Denied refund- must quarantine for the entire length of my trip.

Bethany132
Level 1
New Jersey, United States

Denied refund- must quarantine for the entire length of my trip.

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**[Inappropriate content removed - Community Center Guidelines]

 

 

Because I never checked in, I am unable to write a review on the host's page.  Here it is:

 

I write this review not only as a guest but also a fellow landlord and healthcare professional. I have used Air B&B many times. Up until now, I have never written or received a negative review. I feel that I must warn all potential guests about Steve and Amber.

 

Back in January I booked a vacation for August, prior to covid-19. I recently reached out to Steve and Amber to make them aware that I live in a covid-19 hot spot and that I care for covid-19 patients at the hospital. We have had 1200-1300 positive covid results as well as 90-100 deaths. My 15 month old daughter was currently being tested for covid-19. (Her results came back negative thank god) I am concerned with spreading the disease but obviously Steve and Amber are not as they encouraged us to still vacation in their cabin.

 

I also read online that the governor of Maine has mandated a mandatory 14 day quarantine for all non-Maine residents for the entire summer and that you could be fined if found non-compliant. I do not wish to drive the 12 hours to Maine only to be quarantined for my entire vacation. The reason for our vacation was to visit Acadia National Park but we would be denied entrance and potentially fined for trying to enter.

 

I kindly asked for a full refund 3 months in advance to our stay when I cancelled but I was told by Steve and Amber that they already gave full refunds to everyone through June and that they are in a financial hardship. This is a pandemic. Everyone is in a financial hardship. When I cancelled I was only given back $46, which is pathetic. I was denied a full refund by Steve and Amber was well as Air B&B customer service. Even though there is a 14 day quarantine in the state of Maine, my situation is not covered by their "extenuating circumstances policy".

 

As a landlord of 3 rental properties here in NJ, I am appalled by Steve and Amber's decision to keep 50% of my deposit. That is stealing.
During a time when people are being kind to one another, all I saw from Steve and Amber was greed. I am incredibly disappointed by my experience with Steve and Amber. Air B & B just lost a loyal customer as I will never use their service again.

 

For those of you considering staying at Steve and Amber's cabin- keep scrolling. It's for your own good.

 

13 Replies 13
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Bethany132 Would you have been amenable to having the booking moved into the future later in 2020 or even next year?

Gordon0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

If the reason for posting this 'review' was to shame your would-be hosts, I' afraid this is a host forum, so your warning is unlikely to reach your target audience, @Bethany132. Personally, as the reservation is for August, I would have waited until nearer the time before weighing up my options.   

@Bethany132 

Almost all airlines, hotels, travel agencies and booking platforms are handling covid-19 related cancellations on a sort of rolling schedule, anywhere from a 2wk~1month increments, because things change so quickly and it's hard to forecast what will happen 2~3 months from now. 

 

And if you meet the criteria for covid-19 EC, Airbnb will issue a full refund regardless of what the host says or wants. If you feel you are eligible for a full refund under covid-19 EC, why not wait till your dates are included? 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

I will never accept a booking from anyone named 'Steve & Amber' even if they come from outer space, just to be on the save side.

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

@Bethany132 Steve & Amber have done nothing wrong; they just upheld the terms of their cancellation policy which YOU signed up to when you booked. 

 

YOU acted unwisely, cancelling so long before the trip. Had you waited till a couple of weeks before, either

1) The Covid-19 danger may have passed, and travel may be allowed again, including to the National Park, - so you may have cancelled prematurely & needlessly, or

2) Airbnb may have extended their EC policy to fully refund August bookings, if the state of emergency still exists.

 

As things stand you cancelled a trip for no good reason; you can't predict the situation come August. So Steve & Amber should not be punished for YOUR actions.

 

If you'd booked a place with  'flexible' or ' moderate' cancellation policy you WOULD have been entitled to all your money back. (But Airbnb would have still taken their fee.)

 

I personally have a 'moderate' cancellation policy, cos I don't want to take people's money when they haven't stayed, (so I only keep the 50% with cancellations up to 5 days before.)

 

But the 'strict' cancellation policy exists on Airbnb, so hosts who sign up to it are entitled to their 50%. - Best book 'flexible' next time, if you want a full refund up till 24 hrs before check in.

Sue714
Level 5
Angaston, Australia

@Bethany132  We are in the same boat! Would love to name and shame our upcoming hosts, our trip is in July and dates for a full refund only till 30th June atm, apparently there is an announcement today June 1st - hoping for a date change. I’ve contacted our host and he is firm 50% and 25% discount on a future booking, well he’s already ripped us off we will not be booking with him in the future. Why would we want to?

Helen350
Level 10
Whitehaven, United Kingdom

@Sue714 Your answer is a disgrace! As a Superhost  you should know NOT to be an entitled customer!

 

Your host is NOT ripping you off, YOU CHOSE to book a place with a 'strict' cancellation policy, you always knew you would forfeit 50% if you cancelled....

 

IF you delay cancelling, you will later find out whether ravel is allowed, assuming you're going interstate in Aus. If by July, travel is still banned, Airbnb will likely change policy so you get 100% back.... If you're allowed to travel, then it's your fault if you choose not to.

@Helen350 We chose our upcoming accomodation due to location, availability, price then checked the reviews. If we wanted to cancel due to personal reasons would have been fine with that but as we need to isolate for 14 days either side of our accomodation plus the fact no flights, no boarder crossing unless essential.

Hosts that are entitled are those who believe they are owed $s for a service they have not provided. Besides Superhost status means Nothing! Just a stupid little stamp!

@Sue714 

Seems like Airbnb is allowing full refunds (vouchers) for bookings made prior to March 14.

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/New-EC-full-refund-for-ANY-reason-if-voucher-is-OK/m-p/1...

@Bethany132 , let us know if they give you a voucher, now that there is a newer newest C-19 EC Policy.  It's better than $46.

Yadira22
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Bethany132 

hope you are well. 

Even though I completely sympathise with your situation I would like to share some light from a host’s prospective: 

 

When the WHO announced COVID-19 as a global pandemic, Airbnb allowed for all guests who have a reservation booked before that date and starting mid March to around April 30th or so, to cancel penalty free, over the last weeks they have extended this, in London alone this has covered all dates from mid March to July 3rd. 

Airbnb did not tell hosts of this and it blindsided a lot of people.

A fellow host had a guest cancel their several month stay, one month into their stay they left and Airbnb still refunded them the full reservation stay including the month they have already stayed. With situations like this, you could obviously understand why hosts are angry by this. 

 

Now from a logical stance , I can understand this decision made by Airbnb 

-if this is not an extenuating circumstance, I don’t know what is and we did sign up to an EC clause when agreeing to use this platform to market our spaces. It was written ambiguously at best but still that is neither here nor there.
-this would prevent people from travelling; due to travel restrictions, the need to quarantine and social distance.

 

However, guests could potentially claim these costs against their travel insurance, whereas hosts are unable to do so and bare the whole financial burden associated to this decision. This created a lot of hardships as some people are completely dependent on hosting, etc. Some hosts, similarly to some guests have lost their livelihoods, employments, health care benefits etc. 

 

As you mention previously everyone has lost absolutely something from this pandemic and I am so sorry you are facing hardships but Airbnb has truly chosen their decisions as to cater for their guests. 

Note: I was lucky and able to allow for complete refunds out of my cancellation policy but this is not a luxury many have and yes, financially it did hurt but we’ll make do. 

The advice given above is sound and I truly can’t add more to it but as the Chinese proverb goes, every story has three side; yours, mine and the truth. 

Good luck and please stay safe! 
Yadira 🙂

Cynthia301
Level 2
United States

@Bethany132 you should walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

As a host we refunded over 30K to our guests. We have been crushed financially (Airbnb support payments are worthless) so when I have guests requesting a refund under "COVID extenuating circumstances" in March for an August reservation I would ABSOLUTELY hold a guest to our normal cancelation policy.  That's a no brainer. 

 

As for shaming your "would be" hosts for upholding a cancelation policy you contractually agreed to.... you are 100% wrong  for expecting a refund @Bethany132 

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Bethany132  I'm not sure why you are cancelling?  You're in the US, and things are going to be open by August.  You aren't flying internationally so there is no quarantine issue for tourists, and it is very unlikely there will still be any attempt at a quarantine for out of state visitors by August.

 

At some point, frankly, things  have to go back to normal where policies apply and people can't just decide they no longer feel like traveling and can still get a full refund in spite of stated policies.