Request a refund after alteration of a longterm booking as a guest

[劉曼堃0]

I am here to make a complaint and request a refund.

I booked a long-term stay from 30 September to 30 October 2022. When I arrived, I found the place extremely noisy - more than 70 decibels from early morning until 4 am to the morning). It is next to several streets of bars, at the nexus of several major roads with very heavy traffic. I could not sleep or work or make phone calls or meetings in that place. The washing machine leaks water and the flat was flooded.

So I altered (shorten) the booking from 30 September to 2 October, just to give me enough time to move to a hotel. The host accepted the alteration and the booking was changed to 30 Sep to 2Oct. I did not get a refund automatically so I called Airbnb. They explained for long-term stays I can only get a refund if the host agrees. And there is nothing they can do to help with further negotiation.

My points of complaint here:

1) Why does Airbnb do not require hosts to offer information about the sound environment? My booking is in HK, a very busy city. The platform should take this into consideration. Regulations and design of service can be changed and adapted. Airbnb should take my case seriously and make effort to bring changes. In fact, my miserable experience was partly caused by the flaw in the design of the platform, I would say. It is also difficult to judge the environment based on the vague location of the place we can know before making the booking.

2) The refund policy for alteration of long-term stay protects only the host but not the guest. This is not fair. So second fault of the platform. I am not even staying in the place, but still do not get refunded for even the water and electricity bill.

3) If you check the booking record of my host, before my original stay period and after it, the place is not booked the majority of the time. Airbnb should calculate the probability of someone booking the place if I did not book it. If the chance is lower than 50%, I should get a full refund.

4) I am psychologically and physically damaged by this experience. Both because of the noise pollution, lack of sleep, and the time wasted on communicating with customer service persons who only passively mediated between the host and me. I request Airbnb give my case serious consideration. Refund policies and regulations are designed by this platform and can be adapted by it. Please do help me. If not, I will turn to other channels for help.  

[Emiel1]

@劉曼堃0 

For "long term stay" reservations the "long term stay cancellation policy" is applied by default, which you have accepted at time of booking. 

The policy does not refund the next 30 nights if the reservation is cancelled or shortened by the guest.

If the reservation is shortened or cancelled by the host, then some refund (if shortened, decided by the host)  or full refund (if cancelled) will apply.

However:

If there is a "travel issue", then you should have followed this procedure:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3028/travel-issues-eligible-for-refunds

and get refunded because of this.

[Helen744]

Hi mk , we are not Airbnb , so cannot do anything except offer advice . Go back to the Airbnb site and try and get throughto them .H

[Gillian166]

@劉曼堃0  we are mostly hosts here so we are of not much use. 

did you take photos of the "flooding"
if you are psychologically damaged by being in a noisy place, i'm unsure how you are going to cope with walking the streets of Hong Kong....... good luck with using that as a strategy. I personally would be way too embarrassed to suggest that a 3 day stay in a noisy place (in Hong Kong!!) "damaged me". I meanI get it, most of Asia is ovecrowded and noisy beyond belief, and can drive you a bit bonkers if you're not used to it. but, Resilience my friend, it's a thing. take a deep breath, stay calm, and try again. 
you agreed to the refund policy when you booked, did you even read it to understand the details? I understand you want to cancel because the listing was inaccurate,  you need to provide proof of that. Did you take photos and videos proving the noise? 
how are you being charged for water and electricity?? is that a sep agreement between you and the host? 
finally, you could ask the host to give you a refund if they are able to re-book the space.

good luck!

[劉曼堃0]

"If you are psychologically damaged by being in a noisy place, i'm unsure how you are going to cope with walking the streets of Hong Kong......."

- we don't sleep on the street, do we? Walking on a street is one thing, sleeping on a bed shaking by the noise penetrating the wall and floor is another thing.

"Resilience my friend, it's a thing. take a deep breath, stay calm, and try again."

- I hope you are able to do the same if you encounter the same situation if ever.

I don't understand why you even bother to reply since you obviously are not able to offer any constructive suggestions. Perhaps you want to show you know better as a host and are more than comfortable to patronizing a guest. 

The question is simply: why am I paying a huge amount of money for nothing? Just because of the policy made by a company? Airbnb's regulations and policies are not law. I am just asking for an investigation into the case and see if there is room to revise the policy. Obviously, it risks the benefit of hosts like you.

[Helen744]

@劉曼堃0 MK We are hosts yes but not the host with whom you have an issue , so a little less rudeness would be better. We advise only but Gillian has pointed out to you that 'proof ' is needed and that there are rules and policies, which you signed , and if you need to talk to Customer service then we are not it . We are all individuals and through out the world,you will need to explain to Airbnb that you were not made aware by your host of 'the level of noise'.when asking for a refund , but another tenet is that you have to leave the property , you cannot stay and still expect a refund . And take it up with Airbnb again , not here. The flooding would indeed need a photograph. Airbnb cannot decide when it is 'he said she said.  We do not support bad hosts . H

[劉曼堃0]

My situation is I altered the booking to make it a two-day booking (just gave myself enough time to move into a hotel). My host accepted the alteration and started leasing the place out from the day I checked out. Because of the setting of the Airbnb platform based on their refund policy, I do not get a refund automatically. My host refused to negotiate. This is why I am saying I paid huge money for nothing (30-day rent).

I just don't think this is reasonable and wish to appeal to Airbnb to follow the case. And of course, I know you are not my host or the customer service. I am just posting here because this is a public forum I decided to turn to when Airbnb customer service failed to respond to my request. 

PS. I did not use any discriminative language while you are speaking in patronizing tone