Covid-19 cancellation Airbnb will not refund

[Jo86]

Reservation made December 2019.  Booking was for early May 2020 in NYC.  Airline has cancelled flights from Australia due to covid-19.  Literally can not travel.  Host will not issue refund.  Airbnb claim it is not an “extenuating circumstance” will not issue full refund of $800AUD.   What’s the next step here?  I’m thinking the Ombudsman?  So disappointed with Airbnb right now.  

[Gordon0]

Your situation sounds like it would fall within the E/C policy, but your travel insurance should fix, surely, @Jo86?

[Jo86]

Thanks @Gordon0 , travel insurance do not cover cancellations that are due to a pandemic.

[Liz3731]

I had a similar situation with my booking. I booked in January for April 29 I’m key west. Travel restrictions. I cancelled within the 30 day policy. The host only refunded a portion of the amount. There is no formal complaint process with Airbnb. They don’t care. The host can do whatever they want and rip off the consumer 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jo86 

When did you cancel? If it was before Airbnb defined the extenuating circumstances situation then it may not apply. I am recommending guests wait and see if Airbnb extend the payouts before they cancel their reservations.

[Jo86]

Thanks @Mike-And-Jane0 . Canceled after 14th but before 31st March.  You’re probably right, it was before they defined the extenuating circumstances.  But surely, when it meets all the criteria within the reactive extenuating policy, it was just completed before they uploaded the details to their website, how can they dismiss it?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

HI @Jo86 

When I look in the summary of the extenuating circumstances policy with respect to Corona Virus I see the following (my italics):

Cancellations will be handled according to the extenuating circumstances coverage  in effect at the time of submission.

I think this means that your cancellation will not be refunded automatically. I suggest you go back to the original EC policy and see if you can demonstrate that travel is impossible. sorry I cannot get the link in here but its on the Airbnb website.

Alternatively a lot of hosts have lost 100% of their income, are struggling, and do not feel that guests should be refunded at 100% . Another group of hosts, struggling or not, feel that they should not charge for something they have not delivered even though they have money tied up in the property. I have no idea of your position or your hosts position both of which are clearly personal to each party.

Hope this helps