Guests cancel their stay, then invoke extenuating circumstances to get full reimbursement because they tested positive to Covid

[Tony40]

Some guests had reserved my place but decided to cancel a week before their stay because of issues with their travel plans. They got reimbursed 50pct as per the strict cancellation rules. They then advised a day later that they tested positive to Covid and asked to invoke the extenuating circumstances to get a full reimbursement, which Airbnb granted them, at my expense. Given they had already cancelled their stay because of some travel issue, how can Airbnb accept later the extenuating circumstances related to Covid to reimburse them fully? Thoughts?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tony40 I suspect this will happen to us before the week is out. A guest cancelled because of the 'growing Omicron threat and due to the imminent government announcement' (that never came). They have requested a full refund but as we have no money from them I suspect they will approach Airbnb with a Covid excuse.

With today's announcement of support to the hospitality sector I suspect a government announcement will come soon after Christmas and cause a lot more hurt. At least the government may soften the blow for those hosts who are properly registered with their local authority (assuming lodgings are included in the support).

[Helen3]

Hello @Mike-And-Jane0  actually the government has never softened the blow for homeshare hosts who haven't been entitled the support offered to hosts with whole listings who could access a range of local authority grants and support. 

This has nothing to do with whether a UK host is 'properly registered' with their local authority but the fact homeshare hosts  pay full council tax,  whereas hosts with whole listing pay business rates  but many pay little or no business rates because of the discounts LA's offer holiday/whole lettings. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Helen3 Fair point on homeshare hosts not getting any help. My point on 'properly registered' was more to do with the many whole home hosts who have not registered as a business and hence can't access the full support available to them. Business rate discounts are not offered on holiday lets per se but rather on small businesses whose rateable value is below £15000.

[Julia3148]

The UK short term accommodation association does not believe FHL will be included in the Omicron business support proposal. So no opportunity to receive a grant for many of us I imagine. 

[Huma0]

@Tony40 

Well, it shouldn't happen, but this doesn't surprise me.

Do you have the discussion with the guest about their reasons for cancelling in writing? Have you contacted Airbnb to dispute this refund? If not, I would have a go. You might not get anywhere, but if it is provable that the guests cancelled prior to taking the COVID test + gave their reasons in writing, you have a case. In theory, they are supposed to provide proof of a positive test, so that should have the date on it...

Any logical person should be able to understand that the EC policy should not apply to guests that have already cancelled citing other reasons, but I am afraid it will totally depend on the CS rep. Some are not so logical/trained in Airbnb policy. You need to directly state the policy back to them.

[Tony40]

Well the Rep I am dealing with seem just unable to override a wrong decision done by their colleagues earlier. Total lack of open and fair customer management.  

[Huma0]

@Tony40 

Ok, so something similar happened to me last year. Airbnb wrongly refunded two separate guests under the COVID EC policy that was in place at the time.

The refunds were against their own policy because:

1. The stays had already started so were not eligible for a refund.

2. The guests were refunded not only for the remainder of the stay (both should have been charged an additional month from cancellation according to the long term cancellation policy) but for nights they already stayed. In one case, the guest was refunded for her entire stay, including the two weeks she had already been there.

This was all due to complete incompetence on Airbnb CS's part but, once the deed was done, they refused to do anything about it. I was repeatedly told that the decision could not be reversed. This is true. Once they have issued the refund to the guests, they are not able to get it back. My account was showing as negative because they were going to deduct from future stays payments for nights that guests had already stayed with me!

I was not willing to put up with this. It took me a long time (one month) and many calls and messages back and forth, but I was like a dog with a bone. I stopped trying to explain the situation to rep after rep, as I just kept getting told that the refunds were within the EC policy. No they weren't! 

Instead, I just kept quoting the policy back to them, namely:

"If a reservation has already begun (the check-in has passed), this extenuating circumstance does not apply."

Over and over. Eventually, they refunded me for both guests (the nights they had stayed + the one month according to the long term policy).

I don't know how much money you have lost or if you feel this is worth your time, but I would persevere. 

[Tony40]

So I searched carefully through the Airbnb site all info related to Covid 19 EC and found out it can only be invoked for bookings which have not been cancelled already. The first reps I talked to told me than even if that was true, the Covid test can be retroactive by 14 days (incubation period) and so would theoretically precedes the first cancellation.  Probably a rule they just made to save their ***. In the end I called them over and over and finally got to speak to a Rep who had some common sense and good reading of their own rules.  They cancelled the EC and applied the host strict cancellation policy. Conclusion: never give up and trust there are still decent people able to make the right decisions.  

[Huma0]

@Tony40 

Well done!

Yes, in cases like these you have to persist. When it's this blooming obvious, you will eventually get through to a rep who understands the policy. It's just very frustrating in the meantime.

[M223]

I just lost $1800 when a guest cancelled citing positive covid test result day before New Years Eve. 

I hope travel insurance will come out with a new product soon that can cover hosts' losses in the event of cancellation, since the guests are not made to shoulder any part of this. That will be a very helpful tool to all of us here. 

[Julia3148]

Me too. I’ve lost £2,000. I pushed very hard with Airbnb as I believe some of the guests could have come and indeed they messaged me to say they wanted to but couldn’t work out how to refund the 2 who were unwell. What a surprise, the guests then all said they had  come into contact with the 2 Covid cases. Airbnb did not even bother to discuss a compromise / solution with the guests - they just agreed a full refund. 

[Sybe]

Hey @Tony40 and everyone,

I hope you're all doing well! I just wanted to let you know that some changes have been made to the COVID-19 Extenuating Circumstances policy recently. If you haven't seen it yet, you can find the changes here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Update-to-our-approach-for-guests-sick-with-COVID...