Guest with Covid advised by Airbnb not to cancel?

[Heather133]

Has anyone else experienced this? Yesterday our guests due to check in for a stay tomorrow let us know someone who is supposed to be joining them has tested positive for Covid and they would like a full refund. Obviously I told them I'm sorry someone in their group is sick. After that I asked them to cancel the reservation immediately so that we might have a slim chance of booking a last minute guest for this reservation that they have held since August. I told them that they should then contact Airbnb for an extenuating circumstances refund, because the guest having Covid qualifies.

As of this morning they still have not canceled. The guest wrote to me that they have uploaded the Covid test result and they were told by Airbnb customer service that they should not cancel the reservation until the refund is approved. Is this really Airbnb's policy? How would this help anyone? We are losing revenue from a peak weekend rental, Airbnb will get nothing, guest will get a full refund either way. 

The guest has told us they are not coming. Shouldn't the first thing the Airbnb support person tells the guest be "Please cancel your reservation immediately."? 

[Colleen253]

@Heather133 "Shouldn't the first thing the Airbnb support person tells the guest be "Please cancel your reservation immediately."? "

Sigh. Yes, of course! It's a mixed bag with customer circus, isn't it. No one at any level seems to be in possession of one shred of knowledge about any policy or how to  handle any situation. I do despair, and wonder when things will ever improve.

Thank your lucky stars you didn't get your listing suspended by the same nincompoop who answered the phone on this one. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/My-listings-are-suspended-because-a-guest-Cancelled-due-to-...

[Heather133]

Oh wow! Okay, thanking lucky stars now!

[Heather133 · Accepted solution]

Update - I spoke to a customer support person at Airbnb this morning. I am very pleased with the outcome. We had a good phone connection. I was able to understand her easily. She stated what she perceived my issue to be. I clarified. She seemed genuinely sympathetic and told me what she intended to do about it and the timeframe she would do it in. She didn't sound as if she was reading from a script and she thanked me for being a great host without sounding like it was a platitude. Before I knew it she had contacted the guest and canceled their reservation. By the time she circled back to me (which was very quickly) I was able to secure a reservation for two of the three nights. I look forward to leaving her a great review. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Debra300]

@Heather133,

For clarification, is the person who tested positive listed as one of the guests in the reservation?  I unsure, because your post reads like the infected person is a visitor of the registered guest.  If the registered guest isn't the person with the positive result, and it also seems like they've not been in recent physical contact with each other, I don't understand why a full refund would be warranted.

@Colleen253,

To me it seems like the Airbnb team is actually applying some due diligence in accessing if the cancellation meets the extenuating circumstances criteria, and haven't told the guest to cancel yet, because doing so may infer that the guest will get a refund.  I had a guest cancel two days before their Christmas day arrival and requested a refund due to a positive test result from the prior week.  I contacted Airbnb CS, and they in turn reached out to the guest.  I don't know what transpired other than the guest canceled the reservation, and I was paid for the stay.