DO NOT agree with AirBnB Refund

Brenda934
Level 2
West Kelowna, Canada

DO NOT agree with AirBnB Refund

I have a strict cancellation policy due to Calendar Hijackers.

Anyway I had a booking from a guy who was already in town extending his vacation another day. His rental wasn’t available another day so he booked with me.

He called AirBnB and said he was canceling due to wildfires. He did not contact me. There are wildfires here every summer. It is normal. It’s like booking in Florida during hurricane season. You will probably get some sort of storm. There is a travel advisory but NO TRAVEL BAN. There is no fire near us nor any smoke. Even if there was it’s normal here. 

Im certain he just changed his mind and decided not to extend his vacation after all. 
Airbnb gave him a full refund and notified me afterwards. I am livid. I even sent them their own extenuating circumstances criteria. They closed the file. DO THEY GIVE REFUNDS IN ASPEN FOR SNOW??!! 
So everyone can now cancel by using a wildfire excuse? NO TRAVEL BAN.

2 Replies 2
Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Brenda934 If the BC gov't still has the state of emergency in place (afaik it is), that's what is allowing guests to cancel under the EC policy. Gov't declared states of emergency are covered.

Tamara-And-Ramon0
Level 2
Garden Valley, CA

I agree, we have had the same issue with airbnb and fire season in California.  Government declared states of emergency make no sense as an extenuating circumstance, since at least in the U.S., the governor has to claim a "state of emergency" for an entire county in order for that county and the state to access emergency funds. Doesn't mean there is an actual state of emergency in the entire county. By that reasoning, guests would able to cancel anytime anywhere in California because there is still a "state of emergency" declared by the state due to the Covid-19 pandemic.