What refund process

[Russell232]

Hi, have had the worst experience with both AirBnB and the Host Raam from Baan Sandao Beach Condo's in Hua Hin Thailand. I booked a week long stay in November 2019. Paid $440AUD as a 50% deposit. When COVID-19 stopped all Australians from travelling overseas I requested to cancel the booking and requested a refund. This was in March 2020. The host refused to assist and was so rude and patronising. AirBnB support asked me to wait as the COVID-19 policy didn't extend as far out as June 13th when I was due to check in. So I waited and when the policy changed to fit my booking and check in dates, I again, requested a refund. Again the host was so rude and just said no, deal with AirBnB. His reason was that I had already cancelled the booking. After speaking to AirBnB they said no refund due as the booking had been cancelled before the policy had changed. No further correspondence would be entered into. Really really poor service by both host and AirBnB, hiding behind a technicality. Has left a really bad taste in my mouth and I will go out of my way to ensure I don't use AirBnB again and will endeavour to leave as many poor reviews as I can and tell as many people as I can about the policy. Massive thumbs down to both parties who now have $440 of my hard earned money. 

[Sarah977]

@Russell232  Airbnb asked you to wait until the policy changed. When it did change, there was no need whatsoever for you to contact the host- the host wasn't in charge of your refund, Airbnb was. All you had to do was cancel from your end, provide documentation of the COVID restrictions affecting your travel, and you would have received a refund. 

FYI hosts do not get paid until the day after a guest checks in. So the host does not have your money, Airbnb does.

If I were you, I would contact Airbnb again, explain what happened, and firmly but politely insist that you are due the full refund since you waited until your dates were covered, as instructed, to cancel.

[Russell232]

Hi Sarah, I did communicate with AirBnB. I dealt with their resolution centre and they flatly refused to help. They said in writing, that their decision was final. All documentation was provided but they are as aware as anyone else that all international flights from Australia are cancelled. They also told me that if the host agreed to the refund they would process it but he refused. If there is someone in AirBnB you can refer me to with some responsibility and authority that would be willing to be fair minded then I will happily reach out. Unfortunately they run the place like a secret society and you can't call or communicate with anyone directly. If they are faceless then they can turn their back on anyone at anytime. The technicality they are hiding behind is that the booking was cancelled in March which was the date it became evident that I would not be able to travel. If I had not cancelled the booking then then maybe I might have had a chance. If that is not a massive technicality I don't know what is. Who knows how many thousands of others have been treated exactly the same way. Nice little earner for AirBnB. Let's see if their marketing team keep an eye on this page and reach out to right a wrong. I won't be holding my breath.

[Gordon0]

The process was pretty clear, @Russell232, in that would-be guests were asked to wait until the EC policy was updated to include their dates of travel. The fact that you chose to ignore this advice and do it your way hasn't helped.

Presumably your travel insurance will cover this loss?

For the record (and with zero smugness) I was due to travel to Tel Aviv next week, and I too was told to wait until the EC policy included my dates. I did so and managed to get a full refund by following the online flow.   

[Sarah977]

@Russell232  You said in your original post here that Airbnb told you to wait until the EC policy was extended to cancel and that you did- that you waited until your dates were covered. Now you say you cancelled in March. They didn't tell you to wait for your dates to be extended to ask the host for a refund, they told you to wait to cancel. If you had done that, you wouldn't be in this situation.

Everyone has to follow procedure in order for things not to get confused, both hosts and guests. When you cancel under an EC policy, there is no need whatsoever for you to contact the host asking for a refund. As I said, the host doesn't have your money to refund anyway, Airbnb does. You simply cancel and provide Airbnb with whatever documentation they require. Then you get refunded. 

You say they are hiding behind a technicality, but all cancellations have policies that need to be adhered to and if you don't cancel at the point at which you would be eligible for a refund, it doesn't work to try to argue your point after the fact.

I'm sorry the host was rude to you but there really wasn't any need to deal with him at all as far as the refund goes.

[Russell232]

@Sarah977 @Gordon0 Thanks for the input all but I'm afraid I heartily disagree. Maybe you don't want to piss off AirBnB. To reiterate, I cancelled the booking as soon as it became obvious that the booking could not be fulfilled for reasons completely outside of my control. I thought I was doing the right thing by letting the host know sooner rather than later and maybe giving them a chance to rebook with someone locally. The AirBnB website does not say "please read the COVID-19 policy first before requesting a cancellation because if you do and the dates you are travelling are not yet covered in the policy, your request will become null and void". The bottom line is you can write whatever policy you like. That does not make the policy, right, fair or equitable. My airline did not hide behind any carefully worded policies. They immediately refunded my money and they gave excellent service. It makes zero difference to anyone the date at which the booking was cancelled. It was cancelled during the period of time that a COVID-19 cancellation policy was in place, it just hadn't been extended to cover my check in dates. This can be interpreted as AirBnB hedging their bets. Once the check in dates were covered, it should not make one iota of difference if the booking had been requested to be cancelled or not. The reasons why hadn't changed, the policy was still meant to cover these exact circumstances, nobody had incurred any cost it is as I have said, a large business hiding behind a technicality. If the policy had said I must cancel between the hours of 9am to 5pm and I hadn't done so would that be okay. Just saying it is policy is a massive middle finger to the customer. Fair enough, you guys probably need to make sure you keep your relationship with AirBnB on a positive level but I do not. Clearly they are rorting a system here because their policy says they can. Unfortunately I could not even get help from PayPal because by the time they decided to refuse my request, 6 months had passed from the date I made the booking. Again to reinforce, I got in touch with the host because that is what AirBnB's Help Centre told me to do. If someone could just explain why the date of cancellation has any impact here other than it is policy that might help.

[Sarah977]

@Russell232  Sorry for the misunderstanding- my response had nothing to do with not wanting to criticize Airbnb- I do that here on this forum with regularity. I call them out for all sorts of terrible policies and behavior.

Not only do they not make things clear to you, as a guest, it's a constant source of anger and frustration to hosts as well. It's the way the company operates, unfortunately- explain little, and put out ambiguous, confusing, or incomplete information. Notifying the host ASAP was indeed a responsible gesture on your part, as was thinking that if you cancelled ASAP, that would leave the host able to perhaps rebook.

Continuing to extend the dates for the COVID cancellation is as angering to hosts as it is to guests- hosts can't plan ahead, they have no idea if a reservation they were counting on, months in the future, might get cancelled with 100% refund, it's a mess for all users.

All Gordon and I were trying to say is that if you had waited to cancel, you'd have been refunded. It was stated back in March that it only covered reservations up to mid-April. If you didn't see that info posted anywhere before you cancelled, that's a shame and certainly not your fault. I've never been a guest, but I know Gordon uses Airbnb as a guest a lot, as well as being a host, and he seems to think the cancellation info was clear to guests. But he's also a seasoned user, so maybe he looked somewhere you didn't think to.

[Gordon0]

You make some valid points, @Russell232, but many airlines haven't behaved so well themselves (I was only able to qualify refunds after my flights were cancelled - just days before departure - and am expecting a 90 day+ delay until I get my hands on the cash). Eurostar point-blank refused anything other than a voucher because their trains were still running, despite the fact I probably won't use it anytime soon, if at all. 

It doesn't make it any better, I get that, but there were two-weekly policy updates which I followed. On the day my dates (June 16-23) fell into the policy, I cancelled and got a refund.

There are no winners here I'm afraid. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Russell232 

I think you were ahead of AirBnb in your initial cancellation. 

The usual protocol for a cancellation is that the Guest initiated a cancellation request of their own accord. The request is sent to the Host who has two choices.. First choice is to Accept - making the cancellation the Hosts responsibility, with due penalties and the Guest gets a full refund. Second choice is to Decline - making the cancellation the Guests responsibility, cancellation penalties will be the Guests and the Guest adheres to the Hosts cancellation policy and receives the appropriate refund. End of.

But not since March.

Airbnb changed the system.  A Cancellation request was changed to a ‘refund request’ clicking the normal ‘Decline’ Button didn’t cancel, it just put the Guest in limbo until the EC policy was extended to cover the booking dates to then allow the Guest to cancel without cancellation fees paid to hosts.

It seems that you @Russell232  cancelled before this switch from ‘Cancellation Request’ to ‘Refund Request’  had happened in the system.

The result of this early attempt to cancel has meant you have actually cancelled on your first attempt due to the system not being updated to the new ‘request’ system.  In that case you will have paid AirBnb Service Fees and Hosts Cancelation Fees.

The fault is not entirely yours however. For years AirBnb have had this Accept/Decline option with cancellations. It would be reasonable for any Host to accept a cancellation request and many unknowing Hosts will do this, to then be penalised by losing status, having a black mark on their record and losing out on their contracted cancellation fee. It will only happen once to them, be assured.

Your fight is with AirBnb. Their inefficiency at updating their platform has caused your loss.