AIRBNB - refunded a guest, overstepped my cancellation policy

[Jordan478]

Hi,

I was supposed to have a guest check in for the entire month of May, and he cancelled now 2 weeks before the supposed check in time.

According to my cancellation policy he should have not received a full refund, but only 50%.

After he cancelled, he sent me a request for a full refund, which I have denied and explained that Denmark is reopening today and the Coronavirus is not a reason to cancel that reservation.

I got a message from AIRBNB today that they have issued a full refund because the guests flight has been cancelled and they could prove this. What got me very frustrated is that although I have denied that request, they still overstepped my cancellation policy and refunded the guest in full without even asking me first. 

Then proceeding to tell that I will get the 25% they promised because of the Coronavirus outbreak. Need to note that all of my reservations in March, April and now May have been cancelled last minute and all the guest have been issued a full refund. And I have not received any email yet that I "qualify" to receive retroactively the 25% from my cancellation  policy.

Has anyone received anything like this? And has anyone received any money as AIRBNB has promised? And is it normal for AIRBNB to behave like this even if I have denied the request?

Thanks,

Jordan

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

Pat, the bulk of what I am accessing is from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/? .  which it looks like you are accessing as well. But that S.A. graph I put up is one I am personally keeping from data provided each day from the S.A. Dept of Health.

Each morning I access the figures from the day before and extend my graph. 

Cheers......Rob

[Louise0]

If you want global data, the best site is the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center's Covid-19 Map.  https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

Pat it is hard to keep a coherent graph because every day is different , the event runs in peaks and troughs.....you might have 45 active cases one day, the next you have 110, and the day after 60. There are two ways to run a graph, you do it as snapshots of each days activity, or you do it by averaging trends! And that is the way I have chosen to run my graph, I am comparing data from each day with data over the past 5 days and that enables me to plot a curve rather than a saw-tooth series of highs and lows.

My graph of tonight is different to the graph I posted last night, the active and recovered cases curves are different. Journalism being what it is, yesterdays active cases were reported as being 117 which meant the recovered cases out of 427 total must have been 310..But if you look at the data I have taken todays curve from, it matches the current curves on my graph.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/? is not as accurate a source as the John Hopkins Centre data which @Louise0 has posted a link to, because worldometers source their information from the various news services around the world where as John Hopkins uses official data. But the John Hopkins data is country specific rather than being locality specific, so for that reason it doesn't help me!

I would fully expect to see a spike in our active cases tomorrow because of the lack of testing that took place over Easter.....and if that happens my active cases curve will alter again to reflect that. 

As long as that green line keeps edging closer to the cumulative line, that's what I am interested in!

Cheers......Rob

[Pat271]

@Robin4  Right, Robin, what you are generating is called a “5-day moving average”, which smooths out the graph so you can spot trends more easily, rather than looking at the plots of daily erratic datapoints.

What you said about holiday data - another thing to consider is that weekend data in general tends to be questionable, holiday or not.  Even Dr. Birx (one of our head immunologists and the US COVID19 response coordinator) says that she doesn’t look too closely at data received on a Monday, because not only is the testing reduced over the weekend, but the data collection activity itself tends to lend itself to inaccuracies because of the reduced, skeletal weekend staff.

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

I have saved all these daily graphs and I am going to run them through as a high speed montage once this settles down.

I am scared at the moment because the government is talking about relaxing our social distancing regulations .....it seems like they want to open the door and jump out of the vehicle before it has stopped!

I had to start from somewhere with this Pat, and this was my template......

This graph is for Australia, but I have adapted it for our local state. The graph came from the official Australian Government Health web site ......

 https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-co...

From what I am hearing on the news services tonight, tomorrow is going to be more good news!

Cheers......Rob

[Sam397]

@Jordan478 , AirBnB has always done things that way,if they do contact you it is to tell you that the guest is getting the refund not to ask you if they could. And as far as that proof the flight was cancelled they say the guy provided I would ask for them to show you the proof because they will lie and say they have it when they dont. They will tell you stuff like they are not allowed to but you keep insisting then they will tell you they need to speak to a supervisor about it, then they will come back and say the supervisor said they will split it with you.Which was all I wanted to begin with so I dont know what would have happened if I refused. 

As far as the 25% payment goes I was told in the notification they sent saying a guest cancelled that I was entitled to the refund and I would see it in my account in 4 weeks. So I think if you dont see that you dont get it.

[Iain121]

I had a very similar situation booking for roughly $2200 they cancelled 2 days before arriving in March 14. 

Not sure how it works with this 25% refund is it just a lottery if you get it? Even if you cover all the criteria to receive it?

[Valerie327]

No email even though I think I meet the criteria. It would be good to have an update as the uncertainty is difficult. Have all the emails gone out and we are not eligible or are they just late? 

[Jay1385]

Hej Jordan, ja det havde jeg! På Engelsk:

Similar situation.

I had a guest who cancelled March 3rd two days before his arrival. He would stay 7 nights.

He asked me to refund him due the corona virus but there were no extenuating circumstances then and although he was an American he was already in Europe. He cancelled and demanded a full refund which I declined. He threatened to contact Airbnb and come up with proof that he was eligible for a refund. In the meantime I got paid according to my strict cancellation policy and paid my bills  After 10 days I got a message from Airbnb that the guest got a full refund because he sent proof that he cancelled under extenuating circumstances. I asked them to show me the proof but they refused and closed the conversation. It took me one month of DM's on Twitter where they totally neglected me. I called them several times and then I contacted a lawyer specialized in Airbnb cases. She said Airbnb should provide me proof of the extenuating circumstances or if not they should pay be back. She also said Airbnb is always measuring with two sizes and they decide one time in a guests favor and the next time in a hosts favor, exactly where they are benefitting from most.

She also said that Airbnb is only a holiday platform (at least that is what they pretend to be) and they should not interfere with the cancellation policy of hosts nor overstep the decision of hosts.

So with this information I called again and explained them what my lawyer had told me. The new casemanager promised his supervisor to contact me. The next day I got a message. The prior casemanager should not have refunded the guest because his proof was not eligible for a full refund so I got my money back!

Don't let yourself overrule and keep on fighting for your right.

They have to send you proof, if they refuse tell them you contacted a lawyer who adviced you.

Put pressure on them.

Also I lost all nu guests due covid-19 and have no income.

Yes 25 % of what I would get after a cancellation which is nothing.

Goodluck! ❤

[Fiona358]

Airbnb don’t care about hosts it’s wrong. I have strict cancellation policy’s on four apartments in london. I am still awaiting my 25% back for May bookings some £7,000.  What are Airbnb doing.

All guest must have there own  travel insurance No one in there right mind travels with out travel insurance. 
airbnb must ask everyone to show proof of travel insurance before booking. 
The billionaires at Airbnb should dip further into there pockets and do the right thing by hosts