Misleading cancelation policy

[William470]

I hate Airbnb so far. I'm a new customer that canceled my first booking months in advance and was charged $18.95 service fee. The booking said the cancelation policy was "flexible" which states a FULL refund of accomodation fees. They fail to mention that they refund all fees ...EXCEPT for their service fee. That detail is buried in their help section. It took FOREVER to find a telephone number or email address. ‭(415) 800-5959‬ or ‭(855) 424-7262‬. I had to contact a host for that. On Monday morning I called to get a refund but they said it was too late. I had to request a refund within 24-48 hours. I was on the phone with Ria for over an hour to get a complaint ticket to have a case manager call me back. Dominique called me an hour later and said he would refund me the service fee. So much of Airbnb is a scam to screw hosts and customers to make that little extra profit off of each one of us rather than make policy clear, transparent, and up front honest.

[Andreas786]

For those who reached out to support, did anyone ever get the service fee refunded?
Same here, booked the wrong place but cancelled within 3h of the original booking. Mistake was to book the new place first, before cancelling the other.

The cancellation policy does not state this special 'clause' which I agree is misleading customers.

[Alice1106]

Hey @Andreas786  Yeah I got it refunded as airbnb credit. I don't mind though, better than nothing! Just message support and ask. It was an honest mistake!

[Andreas786]

Thanks Alice.

I have been promised a refund also after my inquiry.

Good outcome, but why have customers jump through these extra hoops...?

[Antônio-Guilherme0]

I'm having the exact same problem.

I accidentally canceled a reservation that stated I would get a FULL refund except for the first 30 days. But it doesn't make any sense if I have made a reservation for less than a month. This was exactly what happened, and I got ZERO money back. It makes me feel that this was intentionally poorly written so that I would lose my money. And Customer Support doesn't help either... Now I'm having to basically beg to my host to understand the situation

[Sarah977]

@Antônio-Guilherme0  If you thought that the cancellation policy stated didn't make sense for the number of days you had booked for, why did you not question that before you made the booking? 

If something doesn't seem right or make sense and could be some sort of tech glitch, you need to try to get it explained or sorted before you make your payment.