Refund denied by host

[Chiara774]

I want please to file a complaint because,despite extenuating circumstances like a pandemic,my host refused to refund me,not even a penny!this is outrageous and such poor judgement. It's not even possible to fly to any destination in this moment. Your hist stole this money from me,despite I said to her I wanted to book again when this crisis is over. I'm really so furious,rhis ia a rip off. Please help with this.

[Anonymous]

@Scott1159   A date-change request makes sense when you're a multi-unit hotel. You know that a few months from now, the hotel is still going to be a hotel, and a reservation can be freely moved from one room to another without impacting other bookings.

An Airbnb host doesn't have this degree of certainty. We don't know yet when travel will be possible again. Plenty of hosts' properties aren't available 365 days a year for a guest to pick any date of their choice, and plenty of hosts can't anticipate what their life circumstances will be like months from now. The property they're renting may well be their own home, which they need for other uses. Many of those who are losing a lot of income now are hastily trying to secure long-term tenants and are therefore in no position to commit to blocking off dates for a short-term booking in the future. We can't even be entirely sure that Airbnb won't go bust in the coming months like many companies in the travel industry are about to - in which case there would be no payouts for those distant bookings. 

So no, it's not necessarily better to reschedule a reservation than to have it canceled. Especially when it turns out that your guest is a major whiner.

[Sarah977]

@Scott1159  A lot of hosts would be quite happy to accept a reschedule request right now. In fact, many are asking their guests to be amenable to that option- it's the best scenario at the moment for hosts, although to be clear, Airbnb doesn't pay hosts for bookings until a day after a guest checks in, so if you were to rebook for December, the host won't see a penny of that money until then- Airbnb will retain your payment all that time (earning interest on it, BTW).

Sorry you had the bad luck to encounter a host who isn't willing to do this, and it's definitely rude not to even answer your messages.

[Juan63]

@Chiara774 Your host didn't steal your money. You choose his property and agreed to his policy. I would offer some type of refund if I was him but that's his choice. I would wait to see if Airbnb extends their terrible EC policy and get a refund then.