My story, filing a small claims court on a host because he refuses to refund me for circumstances beyond my control

[Carol6290]

I live in lower Alabama & had a trip planned to Conway Arkansas for my granddaughter's graduation. I booked five days with Old Town Lodge in Conway. I talked back & forth with them. We were set to arrive in Conway on May 20th and leave on May 25th. We had planned to stop half way in Tupelo so we could rest since we're 73. Well at 2:30 a.m on the 20th when we were due to arrive I had a bad seizure which comes with no warning. It ends up causing me to aspirate food into my lungs causing pneumonia & pleurisy. I go through a lot during the seizure & then pass out for a day, sometimes two. These seizures are caused from damage, I had blood clots, from covid which I had in March 2020. My lungs are very scared from it. My husband called the hosts explaining what was going on & telling them he had to turn around and head back home to see my doctor who knows & understands what is happening & how sick I get. I was totally out the whole trip home & that night. I ended up in the hospital two days getting an IV of strong antibiotics.  Then he had a picc line inserted into my upper arm so I could get 14 days of antibiotics straight into the vein. I assumed we could get a refund because of the policy Airbnb has about unforseen extenuating circumstances beyond your control. I certainly qualify. I'm getting little help from Airbnb at all, they offered a $200 coupon for my next stay. Not good enough. I might never book through Airbnb again after this. Well I posted a terrible review on Zach's page explaining what he's done to me & then this morning he sends me an apology of sorts telling me he would give me a full refund & I needed to call Airbnb & tell them to contact him so I did call Airbnb & held for almost 30 minutes before getting a person, told them my story, sent them a copy of the message Zach sent me & now I get a message saying the host refuses to refund me anything out of the $677 I paid him. So can I bring a suit against him & Airbnb through small claims court & if I can, how do I get started on filing it since he is in Arkansas & I'm in Alabama. It's the principle of the thing that gets me. I was robbed basically out of $677 & have no recourse as far as I know. If anybody can help me email me to **. & tell me how to move forward

**[Sensitive information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Lawrene0]

@Carol6290 , what did your travel insurance company say when you asked, though? You seem to be expecting your host to be your insurer. 

Extenuating Circumstances have changed since the pandemic hit because of just that -- hosts were the hapless insurers of anything that might happen to guests.

I booked a stay recently as a guest, and I know that when you book, you agree to the host's cancellation policy and you are shown how to find travel insurance. Thus successfully suing looks unlikely. 

[Emiel1]

@Carol6290 

You posted this story on two other threads in this community.

If you want to apply for a refund due  to "extenuating circumstances", then there are rather strict rules to follow. They are mentioned here:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1339/canceling-a-trip-due-to-extenuating-circumstances

So my question is:

Did you (or your husband) cancel the reservation on the 20th of May with option "extenuating circumstance" ?

 Added

Please note the 'extended circumstances policy' has changed in januari, so illness is no longer a covered event.

Question: did you book the reservation before 20-01-2021 (I remember from this date the policy has changed)

A separate travel insurrance can cover issues like this and it is advised, as mentioned by @Lawrene0 

Depending on  the normal cancellation policy of the host maybe some refund was possible, but then the reservation.must allways be cancelled asap !

[Colleen253]

@ Emiel1, the OP writes " I posted a terrible review on Zach's page explaining what he's done to me..." So, no, the booking was not cancelled by the guest.

@Carol6290 Please take this as a learning experience. Don't assume anything. Always look closely at the details of the cancellation and extenuating circumstances policies before booking, especially if you know you are prone to health issues, and get travel insurance that will cover you for a situation like that in future. It's not the host or Airbnb's fault, what happened, unfortunate though it was. I do hope you are recovered and feeling better.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Carol6290 Unbelievable - You got sick and you expect the host to lose their money. Wow just wow.

[Bob297]

Your travel insurance should refund you.
It's not fair that you expect the host to lose their money

[Sarah977]

@Carol6290  Here is the pertinent info from the Airbnb EC policy, which you have failed to inform yourself of :

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;

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Carol6290  I am sorry what happened to you and I hope you are fine now.

But, you didn't cancel your reservation so your reservation remained active and you were holding his calendar blocked for 5 full nights. Your host was not able to rebook these nights with other guests.  The maximum what you could expect is the "cleaning fee" if your host has charged you one (not all hosts charges a "cleaning fee")

Travel insurance covers such situations, not the host.

[Kelly149]

@Carol6290 you have behaved poorly. Apologize & choose a hotel next time.