Our recent change to the guest refund policy

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi Everyone, 

Hosts are the heart and soul of Airbnb. I want you to know we value you, we’re working every day to improve your hosting experience, and we’re listening to you. Recently, we updated our rebooking and refund policy to allow guests up to 72 hours to report travel issues, rather than 24 hours. Let me take you through our thinking as a company to get to this decision. 

As a two-sided marketplace, we are always putting ourselves in the shoes of both Hosts and guests. In this case, guests have been telling us 24 hours wasn’t enough time to reach out for help if something goes wrong. For example, if a guest wasn’t able to check in due to a malfunctioning lock, they may be more focused on getting settled in an alternative location and attending the event they traveled for. We also heard from Hosts that 24 hours often wasn’t enough time to resolve a guest’s concerns. For example, if a guest notified a Host that the air conditioner stopped working, it could take more than a day to contact a repair person and fix it. The 24-hour window was causing guests to feel like they had to cancel early, when more time would have been enough for Hosts to fully address the concern and keep the reservations.

We went through a similar assessment when we considered extending the filing period for Hosts to submit reimbursements requests. As part of AirCover—which includes $1 million in Host damage protection—if guests cause damage, you have 14 days to request reimbursement after they check out, even if other guests have already checked in.

I also want to assure you that we rigorously assess claims from guests in order to help protect you from fraudulent claims. And, we take action to hold guests accountable for those types of violations of our Community Standards. If a Host disagrees with our determination about a guest report, they may contest our decision and if after reviewing evidence provided by the Host, we agree with that Host, they will receive their payout for that reservation.

Your house rules are another important tool to help ensure the guest rebooking and refund policy is used as intended. House rules set and manage expectations for guests. For example, if you have a backyard pool, you might include a note that you make every attempt to keep the pool as clean as possible, but at times leaves and debris may end up on the surface. This can help guests understand why there may be leaves in the pool. 

Because of the importance of house rules, we’ve made them visible to guests when they book, and by booking, guests are agreeing to read and abide by them. House rules are also taken into account when guest refund claims are made, if relevant. Here are some helpful tips for writing and updating your house rules for guests.

We design all of our updates to help build trust, and will continue to do so as we actively listen to your feedback and concerns. I hope this note has addressed some of the questions I have heard. I want to end by thanking you for all that you do to provide the best possible hospitality for our guests.

Warmly, 

Catherine Powell
Airbnb Global Head of Hosting

[Ray107]

<span;>Dear Brian Chesky,

<span;>We wanted to share our 3-4 experiences with the dispute department under "Aircover".

<span;>We have filed three or four different claims with the dispute department. Each was handled with poor service and poor policies causing us to gain a "no confidence vote" for Aircover.

<span;>I wont go into the details of each dispute because Airbnb has all the details. I will summarize and say the dispute department paid little to nothing. Their standards are designed to be so restrictive that they provide no compensation or under compensation despite a plethra of information and evidence.

<span;>From our point of view this will not work for us as hosts because we have lost confidence that Airbnb will provide protection from guests that cause damages. Many guests actually have learned to game the system.

<span;>Unfortunately we will delist the 2 L<span;>akes property from airbnb.com/h/2lakes on 23 Oct 2022. This is sad because we have always admired the Airbnb model and you.

[Terry642]

Thank ypu for sharing, I am at the same separation point seeing no responsibility nor response regarding actions taken by representatives of Airbnb.  Again, customer centered policies and follow-through is important but not to the detriment of those who actually own the properties, manage and maintain the properties from which we all make a living.  Once we, the hosts have no confidence that our actions, management techniques and hosting skills will bring in the needed income, there's no point in "partnering" with this service.  I realize it'll burn a bridge but I'm organizing how to cancell existing Airbnb Reservations and pull my listing entirely.  Pity, but when your income is ripped away from you without so much as a "how do you do"  its the logical next step.

[Terry642]

update : I was just sent a message on the AirBnB platform from Andrew, "a Supervisor on the Escalations team in AirBnB"  After a week Andrew assures me "this case will stay with me until it's resolved".  Hmmm, we'll see,..