Refund discussion - no venting

[Brandon-And-Robert0]

Hello community!

Many of us are feeling the burden of Airbnbs extenuating circumstances policy and at this time, there is not much more any of us can add to the conversation. So let's use this community to help us come together and share ideas. Let's keep the anger and disdain on the other conversation feeds, please.

I am starting to receive requests for full refunds for stays outside of the COVID window, and I am wrestling with how to handle these requests. I want to give everything back to everyone knowing that we can help lessen the spread but that is not possible. I have mortgages and bills to pay as well.

I would love to hear what others have been doing/saying to help maintain their business, help stop the spread AND be empathetic to the guest's situation.

Here are my thoughts and I would love to hear your constructive feedback:

1. Ask the guest if they purchased travel insurance;

2. Ask them to review my calendar and find dates further in the future they would like to change to (I worry they will realize if they move dates far enough, that they can cancel with a much lower penalty);

3. Maybe offer a 50/50 refund if they don't want to find other dates?

My understanding is that the airlines are NOT giving full refunds, but allowing guests to change their dates at no cost. I feel that as the travel industry, we should all be following a similar process for consistency. 

In reality, the Airlines and AIRBNB are the ones that will receive a bailout NOT us, so I feel like this would be a fair option to us little guys.

Lets please keep this constructive and helpful so we can get through this. 

Thank you all!

[Alison97]

They should  claim on their travel insurance!  

[Joseph-and-Nina0]

BEWARE you can lose half your payment for a canceled booking. We just found out the hard way that Airbnb is now selecting certain guests to participate in a pay 1/2 now and 1/2 later for their reservation. We have a 48 hour cancellation policy and had a guest with a $600 booking cancel past the 48 hour limit. We received a notice that we would receive a refund of $300. When I called the help desk I was told that our guest had chosen the pay 1/2 now and 1/2 later payment structure so Airbnb had only collected 1/2 the booking cost so that is what we would receive. We find the lack of transparency associated with this "new practice"  unacceptable and completely undermining the relationship between Airbnb and their Hosts. Hosts should always know under what financial risks they are accepting any booking so they can choose to accept it or not.

Anyone else aware of this policy or impacted by it?

[Sandra856]

Hi @Joseph-and-Nina0 🙂

You got the strict cancellation policy and if guests cancel after the 48 grace period but before a week before check-in they will only have to pay half minus the airbnb fee. You can read about it here :

https://www.airbnb.ca/home/cancellation_policies?locale=en#strict-with-grace-period

[Sandra856]

@Joseph-and-Nina0 Sorry, I meant - guests will have to pay half AND Airbnb's service fee if they cancel after the 48 hour grace period and at least 7 days before check-in. They will also get the cleaning fee back. So you will receive a 50% pay-out. It has been like this for a long time. So it is not a new thing. (Have a look at your cancellation policy). That is what your guests sign up for when they book. 

[Arij436]

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[Emilie]

Hi everyone, 

Firstly, thank you @Brandon-And-Robert0 for starting such a constructive conversation when the pandemic was making everyone's day-to-day really challenging. It's great to see how much fantastic feedback, ideas and suggestions everyone put forward!

We're recently announced some changes to the Covid-19 Extenuating Circumstances policy, and since it's quite relevant to this conversation, I wanted to make sure you were all aware. You can read more about it and let us know what you think here: 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Update-to-our-approach-for-guests-sick-with-COVID...

Thanks!

Emilie

@Amy907 @Sandra856 @Joseph-and-Nina0 @Mark396 @Kath9 @Jenny-And-Victor0 @Richard1830 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Jack1517 @Sharon480 @all