Guest request refund after check-in due to family emergency

[Alice595]

Dear Hosts,

Yesterday I helped a guest couple check in at 3:20 pm. They came to visit their families nearby.

In midnight, they sent a message and said that there is a family emergency and they could not stay for 4 nights as booked. They asked for a refund. They did not disclose what kind of family emergency is.

I have strict cancellation policy. My thought is to direct the guests to contact Airbnb for cancellation with extenuating circumstance if they do qualify. If not, I can provide refund for unused nights if the nights are booked. For now I don't know how reasonable the guest is. I may have to deal with a bad review in this case again.

What are your suggestions?

[Susan17]

Just for future reference... as per Airbnb's own T&Cs, unless the "family emergency" relates to the death of an immediate family member, it does not constitute grounds for a refund under the Extenuating Circumstances policy. 

Serious illness of the host, guest or any member of the travelling party does come under the EC banner, but illness (or any other "emergencies") related to family members, immediate or otherwise, are absolutely not included in this clause. 

Hosts - let's stop rolling over and allowing Airbnb to use and abuse us as the guests' personal travel insurers/trip subsidisers  - at our risk, and our expense - in order to earn goodwill, brand loyalty and repeat business for their $38 billion global corporation.

At the very least, we must start holding Airbnb accountable to the terms of their own policies  - it's within our legal, and ethical, rights to do so. This unmitigated (and far too often, undocumented) EC refund madness has to stop. What we permit, we promote.

 

[Babet3]

Hi I need to cancel a booking, how can I do that, who to contact to as I have a family emegency and cannot accommodate my guest who is checking in in two days time?  Will this affect my superhost status, please help

[Alice595]

@Babet3  You may read @Susan17 post on this thread about the definition of emergency which falls under extenuating circumstances. 

Do not cancel the booking yourself. If do so, you lose superhost status for one year. And you may be penalized for $50.

Read this post to see the support phone number for New Zealand.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-contact-number-New-Zealand/td-p/498211

[Babet3]

Is there a contact here in NZ so I can cancel a booking please??

[Linda108]

Are you unable to use the link @Alice595  provided?  The number is there.