Dilemma

[Sarah2285]

Hi everyone, please read my situation and see what you think. 

So I'm currently backpacking around Australia and have a working holiday visa, me and my partner booked an apartment for 3 months thinking we'd be employed quickly, this was absolutely not the case. Almost 2 months down the line we are still unemployed. We are at the point where we are ready to give up and carry on travelling in the next few weeks, however we still have a large rent payment left. We can pay for this, however it would make our money situation very difficult. Therefore we want to change our checkout date, but knowing the Airbnb long-term cancellation policy we know we may have to pay 30 days regardless. 

Another complication, the Airbnb is managed by another company, but we also know the owners and have a good relationship with them. So my question is, who do we approach first about this problem? Do we contact the company and not inform the owners? Or do we speak to the owners first then to the company? If anyone has had a similar situation I'd be so grateful for any advice. Even if it's just that we can't do anything and have to pay either way! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah2285 

Here is the link where long term cancellation is explained: https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#long-term

Long Term: First month not refundable, 30-day notice for cancellation

.....

If the guest books a reservation and decides to cancel the reservation during their stay, the guest must use the online alteration tool in order to agree to a new checkout date. Regardless of the checkout date chosen, the guest is required to pay the host for the 30 days following the cancellation date, or up to the end date of the guest’s original reservation if the remaining portion of the original reservation is less than 30 days.

....

So basically if you intend to leave before your booking expires than send an alteration request to your host as soon as possible. If you do it today you will have to pay until Jun 24th. You can stay until then or you can leave earlier. If you decide to leave earlier you can ask your host if he is willing to refund you a portion of remaining days. Maybe he will offer to refund you for the dates he will be able to rebook, he has no obligation to do it but it's worth trying.

[Sarah2285]

Thank you for your response! We are a bit confused because we got a monthly discount when we first booked, do you think this will be affected if we alter the date? From your example, would we alter the checkout date to tomorrow's date? For example, would we be able to stay in the property for the 30 days we have to pay for? Because surely if we alter the checkout date to tomorrow, it would make the property available to book for other people. We're not very experienced in this so any help is much appreciated. 

[Helen3]

The only person who is going to help you with this is the host. As you have a good relationship with them, then why not have a chat and explain the situation. They may be flexible and let you leave earlier, all you can do is see what they say.

As others have already said you need to give a months notice under the policy so that would be your worst case scenario I believe.

Giving a months notice means you have until the end of that month to stay in the property, just as would be the case if you had that sort of tenancy in the UK.

Have a read of the long term cancellation policy again to help you properly understand it.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah2285 

yes, you can alter your reservation so it ends tomorrow but you will still have to pay until 24.6. In this case you should check out tomorrow and your host's calendar will reopen so maybe he would be willing to partially refund you for dates he will be able to rebook.

If you alter your reservation so it ends at 24.6. then you can stay until then.

If you shorten your reservation to less than 28 days then you will lose your monthly discount.

as @Helen3  said - the best is if you talk to your host.