Cancelation

[Vera315]

Could you please help me with the following situation?

We have been in a place for 3 days out of the planned 7 days and decided to cancel the booking and find a new place due to many reasons: we were all bitten by insects and had to go to the doctor; the place was full of ants; machines were dirty and not working properly; the courtins in the bedrooms could not open, etc. Enough is enough, so we decided to move on and try to have an enjoyable holiday.

Due to the above, I requested the cancelation and the return of the 4 days remaining that were paid. 

How many days does the host have to reply to a money request due to a cancelation? 

Thanks a lot in advance! 

[Vera315]

Just one more thing: what does AirBnB do regarding hosts that advertise something that is not accurate? Are there minimum standards regarding cleaning? 

Thansk 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Vera315 

what cancellation policy has your host for this particular listing? How much refund you will get depends if it is flexible, moderate, strict, etc.... Here is the explanation: https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#flexible

Did you contact your host and asked him to fix those issues? Or you just canceled and left?

[Vera315]

Hi Branca

I just cancelled and left after 3 uncomfortable nights. I did send a message to the owner and explained the main reasons for us to leave. When my husband got sick too we thought that we needed to move to a new place to try to enjoy the remaining days. I didn’t check the policy neither took any pictures - it didn’t occur to me and also most of the things that I am complaining couldn’t be captured in a picture.

Well, if the host would be honest, he would have refunded the days that we didn’t use. He admitted that ants were a problem. Anyway, the review may help other people.

Thanks for your message! 

Vera

[Helen3]

Hi @Vera315 

I am sorry you encountered problems.

As it says on your booking confirmation if the listing is not as described or amenities are missing or broken then you need to contact the host and give them the opportunity to correct.

Did you do this?

If they can't or won't you can ask Airbnb to cancel the booking and help you find an alternative. They will transfer the balance remaining of unbooked days plus a 10% credit to a new Airbnb.

The host doesn't handle cancellations Airbnb does.

What did airbnb tell you about whether you would be refunded? And why did you need a refund rather than transferring the money to another Airbnb to stay in?

In terms of cleaning standards, the house should be as you saw in the listing photos and as described. If the house wasn't as described you could have asked the host to organised for it to be cleaned again.

In you are in a tropical area there will be insects and this is outside of the hosts control. You will get bitten and if you are allergic to insect bites such as mosquito's. you may need to get antihistamine or similar. In the vast majority of cases it wouldn't require a doctors visit.

If you didn't follow the process for refunds that Airbnb asks you to follow, you would need to rely on the goodwill of the host to provide any refund. Do you have photos of the broken items, dirty accommodation etc. This will help your case.

[Vera315]

Hi Helen,

I didn’t contact the host to give the opportunity to correct it. I contacted when we decided to leave. If it’s something simple, like a broken machine, I understand the concept of contacting the host. However, when it comes to cleaning and keeping the apartment bright and cool, I didn’t think about it. I just wanted to try to enjoy the remaining days of our holiday.

I did the request of the refund via the app and was expecting to receive an answer, even if it would be negative. I asked for a refund but I would not mind to have the money on hold for the next booking.

When we decided to leave, we immediately booked via booking.com, the app that we have been using for years without problems. I didn’t even think about doing it again via Airbnb die to the experience: we “lost” more than 2 days of our holiday, so we just needed to fix the issue.

Thanks for the information you gave me. We had a lovely holiday after all and no issues in the new place! 

Regards

Vera