I am quite fed up with Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy and their customer service agents’ performance. My guest wanted to cancel her reservation last weekend due to the Eurostar not operating. I contacted Airbnb customer service and offered to give a 50% refund to this guest.
Customer service just deducted my payment and gave a full refund to the guest, referring to their “Extenuating Circumstances” policy , which I think is totally unfair to hosts. I understand circumstances we can’t control, but my guest can make a claim and complaint to Eurostar for this incident. I tried to be fair to both sides and offered 50%.
In addition, my guest can get compensation from her travel insurance because this incident was caused by Eurostar, but I have to pay her a full refund? When she cancelled her reservation last weekend because of this incident, how could I find any guest to replace her? I have lost income for this last weekend as well.
I contacted a customer service agent who dealt with my case. All she could do was refer to Airbnb’s Extenuating Circumstances policy. As per their policies, they only protect the guests, not the hosts at all. Their customer service agents can only refer to the policies, but they fail to solve the problem based on the situation. I don’t think they deserve a booking fee from hosts and guests because they only provide poor service. Two thumbs down.
The quit Airbnb and go somewhere else. You are not being encourage to go to Airbnb if you do not agree with the policy. Would like someone to go to your home and not following your house rules? no, right?
That’s not at all a valid argument to OP’s post…if everyone thought this way then none of the rights and freedoms you have today would exist. Airbnb basically has a monopoly on this type of business and hosts have no other choice. Yes, they agree to the polciies when using the website and that’s why hosts are subject to them. But this in no way means the policies are fair and that no one should question them or call for changes if they arent reasonable. Totally irrelevant and foolish argument.
Agreed.