FAKE south korean cancellation policy!

[Emmanuel13]

A guest wanted to book our home for 8 nights. She wrote to us saying they "lived in New Jersey and cant wait to swim in our pool", they were a couple with two kids. So we approved them. Her profile stated that she also live sin New Jersey. We were excited to have them a s guests. They decided to cancel after the 48 hour window and they received all the money back! We contacted airbnb as we have a strict polity on our house. During this time we denied 3 requests from other platforms because it was booked. After writing to Airbnb and waiting for hours on phone, we spoke to a case manager. She stated that the booking was made by a south Korean and they have a special cancellation policy. So they were allowed to receive all the money back. When the guests booked they were living in New Jersey and stated this to me and there was NO POP UP window that came up telling me that they were south Koreans and they would have a special cancellation policy. (see photo) thisNEVER CAME UP bc they are in NEW JERSEY!!!! Airbnb will not uphold our cancellation policy! This is horrible. Every time we write something on a message even though the information might be wrong airbnb states that they must uphold what was written by us and has refunded guests because of it, which I understand. Then if this is the case why are they NOT doing what they have done us with regard to us giving incorrect information? The guest clearly stated she lived in New Jersey, her profiles says so, when she booked there was NO pop up window stating she was south korean! This is not right aribnb! Do the right thing!

[Huma0]

@Emmanuel13 

This is worrying. I feel like the guest location stated on their profile is meaningless. I frequently host guests who don't come from or live in the place stated on their profile. Perhaps they were in that location when they created the account, but it's like they can put in anything and it doesn't matter. 

Still, if the guest is from South Korea, and that policy applies to them, then there surely should be that pop up, unless Airbnb has stopped altogether with the pop ups explaining the South Korean cancellation policy? I'm not sure, as it's been a long time since I had a booking from that region.

[Nanxing0]

I think it's quite common if the guest is a South Korea national but resides in New Jersey at this moment. I have seen such guests as well. If the guest shows Airbnb his/her South Korea passport then Airbnb would certainly subject the guest to the South Korea regulation.

But I agree with @Emmanuel13  that Airbnb should enforce to match the place of residence with the one shown on the guest's ID. I have seen a couple guests' residence location change after I asked them to verify ID so I guess Airbnb is doing such thing, but I'm not sure if this applies to all guests in the community.

Also another thing is that if one has moved, Airbnb doesn't catch up with that unless the person reports to Airbnb spontaneously. That might result in such situation as well.

[Emilia42]

@Nanxing0 @Huma0 

Unfortunately, a guest can change their location to anywhere they want at any time. It doesn't have to match a living address or ID.

[Nanxing0]

@Emilia42 That's right that's why I'm saying Airbnb should mandate the match between this location and the one shown on the guest's ID. But this also poses an issue for a lot of people. Passports don't have address on them to begin with. Also some people hold a US green card and a passport from another country but resides in US that's a tough issue to address as well. 

[Ann72]

@Emilia42 🤣

[Inna22]

@Emilia42  so basically any guest can change their profile location to South Korea to get a full refund? Lovely! Can’t wait for our guests to find out about this one!

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 @Nanxing0 

all true, but If Airbnb recognises the guest as from South Korea, whether that’s because of their government ID or whatever, and applies that cancellation policy to them, the pop up is supposed to appear before the host accepts the booking. That is what I find worrying about @Emmanuel13 ‘s Post. Has something changed?

I have nothing againsts guests of that nationality and used to host many guests from South Korea until the special cancellation policy was brought in, which I absolutely cannot accept. Since then I have hosted South Korean nationals who were resident in other countries and did not qualify for that policy, so I am a bit confused as to when and how exactly Airbnb applies it. There doesn’t seem to be consistency...

apologies for the typos but my autocorrect seems to have gone crazy all of a sudden.

[Nanxing0]

I remember when I had accepted guests from South Korea such notice pops up before I confirm. They ask me if I'm OK with the revised cancellation policy. Not sure why the OP didn't receive such notice.

[Helen3]

They didn't receive @Nanxing0  because as the OP says in their opening post, the guests profile showed them as living in New Jersey NOT South Korea.

[Nanxing0]

@Helen Then the question comes to if the cancellation policy has changed, shouldn't Airbnb send the OP a notice about the change? 

Anyways there are just too many loopholes in the current Airbnb setup and they have been really sloppy on fixing those, including the awaiting payment loophole.