Where is Airbnb support? Airbnb is becoming one of the worst companies

[Mike1034]

My guest could not come to stay in my place because the company canceled his internship. And I agreed with him to refund him. I contacted Airbnb support to do the cancellation on May 8th. Now a week has passed. Nobody from Airbnb cancellation department has got back to me.

This morning I called Airbnb support again to escalate it. And now 12 hours has passed, still no response. I was told that cancellation department will get back to me within 24 hours. I don't think that Airbnb is really doing its job.

I was told that the department handling the cancellation has no direct phone. They only respond through email or Airbnb message. Come on... Airbnb is intentionally making troubles to its hosts and guests. 

I tried to use host cancellation for the full refund to guest. But all dates would be blocked after I cancel it. Airbnb is becoming worse and worse as a company in every aspects. 

[Anonymous]

@Mike1034   Why are you the one doing the legwork on the cancellation? It's the guest's responsibility to process their own cancellation. If you'd like to offer a greater refund than your cancellation policy offers, you can use the Resolutions tool to transfer it to the guest after the fact. I don't see the advantage of getting Airbnb's customer service team involved here.

[Mike1034]

@Anonymous The guest would lose his booking fees if he cancels it because his booking period is outside Airbnb corvid-19 policy.

He asked me to cancel it. But I have left the option of the period blocked if I cancel it. The later he cancels it, the less days would be left for other people to book. That is why I started to get help through Airbnb support.

[William1280]

I agree with Andrew0. You can write  an email stating the guest should be fully refunded. The email will serve as an agreement. They guest should cancel not you. If you cancel it may affect your Super Host status. 

[Robbie54]

With all due respect to your guest it's their problem if they lose the booking fee, not yours. You're being a great generous host in the first place to refund your guest the full amount due to you as you're within your rights not to, anything more than that your guest can take it up with Airbnb. 

[Anonymous]

@Mike1034 Airbnb doesn't refund guest service fees just because the host has chosen to exempt them from their cancellation policies. You have no control over this as the host. 

[Yadira22]

@Anonymous 

From my previous experience if you confirm a full refund your guests should qualify for their service fees to be returned also. Before as a guest you were able to request the service fee to be refunded up to three separate occasions per calendar year (could no longer find the source of this information but it was written on their website).

But I have no idea if Airbnb are still doing this- policies seem to change daily at Airbnb! 

[Luana130]

I don't understand why you would call airbnb for something like that, or even why you are doing something like that.

The guest should cancel on the app, you can use the resolution center to send the money you were going to receive back (I don't really see the point of the cancellation policy if you are going to refund the guest anyway).

Just because you decided to call doesn't mean airbnb is going to refund the fees, they might do it but it is something the guest has to discuss with them, not you.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Mike1034 

If the guest had to cancel because his internship was cancelled that's the guest's problem. It's up to the guest to contact Airbnb, get the booking cancelled and get whatever refund he can get. As a host the only thing you can do is..... if you happen to get a payout from Airbnb for that cancelled reservation, you can refund that amount back to the guest.

Honestly..... you have made things worse for yourself.

Now..... if the guest doesn't get a complete and full cancellation like the guest expects, the guest will think that you intervening somehow affected the cancellation amount and the guest will blame you~ even though any decision regarding fees is completely up to Airbnb.

Hosts have no influence or say regarding whether fees are refunded. Fees are between the guest and Airbnb. Host involvement won't change the outcome. 

And the reason for cancel comes from the guest. Why on earth would you even consider a host cancellation??? 

[Mike1034]

@William1280 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Yadira22 @Anonymous @Luana130 

Thank you all for your valid suggestions.

As you all know that Airbnb has a corvid-19 cancellation policy which gives up to 25% to the host after a guest cancels. In this case, the guest booking period is outside of the corvid-19 policy covered by Airbnb. I want to make sure that I can still get that portion.

My point of the post is stated in my title. Airbnb support is becoming worse. This is just one example.

I have tried to avoid using Airbnb support. But recently I have to do it twice. In the other case, a guest booked one but came with two. I sent a request for extra guest charge. It went to resolution center. 72 hours later, I involved Airbnb. The resolution center replied me the first time that they will handle the case. A week later, I had to ask an update through email because I still had not get the money. Btw, the  email is the only way to contact resolution department. I did not get a response. One more week later, I still did not get a response. Finally I had to use Twitter and asking for help. I got a response  12 hours later.

Airbnb support is slow. But now it is much more slower. Hopefully what I experienced recently is not the norm. Other hosts and guests are luckier.

[Anonymous]

@Mike1034   Considering that Airbnb just laid off 25% of its workforce, it's not surprising that their customer service is lagging in speed. 

I'm not following your logic about why you think that your guest should get a full refund, including fees, but that you should also get 25% paid to you out of pocket by Airbnb for it. Have you ever heard of a business that works this way?

[Mike1034]

@Anonymous Ironically Airbnb is the one started doing business this way for bookings affected by Corvid-19. 

Please read Airbnb’s policy regarding to Corvid-19. Airbnb has been doing cancellations this way since March. At first, my booking in March and April were canceled. Then Airbnb extended it to end of May. Almost all  intern bookings of mine were booked before March for this summer from May. 

I lost almost $15,000 due to cancellations by Airbnb’s policy. Due to travel restrictions and lockdowns, most likely those dates will not be booked.

[Anonymous]

@Mike1034  I'm aware of the Covid-19 policy, but it does not appear to apply here, as losing an internship is not on the list of "extenuating circumstances."

Perhaps I've misread a detail though. It sounds like what you're saying is that Airbnb is willing to uphold your cancellation policy for this booking, granting you the expected payout, but what you want them to do instead is use a policy that's meant for different circumstances to waive all of their own revenue from the booking and also pay you for it. Of course this is absurd, but on which element am  I mistaken?

[Robbie54]

"In this case, the guest booking period is outside of the corvid-19 policy covered by Airbnb. I want to make sure that I can still get that portion."

You've actually answered your own question. 

[Mike1034]

@Anonymous @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Yadira22 @Luana130 @William1280 

Here is the final update of the case  after I received response  from Airbnb support. Airbnb support asked my guest to provide documentation for the cancellation of the internship by the sponsoring company due to Corvid-19.

Airbnb fully refunded. I will wait and see if I could get the portion of the booking per Airbnb's Corvid-19 cancellation policy. Airbnb is infamous for its constant changes and overriding hosts' cancellation policy. That is my personal experience as well as many cases reported by hosts in this forum.