Airbnb has shut down check-ins for Beijing because of the coronavirus, but still appears to have listings for Wuhan

Artyom Ivanov\TASS via Getty ImagesBeijing's Airbnb has been shut off due to the coronavirus.

• Airbnb has suspended all check-ins for the Chinese capital Beijing until March due to the ongoing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
• The company confirmed in a statement it would refund customers whose reservations have been cancelled.
• Although Beijing listings have been blocked out until March, Business Insider was still able to find February listings in Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Airbnb has been forced to suspend all check-ins for Beijing until March due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

"In light of the novel coronavirus outbreak and guidance from local authorities for the Short Term Rental industry during this public health emergency, bookings of all listings in Beijing with check-in from 7 February 2020 to 29 February 2020 have been suspended. Airbnb appreciates that disease control efforts are causing overall travel disruptions that also affect our community of guests and hosts.

"We will refund and support guests who had cancelled reservations. And we will continue to work diligently to build programs that support our community of hosts," an Airbnb spokesman said in a statement to Business Insider.

When Business Insider searched for Beijing listings in the Airbnb all of them were blocked out until March 1 although February listings for Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak, were still showing up.

A Business Insider reporter was able to get to the payment stage for a Wuhan-based Airbnb.

Business InsiderA February search for Wuhan yielded several listings.

Airbnb was not immediately available to comment when asked by Business Insider if any cities outside of Beijing were also having check-ins shut down.

Searching any location in China brings up an information card about the outbreak inside the Airbnb app.

As of Monday the death toll for the Wuhan coronavirus topped 900, the vast majority of which were in mainland China. 16 cities including Wuhan have been quarantined, placing a rough total of 50 million Chinese citizens on lockdown. Globally the virus has spread to 26 countries and over 24,000 cases have been confirmed.

Airbnb is one of the few big Western tech companies that is allowed to operate in China, with behemoths likes Facebook, Google Search and Twitter all blocked by the country's so-called "Great Firewall."

Axel Springer, Insider Inc.'s parent company, is an investor in AirBnB.

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