airbnb's definition of extenuating circumstances

[Natasha433]

Long story short, we are in San Antonio Texas and both our properties are without water because of the ice storm that hit us this week. It's been a disaster since Monday, with the power gone for four days, all our food in the fridge spoiling, and nearly dying to hyperthermia before we could find refuge in a friends house on Tuesday night-- airbnb topped it off with providing the worse customer service of my life today. The plumbing companies in SA are working overtime trying to help everyone, but regardless, wait times are pushing to the 3-4 week mark as queues fill up. We were suppose to have a plumber come out Friday and they keep pushing us back as things back up, they told me that on Friday alone, they had an addition 500 calls put into queue. I begged airbnb to refund my guests through March so they had time to rebook somewhere else, and to tell them why this was happening was because Texas is in a state of emergency. I had assumed if they had messaged them for me, we could have a mutual cancellation and not be penalized from either party. 

They canceled all my guests without saying anything to them from my end all in one go, so it was a Host cancelation. Without trying to ask them to cancel and give them full refunds (which they had done for me before). Nothing. I then had to answer the flood of 'why did you cancel?' messages, and to top it off, they penalized my superhost status. They said I had to prove that all the cancellations were due to an Extenuating Circumstance. I asked, how I could possibly prove anything? I could, but I need time, everything is really difficult right now. If they just turned on the news and also saw that our President Issued a statement on things, they would know. They asked for a video to prove the water didn't work. I said, the water hasn't been on since Monday. How does a video prove that? They told me to show a video of me turning the handle and no water coming out. WHAT. I can't believe them. We are suffering and they want a video of nothing.

They said they can't help me without proof. How do I prove that we can't have a plumber to the house for three weeks because parts of our city is in crisis?

I complained, they didn't help. They sent me this message that essentially said they are doing me a favor by waving the penalizations and that they don't 'normally' ever do this and it was a one time thing and won't happen again. How in the world is this situation in Texas not under Extenuating Circumstances?! I'm at a loss for words. I've always been happy with airbnb, but I'm floored that they didn't back me up, that they issued my call to some call center that sent me to three other people who forced me to explain over and over. I even requested an email to give me an idea of what would account as 'proof' and they sent nothing. I lost thousands of dollars on this, why would I casually cancel so much of my income in such a dire time?!

Do you all agree that is under their Extenuating Circumstances policy? Because I feel like it is, and that I shouldn't have been 'given a favor' to not lose my status, especially when every single one of my guests that canceled was understanding. Am I overreacting cause I've been suffering? 

[Sarah977]

@Natasha433   Of course it's an extenuating circumstance- it's a national disaster area. The problem is you are dealing with outsourced, poorly trained CS reps on the other side of the planet who act like robots and have no idea what is going on in Texas.

So are you saying they agreed to waive the penalties or not? If they did, just get in with your life and don't concern yourself with tbe inappropriate CS response. Nothing they do these days makes any sense to a sane person.

[Natasha433]

@Sarah977 They did, so I will take your advice and move on. Thanks for the comfort though, I needed some reassurance I wasn't blowing things up when my life has been turned upside down. 

[Angela450]

I live in Austin and sympathize with your situation, last week was horrible! And I know that even today we’re all still putting the pieces together. During the storm, We contacted our guests, told them they could cancel on their end, click on” request full refund,” and we could take care of that in just a couple of clicks.

However, on the flip side, we had a situation where a guest decided to cancel his reservation after the storm passed, and his reservation would be a week and a half after the storm, citing to AirBnB “extenuating circumstances,” even though we explained to them that at this point, all had been restored. Flights and roads were open, and services in the neighborhood and to the cabin were all restored. They sent a couple of news links to AirBnB and poof - AirBnB canceled the reservation and gave them a full refund without even a message to us. It was the third day of 70degree temps, clearly we had guests check in and out since the storm. AirBnB did this without any notice to us.

ultimately they made it right with us, but it took several calls, more explanation than we should have had to give, and was extremely frustrating.

AirBnB really needs to figure out what their EC policy is, how it works, and how they work with hosts. Really a mess.

[Natasha433]

Wow. Thanks for sharing this. It is quite a mess and frankly disappointing. I really have enjoyed running this type of business but its been discouraging. Im thankful you got it resolved but still, sheesh. Why is it all so complicated? Why so many calls, so many emails, videos, photos, ect ect. Especially to Superhosts. Like whats the point of the program if you don't believe us when an emergency does happen or when you are saying that this doesn't actually fall under their policy? They make a big deal about being a superhost but in reality its nothing special in how they treat their hosts. 

Glad you are safe in general with that crazy storm. I'm traumatized from it.