Extenuating Circumstances Policy and Road Closures due to Snow in a Ski Area.

[Donna622]

The road to my home (267) has been closed for a couple of days as have many other roads (80) in Tahoe.   My renter can't make it there and we looked into the extenuating circumstances policy.  

An Airbnb representative called me and ask me to cancel the reservation or change the dates.  She said it qualified as an extenuating circumstance.  I asked her two things. 1) Why did it qualify? Note: it is a snow storm at a Ski Resort and road closures happen in the winter in the same way that hurricanes happen in Florida and 2) Is that anyway that I could get any part of my payout in this situation?   She said, she didn't know why it qualified and that I would not get any payout.  Her role was to facilitate the cancellation so would not have adverse consequences.

I decided I was better off talking to my renter than involving her at that moment. 

After a half hour and still no change in the road situation,  I called in to Airbnb to cancel the reservation.  The renters had already missed 2 days of their vacation.  When I called in,  that Airbnb person said that it did not qualify as an extenuating circumstance and apologized for the previous Airbnb person.  

I cancelled and was told that there would not be any adverse consequences. 

So back to my original question:  

1) Do road closures to get into my house qualify as extenuating circumstances? 

2) If this happens again is there anyway that I can keep my payout? 

My new question:

Is there anything I can do now?

Many thanks in Advance. 

Donna

[Emiel1]

@Donna622 

If it is not an extenuating circumstance, then the guest can cancel the reservation and will be refunded according to your cancellation policy.

If it qualifies as an extenuating circumstance, then the guest can cancel and have full refund.

Why did you cancel ? It is not your fault if guests are facing a issue with the infrastructure due to weather conditons which (as you mentioned) are not exceptional for your region.

That's what travel inssurance is for, even offered by/via Airbnb:

Understanding-our-updated-extenuating-circumstances-policy-265

[Donna622]

Thank you for your response Emiel. 

I cancelled because Airbnb called and asked me to and because Airbnb couldn't provide me with the information you just did.  

If I had that information in hand I would have told the guest to cancel and suggest that they seek reimbursement via the Extenuating Circumstances Policy.   I explicitly asked Airbnb if there was any way that I could keep my payout.   

I do think that a road closure is a binding travel advisory and it should qualify as an extenuating circumstance.

What events are covered:

Government travel restrictions. Travel restrictions imposed by a governmental agency that prevent or prohibit traveling to, staying at, or returning from the Listing location. This does not include non-binding travel advisories and similar government guidance.

I wonder if I can do anything now.  I really feel that I was lead in the wrong direction.   I think what happened is that my guest called in about the extenuating circumstance policy, was assured of coverage due to the road being closed and then Airbnb called and asked me to cancel from my side. 

Donna

[Donna622]

It's so hard with Airbnb 'ambassadors' but I having just called in, again, I was told that if an extenuating circumstance happens, the payout will be removed from my account.  I was told that there are no circumstances where I would keep my payout.   I passed the Airbnd person your link after she passed me the one I had read several times.  I asked "Why did we get EVER get partial help from Airbnb for covid".   She said "it happened suddenly"  which I consider little different than a road closure.   The hosts will have the money removed from their payout for the extenuating circumstance so you might as well cancel. 

Please let me know if I am still not understanding this. 

I really don't love Airbnb.  I think they couldn't be less supportive of their hosts.  They are just a platform that has gained a lot of the market and they take 18% for making connections. 

[Quoc19]

I booked a place in Reno but couldn't drive to reno due to i-80 closure.  I am trying to recover my money but airbnb argue it is not extenuating circumstances.  

I am really confused as what options did i have as i was physically prevented from getting there.

My problem is opposite to yours but i find airbnb not very helpful and understanding.  

[Colleen253]

@Quoc19 It’s clearly outlined below what qualifies,

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/1320/extenuating-circumstances-policy

Why don’t you claim on your travel insurance? Your Airbnb host shouldn’t be expected to cover your travel issues. 

[Quoc19]

@Colleen253 well the document isnt as clear as you claim.  It talks about common weather conditions which is very subjective.

We had a snow storm that broke a 50 years record. Is that common or not?

[Colleen253]

@Quoc19 A road closure due to a snow storm wouldn’t be a covered event. Unless there was a Government-declared local emergency at the time. If it was, and you showed the proof to Airbnb, you would have been covered.

You’re grasping at straws here. If it was a covered event, you would have been refunded accordingly. Do you realize that that refund would have come from the hosts pocket, not Airbnb’s? Why would you expect them to be your insurance policy? I guess you also don’t realize that for less than the cost of your Airbnb service fee, you could have purchased a travel insurance policy that would have saved you in this circumstance.

[Quoc19]

Where did you see I am asking my host to be the issurer @Colleen253 ?

Isn't it my rights to try to use the policy?  Given the verbiage of the policy is vague and things are never black& white, I am asking here for prior cases.  If you haven't experienced it, why are you even commenting on this thread?

[Sabrina1017]

@Colleen253  Why do you think a road closure is not a covered event?

This is what is stated under the extenuating circumstances policy:

Government travel restrictions. Travel restrictions imposed by a governmental agency that prevent or prohibit traveling to, staying at, or returning from the Listing location. This does not include non-binding travel advisories and similar government guidance.

A road closure prevents traveling to & from the destination.  In this storm, all alternate routes had road closures as well, making traveling to the area impossible.

Also, there was a state of emergency declared for this snow storm: https://twitter.com/GovSisolak/status/1476044774612209669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%... 

Even though I shared the state of emergency declaration with Airbnb, I've been declined a refund and I'm trying to understand why.

[Sarah977]

@Sabrina1017  Because Airbnb customer service reps are clueless. If it's an official closure making it impossible to get to your destination, with no alternate routes, you should be covered by submitting the documention.

You'll have to be persistent.

[Colleen253]

@Sabrina1017 As I said, unless a gov’t declared local state of emergency is in effect.

[Mark116]

Isn't there some language in the guidelines that talks about foreseeable events, like you are not covered for traveling in hurricane season if you can't make it to your destination due to a hurricane.  A ski weekend where the road is closed due to snow might not be covered as something that would have been easily foreseeable.  

What is not covered

Everything else. This Policy only allows for cancellations for the Events described above. Everything else is excluded. Examples of situations that this Policy does not allow cancellations for include: unexpected disease, illness, or injury; government obligations like jury duty, court appearances or military duties; travel advisories or other government guidance (that fall short of a travel ban or prohibition); cancellation or rescheduling of an event for which the reservation was made; and transportation disruptions unrelated to a covered Event like road closures, as well as flight, train, bus and ferry cancellations. If you cancel a reservation in these cases, the amount refunded will be determined by the cancellation policy that applies to the reservation.

[Sabrina1017]

In this situation, what is foreseeable vs. not foreseeable is unclear.

Winter storms and snow are common in the area, but this storm broke records (214" of snow for December.  The previous record was 179" in 1970).  This resulted in road closures that lasted days with no estimated time of reopening.  When there were short periods of time when the roads were open, they'd close again because passenger cars and big rigs would spin out and block the road, trees and power lines would fall, and there was an avalanche that blocked the 89.  Even locals hadn't seen this much snow in 20+ years (https://twitter.com/geewhizpat/status/1475835878618456067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%...) 

[Donna622]

Does anyone know where the money come from if it is a covered event: the Airbnb host or Airbnb corporation?

Any idea on the timing to qualify as extenuating ?  The highways in California (80, 267, 50) were closed on December 26 - 29.  Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency on December 30.  

Is there a high level person in Airbnb who can sort this out?  These ambassadors are not good at all. 

Two days into my weeklong reservation December 28th, I was called by Airbnb and asked to cancel and refund the guest.  I was told it was an extenuating circumstance.  I did that and lost 7K. 

I had a reservation on the 26th who could not make 

Governor Newsom