Doing changes in the right order.

[Steve3110]

I was excited about a trip to Mexico next month... family and friends were going to PV to celebrate my husbands 50th birthday. We rented a condo for either guests. As we got closer, a bunch of folks didn't feel comfortable due to COVID. All I wanted to do was change to a condo for 4 people. I looked at many condos and found the one I wanted. Those I clicked the right page and booked it, I then immediately cancelled the one we had booked since February (with a 24hr cancellation policy). An hour later, I realized I booked the wrong condo, I found the right one, booked it and then cancelled the one I accidentally booked. 

I was hit with $300+ service charges between the two prior reservations. Because of overlapping reservations (they overlapped for 2 mins tops). I went to support and they were unwilling to refund the fees.  It was not clear that to change a reservation without a service fee had to be done in a particular order.

[Sarah977]

@Steve3110  When you go to book a listing for the same dates as one you still have an active reservation for, there is a message visible to you explaining that you may charged for both. If you neglected to read that, it's unfortunate, but that is the policy.

If it wasn't, guests could just book a bunch of different properties to "hold" them, then cancel them all without penalty when they found the one they really wanted. In the meantime, you have blocked the hosts' calendars from any other bookings since February.

What you should have done was communicated with the original host to see if they had another suitable unit to shift you to. 

Neither hosts nor Airbnb is responsible for a guest's change of plans. No one could stay in business if guests were allowed to do such things penalty free.

If you buy a suit in February, you can't take it back to the store in Sept. expecting to get your money back.

[Steve3110]

I don't have an issue with service fee for cancellations, I get it. But this was a unit that had a full refund option due to COVID... honestly, I wouldn't have booked a trip in February if it wasn't refundable. That's not the issue here. I was charged based on the overlap that was only minutes appart because of the order of the transaction. If I just cancelled, I wouldn't have had the fee. 

Also, I would have been okay if they kept the fee for the one I booked in February but the one I booked in error was never even accepted but I still paid a fee. 

[Brian2036]

@Steve3110 

I certainly can see your point and I would be annoyed in that situation also. I don’t think you should be penalized.

The problem is that the CS people you talk to are NOT Airbnb employees. They work for a subcontractor who apparently mistreats them.

Many of the experienced ones don’t care anymore, the inexperienced ones have not been properly trained, and they are all inundated with irate complaints.

If you keep trying you might get a different result.

One thing you can count on is chaotic inefficiency.

[Sarah977]

@Steve3110  Can you explain what you mean by "the one I booked in error was never even accepted but I still paid a fee"?

Guests don't get charged anything for non-confirmed bookings. If you Instant Book a place, that means that the host is not given an opportunity to accept or decline the booking- your credit card is charged and the booking is confirmed automatically when you place the booking. There is no acceptance procedure- the moment you hit "Book now" your booking is accepted.

If you send a booking request instead, the host has 24 hours to either accept or decline the booking. If they choose, they can just click on accept right away and you are then charged. Most hosts would send a greeting message to the guest at the same time they clicked on "accept", or ask you some questions before accepting. Once you submit a booking request, you have no control over the host clicking on accept and being charged. You can, however, withdraw a request if the host hasn't yet accepted it.

If you simply want to ask a host some questions first, without committing to a booking, you use the "Contact Host"button on the listing. This is called an Inquiry. The host has the choice to pre-approve you, decline, or simply message back answering your questions, which is what the majority of hosts do. Even if a host pre-approves you on an Inquiry, you won't be charged. You have take another step to book. 

Unless there was some tech  glitch, you would not have been charged anything for a non-confirmed booking.

I totally sympathize with you, I'm just trying to explain to you how it works. It's absurd that a guest should be charged if it was an error that they corrected almost immediately. There should be some grace period afforded and the wording about being charged for both bookings if you fail to cancel one first, while it is there for guests to read, which it seems you misssed seeing or reading, is in pretty small print. It should be made more prominent.

Have you talked the Airbnb customer service? It's possible that if you are persistent but polite, they may refund you, but it's a crap shoot.

[Brian2036]

@Steve3110 @Sarah977 

Once again, honest people are paying the price for the OTHERS.

 I have known people (years ago) who thought it was clever to reserve seats on every airline flight near the dates they wanted to travel, then cancel when they made up their minds.

Some of them also liked to make fictitious reservations in order to guarantee discounted standby seats just before departure.

That is why now we have non-refundable air fares unless you want to pay double.