COVID-19 rental property impact devastates Airbnb host

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting local Airbnb host hard.

They are suffering from the loss of business and finding it hard to get help from the vacation rental giant.

“It's so frustrating, we have lost that part of our business. And we are out of so much money, ” said Gail Kemble from Rainbow Ventures Property Management.

Kemble and Kelly Rojas run Rainbow Ventures Property Management in Oceano.

“When COVID hit, Airbnb decided they are not paying us at all and they still owe us about $40,000,” said Rojas.

Most local Airbnb hosts are suffering from the loss of business, and say Airbnb is not available to help.

“We have no one to talk to, no one to call, no one to email,” said Rojas.

“Airbnb is not taking any phone calls, they are not replying to any emails,” said Airbnb host Michelle Arturo.

With the national epidemic, the company chose to allow all guests to cancel all reservations with no penalties, which has left hosts with the financial loss.

“For us to lose 22 vacation rentals, ansd thousands of dollars... our housekeepers, our maintenance people, they are all out of work,” said Kemble.

“I know everyone is suffering, I know there is no way to possibly have prepared for something like this. But it's really devastating,” said Michelle Arturo.

Arturo has a multi-tenant property and uses Airbnb to pay her mortgage.

“Any of the reservations I've had for several months that I was counting on aren't coming, all that money is just gone,” said Arturo.

Airbnb released a statement this week saying they now plan to give a small percentage back to hosts but did not specify as to when or how hosts can follow up with them.

“This is a worldwide company, worldwide! With a worldwide pandemic you would still think they could operate in some kind of capacity,” said Rojas.

Rojas said they are trying to be patient and relying on the sales of new real estate deals versus Airbnb to survive.

“It's overwhelming you talk about coronavirus killing people what about the stress that everyone is under,” said Arturo.

We attempted to reach out to Airbnb for a statement but they have disabled their email contact and we could not get through their phone lines.