Update: Don’t miss our latest analysis on how the coronavirus pandemic is expected to affect your bookings and how to better prepare for the negative effects.

Unless you live under a rock, you’re fully aware there is a global epidemic causing havoc around the world in all industries and walks of life. Its name is SARS-CoV-2 (the disease it causes is named Covid-19) and it is a novel strain of Coronavirus – a pathogen that attacks the respiratory system that looks like a crown under a microscope – hence the name “Coronavirus”.

If you’re an Airbnb host, which you probably are if you’re reading these lines, you might be affected in multiple ways – you’re expecting visitors from a severely impacted country and you’re scared, you just had a cancellation from a country that’s not affected because your country is, and all the combinations in between.

Depending on the cancellation policy you have selected for your property, you might be keeping some of the value of canceled bookings or nothing. Let’s have a quick reminder of available cancellation policy options in Airbnb:

• Flexible (Free cancellation until 14 days before check-in, full refund minus service fee up to 24 hours before check-in)
• Moderate (Free cancellation until 14 days before check-in, full refund minus service fee up to 5 days before check-in)
• Strict (Free cancellation for 48 hours, as long as the guest cancels at least 14 days before check-in – 50% refund minus service fee if canceled up to 7 days before check-in.
• You can see more options and details on the Airbnb cancellation policy page

In each case, you’re left with some free dates on your calendar you need to fill – and quickly, and this is just one of the reasons why you need to be listed on multiple channels – you can see more reasons here. If you’re already on multiple channels, you need to update all your calendars ASAP to free the dates for another booking – no one likes empty calendars!

In both cases, Hosthub is here to help. Using our Revenue Booster product you can list your property on as many channels as you like for a very low fee and professional quality – no automations here! And when you’re finally on multiple channels you can use our Channel Manager for vacation rentals, to keep all your calendars synchronized and avoid double bookings.

Also, please read our latest analysis on how the coronavirus pandemic is expected to affect your bookings and how to better prepare for the negative effects.