Airbnb cancels Beijing bookings for March while China’s annual political gathering is in town
The company has said that it always strives to be ‘good neighbors’ wherever it does business
Travelers looking on Airbnb for a place to stay in Beijing are shit out of luck once again this month as China’s capital city hosts its biggest annual political event.
With China’s “Two Sessions” (两会) now underway for an excruciating 15.5 days (March 5th to 20th), all Airbnb listings in central Beijing have been temporarily removed and bookings up until March 30th have been refunded, the company told Business Insider.
Currently, searches on the Airbnb website reveal that only 1% of listings in Beijing are available for the remainder of the month — with these properties being on the city’s outskirts.
Meanwhile, Business Insider finds that a search for “entire homes,” turns up a message saying that “Due to external circumstances, homes in Beijing are unavailable through March 30.”
Airbnb has failed to specify what exactly these “external factors” are, only stating that guests with reservations in Beijing through March 30th will receive full refunds. Meanwhile, the company has stressed that it always strives to be “good neighbors” wherever it does business, telling the financial news website when pressed:
“We don’t typically comment on our private conversations with community leaders. We have listings in 191+ countries and we try to be good neighbors everywhere we do business. We have over 400 partnerships with governments around the world and we always do what we can to be good hosts and good guests.”
You certainly can’t accuse Airbnb of being an impolite guest in China. Last October, ahead of China’s big 19th Party Congress in Beijing, the company also canceled all bookings within a 20km radius of Tiananmen Square for the rest of that month, citing “external circumstances.”
Airbnb is hoping to finally take off in China, despite entering the market a few years late. Last March, the company even unveiled a brand-new Chinese name — 爱彼迎 (Àibǐyíng) — which was widely panned by netizens.
The company’s biggest domestic competitor, Tujia, also temporarily canceled bookings last October, but looks to be conducting business as usual this month.
