COVID-19 , Refunds and Airbnb service Fees

[Jennifer-And-Simon0]

Last week we had a guest cancel at one of our properties. She was coming for her daughters wedding in August, which had now been canceled due to COVID-19. We made a personal decision early on, when this situation started to unfold, that we would to refund all guests who needed to cancel due to the impacts of the pandemic. So we refunded this guest in full at the time she canceled.

Yesterday we received the following message from Airbnb (quoted verbatim):

"We have recently heard from your guest and sadly, they can no longer continue their trip due to the current ongoing global health issues. As such, they are looking to cancel this reservation and get a refund in full.

Your guest has canceled their reservation outside our Extenuating Circumstance policy as such, we are bound to uphold you host cancellation policy.

We understand that situations affecting your guest ability to continue your reservation sometimes occur. In line with this, in light of this ongoing situation we would like to know if you are amenable to provide a full refund to your guest in the spirit of Airbnb.

Kindly respond to this message, so we can further assist you in the process.

Thank you for taking hosting to another level. Your Super host status speaks volume not just for who you are but how you are as a host in our community.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon."

"In the spirit of Airbnb" we checked the booking and saw that we had already given a full refund so we called the guest to find out what was going on. It turned out that Airbnb had not refunded their service fee to the guest, which came to several hundred dollars! The guest had thought that we had pocketed the money and did not realise that it was Airbnb who had kept the money.

So I sent the following reply:

"can you please confirm if Airbnb will also refund their service fees to XXX?"

In response they sent the following and shut the ticket:

"As per the cancellaiton policy she agreed on when she booked the reservation, free cancellation for 48 hours, as long as the guest cancels at least 14 days before check-in. Also, guests can cancel up to 7 days before check-in and get a 50% refund of the nightly rate, and the cleaning fee, but not the service fee.

As such, we are unable to provide her a full refund of the Airbnb fees.

It has been 72 hours and we still have not heard from your guest xxx. As such, we encpurage her to contact us again once they're able to provide documentation. Hence, we are closing this ticket for the time being.

Should you decide to provide a refund please refer to our Resolution Center to issue the funds to your guest."

Am I then only one who is appalled at the hypocrisy of this response?

Airbnb requested that I override my cancellation policy and provide a full refund to my guest "in the spirit of Airbnb" (which I had already done anyway, in the spirit of humanity) and then turn around and refuse to refund the guest their service fees, citing the same cancellation policy!

Is the "spirit of Airbnb" only applicable to hosts and not to Airbnb themselves. I feel that this attitude towards guests and hosts is disgraceful at the best of times but, in the current situation, it is really deplorable. 

I have never posted anything on a forum before but this has upset me so much that I felt I had to voice it somewhere!

[Peggy137]

I had a similar situation. I called, made a fuss and everything was refunded. Sometimes being troublesome works (tho please be kind to customer service people...) just be persistent. Ask to talk to the manager, etc.

[Jana953]

AIRBNB has emailed me stating I will receive 25% of the Covid-19 AIRBNB cancellations. Sounds great, right? The payout will be after my next booking! Really? IMO THAT IS RIDICULOUS!  

[Sharon1014]

@Jana953  Me too.  Email in this morning.

"This support payment will be included in your next scheduled payout to your default payment method." 

Think this is called how to stop hosts de-listing and going to the competition instead.    Using a piddling payment for some far off time in the future that may not happen for another year.  Yeah, big help to hosts atm, not.   You get nothing now and only get the money if you have another Airbnb booking at some vague time in the future.  They must be losing host inventory at a rate of knots to be pulling this fast one.  Certainly doesn't help the corporate bottom line if they have nothing left to sell.

[Diana742]

I had a very similar cancelation request for July.  My guest lives in Canada (we are US) and was sure her ultra marathon would be canceled(Although it hadn’t been yet) and our border is currently closed.  I told her I would agree to a 100% refund if she would cancel in the next several days. My logic was that if she waited until July to cancel, the chances I could rebook the dates would be substantially worse. I also really have no stomach to argue with someone when the world is in this position. I also told her she would need to initiate her cancelation with Air BnB directly and made it clear to her that because she didn’t qualify for the extenuating circumstances I wasn’t sure Airbnb would give her the booking fee back.  She did call them and told me she was advised by Airbnb not to cancel for a week, as they were coming out with a “new policy”... I said fine... I’ll wait a week. Finally she contacted me again to say they they were still advising her to “wait”.  She finally canceled anyway and I got a weird disjointed email like the one you received asking me if I would approve the 100% refund- which I did.  It was incredibly irritating to have Air BnB encourage her to wait to cancel because of some mysterious new policies they were coming up with.  I have no idea if they refunded her fees- now i want to ask her!

[Loretta53]

Has anyone have luck recovering the service fee? My guest was denied her service fee (even a credit) even though the agent said her cancellation should be covered under the policy. She was denied because she was told to cancel by us since the complex was no longer accepting reservations. Yes, I did try to cancel on our end but it said there will be penalties.

[Tim406]

I was already seriously reconsidering my relationship with AirBnB as a result of their unwillingness to expedite refunds for two of my guests who had to cancel due to COVID-19, their reasoning being that only a 'specialized team' was able to process the refund. Utter B.S. - before COVID-19, a quick call to the SuperHost resolution line resulted in almost immediate refunds. They are dragging their feet issuing refunds and using COVID-19 as the excuse, when in reality, all they are doing is making interest off of money they should not have in their possession.

Your story makes me all-the-more convinced I need to sever ties with them.