I was just planning a trip to Italy in June (their high season) for a wedding and I wanted to talk to some of the hosts to be sure the place where the wedding was being held was close enough. Some of the places had automatic reservations, which means that if you wanted to ask the host anything, you first needed to reserve the place. I booked two places, because in the cancellation fee policy it said I could cancel them any time until 30 days before my arrival. Once I got answers from the hosts and determined which place was better for us to stay (a day after) I went ahead, canceled one, and kept the other. When I saw my account I was reimbursed but for 190€ less. Now they say that there’s a new policy for multiple reservations where they will keep the Airbnb service fee even if you cancel a reservation an hour after making. But this is not shown anywhere unless you look at the really fine print. Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations on how to recover this 190€?
Even if instant book is turned on for a listing, you can message the host without making a reservation by click Contact Host instead of the Request to Book button. It does require you to put in specific dates with that button, but it doesn’t make the reservation.
That is not a new policy. That has always been Airbnb’s policy. If you cancel a reservation, you do not recover the Airbnb Service Fee. Whether you have reserved a place for 1 minute or 1 week. The only way to recover the whole payment is if the host cancels a reservation, which most hosts are not willing to do as it affects their stats