The coronavirus scare has swept across Asia and indeed, the entire globe. As of the date of writing, there have been tens of thousands of reported cases with hundreds upon hundreds deaths.

It’s also been affecting a lot of hosts in my industry.

With the epicenter of the coronavirus being in China, and causing all sorts of travel bans and advisories, you can imagine that quite a few travelers from that part of the world have been forced to change or cancel their plans. These unexpected and last-minute cancellations have inevitably cut into many hosts’ bottom lines.

This is understandably frustrating. But many of the comments I’ve seen from hosts online have infuriated me.

“Strict cancellation policy means no refund – ever!”

“Oh come on, the coronavirus? They’re just looking for an excuse to get out of paying.”

“Airbnb is saying I have to refund because this falls under their ‘extenuating circumstances’ policy…do I have to comply??”

And my personal favorite, “guests these days are all so whiny and demanding.”

People. Come on.

Keep a sense of compassion in your business

Has our compassion gone out the window?

The coronavirus is rapidly becoming a worldwide epidemic. This is not something any of these Chinese guests could have predicted when they booked their travel plans. In fact, many of them still want to travel but aren’t being allowed to leave the country.

And even if they could, would you really want them to? That’s the equivalent of bringing your kid with the flu to their regular nursery to infect all the other kids….except a thousand times worse.

Many hosts complain these days that they don’t love hosting like they used to. They say that bad guests have sucked all of the joy out of it. Well, I often feel the same way…except my problem is with the hosts, not the guests. Bad hosts can suck the joy out of this industry faster than I’d ever dreamed possible.

Many Airbnb hosts have developed this really weird perspective.

They want to treat hosting like a business, making as much money as possible from their guests. But they also don’t want to accept that their business, like every other business in the world, has a cost of doing business.

Stained towels are a cost of doing business. So are last-minute cancellations because of unforeseen circumstances.

So the next time you want to complain about lost income because of a situation like a coronavirus outbreak, I challenge you to do 2 things.

First, remember your humanity. Of course, don’t be hoodwinked by every sob story that comes your way. But compassion is an important part of this business. Don’t forget that.

And second, remember that your business has costs. This is one of them. Plan for these kinds of costs and make sure you build in reserves to your budget so you can deal with bumps in the road. At the end of the day, there will be other bookings. Look at it this way: at the very least, a last-minute cancellation because of Covid means you don’t have someone with a potentially life-threatening virus coming to sleep in your house.