I have just had an absolutely DREADFUL experience with Air BnB and I will never use them again.
It's too long a story but suffice it to say, I found their refund timeline which is a color coded green to yellow to red thing confusing enough (even after a college education ) that I got stuck with an enormous five bedroom in New Orleans for jazz fest when the other family cancelled on me. I contacted the host only 4 days (and 3 1/2 MONTHS before I was to check in) and after multiple conversations with Air, they said tough luck, no refund, no discussion, nothing we can do.
What hotel would ever get away with that?? Worse, if I pressed the on site "cancel" key, it showed I would receive a $56.00 refund on a deposit of $3,100.00!! What? Why would I pay a $287 cleaning fee when I never went??
Why would I pay an occupancy tax for something I never occupied?? We went back and forth.
Air said "the government" was responsible for that charge and they could do nothing about it. Um. True?? Time to write your representative? I had over two months until the second payment was due, and I was working on getting another family to join us and share the costs, but suddenly I got an email from Air saying they had cancelled my reservation.
Mind you, I had been speaking with that person on the support chatline for 2 weeks. No heads up, no nothing. I was incensed they had taken away ALL my options, including negotiating with the host and/or getting a friend to share the reservation. When I said, WTF, their answer was "they were saving me money preventing the second half of the payment."
What? They decided on their own to save ME money...not due until APRIL 8th! ? I complained irately, and on the phone I got a sympathetic ear who said it sounded like there was definitely a problem on their part and she would bump up to a case manager. The next day, I got a message in the chat, introducing herself as Jennifer, and she proceeded to tell me : "let me tell you a couple of things" and subsequently accused me of EXTORTION, a felony.
As a very moral person who never cheated on a test or stole a candy bar in my entire life, I burst out into tears at this stabbing insult to my character. I mean, what hospitality school does one go to where the option is: 1) Deny any culpability on your part and 2) Accuse the client of a vile crime.
Finally, 3 weeks into dealing with this absolute nightmare, they offered me half my deposit (while still not addressing a comparable amount that would be the tax, the cleaning and their service fee refund) and I did not answer for 4 days because I was travelling and dealing with my dying 92 yr old father in law.
So - yup - the fabulous customer service continued and I got a chat that "since I hadn't replied" they were taking away the offer of that refund. 2 more calls and many tears later, l got a chat from a new manager who said simply she would honor the refund. No apology. No addressing the fact they had no right to cancel my reservation in the first place. No way to reply to the chat.
Over and out. Well, as much as a pain in the neck this is, this story will be written to the CEO of Air b n B. I encourage you to keep up the fight. This company SUCKS
