Mexico City and Smog

[Viola72]

I made a long term reservation  in Mexico City early in the month. Now, with the wildfires the city is under a severe smog/air pollution alert, to the extent that people are advised to stay indoors and even school is being cancelled. Scientists have likened breathing the air to smoking a half pack of cigarettes daily. It’s been a week now and the problem shows no signs of letting up. My reservation is set to start next week and I’ll be coming with my toddler. Because the smog is considered a national emergency, would it qualify for canceling the reservation and being reimbursed?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Viola72 

Yes, I am sure you will be fully refunded.

Contact Airbnb, send them a link to some newspaper article about the fire, smoke etc.... ask them to cancel your reservation and fully refund you due to extenuating circumstances

[Helen3]

@Viola72 I would check with Airbnb but if it is classified as a national emergency in the area you are travelling to, I would imagine it would be covered. What is your government advice on travel to the area?

[Viola72]

I haven’t seen anything on the US embassy website yet, but the smog just hit our current city in full force today. We’ve been exploring the country this year and have been staying in Xalapa, it’s a couple hundred kilometers east of Mexico City. I noticed my son was coughing in his sleep last night, which I think is what made me post this question, and then I woke this morning with a splitting headache, like it’s-3pm-and-I-forgot-to-drink-morning-coffee. Then I looked outside and the mountains around the city are just covered in haze. It used to be I could make out the buildings that dotted the countryside, as recently as two days ago, now the mountains just look like gray blobs. It’s so surreal. I’m going to call AirBnb today. I’ve never cancelled a reservation before, I feel horrible, but I can’t imagine how much worse this is in Mexico City.

[Quincy]

Hi @Viola72, so sorry to hear about this. I hope that you and your son will feel better. How's the situation over there now? Would you mind letting me know how everything goes? 

Quincy 

[Viola72]

I opted to keep the reservation, as the air quality seems to be improving a bit. I found an iPhone app (Aire) that lets me monitor the city’s air quality against the government’s standards day to day, which has been immensely helpful. Since our stay is for several months, I’ve decided to invest in a HEPA filter for the house. I also have face masks handy for if we need to go out during days with poor air quality. That said, if we get there and we’re having trouble with the air, I can just take the hit for the first month and move us elsewhere in the country. I don’t think it will come to that, though. The main thing that encouraged me is that the rainy season is finally starting and they’re projecting that this is going to improve the air quality by a lot. 

Ultimately, I’m glad I did more research and didn’t jump the gun and cancel. It was hard to find information in English, so before I’d planned to place a call you AirBnb I did some searches in Spanish with the local papers to get a clearer picture of what was going on there. While the situation still seemed pretty bad, the US-based papers weren’t really following up to to report on the improvements over the past week.