Technical issue and Airbnb not refunding

[Jennifer2464]

Dear Airbnb Community,

I’m reaching out for help regarding an issue that has occurred with a reservation and Airbnb owe me a refund. The case has been ongoing for weeks now and I am not receiving a clear response to a problem that should be easily solved. The context is as follows:

I booked a place from the 2nd of May to the 31st of May. I wanted to extend the reservation from the 31st of May to the 14th of June. When I tried to extend the dates using the Change Reservation functionality and input the 2nd ofMay to the 14th of June I received an error message saying; ‘these dates are already booked’. I though it was because I’m not suppose to overlap on the dates I already booked so I changed the dates to 31st of May to the 14th of June and it went through fine. The only problem is that it cancelled my initial booking from the 2nd of May to the 31st of May and I got charged the full amount due to the cancellation policy.

When I realized I contacted the host and explained the error. We both tried to rebook the dates from 2nd of May to the 31st and we were both receiving the error message; ‘these dates are already booked’ even though they were appearing as free on the site. We attempted to solve it with IT numerous times and it took a couple of dates to unblock. Finally an Airbnb agent instructed me to rebook the dates in May using a new reservation. I asked if I will get refunded the first booking because I’m rebooking a second time because of an error and he confirmed that I would (I have the messages). I booked the place and as soon as I got charged for it Airbnb support started saying that they need to look into the refund, that it needs to get approved, that there was a problem with the initial pricing…..a whole heap of excuses and I’ve basically been charged twice for the nights, service fee and cleaning fee for the same booking and they’re not confirming I will be getting a refund even though I was following the instructions of the agent.

I’m very upset by this and shocked that they are even allowed to do something like this. I’ve been overcharged for approximately 2500euros. Since they are not responding to my messages, I’ve had to reach out to Airbnb support through another account to get a response.

Has anyone had a similar experience? And how can I go about getting my refund back?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Kind regards

Jen

[Sally221]

I'd bet good money you are not alone & I'd suggest tweeting about it & getting your story out by any social media means you can .Know any "influencers"? Friends who are always on Instagram? Negative publicity is your best tool & I'm glad you realize that your host has zero control over the money ABB is holding, good luck!

[Kia303]

I haven’t received a refund from the host that canceled saying it was due to covid 19 but is still booking others. I believe she is raciest. I just want my money back over 1000 dollars

[Sarah977]

@Kia303  The refund wouldn't come from the host, if she cancelled your reservation, it would come from Airbnb. Hosts don't get paid until 24 hours after a guest checks in- up til then, Airbnb has your money, not the host. I assume you've been in contact with Airbnb about this? What have they told you?

Your host may very well be racist, and I know that people from demographics that get discriminated against can sense red flags in this regard that may not be evident to those who don't face those attitudes.

But it could easily also be for other reasons- for instance, when I looked at your profile, it says you've had an Airbnb acount since 2016, yet you don't have one review as a guest (there's nothing particularly wrong with this-many guests joined but never had the opportunity to travel, or maybe had some stays but the host didn't leave a review). Nor have you written up anything on your profile to introduce yourself to prospective hosts. Some openess on the part of the guest, saying what your interests are, what line of work you are in, etc, especially when you have no reviews, can give a guest a hand up in making the host feel at ease with the booking. And you have no verified ID listed, only a phone number and an email address. Many hosts, who aren't even slightly racist, will decline or cancel a guest who has no prior reviews and who offers no information about themselves, regardless of their race, nationality, sexual persuation, etc. as they feel it's risky, opting to accept guests who have some information about themselves to go on.

Good luck with your refund, hope you get it soon.