CA Stay Home Order - What to do with Dec STR bookings

[Melissa Bovee]

CA is again under orders that restrict travel. The county I am located in - Placer, North Lake Tahoe - is covered in the order, but is distinctly less vocal about deterring travel than South Lake Tahoe. There has been no official outreach to Placer county STR permit holders which contrasts to their extensive and clear outreach for the last shutdown.

Below is an excerpt from the FAQs on the CA.gov site. It is pretty clear.  Should I go nuclear and cancel and refund all of my high season reservations?  If I honor reservations (assuming any out of state are for the minimum time required and I just assume my guests are following the rules), what about the people who want to cancel?  Do I let them cancel with the agreed upon cancellation terms, or should I give them a full refund? So far I have one long weekender from inside CA that is requesting a full refund or the ability to re-schedule.  I'm not even sure how it would be possible to carry a credit like that for Airbnb... maybe just say I will give her a special offer equal to the cancelation fee I was paid out if she books another time?

So folks: Either what are you doing with you STRs in CA, or what would you do if the below order was in effect for your property?

As Always, Thank you in advance! - Melissa

from CA.gov:

Under a Regional Stay Home Order, can hotels, vacation rentals, and short-term lodging sites accept reservations?

When any California region is under a Regional Stay Home Order, no hotel or lodging entity in California can accept or honor out of state reservations for non-essential travel, unless the reservation is for at least the minimum time period required for quarantine and the persons identified in the reservation will quarantine in the hotel or lodging entity until after that time period has expired.

Additionally, hotels and lodging entities in a county under a Regional Stay Home Order cannot accept or honor in-state reservations for non-essential travel.

Hotels or other commercial and residential buildings may offer lodging for essential functions and travel including COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, accommodation for essential workers, or housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations.