Unintentional booking cancellation

[Mengen1]

Airbnb does not protect their guests at all and have ridiculous policies to protect hosts. I booked a 3 week stay by accident and I only recieved 50 percent of my cash back (around 700 euros) after I requested cancellation within 1 MINUTE. It's ridiculous, I'm a student and I cannot risk to loose this amount of money. And Airbnb customer service are very much useless. I'm extremely disappointed in this company and how they run things and all their unjustified policies.

Is there something I can do? The host isn't replying at all and Airbnb representative says they have contacted the host and does not want to return a full refund.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Mengen1 @Sylvie1386  Morally and legally are two different terms.

Morally, the host should refund the money if the booking was a mistake and canceled immediately.

Legally, you agreed to Airbnb TOS and the host's cancellation policy and then booked by your own mistake bc of your own negligence or haste. It happens and you have my sympathy but I don't believe you could win on the court.

For consolation.... due to one second of inattention people lose their lives. You only lost some money.

[Sylvie1386]

I agree with you : there is a legal contract and there is a moral contract. You are right. 
you are right also when you say that my daughter has very little chance to win….but maybe the Cie will get scared when receiving this formal notice ? 
I’m also extremely desapointed with Airbnb. I will never use that platform anymore. 

[Anonymous]

@Sylvie1386 on the balance of things, it sounds best for everyone that you don't continue using Airbnb. It's one thing if the Hilton loses some money over a kid's dumb mistake, but you seem determined to mess with an individual's livelihood to shield your daughter from any sense of personal responsibility, and this is not a quality that any host wants in their guests. 

[Sylvie1386]

I can see that it makes people talk.... on how to raise children ......with an individual's livehood....sense of personal responsability......blablabla....

And how about this big Investment company who makes big money ? Oh, poor them, they loose money, they are very rich! Poor them ! Let's pray for these poor host ! 

[Huma0]

@Sylvie1386 

Your daughter's case and @Mengen1 's case sound very similar, but to me they are quite different.

Both booked by mistake and both were refunded according to the cancellation policy they agreed to. Both think it's unfair.

However

@Mengen1 says she realised her mistake and asked to cancel straight away. While the host had no obligation to refund her any additional funds outside of the cancellation policy, personally I would have refunded her if she truly messaged minutes later, even if it was for a last minute booking because the chances of me having gotten another booking for those same dates in the space of a few minutes is possible, but pretty slim. I have lost nothing.

Your daughter, on the other hand didn't realise her mistake until nine days into the stay. It's not just a case of accidentally clicking on book without realising. As mentioned below, everything is clearly shown in the booking process and you have to confirm if you want to proceed. Plus, Airbnb then sends guests confirmation of the booking. It's crystal clear. It's quite likely she was sent further messages, e.g. check in instructions, prior to the stay.

The host probably checked up on your daughter after nine days because she was not responding to previous messages. By this point, it was likely too late for the host to rebook the other dates. The listing was reserved (and the calendar blocked) for that entire month for your daughter. Even if other guests had been interested, the listing would not have showed up in the search results. The host would have lost a month of income and perhaps expenses such as cleaning.

It really doesn't matter if the host is a big company and your daughter a student. If she is able to book on Airbnb, i.e. she is an adult, then she needs to pay for her mistakes, not expect someone else to. If she had accidentally booked two flights and not boarded one of them, do you think the airline would refund her? Sure, they might refund her the return flight, but only within the booking terms, i.e. a non-refundable flight means non-refundable.

We all make mistakes, e.g. I often forget to cancel subscriptions, but I don't then expect to be refunded. I just bear the cost of my mistake. That's life. 

[Sylvie1386]

Everything you wrote is true, but………..

there is a legal contract and a moral or ethical contract. 
being a rich company, making lots of money with 11 apartments buildings to rent for Airbnb, I wouldn’t sleep well thinking that I earn that money doing nothing apart from investing money while a young student is struggling to work and study at the same time to pay back to this rich company. 
On my death bed, lying sick and powerless, I would not be proud of myself and I wouldn’t dye in peace. 
But everything you said is right and I agree with all your arguments.

[Huma0]

@Sylvie1386 

The grass always looks greener on the other side. 

Hosting involves a lot more than simply investing money. It takes time and a great deal of organisation to manage even one Airbnb, let alone 11 apartment buildings. There are also expenses to be considered. There seems to be a common misapprehension amongst many guests that Airbnb hosts are 'making money for nothing'. Nope. Not the case.

Even if we are just talking about investment, what is that? When someone has invested in a business, you don't know what they had to do to make or raise the money to do so. You don't know what they owe to the mortgage providers, banks, investors. You don't know their profit margin - speaking of which, hosts lost an extraordinary amount of money due to the pandemic.

Don't assume that just because someone has 11 apartment buildings that they are 'filthy rich'. They could be in a huge amount of debt due to COVID and struggling to pay off high interest, emergency loans that they had to take out to keep their business afloat. You don't know their personal history, how many people depend on them (their families, their staff, the families of their staff). 

Before making sweeping statements about a complete stranger's morality, have a think about that.

Also, being successful doesn't automatically make you somehow immoral. You don't know what blood, sweat and tears that person might have put in to get where they are now. Successful people are also usually organised, forward planners. Successful people learn from their past mistakes, rather than trying to blame others. 

Your daughter has lost money, but hopefully she has gained a life lesson and won't make the same mistake again. 

[Sylvie1386]

I presume that all the persons that wrote their opinion about this issue are host. That’s why they identified so easily with the host. 
« Thé host are rich and richer than my daughter because I have their home address and I know where they live and it’s not a rat’s hole, but a palace ! 
The name of the company is « ….Investment inc »…..so I presume that they are not on Welfare. 
They have 5 employees. It’s a big business. 
A lot of mayors all around the wold don’t like Airbnb because they rent houses and appartements to tourism while the local people have difficulty finding housing in their own town. This specially the case with Venise, and now in my own town Montreal. 
so you think that I’m going to cry for the poor businessmen who works so hard trying to organisé Airbnb for a living ? 
Come on …..

[Mark116]

@Sylvie1386  You seem very bitter, and I'm sorry for that.  But not everyone is a match for Airbnb, sometimes the rules are too much, or people are not able to understand them or follow them, such as your daughter, apparently.  Thankfully there are hotels all over the world that provide a different experience and type of service.

[Huma0]

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@Sylvie1386 wrote:

A lot of mayors all around the wold don’t like Airbnb because they rent houses and appartements to tourism while the local people have difficulty finding housing in their own town. This specially the case with Venise, and now in my own town Montreal. 

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And yet, your daughter still chose to use Airbnb and she chose to book with 'XYZ Investment Inc' instead of a small, home host. Mmm. So Airbnb is okay when it suits your purposes (or your family's), but not okay when your daughter messes up and expects someone else to pay the price?

Yes, sure I am a host, but I have also been a guest. I would never dream of expecting a host to reimburse me in the situation you have described and that's because I can see both sides of the story and not just ME, ME, ME!!!! Poor ME!! I also take responsibility for my own mistakes. I don't believe that everyone else owes ME something, and disregard that I chose to enter into a binding contract.

Five employees for 15 apartment blocks? Oh wow. That's a lot! They must be sitting around eating strawberries and cream and drinking champagne instead of working their backsides off to make a living. So, the host, who has built up a substantial business has more money than your student daughter? Outrageous! What a sin! How dare he! Why is he not living in a rat's hole??!!!

@Sylvie1386 

Do you have any idea of how your arguments are coming across? Yes, you are getting responses (reality checks, I would call them) from hosts, but I don't see a load of guests jumping to your daughter's defence either.

Your argument is not logical. It's just bitter. How dare anyone else get paid for the service they provide (and yes they did provide it. It was cleaned, ready and prepared and waiting for her for nine days while the host probably lost the potential to rent it elsewhere, not to mention the admin that goes into it). Still, your daughter is apparently entitled to everything for free, just because it's what you/she wants.

Your argument is the embodiment of ENTITLEMENT. I, and others, have tried to rationally explain to you the other side of the argument, but at this point I really give up.

[Sarah977]

@Sylvie1386  "so you think that I’m going to cry for the poor businessmen who works so hard trying to organisé Airbnb for a living ?"

You are sure good at twisting things around irrelevantly. No one expects you to cry for the host. (FYI a great many hosts also are not supportive of housing being bought up by investors for the sole purpose of renting out short term).

Your daughter is expected to accept the terms under which she booked, just like everyone else.  But you seemingly expect others to willingly accept the negative consequences of her lack of responsibilty.

[Sarah977]

@Sylvie1386  How do you know how "rich" the host is? Do you have access to their financial records? You are presuming things you can't have any knowledge of.

What about your daughter's "ethical" contract? Her mistake resulted in the dates being blocked on the host's calendar, so they couldn't be rebooked. Somehow you seem to think that's okay and the host should be totally willing to give up some of their livelihood.

Back in March 2020, when Airbnb cancelled all hosts' reservations due to Covid, it was the multi-property investment-type hosts who were screaming the loudest. Far from being rich, they couldn't afford to keep all their properties or pay their staff- they had no savings to cover even one month without bookings.

[Mark116]

@Sylvie1386  .  Am I understanding  correctly, that your daughter booked for apprx. a month, and never arrived or cancelled for more than a week, until contacted by the host?  You should consider yourselves lucky she got any refund at all.  A 'mistake' is when you book and within a few minutes realize you made some error in the calendar or listing and immediately try to rectify.  

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Quite.

I have guests who have made a mistake. Not 'accidentally' booked as such, but did not read the full description before committing. If the mistake is identified within a few minutes, hours, a day or maybe more, then I will provide a refund. I will actually waste quite a lot of my time calling CS trying to get all their fees refunded, even though they are not entitled to it.

If someone only realised their 'mistake' nine days into the booking, and only after I chased them, there's no way they would be getting a full refund from me. The guest is lucky she got anything back at all. 

I do always offer to refund rebooked nights if I can, but try to make it clear that there is no guarantee of that, especially with last minute cancellations. I am thinking that I should stop even mentioning that, as there seems to be a lot more 'entitled' guests out there these days...

[Sarah977]

@Mengen1  How do you manage to book a 3 week stay "by accident"?