ATTENTION - Cancellations that came BEFORE March 14th are now refunded retroactively by airbnb - STRIKE

[Alex---Michael0]

Until yesterday it was bad, now it is getting worse. Guests who canceled their trip (check-in between March 14th - April 14th) BEFORE March 14th were still subject to the regular cancellation policy, in my case strict. These cancellations were still paid out normally, in my specific case a booking for about EUR 2,200 with check-in date on March 15th, canceled on March 13th. As mentioned, I have received the full payment, but now I discovered in my transaction history that I have to repay this money. New payouts are simply retained until the amount is reached.

Meaning: airbnb has now also begun to refund legal cancellation fees to guests retroactively.

PLEASE CHECK YOUR TRANSACTION OVERVIEW

I wrote my concern to the airbnb support with an urgent request for clarification. I have not received an answer in days.

Does anyone know if that is legally possible? How can I defend myself?

Thank you for your help.

Michael

[Christopher187]

Airbnb just fully refunded a June booking of mine.

[Adriano78]

@Christopher187  for the June refund did airbnb give you a reason?
clearly if in the future we have new reservations, in case of cancellation, we risk losing everything.

How many months will airbnb continue to refund travelers 100% ?.
Isn't it better to block our calendars and work with other platforms?

[Huma0]

No booking are currently safe from 100% refunds. The dates and other stipulations in the new COVID-19 EC policy are meaningless as Airbnb is already refunding guests who cancelled or even checked in before the dates specified and those with bookings after those dates. Even guests who are not asking for a full refund are being pressurised into doing so and then being issused that full refund.

Airbnb will take these refunds from hosts' pending or future payouts. The only way to really protect yourself is to delist, if you want to take that route, but I am still owed several payouts by Airbnb from as long ago as 2018. I have been told this was a technical glitch that had been fixed and the payouts were being issued now, but they're not. They're still showing as pending rather than processing. 

So, sorry if it appears paranoid, but it appears that Airbnb are hanging onto payouts that should be issued immediately to ensure they can take the refunds from my account. And yes, they would do something as underhand/illegal like that, because they are repeatedly breaking their own policies every day.

[Paul60]

Alex you have just dealt with an inexperienced agent.  I successfully defended against that move twice yesterday,  Obviously Airbnb cannot retrospectively apply policy.  Demand a refund.

[Alex---Michael0]

Thanks @Paul60 for your message. Can you tell me what exactly you wrote them? I just got an other reservation for June 20the cancelled with a full refund.

[Paul60]

Hi Alex sounds like your case is different as it falls outside the Covid window 14th March to 31st May.  I imagine the guests provided documentation to support their 'extenuating circumstances'.  I recommend that you (a) Contact Airbnb and request that they contact the guest to obtain permission to share the documentation to yourself.  (b) Request same directly from the guest.  A big battle lies ahead I imagine.

Paul

[Barbara2157]

@Paul60 Prior to the COVID-19 specific Extenuating Circumstances policy put in place on March 14, an original EC policy existed.  An excerpt from that policy reads: "Epidemic disease or illness that suddenly affects a region or an entire group of people. This doesn’t include existing diseases that are associated with an area—for example, malaria in Thailand or dengue fever in Hawaii. Any updates to our policy regarding the outbreak of a disease, and the scope of policy application, will be determined based on announcements by the World Health Organization and local authorities." 

On March 11, WHO declared a pandemic (i.e. GLOBAL epidemic).  This was widely publicized.  So, the EC policy in place at that time already covered COVID-19.  Airbnb's declaration of a special EC was only done to streamline the thousands of case by case reviews that it would bring on. What documentation would you like?  A personal letter from WHO advising that an epidemic was spreading??

[Paul60]

Airbnb updated the wording for the standard EC policy also.  The original wording did not include this.   

[Barbara2157]

@Paul60  That is not the case.  Prior to the special March 14 version of the EC policy, the original had always had protection against an epidemic.  The change made to the specific COVID-19 version was simply that documentation was not required to verify that.  Which make sense because the whole world knew (except perhaps you) that this was a global emergency.  

[Paul60]

This was not in the original version 

‘ Epidemic disease or illness that suddenly affects a region or an entire group of people. This doesn’t include existing diseases that are associated with an area – for example, malaria in Thailand or dengue fever in Hawaii. Any updates to our policy regarding the outbreak of a disease, and the scope of policy application, will be determined based on announcements by the World Health Organization and local authorities. ‘ 

[Sarah977]

@Paul60  Yes, it was. Also:

Travel restrictions imposed by a government, law enforcement agency, or military that restrict travel to or from the listing or experience location.

[Barbara2157]

@Paul60 I am sorry that you are self absorbed and misguided but you need to do more research and look at life through a wider lense.  If you are not refunding guests because of COVID-19, you should do some self evaluation.

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 @Paul60 @Barbara2157 @Alex---Michael0 @Huma0 @Adriano78

The claims that Airbnb's Extenuating Circumstances policy stated "Epidemic disease or illness" prior to the COVID-19 outbreak are wholly and completely untrue. From March 21, 2017,  the language in the original policy actually referred to "ENDEMIC disease or illness".

Somewhere between March 28 2020 and April 2 2020 - without the required clarification, explanation or notice to users - Airbnb quietly and arbitrarily amended the policy to remove the term "Endemic", and replace it with "Epidemic".

Additionally, all existing EC pages referencing "Endemic" were subsequently erased from the website, and interestingly, the company later offered some minimal compensation possibilities for hosts who had refunds forcibly applied and provided to guests, under the terms of COVID/EC.

Endemic refers to the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease in a geographic population. Malaria, for example, is an endemic disease.

Epidemic refers to a sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected.

Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.

Coronavirus is an example of an epidemic which became a pandemic, and can not be interpreted as an endemic disease.

[Sarah977]

@Susan17 Thanks for the clarification. I did notice that when I went to the Terms of Service I had bookmarked a long time ago, when I clicked on "Extenuating Circumstances Policy, that it went to the updated policy. But I was pretty sure that the old EC policy said that endemic disease wasn't covered. Like if you went to an area where malaria was endemic, that wouldn't be covered, because you should be aware that malaria is endemic there before you book.

[Susan17]

You're welcome @Sarah977. I have the original EC policy in my files, so I'll post the relevant screenshot later when I'm at my laptop. No functionality to do so from the phone anymore (or at least, not from my phone anyway!)