Refund for strict cancellation policy

[Hannah378]

I need some advice... and please don’t bother commenting if you have nothing positive to say or something that will actually help...

me and 5 friends booked a villa with a strict cancellation policy, reading the T&C’s we were under the impression that if we cancelled within 7 days we would get 50% refund back. Great. So we booked. We paid something like £1200 and the total due (including the £1200) nearer the time was £2100.

2 of the guests can no longer travel due to becoming pregnant, obviously unexpected but their baby is due shortly before we are meant to go. So I contacted the host and she said we would receive 50% refund, so I cancelled the booking on air BnB as instructed and waited patiently (10 working Days) for the refund and nothing. It’s now over a month since I cancelled it and the host hasn’t replied to any of the messages I sent, so I got air BnB involved. They’ve now advised that the “50% refund” means that we don’t get the money we paid but we don’t have to pay the rest.... which is completely different to how all 6 of us read the cancellation policy. We’ve cancelled 8 months before we are due to travel... and the host WILL NOT refund our deposit. How is this fair?! I’ve searched the villa again and it says “no property found” so she’s probably had another booking already to fill our space. If I had known we wouldn’t be getting any of our money back we wouldn’t have cancelled it and would have found someone else to take the spot, but because the host told me to cancel it to “issue the refund” we now have no reservation and are £1200 out of pocket! I have tried to go down the extenuating circumstances route but apparently pregnancy doesn’t apply to that. What else can I do?! 

[Emiel1]

@Hannah378

The  50% refund is on the total costs of the reservation. I understand you paid in two installments, so the first one is 50% (?). The second one is not payed, so the refund is technically done.

If the host is not willing to compensate by way of goodwill, then nothing can be done, because the cancellation policy is clear about it.

[Linda108]

@Hannah378  is @Emiel1 correct in posting that you were refunded based on a delayed payment of 50%?  If so, are you seeking more refund?

[Pete28]

Perhaps with medical evidence you may suggest extenuating circumstances to Airbnb..

[Lisa723]

@Hannah378 unfortunately if you've already tried the "extenuating circumstances" route you are probably out of luck. Just to shed some light from the other side, until recently all guests paid 100% when booking. The option to split the payment in two is recent. And hosts do not see how and when guests have paid. So this host most likely assumed you had paid 100% and would now get 50% of that back-- from her point of view, she's returning 50% either way. It's too bad if Airbnb has not adjusted its cancellation policy verbiage to make the interaction with the split payment option clear.

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict-with-grace-period

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Hannah378

From the host's point of view........hosts do not recieve any kind of payment until the intended check-in date so the host has recieved no money whatsoever from your cancelled booking. Any money paid by the guest for a confirmed booking is with ABB until the day after the (intended) check-in date so technically the host has nothing to refund since the host did not recieve any sort of payment regarding your specific booking.

The 50% that the host will get for the cancellation will be paid out by ABB to the host on the intended check-in date of your cancelled booking, which by your post I assume will be about 8 months from now. No host is going to refund money from their own pocket to guests asking for an additional refund thinking they will get the money back from ABB several months later.

While I understand "why" you are upset, the host is not to blame (at all~) for any of your problems or frustrations.

Also...... if you read the cancellation policy carefully it says.....

"Accommodation fees (the total nightly rate you’re charged) are refundable in certain circumstances as outlined below."

For a 50% refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made 7 full days prior to listing’s local check in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check in, otherwise no refund. For example, if check-in is on Friday, cancel by Friday of the previous week before check in time.

So regardless of how much the guest paid upfront, the 50% refund is based on the TOTAL sum of the reservation. You said "We paid something like £1200 and the total due (including the £1200) nearer the time was £2100." which means your accomodation fee is £2100 of which you paid £1200 as a sort of downpayment/deposit to secure a confirmed booking. According to the wording a 50% refund would be half of £2100 - it seems pretty clear to me.  

[Hannah378]

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying and I am not blaming the host, I wasn’t aware they don’t receive payment until check in and I don’t expect her to refund money from her own pocket but I personally do not think the terms are clear enough and she has plenty of time to find someone else to occupy her villa in the middle of June (peak season) if she hasn’t done so already. As you are a host I’m sure the terms are probably simple to read for you but for someone who isn’t a host I don’t think it’s in laymen’s terms. The £1200 that we paid includes a service fee from Air BNB, do you know if we are entitled to this back seeing as we haven’t departed? As I’m sure you can appreciate we’ve lost a lot of money for something completely out of our control and I’m trying my hardest to get any

money back I can.

[Lisa723]

@Hannah378 at the link I posted above you can see "The Airbnb service fee is refundable, up to 3 times per year, within 48 hours of booking. "

I think you are out of luck. I do appreciate your feelings but in fairness this was not "completely out of your control;" you accepted the terms when booking. Yes, Airbnb could make the interaction between cancellation policies and split payments clearer, but they're not going to refund you based on that.

[Leana5]

How I, as a host, can know if my guest kept my booking blocked until he found another property?

[Gordon0]

You could stalk him and check his reviews after the intended stay date, or you could let it go and get on with the rest of your life. 

[Martha389]

Hi, by the strict cancellation policy I understan this:

If you cancel at least 14 days before the arrival time, you'll get back 100% of the total amount.

If you cancel between 14 and 7 days before the arrival date, you'll get 50% of the total amount.

If you cancel 7 or less days before the arrival date, there is no refund at all.

As you mention, you canceled months before the arrival time, so you should get your payment back.

I say this because as a host, I don't receive any amount until some days after the guest arrives. 

When they cancel at least 14 days before, I don't receive any money at all. And some guests keep messaging me asking for their money back, but I tell them they should talk about it with the AirBnB team and they don't send me requests anymore. I think they get it solved.

Hope it helps.

Best!

[Mika8]

@Martha389  .. as a host you should know it better.

strict:

For a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time

[Martha389]

So, as the host never receives the payment and the guest never receives the payment back for canceling, AirBnB keeps the money of all the canceled bookings?

Shocking!

As a host and as a guests that has never been my experience.

But you know better.

Thanks @Mika7 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Martha389 

You are wrong again - under strict the host gets 50% of the total payout due to the host.  If there is a cleaning fee, this is always refunded to the guest if there is a cancellation.

The host will be paid the 50% remaining the day after the the original check-in should have taken place. airbnb gets their commission as usual.

[Martha389]

Thanks for answering @Marit-Anne0 

I have had guests canceling before (48 h after booking and a month or two before arrival) and nothing has been paid to me as a host.

I'll re read cancellation policy here and look if there's any difference from country to country, because nothing has been sent to me when guests have canceled.