Airbnb Illogically Refunded the Cancellation Fees

Posted on April 30, 2020

I had a booking from a couple of guests from China back in mid-January. On January 30, they decided to cancel the booking saying: “Sorry, my friend wants to stay at another place. We shall meet next time!” Hence a partial refund was returned.

Then a few weeks later, Airbnb took that partial refund away saying the guest couldn’t travel and qualifies for the full refund because of extenuating circumstances. I do understand that it is unfortunate that the two couldn’t make the trip. However, the point is that the guests cancelled the booking because they chose to stay in another place.

Had they decide to stay in my place and cancel, I would fully respect that. Logically, I should get to keep the cancellation fees.

Am I being irrational? I had months of long messages with Airbnb support and their supervisor, who then abruptly said the decision is final and closed the case without allowing me to ask for the reasoning for their decision. The responses were expectedly slow because of the situation.

What’s interesting is that in the conversation, I asked for the contact for someone beyond the support supervisor level and the supervisor said that there is no one above him/her and closed my case. I went on Twitter about it. They asked me to DM my case.

Within five minutes, I got a response saying that he “thoroughly reviewed” my case and that the decision is final. How can you thoroughly review a case in five minutes including coming up with a response? At this point, I am tempted to just send the CEO a tweet since he stresses that he love feedback.

Airbnb Refuses to Give Refund due to COVID-19

Posted on April 30, 2020

I am a relatively new guest to Airbnb. I booked my second trip to Cape Town to give my family a holiday that they never could afford themselves. Excited, I made a booking on January 22 for a home from April 18-25. Some of my family members live in Ireland and South Africa. I live in Dubai.

Our borders and flights were already shut down in March due to COVID-19. I received an email March 14 from Airbnb stating I could cancel my holiday and receive a full refund. I then contacted my host via email on March 18 and requested a cancellation.

Not hearing anything from the host for four days, I got worried and cancelled my booking on the website on March 22, with the reason being COVID-19. Airbnb gave me a 40% refund and a lousy voucher.

I have been battling with Airbnb staff who have no authority and can’t help me with a full refund which I’m honestly entitled to. Case managers answering emails for Airbnb haven’t approved the Extenuating Circumstances Policy for my booking dates when my booking was cancelled.

This is total fraud and they would rather steal my money than just pay back a honest client. I also requested a refund with the resolution centre and directly with the host. It’s been days now and he has totally brushed me off. I am so disappointed with Airbnb to say the least.

Airbnb Denies Comic Con Cancellation Refund

Posted on April 30, 2020

We reserved a property with Airbnb last November for Comic Con 20 in July. On April 17, Comic Con was cancelled due to the World Health Organization gathering guidelines dated March 11 and California Governor Newsom stating that group gatherings in California before August could not happen.

When I tried to rebook the property for Comic Con 21 next year, I discovered the property had been marked up $10,000 for our five-day stay. Instead of costing $6472 like it did this year, it was marked up to $16,879 for a stay of the same duration and for the same reason, a 180% markup.

I cancelled my reservation and requested a full refund of the $3264 I had made on the first of two installments. On April 9, Airbnb had said their COVID-19 full refund only applied through May 31 and despite having an extenuating circumstance policy for epidemic disease, it did not apply to COVID-19 cases.

Since my COVID-19 case was after May 31, then neither the COVID-19 or epidemic disease policy would cover my cancellation refund. This is also when I found out that the Airbnb 50% refund policy is not a 50% refund of what you pay, but 50% of the total bill, so instead of about $1500 back from my initial payment, I got $62.

I appealed to the property owner. Their response was to talk to Airbnb. I appealed to Airbnb, and they told me to talk to the property owner. So when I paid last November, my money was effectively gone after 48 hours. I had at least three different conversations with Airbnb and the host, but they insisted that the COVID-19 policy to May 31 was the end all and be all policy and did not apply to the Comic Con COVID-19 cancellation in July.

The COVID-19 and epidemic disease policies for Airbnb deny the reality of the pandemic after May 31. Ironically, this same property is listed on VrBO with a full refund policy through May 22, 2020. I am moving on to arbitration via the American Arbitration Association.

Even with Roaches, Guest not Sure Who to be Upset with

Posted on April 30, 2020

This isn’t a clear cut black and white Airbnb horror story. There are some things I should have been more aggressive on, but in the middle of a pandemic I feel it fair not to be too aggressive because for all I know this could have been my host’s only source of income.

To begin, I walked in and the place was very much not clean. I was given a warning by my boyfriend, to which he felt the judgement call up to me. To be honest, my mind was on their cute little pig that met me at the door; he was so sweet.

I quickly looked around and noticed maybe one or two critters. It was no big deal; it’s getting warm and in Mississippi the critters start coming out. My boyfriend is definitely a city boy so he freaks out about everything. I messaged the host telling her exactly that.

However, I was wrong. It wasn’t until really late into the night that more started coming out and they were huge. That’s when I really looked at the place. The kitchen sink wasn’t cleaned (why did I pay a cleaning fee?) and under the bed/chairs/sink there were enough either droppings or roach body parts. I was disgusted.

We couldn’t find a place to book that late at night so we were stuck one night. I kept joking that my cat would defend us from the roaches while we slept (I couldn’t sleep that night). The next morning we were trying to get out to the Marriott that I booked. The pig says good bye on the way out (he really was a sweet pig and I’ve never seen a pig run to me until that day).

The host at least refunded me for the other days, and as for the cleaning fee I wasn’t very aggressive because as I’ve said before I’m not sure if this is their only source of income. They also let me bring my cat without putting in a pet deposit.

I contacted Airbnb later about the service fee (possibly the cleaning fee) that night because trying to get settled into a new place last minute had its own issues. I will admit I wasn’t very aggressive with it; maybe it’s because during all this pandemic I feel like that isn’t what the world needs right now.

Airbnb basically told me to f&%k off on the service fee and I definitely wasn’t getting the cleaning fee refunded. I should have checked with VBRO or nearby hotels, because most times with all the fees it ends up being more expensive than a Marriott. This was one of those times.

I’m not sure if I should be upset with the host, Airbnb, myself or anyone really. It’s up to you, are you willing to take the risk? Is the pig worth it?

COVID-19 and the Lying Airbnb Guest

Posted on April 30, 2020

Recently I had a guest who booked a room in my private home for a month. He said he’d been with a circus working in Saco, Maine, but all the circus gigs had been cancelled due to COVID-19, and he was going to move to Portland, Maine to try to find work in construction, as he was a set designer for the circus.

As I’ve discovered, the circus he works for, The Big Apple Circus, from NYC, had cancelled all their shows back in late January and the man had fled NYC to flee COVID-19, booked a room via Airbnb in Saco, and then Saco banned further Airbnb bookings due to the virus. So, he booked with me.

However, for all I knew as he was my guest (before he left and I had researched him), he was looking to move permanently to Portland, and I even offered him a longer term tenancy, as a true housemate. Needless to say, since the man was renting for a month in my private home, it would be normal and expected there would be more personal interactions.

His room was in my finished attic, to which there is a door. If I knocked on the door there was a good chance he couldn’t hear the knocking, and at one point I knocked, then waited, knocked again, and then thinking I’d heard him reply, opened the door to ask him if he wanted some work. I had a small job I could pay him for.

He yelled at me that I’d opened his door, that I had his money (it should be noted that he’d rented the room at a very significant discount for 28 days), and that I’d even put his bathroom toiletries inside his door, which had been in the shared guest bathroom. I had done that, since I’d rented another room on the second floor to a permanent tenant and wanted to make sure everyone had enough room for their stuff in that small bathroom.

Because he yelled so loudly at me, and was so nasty, I called Airbnb. They commiserated with me, and then I got angry back. I said, “You’re renting in my private home, I was offering you work, and I don’t expect to be treated so badly.”

I was trying to be nice, helpful, and actually act like a friend. In fact, Airbnb spent a number of years advertising itself as a home away from home experience, where guests would share in someone’s home life. I was so upset at being yelled at, I ended up asking the man to leave and I’d pay him the rest of what he owed me to leave. He was happy with that, even if he claimed he didn’t trust me and wanted to see me count the money out. He really was vicious.

Airbnb called me two days later for my account of things. What they said was that I should never open a guest’s door and never do financial things except through them. I said I’d thought I’d heard him reply and yet lesson learned. The next thing I knew my account was entirely deactivated.

Though shocked, particularly as I had two other upcoming bookings, and I’d never received any warning, underneath it all, I’m relieved to no longer be a host. That particular room had never, to my knowledge, had Superhost ratings, but the last two guests in that room believed I did, so what Airbnb was showing guests was not what they were showing me.

In fact, my account had consistently indicated that I had “things to work on,” though it was never ever clear what the issues were. Not ever. Furthermore, I did have Superhost ratings for the other two rooms in my apartment, and have been a host for over six years.

My relief relates particularly to the confusing narrative Airbnb has promoted: guests can enjoy a home-like stay. However, many guests actually expect the full total insular experience of a hotel room. That would be frankly near impossible in a private home where people bump into each other. It would be even less plausible when a guest is staying for a long time and presents as someone looking to rent as a permanent tenant.

In this particular instance, what was so disconcerting was that the guest had lied to me about what he was actually up to: escaping NYC to flee the virus, the one thing folks shouldn’t be doing. For all I know, he might already have contracted the virus and transported it to Maine and to my home.

My takeaway from this entire experience is the opinion that the model of a “home away from home” experience that Airbnb has promoted is deeply flawed. Private homes aren’t hotels nor even B&Bs, both of which have staff and do not have the homeowner living on site.

As Airbnb moves toward offering an IPO, I think they’re going to have to radically change their model and stick to working with entire apartments or homes and therefore fundamentally compete with the likes of VRBO. My own experience of being a guest in someone’s private home was actually strange: I didn’t quite know how to act, as a guest. There simply weren’t good guidelines for either the host or the guest.

Given the huge class-action suit against them by those who have had bookings cancelled with no compensation for financial losses, Airbnb is going to be in trouble. I have an inkling the company will deeply falter and will be a poor investment.

Missed an Airbnb COVID-19 Refund by Six Hours

Posted on April 30, 2020

It was a complete nightmare trying to get this COVID-19 refund. Our check in was March 13th and California issued a state of emergency on March 4th while the WHO declare it global pandemic on March 11th. I canceled on March 12th and only received 50% of my money back.

Airbnb’s extenuating circumstances state that any reservations made on or before March 14th were covered under the extenuating circumstances for COVID-19 blanket. They are now claiming it would only be covered if I had cancelled on March 14th (a day after my check in?).

My check in time was 6:00 PM Friday, March 13th, six hours before the 14th. I even would understand if they won’t give me the money for the night of the 13th but they are refusing all of it which makes no sense; they wrote the publication and nowhere does it state they will only cover a refund if a reservation is cancelled on or after March 14th.

Yet their publication on March 13th said “any reservations before March 13th through April 1st are covered!” They then went and changed their policy on March 30th to “any reservations made before March 14th through May 31st with check in dates on or after March 14th are covered.”

Don’t get me wrong: I’m really glad they extended the time frame for people but I’m sure there are a handful of people that fall into a tiny crack like me with check in dates of March 13th.

Uber in Accident While Passenger on Phone with Airbnb

Posted on April 30, 2020

I had been in this Airbnb house for two weeks already. I got a call around 11:00 AM from a woman representing Airbnb telling me my reservation had been cancelled and I needed to go check out now. She said my host had already been notified I would be checked out by 3:00 PM today.

“WTF are you talking about? What is going on? I haven’t broken any rules. I’ve haven’t done anything. Explain to me what it is that Airbnb thinks I have done.”

“Well I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

I started losing it over the phone at this woman. I had just paid $800 for next month. I don’t have any bad reviews. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. Where did they expect me to go? I wanted to know what it is that I did.

All the while I was getting louder and louder to the point I was screaming at the other end of the line, punching the back of the Uber seat (passenger’s side) and stomping on the floor. I was angry.

My family and I have been using Airbnb for years and never had issues: no bad reviews. I was just going off in the back of this poor lady’s car yelling and waving my arms around. She was trying to calm me down saying, “Sir, what’s the matter?”; “Sir, please please calm down”; “Sir the language”; “Oh my god sir please what is the matter? You don’t need to be rude to her”; “Sir please I don’t appreciate that word (the C word)”.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to what she was saying; I was focusing on this call. This went on for about another minute because out of the corner of my eye I noticed the driver was not paying attention to the road. She had her head turned around towards me yelling at me because I called this woman on the phone the “C” word. I noticed she had drifted into oncoming traffic. I yelled “Watch out!”

She turned and I swear it was like slow motion: this car swerved out the way of us and I watched it scrape a parked car. I said to the driver: “Pay attention to the road. Are you trying to kill me?”

While she was driving really fast, I still had the lady from Airbnb on the phone. That in itself was strange. She pulled up to my street going 40 miles per hour and pulled a cali stop. She didn’t notice the cop sitting at the light. My host was maybe five houses from the corner.

When I made it home, she said to get out of her car. The cop came, noticed she was an Uber driver, and asked me if I was okay. As I was walking in the door, I could hear her going off on this cop about me. Then he interrupted her and asked her what happened to the side of her car. I’m listening to everything at the door.

She asked, “What damage?”

She got out of the car. I heard “wtf?” then the cop said “Ma’am I’m placing you under arrest for hit and run, leaving an accident, and speeding in a residential area.”

All the while she was yelling: “That guy in the car: it’s his fault! He was driving me insane. He was yelling and stomping on the floor and punching the back of the seat. He called her a… I don’t like that word.”

The cop asked what this had to do with her sideswiping that car back there. I guess someone watched her, got her plate, and called it in. That cop happened to be in the right place and saw her plate.

The real kicker is he asked me to come outside and explain what happened. I said, “Man, I don’t know. She was driving like a bar out of hampering the start. I kept telling her she needed to slow down. That’s when she turned her head to me and said to shut up. That is when she scraped that car.”

He asked me why she didn’t stop.
“I don’t know. She was yelling ‘See, see what you made me do!’ Then before I knew it we were here and you rolled up.”

I could hear her in the back seat of the cop car yelling “He’s lying, officer!” just ranting, raving, and going off.

That was just the start of the day. My woman thought I was full of it with that story about the Uber ride. I thought she got what she deserved. She shouldn’t have been rubbernecking my conversation with Airbnb.

Anyway getting back to Airbnb. They claimed at first it was some security BS and she couldn’t tell me why my reservation was cancelled. They were going to contact me within 24 hours. My host was tripping out, saying she was sorry. She said when it got cleared up, I could come back. I was planning on staying there for maybe four months.

I have a job I’m doing out here. I like to use Airbnb because I can save money. I’ve been with them for years. All my family as well. Meanwhile I’m freaking out because I don’t know where a good cheap clean hotel is. My woman found one online. I’m mad as hell and want to know what happened.

Come around 7:00 PM, I got a call from Airbnb saying “Oh, we’re sorry. It turns out it was a glitch or something in the system and automatically cancelled your reservation.”

I’m like, “Okay now what? Are you guys going to compensate for the day of work you caused me to lose and reimburse me for the hotel room?”

She said, “I’m not qualified to make that decision. Do you have a pen? Here is your case number.”

“What do I need a case number for? Did I catch a case on a crime I didn’t know about?”
“I’m sending your case to a different department. We will contact you within 24 hours.”

They finally sent me the number and at the end of the message it said: “This message was sent by Airbnb with love.”

They finally got back to me after I’ve sent them hundreds of messages trying to get compensation for the missed day of work and the days I’ve been in this hotel breaking my bank account. I’ve already paid $511.91 on this hotel room and I still can’t make a reservation with Airbnb. Then they insult me with an offer of $146 towards my room.

That told me this company has no respect for its customers at all. This is completely their fault. It’s now starting to effect my girls and my woman. Airbnb is taking food off my table and the country’s got the population control problem going on right now; they don’t care.

I deal with a lot of BS from people but when it affects my way of life and my kids, there is a problem. I want my name cleared so I can make a reservation. I also want to be compensated for the hotel. My bank account is empty. I’m doing what I can to keep food on the table.

Like I said, I had the room covered for a month: $800 already paid. I just paid $500 for seven days. I want them to make it right. Any reputable company would acknowledge their mistake and make it right. What kind of people are working there? It’s like they got monkeys answering the phone, passing each case from department to department, never returning your messages.

I’m putting this out there right now: if this company doesn’t give me back my money and doesn’t clear my situation with the reservation, I will get even and I will get satisfaction. Think you can take food from my kids and make my little girls cry cause I can’t come home? I had to work on the weekend to make up for their mistake.

I don’t know what you’re thinking Airbnb. You should have never posted so much information on yourself. I love my kids to work weekends for them. This I promise. On my mother’s life, nobody — I mean no one — is allowed to make my little girl cry. Only I can make my woman mad, only me. Airbnb has messed with my life and I want compensation.