HELP ADVICE please extenuating circumstances wrongly paid to HOST

[Rowena29]

Hi everyone,

I'd like your advice please.

I recently asked one of my guests to cancel her booking for 13 - 15 April.

If she had come, she would have been violating our  states essential travel only restrictions.

I assured her that she could cancel without any penalty as she fell within the covid 10 extenuating circumstances penalty free period - 

She booked in mid February. Her stay was for  13 - 15 April.

She cancelled today.

I got a message from airbnb saying and I quote 

"

According to your cancellation policy, your payout has been updated to $676.90 AUD. Your guest was refunded $0.00 AUD.

This payout will be released 24 hours after the check-in date. You can review the updated payout in your Transaction History.

You can also refund the full amount to the user by clicking the button below.  

  I dont' understand. Am I missing something here?

I realise I can click the refund in full button, but I thought the whole point to this policy was that guests were automatically refunded

Is there a trap to this? 

I'm really perplexed

[Tammy80]

Airbnb is really starting to suck. I received two 3 starreviews out of well over 100 5 stars. They took my super host status away.  I clearly state in my post  we may or may not see each other because I am very busy. The first guest expected the red carpet reception, stating she never met the host and one of the other guest had to direct her, if she had read the entire post she would have had answers to everything she questioned the very next guest had all kinds of nice things to say but still gave an overall rating of 3. I think she was going by what the previous review. They were both first time Airbnbers, most of my guest are new to Airbnb. Because of those 2 reviews it dropped my score to 4.7.  I am sure that I am one of very few that has a guest right now but Airbnb don't care all they want is the money I'll make them while their business has been greatly affected by the Coronavirus 19.

[Anonymous]

@Tammy80   I think you might have accidentally posted in the wrong thread? 

[Tommy150]

ABB generally isn't good at their policies or consistency - including mobile vs. web page features and experience.  Now they're OVERWHELMED b/c of COVID/Pandemic so things are a sh*tshow - just refund it and move forward.  Apologize to the guest and say I received a notification you'd receive a full refund and for some reason Airbnb did not process it correctly.  (We, as hosts, have no control over payment processing.)

I have submitted a request for a full refund for you... etc. etc. 

[Louise0]

The problem is that if a Host does refund the guest in circumstances such as Rowena's then Rowena is no longer entitled to the 25% of the cancellation fee that Airbnb will pay to hosts under the newly announced $250m helping hosts fund.

[Susan17]

@Rowena29

Do you have a strict cancellation policy? 

[Rowena29]

I do @Susan17 but  for weeks I have been reading hosts complaining that the covid  extenuating circumstances policy completely overwrote any cancellation policy  with no communication - guests could just cancel willy nilly with no discussion/communication.

I thought the airbnb 25%  refund of whatever your cancellation policy is that Chesky is offering was a response to the fact that airbnb made this decision unilaterally? and was over riding all the cancellation policies?

I

The only thing I can think is like @Gordon0 suggested she didn't select because of covid as her reason - except I think she did

I think I'm going to sit tight for the moment unless she tells me she;s been told she won't get a refund. I can just imagine getting another email on the day of check in contradicting the first one

I'm also sufficiently cynical to suspect that if it's me that selects the issue refund button, this will exclude me from the offer of the 25% compensation  - as I "elected" to give the refund.

All very confusing and as typical of airbnb, not consistent

[Susan17]

Hi @Rowena29

I"ve lost count of the number of similar instances sent to me in the past week - guests who absolutely should qualify for COVID/EC policy, not being issued the refunds, and the ball somehow ending up back in the host's court

It's taken a while to figure it out because the whole thing is such a convoluted mess but patterns do start to emerge, eventually. What appears to be happening is that guests who are requesting their refunds in cash, rather than vouchers, are running into all sorts of obstacles (too many variations to go into here).

One of the main issues seems to be that many guests are being refused their refunds under the COVID/EC because they haven't provided documentation - but most of them don't realise they even need to do that, as it's not made clear to them (neither by the notifications they're seeing on their side, nor by the CX agents they're dealing with) The guests aren't given the reasons why they're being refused, they're just being funnelled towards the hosts instead, with the following wording..

Unfortunately, after reviewing your reservation details, we're able to confirm that this reservation does not fall within our COVID-19 extenuating circumstances policy.

We know that this is not the outcome you were hoping for, but any refund outside of your host's cancellation policy would be at their discretion. We strongly advise you to reach out to your host through the message thread and explain your situation. You can also directly request a refund from your host by using our Resolution Centre.

This typically results in the host getting messages - sometimes polite, often not -  from the guest, requesting/demanding the host makes them whole. Usually, these are accompanied by an email from Airbnb that includes one version or another of the "Issue Full Refund" button.

Your situation has a slightly different twist however because this cancellation is within 7 days of arrival, which also excludes the guest from the COVID/EC policy and once again, routes the guest back to the host, leaving it up to the host to issue the full refund.

Your cynicism is justified, by the way. Whilst my efforts to get a straight answer from Airbnb on this have been in vain, all the evidence I've seen so far certainly does seem to suggest that clicking that "Issue Full Refund" button, counts as a "mutual cancellation" and precludes you from receiving your 12.5%.

Are you seeing a "Decline" button at all? Some do, some don't. Best option is to phone CX, ask them to issue the full refund to your guest. but get it in writing from them that you'll be receiving your 12.5%. And check with your guest afterwards to make sure they have received the full amount they were due. 

[Susan17]

@Rowena29

Airbnb Promises Full Refunds For Coronavirus Cancellations, But Guests Say It's Not That Simple

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/07/airbnb-guests-complain-its-hard-to-get-coronavirus-refunds.html

[Rowena29]

Thanks so much for your advice @Susan17 

I've never heard a whisper of any - of this - no one in my local community seems to have experienced it - guests not getting the refund I mean - there are bitter complaints about guests beign allowed to cancel outside of the appropriate period and bitter complaints about the way it was handled - hosts get an automatic cancellation with the message "unfrotuantely due to the incident at XXXX (hosts's suburb inserted here) we've had to cancel our reservation.  The cancellation has been immediate, complete, no discussion.

this is exactly what I expected, and wanted. I assured the guest there would be no issue getting a full refund - I genuinely  thought it would be plain sailing

I knew I should qualify for the 25% of whatever I was due based on my cancellation policy, but was aware i might not actually receive it as airbnb are hopeless in my experience.

To answer your question there is no option to decline, just an "issue a full refund" button

My guest has not contacted me to say she is not getting a refund.

This was to be my last ever guest at this listing. We have tentants due to begin their lease on 28 April. I'll believe it when they move in and pay the bond.   (this had absolutely nothing to do with covid or bushfires our long term plan was always to tennant.)  Kind of appropriate that airbnb bugger up once again just as I'm leaving to create an even more cynical feelign if that were possible.    I was under the impression that the phones had been switched off for the time being.  Either way, until my guests complain I'm going to sit tight.  Possibly whether I do or dont' hit the issue full refund button I've lost out on the 25% option - because I'll be told that I had the power to decide -  part of me wonders if it's accidentally on purpose.       We may STR our railway carriage next to our home when we get it finished.  I"ve had our current house listed on airbnb, booking.com and homeaway . I've had almost no bookings since October last year so no reason to be particularly bitter with any platform about cancellations and how they've handled things. I"ve been a disinterested observer so to speak.  Airbnb hands down have handled things the worst.  Hell even booking.com has shown more consideration.  Not saying anything you dont already know......    My laptop is playing up so I'm going to have to shut down for the moment...

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

imho, not to panic @Rowena29 

I've had guests cancel with my full permission during our forest fires. This is the way it has always and consistently been handled in my experience. Just consent to the refund and it will be taken care of. 

[Gordon0]

It may be that they didn't follow the COVID-19 process, @Rowena29?

[Christine1]

@Rowena29 . 

I'm  so sleepy iwrite in dot points. 

Who knows, life's a mystery. Send her a refund and generate a help request to also have her booking  fee refunded.

You" re  a good egg. 

Regards Christine 

[Sally221]

Just make sure that airbnb doesn't then issue the guest a refund out of your pocket, they didn't have it together before the pandemic & things have slid since then! Best of luck & health!

[Rowena29]

@Sally221  -  i hear you - that is PRECISELY why i haven't it the refund the guest in full button.

I asked the guest to let me know if she didn't' receive a refund and have heard nothing.

I can't just envisage a situation where i refund based on that email, then airbnb  does it again - at my expense - at check in.  I"ve not been hosting all that long - about 18 months - but I've been on the receiving end of a spectacular number of stuff ups,  all system generated,  rarely  corrected, so i've learned to be very wary and very cynical.  Stay safe also..and thanks for the advice..