Superhost Travel Bonus - April 2020

[Jude7]

I have always enjoyed the $100 yearly travel perk as a Superhost bonus, and have looked forward to receiving it and to treating myself to a weekend away, or using it to upgrade a stay I am already planning.  I'm assuming the award I just received that expires in June of this year is a mistake?

This is what I just received:

You chose $100 travel coupon. Your travel coupon must be used for a single reservation and expires on Jun 30, 2020. It isn’t transferable to friends or family—we hope you’ll use the credit to treat yourself!  Once you confirm your selection, it can’t be changed.

[Jeffrey391]

Precisely!  My questions for AirBnB —

Thank you for the generous $100 travel coupon. But it expires on 6/30/2020?   Seriously, two questions come to mind —

1  Can I use this to make reservations BEFORE 6/30 for a trip AFTER 6/30?

2  With COVID-19 still not seen its worse days, do you truly feel that 6/30 is a reasonable expiration date when we don’t even know that we’ll be able to travel by then, or with what restrictions?

Thank you. 

[Jude7]

@Jeffrey391  I just sent a message through twitter help.  I know they have more urgent matters to attend to, but I at least wanted to alert someone.  I'm assuming it's a mistake.  I've received this travel coupon a number of times, and always took my time over the course of an entire year to plan my travel.  

Maybe Airbnb figures with so many vacancies - there's lots of choices as to where we travel!  Not............  😞

[Lawrene0]

@Jude7 , mine says March 31, 2021, now, so looks like it got fixed?

[Jude7]

Hey @Lawrene0!  Did you JUST get the notice that you were entitled to a travel bonus, or was your year up last quarter?  Each time I've maintained a year's status as a Superhost, the award was for a year ending with the start of the next quarter.  In other words,  for the quarter starting April 1, the award should be good until June 30, 2021, as the next quarter will start on July 1.

I'm just about positive this was in error, which doesn't mean the error will be easily corrected.  If I redeem the travel credit as written, I don't have any confidence that it will be honored for more than the three months that is indicated.

Here's what's on the email I received today:

You have until Jun 30, 2020 to choose and redeem your Superhost bonus. 

I'm hoping other hosts who wish to redeem this credit will notice the incorrect date, and straighten it out before accepting a 3 month voucher that should be good for an entire year.  For anyone else who is reading this thread, I will update the information once I hear back from customer support.

[Sarah977]

@Jude7  You may be confused. The Superhost voucher is given out only once a year, not each quarter. It is good for a year from date of issue. So if you earned one, for example,  April 1, 2020, it would be valid until March 31, 2021. You don't get a new one on July 1st, 2021, good for another year, just because you made Superhost again. If you maintained Superhost until April 1 2021, then you would be issued a new one, to expire March 31, 2021.

In your case, I would think the expiry date of June 30, 2020 means you were originally issued that voucher on July 1, 2019.

[Lawrene0]

@Jude7 , I received mine last night, and the expiry is correct -- March 31, 2021. 

If you received that voucher last July 15 for your quarter ended June 30 and haven't used it, it still shows up when you click "Check out your bonus", which, I have to say, is very confusing. It has tripped me up before.

"I got another travel credit? Yay!"

Nope.

They even show up if you have used them. You don't get to see that it has been used until you click through and try to get the code. Again, personal experience here...

Is that possible? You received superhost status today, but your voucher is from last year? As @Sarah977  says, you only get one every 4th consecutive quarter, not every time. 

Bummer if so, since you won't be travelling before June 30, I'll bet.  

[Jude7]

Hmm..... Thanks @Lawrene0 and @Sarah977 for responding.  Now I'm really confused!  I'm going to have to do some more digging.  I am aware that a travel voucher is issued once a year, and not every quarter of achieving Superhost status. I also used the voucher in April that I received for last year.  But very strange that in my congratulations email also received last night, it has a link to the perks of Superhost status, and asks me to choose either a travel voucher or photography, and when I choose travel, it says I'm entitled to a voucher for travel or reservations to be completed by June 30, 2020.

Wondering @Lawrene0 why the voucher in the email you received last night says it's good until March 31, 2021, and mine says good until June 30, 2020.  Very confusing!

I'm a bit overwhelmed right now dealing with other matters.   I'll have to dig deeper and see what this email really means. 

[Jude7]

@Lawrene0 and @Sarah977   Curious about what you each said - which I agree with - I went back to my email.  Here's a copy and paste.  I'd love to know your interpretation of these words, because I'm totally confused:

You earned a bonus!

Achieving Superhost four times in a row deserves some extra celebration! As a thank you, you can choose one of these bonuses

$100 travel coupon

Treat yourself to an adventure with $100 to explore a new city or try out a new listing.

Choose

Free professional photography

Upgrade your listing’s photos with professional photography. You can choose this bonus if you’ve never paid for professional photos for your listing through Airbnb. Check which listings are eligible

Choose

OR

You have until Jun 30, 2020 to choose and redeem your Superhost bonus.

[Lawrene0]

I didn't get the photography option, @Jude7 , so I didn't have to "choose". My travel credit was just sitting there.

Looks like a glitch in the travel vs photography emails? I don't envy you trying to get through to customer service right now...

You said you tried Twitter? Any answer yet?

[Sarah977]

@Jude7  "You have until Jun 30, 2020 to choose and redeem your Superhost bonus."

That is indeed strange- it reads like you can choose between the voucher and the photography until June 30, but then if you waited until then to choose, how could it also expire the same day you chose it? 

Do please let us know if you get an answer- it sounds like some tech glitch.

But you also wrote " Each time I've maintained a year's status as a Superhost, the award was for a year ending with the start of the next quarter.  In other words,  for the quarter starting April 1, the award should be good until June 30, 2021, as the next quarter will start on July 1."

That doesn't make sense, either. If you are issued a Superrhost voucher on April 1, 2020, and it's good for a year, it should expire on March 31, 2021, not June 30.

[Cathryn1]

I used my Superhost voucher on accommodation in Slovenia.  When I had to cancel due to COVID19 I received information that I would receive a travel voucher for the cost less my $100 voucher.  The correspondence also indicated I could use the voucher up until December 2021.  

The information also stated that if I used the voucher for less of the total amount I could contact Airbnb Support to use the balance.

In the coupon section of my account all coupons from 2015 to now are there whether expired or current but there is no sign of the travel coupon from Slovenia.

When booking one nights accommodation the partial amount was allocated to my receipt with a balance of more than half the amount  left.

I contacted Airbnb Support as suggested and was told they had know record of any correspondence or voucher information relating to this travel coupon.  I was also told that I could not use the balance as it needed to be used in one transaction.

I am very suspicious of the fact that all correspondence relating to the travel voucher approval has disappeared from my Airbnb site.

#travelcoupon #missingcorrespondence #travelrefund  #travel #refund #correspondence #support 

[Sarah977]

@Cathryn1  As far as I'm aware, a travel coupon does have to be used on only one booking, and if the booking isn't as much as the voucher, you don't get a credit for the rest, you just lose it. Also, if you cancel a booking you've used a voucher on, you lose that voucher, it doesn't get credited back.  I know that doesn't seem fair at all, but that's how it works for everyone, as far as I've read.

So what happened is what normally happens, but you were given incorrect information or the messages you got stated things in an unclear manner, as is common with much of Airbnb's communictions.

[Cathryn1]

Thank you for your feedback @Sarah977.  

I think what I find most suspicious is the fact that there is no record of any correspondence or indication of the travel voucher whether used or not in my account records like all the other used vouchers.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 @Cathryn1 

So what on earth... ever... is going to happen with all that money received in vouchers for Covid cancellations and not able to be used on a booking? Will it be reallocated to the original host who lost it?

Or something else?