Flexible policy – Free cancellation within 48 hours

[Dennis65]

Hi all,

Question regarding "Free cancellation within 48 hours" feature.

I booked a place with canncellation policy stated as "Flexible policy – Free cancellation within 48 hours" 

That was 17 hours ago.

I did not use this feature to cancel booking 3 times this year.

For some reason, I have to cancel it for now. 

So I went from the webpage and select "cancel or change", and went through the step.

But I saw Total refund amount was not a full refund, it showed the amount I paid minus Airbnb service charge.

My question is, is this a bug in Airbnb system?

I went through the help section but cannot find related help article, is there a help documentation that I missed? 

Or Airbnb does not provide help on this?

How do I go about to request Airbnb service charge refund (if I go ahead and commit the cancellation online)?

This is not as easy as I thought, as stated in Airbnb cancellation policy.

It does cast doubt if I can get the full refund back with 48 hours of booking feature.

Is Airbnb delibrately make it not easy to discourage guest from cancelling a booking, I wonder?

I do not make cancellation lightly, as I put a lot of effort researching to make the booking

But the truth is also this "Free cancellation within 48 hours" feature helps to made my selection.

Thank you vey much for your help in advance.

Dennis

[Matthew285]

@Dennis65 when you mention "For some reason, I have to cancel it now" is the reason because you have made another reservation with a different Airbnb listing?

The "Free cancellation within 48 hours" does always return your accommodation fees, but:

• The Airbnb service fee is refundable, up to 3 times per year, within 48 hours of booking. Separately, if a guest cancels a reservation that overlaps with any part of an existing reservation, we won’t refund the Airbnb service fee if they decide to cancel.

If you have another Airbnb reservation for a similar period of time,  you do *not* get back your Airbnb fees.

Might this be the reason that you are not mentioning?

[Dennis65]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for your reply.

Actually no.

But I did have overlap bookings on the exact dates, as I booked 2 units from the same host.

We have group of 4, and max one unit for 2 persons, therefor I booked 2 units from same host.

I see, that will complicate the refund...as I read the cancellation policy.

"Separately, if a guest cancels a reservation that overlaps with any part of an existing reservation, we won’t refund the Airbnb service fee if they decide to cancel."

So, Airbnb system will detect I have ovelap booking, and show the refund amount minus Airbnb service fee?

And I do have to contact Airbnb support and get thing figure out, correct?

Thanks,

Dennis

[Matthew285]

@Dennis65

Ah, yes. That would complicate things.

Yes, you are correct. It is best to contact Airbnb support about this. Once they understand your situation hopefully they help you with the Airbnb fees.

[Letti0]

@Dennis65  

AirBnB number:

United States and Canada

+1-415-800-5959 +1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)

[Dennis65]

Thank you all for your help

Dennis

[Stephanie365]

Just as an FYI, the reason AirBNB has implemented this policy is because guests have been booking places while they look for something cheaper or something else. It isn't fair to the hosts to have a time booked only to have the guest cancel because they found something cheaper for the same dates. So, to discourage this behavior, AirBNB won't let you cancel without penalty if you have booked another location for the same dates.