Misleading cancelation policy

[William470]

I hate Airbnb so far. I'm a new customer that canceled my first booking months in advance and was charged $18.95 service fee. The booking said the cancelation policy was "flexible" which states a FULL refund of accomodation fees. They fail to mention that they refund all fees ...EXCEPT for their service fee. That detail is buried in their help section. It took FOREVER to find a telephone number or email address. ‭(415) 800-5959‬ or ‭(855) 424-7262‬. I had to contact a host for that. On Monday morning I called to get a refund but they said it was too late. I had to request a refund within 24-48 hours. I was on the phone with Ria for over an hour to get a complaint ticket to have a case manager call me back. Dominique called me an hour later and said he would refund me the service fee. So much of Airbnb is a scam to screw hosts and customers to make that little extra profit off of each one of us rather than make policy clear, transparent, and up front honest.

[Sarah977]

@Antony91  I believe you misunderstand the cancellation policies. You wouldn't have gotten your Airbnb fees back for cancelling the first place even if you had booked the second place through another platform. If you thoroughly read the cancellation policy, you will see that full refund means a full refund of the nightly fee, cleaning fee, etc, but the Airbnb service fee is not refunded unless the booking is cancelled within 48 hours.

And it is also stated that service fees will not be refunded if you make a new booking for the same dates before cancelling the first one.

I'm not saying it's fair, but that information is available for guests to read, it seems many guests just don't read through it thoroughly.

[Antony91]

The cancellation terms when booking read “Cancel before 12pm on August 6th and get a full refund” which to any reasonable interpretation means “Cancel before 12pm on August 6th and get a FULL refund” I have the original booking and can share the printout. Now, IF the booking read “Cancel before 12pm on August 6th and get a full refund minus the service fee”, which is what it says now I have a duplicate booking, then it would have been clear that the booking fee was non refundable. If the original booking terms were clear, why has the wording now changed on the booking? I have the email printed out, and happy to share these with Airbnb if I could actually speak to someone. 

[Antony91]

As I said previously, this is a very underhand and misleading practice.

[Antony91]

See?

Clearly states the service fee is actually refundable up to August 6th....if your detailed terms state that service fees are bot refundable after 48 hours, then this is in direct contradiction of the information given when booking. 

All I have asked for is for the service fee to be refunded so that I can cover my new booking with Airbnb. If Airbnb thinks that is unreasonable then this will be my very last booking.

 

[Sarah977]

@Antony91 I've never travelled as a guest, so I don't know how the cancellation policy is presented to guests when they book. If the info about the service fees is missing from that, that is indeed not right and guests are being misled.

But if you do a Google search for "Airbnb cancellation policies", or read the information in the Help section of the main Airbnb site, it lists all the various policies and it says the service fees are only refundable if cancelled within 48 hours, as well as mentioning the double booking issue.

Refunds on fees

• Cleaning fees: If there is a cleaning fee, it is always refunded if you cancel before check-in.
• Airbnb service fees: If there is an Airbnb service fee, it’s only refunded if you cancel during the free cancellation period for your reservation. The service fee also isn’t refunded if the canceled reservation overlaps with another of your reservations or if you’ve already received 3 service fee refunds in the last 12 months.
• On-site property fees: If a hotel or other professional host collects property fees on-site, any refund of those fees is at the discretion of the hos

[Antony91]

Our messages crossed, if you look at the screenshot from the booking you’ll understand...which should I believe, the live booking or the static terms and conditions that 90% of people will never see?

[Sarah977]

@Antony91  In that screenshot you posted with the colors, did you click on "Get full details" at the bottom? If you did, and it still doesn't mention the Airbnb fee part, then yes, this is missing information that needs to be presented to guests.

But it also behooves guests to read all the information available in the Help section for guests in order to understand how everything works. Just as hosts who don't bother to inform themselves of Airbnb policies before they put up a listing and start taking bookings can run into trouble.

[Antony91]

 here you go, still pretty clear that fees are refundable...

[Sarah977]

@Antony91  Well, if I were a guest and nowhere on the information I was sent nor in the cancellation policy info in the listing itself (which isn't the host's doing, the host just selects a policy and the wording about it is inserted by Airbnb) was the retention of Airbnb fees mentioned, I 'd be quite ticked off, too. 

There have been a lot of complaints about Airbnb's non-transparent, misleading, incomplete, or confusing language, from both guests and hosts. They don't seem to care.

[Antony91]

It would. certainly seem that way.

[Lisbeth40]

Hi. I made a booking, but after one day thought it was too expencive. Booked a cheaper place, and then wanted to cancel the first one. My trip will be in one month. And then, boom! Pay 120$  I feel cheated! When it says full refund I expect full refund! Even if I read everything I can’t find it! Then it is too complicated! I’m frustrated. I have been spending a lot of time talking to Airbnb. And written them and asked for where to find this info. My first and last booking with them. 

[Lisbeth40]

J

[Steven1097]

Hey folks. One level of recourse you have is to file a claim with your credit card carrier. I did this with my Chase Sapphire Reserve. It took 2 months to resolve, but they eventually sided with me and I received my ~$630 service fee back. Just throwing this out here as another option if you can't resolve with AirBnB directly.

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**[Personal information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Christian2524]

Same thing happened to me. I am trying to coordinate lodging with several people. I had a smaller placed booked, and I was trying to book a larger place, but it wasn't an instant book. So out of fear of not having any place do to not being booked, I held the original place until the 2nd place was booked. Within 15 hours, I got a confirmation on the larger place and immediately canceled the first reservation. And now they won't refund the $75 service fee! And this all took place in a span of 2 day! Ridiculous!

[Ute42]

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@Christian2524     

That You don't get the service fee refunded with overlapping bookings is the official policy and intentionally the way it is.

With this policy airbnb wants to avoid the situation that a guest books several places with overlapping or even identical check-in/out dates and then in the last moment cancel all reservations except one to keep the one they like most.