In contrast, Airbnb is a website that lists short-term rentals and doesn’t own, manage, service, or control any of the rental properties listed on its website.

The company has standards, vetting, processes, and accountability for its drivers’ actions when servicing Uber’s customers. Kleenex® and Post-its® are products which are owned, standardized, produced, distributed, and quality controlled and, even though Uber contracts with drivers who own and service their vehicles, Uber Technologies ultimately controls and is responsible for its service. However, these comparisons are misleading to the public. As the vacation rental industry stood on the sidelines watching consumers label private-home rentals as “Airbnbs,” comparisons frequently were drawn to Kleenex®, Post-it®, and Uber to make sense of the phenomenon. It is fascinating when the general public makes an unconscious, collective decision to call a product or service by a brand name. There’s a lot to unpack with the policy change, but let’s take a critical moment to consider Airbnb’s brand through the eyes of the consumer. In addition to loosening language around what constitutes a Travel Issue, the new policy states: “Where Airbnb incurs costs in assisting a guest with finding or booking comparable or better accommodations, the Host will be responsible for, and Airbnb will have the right to require the Host to pay or otherwise reimburse, those costs in addition to the amount of any refund.”

Yesterday Airbnb announced a change to its refund policy that has the potential to be disruptive for professional vacation rental managers and homeowners, aka “hosts.” Airbnb’s new policy goes into effect for stays made on or after April 29, 2022, and defines “how we will assist with rebooking a reservation and how we handle refunds when a Host cancels a reservation or another Travel Issue disrupts a stay.”

Airbnb refund policy bad experience