Airbnb service fee refund deducted

[Paola1095]

Hello,

I had booked an apartment that had flexible cancellation policy with full refund including airbnb fees until 7 days prior checkin.

As it was a big apartment and a couple of friends will finally not come to the trip anymore, we decided to cancel it.

So I cancelled this apt. With my big surprise, I got charged the airbnb fee!

I then went into the cancellation policy on the cancellation page and this was much longer than the previous one and just reading until the end I found out that if you book another place before cancelling the previous one Airbnb would charge you the fee. But this should be clearly explained as a footnote after writing that no service fee will be deducted while cancelling...

We had to book a smaller place asap as there is little offer right now for our dates in Rome and we got it approved so we wanted to ensure we wouldn't lose it. At the same time we knew we wouldn't pay anything on the other flat so we didn't doubt a minute in cancelling one while booking the other one.

But unfortunately now I find myself with a new apt booked and not cancellable and the airbnb fee of previous apt being deducted from my previous reservation 😞

Can you please help me?

I have been using airbnb for years and never had an issue before. I am a loyal client and I was not expecting this situation to be honest.

I hope you can help as the fee is a relevant amount of money.

Thanks!

Paola

[Sarah977]

@Paola1095  

Flexible: Full refund within limited period

• Cleaning fees are always refunded if the reservation is canceled before check-in.
• The Airbnb service fee is refundable up to 3 times per year if the guest cancels at least 14 days before check-in. If booked less than 14 days before check-in, the service fee is only refundable up to 48 hours after booking AND at least 24 hours before check-in.

There is nothing in there about about getting the fees back if you cancel within 7 days of your check-in, so I'm not sure where you got that information.

And this is a forum for hosts and guests-it isn't airbnb customer service, so no one here can do anything about this.

[Paola1095]

Does anyone know how to contact the Airbnb customer service?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Sarah977]

@Paola1095 There is a large pinned post on the first page of this Help forum where you posted:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/td-p/413245

And a simple Google search nets many pages of contact information.

[Suzanne683]

I have cancelled an Airbnb booking 2 months prior to the date and have been charged both a Cleaning Fee & a Service Fee. 

Airbnb don’t help they leave the decision up to  the host who can make his own decision. Very concerning.