Airbnb Hasn’t Seen Mass Exodus of Hosts Over Refunds

There has been much discussion among Airbnb hosts about exiting or boycotting the platform because of its unilateral decision in March to refund guests because of coronavirus-disrupted stays, but the home-sharing platform says it has more listings now — more than 7 million — than it did on January 1. The topic came up Wednesday when Chris Lehane, Airbnb's head of global policy and communications, discussed Airbnb's announcement for Thursday that it partnered with 15 destination marketing organizations and charitable groups, from the U.S. National Park Park Foundation to Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and Wesgro in South Africa, to promote tourism recovery. Lehane said he empathizes with hosts being upset with the refund policy, but in a survey 94 percent responded that they intended to remain on the platform. Indeed, in a statement, Airbnb said "we have seen no material drop in listings on the platform .... Macroeconomic forces much larger than Airbnb and its host community are c