Covid extenuating circs policy

[Emma2274]

Hi, 

We are relatively new to hosting only starting in July after the last UK lockdown. 

We have both flexible and non refundable options.  With the new lockdown situation, most of our November guests booked flexible and have either cancelled or amended their booking . 

One guest had chosen non refundable and we assumed that we would be able to apply the covid extenuating circus policy in our favour and uphold the policy as she had the choice of flexible and did not choose that option . 

It seems air bnb have overruled that policy in her favour and told us the standard exteneuating circs policy applies instead and that she can have a refund 

This makes no sense ? 

I am already losing confidence in airbnb 

Emma 

[Helen350]

That's terrible @Emma2274 .

You are not alone in despairing of Airbnb's failure to uphold it's own policies, and will find hundreds of posts here in the CC relating to this if you use the search feature, top.

It's bad enough when those with a 'strict' policy report failure to receive their 50%, but your experience with the non-refundable has hit a new low! -Probably not the first time tho'...

Customer Service is known to have poorly trained operators, who appear to have been instructed to keep the guest happy, at the expense of the host, so many here will observe.

Welcome to the CC from a fellow resident of Cumbria! - Your place looks gorgeous, I couldn't think of a nicer place to be in (partial) lockdown! 🙂

[Rebecca181]

@Emma2274  Sadly, you will find that Airbnb treats home-sharing hosts (the very people whose backs they built their massive global corporation on) quite differently than the commercial property mangers they now cater to and favor. I highly doubt that Airbnb negates the cancellation policies of the commercial operators listing here (including as related to Covid-19), but they do negate the cancellation policy chosen by home-sharing hosts whenever they see fit (which is often). Something to be aware of if you choose to continue listing with Airbnb - You can count on very little these days, and it only seems to be getting worse as they head toward their initial public offering (IPO).

[Helen3]

Hello @Emma2274 

If you read the EC policy you will see it trumps any cancellation policy.

I am not Airbnb’s biggest fan, but in this case they are correct.

You cannot expect to be paid for a service that we are not allowed to offer, because our government’s Covid legislation prevents us from doing so. 

it absolutely makes sense that Airbnb would refund the guest as our government prohibits STR bookings from 5 November for a month.