Community Support Work During COVID-19
As our global community continues to face uncertainty about hosting and traveling because of COVID-19, our world-class Community Support team is working around the clock to provide assistance to our hosts and guests. The quickly escalating number of travel restrictions and disease control measures has led to an unprecedented increase in call and email volume – and we are working diligently to make sure our agents are receiving updated guidance, while also safeguarding their professional and personal wellbeing. It is our commitment to provide timely, accurate and proactive support in this challenging period.
Airbnb has listings in more than 220 countries and regions, across more than 100,000 cities. In order to address this situation effectively, our global Community Support team has over 9,000 professionals taking calls across 11 languages and all time-zones. Our support team is answering an average of 48,000 calls a day, with a peak of 55,000 calls last Thursday when new travel restrictions were announced.
We know how frustrating it can be to be put on hold. To address our community’s needs quickly, we’ve rolled out “self-solve” tools and the vast majority of cancellations under our extenuating circumstances policy have been resolved automatically, with full refunds for guests. We are doubling down on these efforts, as new restrictions come into place and conditions continue to evolve, so that more eligible guests can make cancellations or alterations without having to contact support.
To help our community get their questions answered faster, we are also regularly updating our Help Center with the latest information and guidance from the World Health Organization and governmental and health authorities – our main page for updates has already had millions of views. We’ve also introduced a banner on our home page to help guide our community towards the most up-to-date information available. Here are some important resources about how coronavirus may impact your travel:
- Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy
- More Flexible Reservations in Times of Uncertainty
- Coronavirus updates – Resource Center for Hosts
For those who may need to change their travel plans and are not eligible under our extenuating circumstances policy, we recommend checking out this information: How to alter a reservation and How to cancel a reservation. Please note that the amount of any refund will be determined by the host’s cancellation policy and will be displayed before the guest finalizes the cancellation confirmation. Currently more than 60 percent of active listings already offer “flexible” or “moderate” policies, which allow for free cancellations up to 14 days before check-in.
While it is clear that the Coronavirus is impacting the entire travel and tourism industry, we believe travel will recover. We are committed to doing everything we can to support our community in these difficult times, and we want to thank all of our hosts and guests for their understanding.