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My friends have Covid Airbnb won't allow us to change our reservation

5 points by justinzollars ↗ HN
My friends rented a large house to celebrate a birthday on Airbnb. 3 of my friends caught covid this week, and I don't feel like catching it so I reached out to airbnb for some help. I was shocked that after contacting airbnb, there is no recourse for us. They wouldn't allow us to cancel or even change our reservation. We reached out to the host and he didn't seem to care we had covid either. What's shocking about this is we would be potentially taking a disease into a home. I always associated the airbnb brand with trust and safety. I no longer feel this way after this experience.

7 comments

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giardini
Can you sublet the Airbnb lease to someone else? Or sell the lease to someone else and manage their party from home? Or might Airbnb let you buy out of the deal for some small penalty, allowing them to rent it to someone else? Airbnb should to be able to handle this situation profitably and may need some encouragement/pleading/begging.
Jugurtha
What do you mean by taking a disease into a home? Will the host sojourn with you?

Does the cancellation fall within cancellation conditions and deadlines?

>3 of my friends caught covid this week,

May they recover soon.

>and I don't feel like catching it so I reached out to airbnb

Don't go, then. What do they have to do to help you not catch it when you know beforehand your friends have it and it's not within the control of the host or the company.

>We reached out to the host and he didn't seem to care we had covid either.

Why would he ? Is he staying and celebrating with you ?

PoopScript
The fuck does this have to do with software?
uberman
Airbnb's extenuating covid circumstances says that guest with covid qualify for a credit/refund. How far in the future is your stay?
justinzollars
where does it say that?
uberman
Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences made after March 14, 2020 will not be covered under our extenuating circumstances policy, except where the guest or host is currently sick with COVID-19.

Per: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2701/extenuating-circums...

justinzollars
Thanks, but this should not give you confidence. If you read the subsequent line, this policy depends on the host refund policy:

> After the declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, the extenuating circumstances policy no longer applies because COVID-19 and its consequences are no longer unforeseen or unexpected. Please remember to carefully review the host's cancellation policy when booking and consider choosing an option that provides flexibility.