How far do extenuating circumstances extend?

[Christopher375]

To summarize, the guest placed a reservation for two. A day after they were scheduled to arrive, they canceled the reservation because a friend who was also traveling to Branson (but not staying with us) had an accident. I understand the policy of extenuating circumstances. We had been in contact with our guest and know the situation. The person that had the accident was not staying with us and was not a family member of our guest. We do not understand why we are being penalized for something that was not related to our reservation. We were NEVER alerted that there was going to be a refund. In fact we were sent a link to leave the guest a review as they had stayed with us. We are very unhappy with this situation. We understand that accidents happen, however this was not with our guest, family member, or anyone staying at our home. If guest can place a reservation and cancel days into the reservation because a friend had an issue, it does not seem like a very reliable system for hosts. We need to know who to talk to. We did discuss this matter by email with someone at airbnb and was basically told that this is the way it is.

UPDATE:  Customer "service" just sent me a message that the person that had an accident was close to the guest and could "probably be considered" like family.  Yep.  So, if a host wants to cancel at the last minute on a guest, can we say a friend that is like family had an issue and we need to cancel without penalty?

[Mike-And-Helen0]

Seems like a plan! My dear friend had an accident. Sorry, no rooms at the inn!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Christopher375 

Great plan! Thats just like a 'get out of jail free' card. You could find a friend or complete stranger that you know can get a medical exemption and use them as an excuse. I've heard of ambulance chasing but this is ridiculous. 

Extenuating circumstances are something imposed on a guest which prevents them travelling, not something they have the power to make a decision about !

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Christopher375 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

I am not surprised, a week ago one host wrote a post about his guest's canceloation due to "possible heavy rain on Hawai" Guest said he don't want to spend his holiday on the rain, he wants the sun, Aibnb refunded him in full due to "extenuating circumstances"

No comment---

[Christopher375]

We had that happen on Valentine's Day, one of our busiest weekends.  A guest canceled because their was a snow warning in the neighboring state, hundreds of miles away.  They refunded them the day of arrival.

[Marie82]

@Let0 hope this guest will never book Ireland or Uk, really funny one

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Christopher375 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Mike-And-Helen0 

On the whole, the amount of guests cancelling due to extenuating circumstances for an individual host would be pretty rare. If I was an insurance broker I'd offer to provide hosts an insurance cover primarily for extenuating circumstances cover. I would be minted within a week. Minted! ££$$$££.

Might I be worried that Airbnb might jump in there and profit from this idea because they could easily do it? Well, no, not really... because they're too busy screwing their hosts over retaliatory reviews, Superhost status and inappropriately taking fees from them for harebrained extenuating circumstances claims already to actually think of benefit. If they were interested in doing anything, it would take eight years before they ever got around to any kind of positive change like this and by then most of their experienced hosts will be gone.

[Susan17]

@Christopher375 

As per Airbnb's own T&Cs, this absolutely does not qualify under the Extenuating Circumstances policy.

Only the death  of an immediate family member is covered by EC, while serious illness only applies to the host, guest or any member of the travelling party, and not to immediate family members. So it doesn't matter whether the injured party is a close friend, a twin or a distant cousin, twice removed - EC is not applicable here. 

Quote the clauses above back at Airbnb CX - over and over again, if necessary -  until they agree to abide by the terms of their own policies. Don't let them bully you, or allow them to deceptively deprive you of income that's rightfully, and legally,  yours. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Susan17 

Is this not the standard operating procedure of the Terms and Conditions? The terms are not administered correctly in numerous cases resulting in long drawn out hour sapping communication and misallocation of resources.

Terms must be adhered to, are not open to interpretation and are not overridden by additional 'Help' pages which do not fully include the whole terms themselves.

@Christopher375 

I would give myself (yourself) a limit of time contacting Airbnb CX in order to rectify this matter. After then, I would publicise your plight on Twitter and ask for assistance from that channel before either bringing a claim directly against Airbnb or via arbitration. You can be absolutely certain that if your close friend had an accident, that friend would not  "probably be considered" like family.

Both Hosts and Guests agree to the Terms as set out by Airbnb and as Susan points out, however much the guest would want a refund for his convenience his rights do not extend to qualify his claim.

[Susan17]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

"The terms are not administered correctly in numerous cases resulting in long drawn out hour sapping communication and misallocation of resources"

Couldn't agree more. That's why, when challenging a decision that contravenes Airbnb's stated policies, it's imperative that we repeatedly quote the relevant clauses of their own T&C's right back at them in every communication - and threaten to report them to the relevant authorities for breaching their own terms of service, if necessary. That usually gets their attention. 

The screenshots below are a convo between CX and my friend last week, following a ruling that Airbnb would refund a guest - in full - under Extenuating Circumstances, due to a family member being ill, and the guest being their caregiver (allegedly). I told him to send the screenshot I posted above, and to  point out to the support worker that only the death of an immediate family member is covered by EC, and not illness, serious or otherwise. He got his payout 

[Flavia195]

@Susan17  those are kind of really sensitive info...it goes against the people privacy. Doctors records in Europa, only the judge can require.

[Susan17]

@Flavia195 

Of course nobody expected Airbnb to hand over doctor's records, but that's irrelevant anyway. The guest was scamming, pure and simple. 

The point here though, is that Airbnb tried to refund a guest €433 of a host's money, against the terms of their own policies. And if the host hadn't fought them on it, he would have been deprived of that income. 

[Flavia195]

@Susan17  i understood. About it the "extenuating circumstance" is never proved for sure. Just ABB trust the guest word.

My police is strict and Airbnb always asks me to "refund". The "way" ABB use is unacceptable. They ask if you agree with the guest "alteration". They do not use the term cancelation. But if you cancel a customer reserve, it come as cancelation and not alteration. They use two diferent ways. We are in the "guests hands", if you agree you lost money, if you don't agree you lost ( bad reviews, calendar blocked, superhost status removed)... 

[Sherry114]

Change your cancellation policy to ‘strict’.

Then you can choose to refund or not in more situations.

[Chris2043]

We are set to strict. Airbnb overrode our policy.