We had a guest who made a reservation for 5/12/24 through 6/14/24. Total guest paid was $9422.47. Host payout was supposed to be $8262.51. 5/13/24 payout of $7815.32 was made. We had a major storm in Houston that knocked out power to the unit the guest was staying in. The guest requested a refund of $6210 so they could check out early on 5/22/24 which we agreed to. She spoke to someone at Airbnb to setup the refund and we approved it. However this was done as a resolution center request and it did not adjust the dates of check out so our calendar was still showing her reservation blocking our calendar. We requested for Airbnb to adjust the check out date so that once power was restored we would be able to accept new reservations. This in no way was an approval to refund the guest twice. However, Airbnb not only refunded $6210 directly from the owner's account, they also refunded the guest an additional $4591.28 (this was the correct amount adjusted for the split between the airbnb service fees, taxes, and the rent) for the adjustment to the reservation which is how it should have been done to begin with.
Airbnb has reps who have no clue what they are talking about and saying they are not going to reimburse us for this double refund that they gave the guest. We need this resolved as soon as possible and this was an error on Airbnb's part and should be remedied by Airbnb. The support member(s) who caused this error should be trained better so you do not double charge hosts / owners as this is not how this situation should have been handled. Really the resolution center was not the appropriate place to create the refund, the Airbnb Support representative should have adjusted the dates on the reservation and adjust the amount based on the agreement between the parties. I have provided all of this documentation in Airbnb Support messages with screenshots (also attached here) of the history of communication with Airbnb Support showing the issue and not that we ever agreed to refund the guest twice. I've had two reps say they will schedule a call with me and they have not. I've requested to speak to a case manager and have not heard anything.
Does Airbnb just not care about hosts? Do they not train their customer support reps in how to handle these issues? This is completely unacceptable and Airbnb needs to really train their teams how to handle this better because it's absurd how difficult it is to get a hold of someone who knows how to properly handle this situation, not to mention that someone from Airbnb would think that giving the guest MORE than what they even paid for on the reservation is an acceptable solution. I don't know what else to do because Airbnb Support is unresponsive, they are not upholding their end of the bargain when they say they will schedule a call with me and they don't. They have tried calling at random times when I have other meetings or events.
This service from Airbnb Support needs an overhaul. I'd be happy to lead the way if someone from Airbnb wants to have a conversation with me about how they can improve this process because right now it is TERRIBLE.
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