overrides individual hosts’ cancellation policies. The new policy goes into effect on June 6.
The updated policy also covers mid-trip cancellations, allowing travelers to receive refunds for the unused portion of their stays in covered cancellation situations.
However, it’s important to note that the policy does not cover all unexpected incidents like injuries, illnesses, or government-imposed requirements such as jury duty or court appearances.
Juniper Downs, Airbnb’s Head of Community Policy, says the changes were made to provide clarity and meet the diverse needs of the global community. The aim was to clearly explain when the policy applies and to ensure fair and consistent outcomes. The updates also bring the policy in line with industry standards.
The new policy is part of Airbnb’s recent efforts to increase travelers’ confidence in booking home-share stays. For instance, the company has banned indoor security cameras in rental homes worldwide due to privacy concerns, and it has permanently banned parties since 2022. These efforts were initially temporary due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Last year, the company introduced a “verified” status and badge for its rentals to combat fraudulent listings and reassure customers about the property’s existence and the host’s reliability.
In 2022, Airbnb updated its policies and platform to provide more transparent pricing, displaying total costs in user searches and ranking listings with the best total prices higher in the results. The company also provided guidance to hosts, encouraging reasonable checkout requests and requiring them to be displayed in the listing.
The company also stated that guests should not be asked to do unreasonable checkout tasks such as stripping beds and doing laundry, but it is reasonable to ask them to turn off lights, throw away food, and lock doors when leaving the rental.
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