Hosts provide Travel Insurance to Guests

[Hugh0]

This morning I received a message from Customer Experience

"Regarding the cancelled reservation with your guest XXXXX, Airbnb has confirmed that they are experiencing a medical emergency.
XXXXX was able to provide sufficient documentation of an extenuating circumstance, and the reservation has been cancelled and cleared your calendar for these dates. 
We also would like to inform you that we have refunded your guest in full. As such, we will not be able to provide you a payout for this reservation.

As you have already been paid out for this reservation, we have applied an adjustment to your account in the amount of $967AUD. 
This amount will be deducted from your next payout until it has been reconciled. Please plan accordingly."

I have a Strict Cancellation policy. This was accepted by a guest with a sick husband. They booked about two months in advance. 5 days before arriving they contacted me to cancel as her husband had got worse. 

I note that I have been confined to bed for the last 5 months with my own "Medical Emergency". I rely on the income from Airbnb Hosting, more so now that I am unable to work.

For the record, the guest did not have a "Medical Emergency". They were aware that they had a health issue when they booked but they did not contact me when they knew it was getting worse. Rather, they waited till 5 days before the check-in date to cancel. I offered to refund them any days that were booked. None were.

Airbnb thanks me for my understanding. I do not understand at all.

• I do not know why the guest’s health issue takes precedent over mine.
• I do not know why Airbnb did not contact me to discuss this
• I do not know why Airbnb has made me the de-facto travel insurance for this guest. When I fell sick overseas in January and was unable to travel for a month, I did not expect the hotel to accomodate me for free and the Airline not to charge me for change of dates. I relied on the Travel Insurance I paid for incase something unfortunate occurred.

My mortgages, strata levies, council rates and staff wages still have to be paid for the period the guest cancelled. It costs me money to host. This cancellation has cost me more than just the profit on the booking. 

Despite my extended illness, I have:

• not cancelled a single booking
• replied to every enquiry
• attended to every guest need.

I am aware of the Airbnb policy on extenuating circumstances. I do not understand why the Hosts extenuating circumstances are not taken into consideration in the application of this policy. 

[David126]

I suppose the first question is whether someone with such a medical condition would be able to get Travel Insurance.

But not really the point, happened to me once but a night stay rather than a week. And the morning of so no chance of another booking.

Nothing really you can do, you are at ABB mercy, if they provide sufficient evidence, and in my case I do not think it was more than a cold, nothing you can do.

What did surprise me was the speed of the cancellation and confirmation, I have serious doubts anything in the way of supporting documentation could have been supplied.

[Hugh0]

Thanks David for your input.

What annoys me is that the guest knew of the Extenuating Circumstances Policy and played it. They knew if they cancelled outside of one week, when they knew the husband was sick, that they would receive 50%. Accordingly, they waited until they were inside the one week period when they would receive nothing and then they cancelled knowing they could forward a medical certificate and receive 100%. 

I don't understand the point of hosts setting a cancellation policy when it can be waived. Surely the guest has to take some responsibility for their choices. They knew the husband was sick and could have chosen a far less popular apartment with a flexible policy to accomodate their circumstances. The choice was theirs. I am left paying for their poor choices.

As to whether a guest with a medical condition can get Travel Insurance, the answer is they don't need to bother. Airbnb Hosts provide travel insurance. Airbnb will take money from hosts and pay it to the guests. 

[Elizabeth120]

I really feel for you on this one.

I am stunned that AIRBNB can over-ride your cancellation policy in this way.

My own situation is that I have a house that sleeps 18; yet even the very strict  AIRBNB cancellation policy allows people to cancel a reservation at very short notice given that most people travelling in that size of group plan a trip months, sometimes even a year in advance. There is no chance of re-selling a place that size at short notice.

My cancellation policy on other sites is 50% up to 90 days, and 0 thereafter. I have - on one occasion, re-sold and refunded the reservation due to illness of an incoming guest. That was my own decision, and I was more than happy to do that in their circumstances. They came and stayed another time and gave me a great review.

It is impossible to contact AIRBNB to state my case for a longer cancellation policy. I am not at all impressed with their customer service, and I definitely do not feel valued as a host. I would have little/0 confidence AIRBNB would be there for me if there was a problem. And reading your post, I am even more scared of taking bookings through AIRBNB....

[Paul0]

Hi @Hugh0,

I appreciate the predicament your in... issues on both sides and this has lead to your cyncism.  Not sure it's righly aligned though. If someone can't travel for their holiday (you have to assume it's genuine at face value) then well, give them the benefit of the doubt and take it in step.   Reverse the roles and see how you feel... particularly given your health concerns.

As an aside, why were you paid anything if they cancelled 5 days out? It certainly would sting in that regard.

Appreciate this comment may sting a little, just openly discussing things.

Cheers,

Paul

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[Hugh0]

Paul, thanks for your comments.

If someone genuinely had a last minute predicament, given the opportunity by Airbnb to be flexible, I expect I would refund them 50%. At least I am not out of pocket in this scenario.

However, this is not the case. 5 days out the guest contacts me, quoting the Extenuating Circumstances Policy saying they have a letter from a Specialist prepared the day before. They then wait another 24 hours to cancel. There is no cyncism here - it is not possible to see a specialist without first seeing a GP and then waiting at least a week if not several. My point is that the guest knew they might have to cancel long before they did. This removed the opportunity for me to rebook. 

In communications with the guest it became clear they knew there could be a problem at the time of booking but they hoped it would go away. Accordingly, they should have booked an apartment with a Cancellation Policy that reflected their circumstances.

You mention my own circumstances. I paid for Travel Insurance. I did what responsible people do. They book a holiday and they get Travel Insurance. 

I note that Airbnb, the party gifting my payment a month after the original arrival date is not out of pocket. They kept their commission.

[Cynthia43]

Also note that Airbnb will potentially keep those booked dates

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@Hugh0 wrote:

Paul, thanks for your comments.

If someone genuinely had a last minute predicament, given the opportunity by Airbnb to be flexible, I expect I would refund them 50%. At least I am not out of pocket in this scenario.

However, this is not the case. 5 days out the guest contacts me, quoting the Extenuating Circumstances Policy saying they have a letter from a Specialist prepared the day before. They then wait another 24 hours to cancel. There is no cyncism here - it is not possible to see a specialist without first seeing a GP and then waiting at least a week if not several. My point is that the guest knew they might have to cancel long before they did. This removed the opportunity for me to rebook. 

In communications with the guest it became clear they knew there could be a problem at the time of booking but they hoped it would go away. Accordingly, they should have booked an apartment with a Cancellation Policy that reflected their circumstances.

You mention my own circumstances. I paid for Travel Insurance. I did what responsible people do. They book a holiday and they get Travel Insurance. 

I note that Airbnb, the party gifting my payment a month after the original arrival date is not out of pocket. They kept their commission.

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blocked for up to 14 days from the start of the check in date while waiting for that guest's doctor's letter. I had to call and complain several times to get those dates unblocked!  But now only 4 days before the cancelled reservation, I doubt I will be able to re-book those 7 days. This penalizes the host for NO reason while siding with the guest. Yes, and suspecious timing of when the guest's doctor's letter magically arrived.

[Elizabeth120]

Paul,

I read your comment with interest.

I do not know of any other booking site that disrespects the cancellation policy of the accommodation provider. I am really shocked at AIRBNB doing this.

I find AIRBNB policies are heavily weighted towards the guests' needs and against the reasonable needs of the hosts. Its like we should be honoured to ever receive a guest, regardless of the cost to us!

I have only had one cancellation, and in that case I immediately offered to re-sell the house, and when successful, I refunded the incoming guest in full. I do understand AIRBNB's wish to be reasonable in the case of unexpected illness. However, it would be best left to the host to deal with it, and it seems from the content of this thread that the host has grave reservations about the conduct of the guest in this case. Its a terrible way to treat a host in my opinion and it makes me think twice about accepting AIRBNB bookings, especially in peak season.

[Robin-and-Mami0]

Paul,

Apparently you haven't been in the hotel or hosting business long.  There is an entire industry devoted to this problem.  It's called Travel Insurance.  It's for guests.  Airbnb has, by default, decided hosts will be "self insured" in this regard.  This makes no sense.  The damage of a cancelation is real and can be substantial - even put some hosts out of business.  Would you drive your car without insurance?   There is no "Travel Insurance - for hosts"  to my knowledge.   If you find such a policy and it's reasonably priced, please post it in this thread.  Airbnb does have a help note that encourages guests to get TA but that alone is a truncation of professional business sense-policy.  I run units on another platform for 11 years with no complaints - telling guests about TA, giving them names of a half dozen and not having any provision in the contract for health reason cancelation.  Airbnb - go figure.

[Suzanne75]

Thanks Hugh. I had a similar shocking experience a few days ago. A renter who had booked eight nights cancelled last minute because of the hurricane in Florida. I called Airbnb to see if they were offering refunds to folks hit by the natural disaster, and indeed they were. I was so glad to hear that until it dawned on me that they meant the refund came from me. I am still feeling shocked and betrayed. Airbnb is a multi billion dollar company; they can afford to give money back to folks in these situations. Or, if they don't want to dish it out, it would not be hard to charge each guest a nominal fee to put towards travel insurance, and then in these "extenuating circumstances" they could be covered and it would not come out of the hosts pocket. Because this was an eight day rental, I lost a considerable chunck of money. On VRBO, each renter is advised to purchase travel insurance, and has to actually initial something if they decline it. Travel insurance exists exactly for these "extenuating circumstances"; illness, injury, death, natural disasters. It is shocking that Airbnb has decided to make hosts their travel insurance.

Is there something we can do besides just complain? Class action lawsuit? 

Please let me know, as this whole thing sits so wrong with me.

Suzanne Greenberg

[Carly-Mayra0]

I am considering switching this all together to VRBO

[Ashley191]

unbelievable, like you all said the least they can do is provide the option for travel insurance, i had similar situation

[Emily289]

I have already started transitioning to competitors like VRBO and Home Away due to the lack empathy Airbnb provides on this situation, as mentioned they are a multi billion dollar company and can easily have a fund for special situation like this and or provide travel insurance

[Emma176]

Airbnb is been extremely careless about their hosts specially when it comes to caring for their hosts at all. recently in texas we had a hurricane and someone cancelled 2 hours before even though the hurricane had already been announced and upgraded several days before. The Austin area was relatively unimpacted yet the person got their reservatio cancelled and a full refund and Airbnb didnt even have the courtesy to notify us of the fact it was cancelled. We got the place ready, we got it all set up cleaned and incurred the costs and the customer service team simply tells us that its "extenuating circumstances" as if these circumstances apply to guests and we hosts are not human at all or victim of these circumstances at all

[Carly-Mayra0]

Same situation happened to me and i got the same exact dry response for Aribnb and they even closed the case even though i was still contesting it and dipusting the decision. Whats most frustrating is like you said they look at it one way as we are also not suffering from the same consequnces and same hurricane. it appears that they look at us more as a building or an apartment than an actual person as the host with actuall exenses and costs. They tend to look at it as if all the money being charged is pure profit and gains rather than a business thats running. Further more this was for a big group reservation where there was no way the cancellation can be replaced with another one the same day since it unique reservations that are usually for larger groups. The most important thing is a big corp like Airbnb should be saavy enough to not put one person or the other at a disadvantage instead they can easily have a travel insurance option that guests or hosts or Airbnb them selves provides from where neither person is at a disatvantage when this happens. Forexample airline travel insurance allows a person to get that sort of insurance and if ticket is cancelled an ainsurance company pays the guest the cancellation and the airline keeps the money they sold the ticket for. Why cant Airbnb get an insurance company that does that or even at least provide the options for either party to purchase that. More over Airbnb should easily be able to have a pool of funds where in "extenuating cirumstances" both parties are protected rather than simpl say we have the right to override the cancellation policy and screw over the host even when the host has incurred so many costs getting the place ready for the guest since its such short notice