[Updated: March 13th] Coronavirus outbreak: Information on Airbnb’s extenuating circumstances policy coverage

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[Updated: March 13th] Coronavirus outbreak: Information on Airbnb’s extenuating circumstances policy coverage

Last updated: March 13th, 2020

 

As more information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak becomes available, Airbnb continues to prioritize the safety and well-being of our community of hosts, guests and employees around the world. 

 

As this situation evolves, we strongly urge you to review your local government’s travel guidance and health advisories and take necessary precautions to protect yourself and your guests when hosting or traveling. 

 

Following governmental and health authorities guidance and recommendations, Airbnb is offering impacted hosts and guests with eligible reservations the option to cancel their reservations without charges through our extenuating circumstances policy. We’ll continue to evaluate and update this policy in line with official guidance. 

 

Airbnb understands that you may have concerns, and we’d like to encourage impacted hosts and guests to reach out to our customer support team (https://www.airbnb.com/help/home) with questions or to get help with canceling reservations.


More details about our extenuating circumstances policy can be found here

 

Read the FAQs here: Answers to your hosting questions about coronavirus

306 Replies 306
Allison400
Level 2
Chicago, IL

I had a reservation for april 17th and cancelled on March18 when COVID broke out. Airbnb refusing to process a refund even though it falls in their POLICY!!!

Feel like I am being robbed in the middle of a crisi . HELP!!!! @Airbnb 

Shocking to have Airbnb claim “we are in this together” and allow guests to cancel en made not pay hosts anything at all. They could face refunded guests and still paid hosts... So many of us rely on Airbnb income to help pay rent and bills. Now i see Airbnb deleted all my inbox messages and all evidence of my income loss. I can’t even account for it. They deleted inbox messages all the way back to april 2019! Has anyone else had this happen? 

@Sarah1844  No, my Inbox message streams with both previous guests, and guests who cancelled, are all still there. However, the one Covid cancellation does read 0 and there is no record of the original payment, except in my email.

My only reservation for June just cancelled 3 days before arrival. I reached out to them sometime ago to see how certain they were to still come and they had assured me  with 100% certainty that they were still coming. I would have rented my place for the summer as a monthly rental otherwise but did not want to cancel on these people or my 1 August reservation. I now have spent money on plants, stocking the house with supplies, and hooking up internet and TV in anticipation of their arrival next week only to learn that they are not coming. Our state is fully open and all they would of had to do is take a test from Walgreens before they come and provide the results which you get within 30 minutes. Their reason was that they would have to jump thru too many hoops to travel here. 

My "partner" Air BnB accepted this excuse as extenuating circumstances and graciously and without question or notification refunded their money 100% leaving me in the dust with an empty house and utility bills for 2 months. I am not eligible of their "support funds" because the reservation is past their date that they set. 

I have been supportive of every person that has cancelled so far and taking nothing for it. Allowing people to cancel within days of their arrival and not receiving any compensation for it is a totally a slap in the face from my "partners" I am seriously considering pulling my listing from this site and just giving the others all of my business. I am down from a fully booked calendar to 1 original reservation in August who is even questioning if they should come. If Air BnB feels like they can just update and extend  their cancellations rules that they implement on us then they need to extend their Support Payments to match. This is so unfair,and one sided. I feel so violated by my Air BnB "partner." W

Rammi1
Level 2
Jodhpur, India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear sir,

 

Two year have gone by when your company made huge investments on photographers to make web-designs.

 

It has just occurred to us that not a single guest from Airbnb has stayed with us. We did have steady  flow of guests up to march 2016 from other travel portals.

 

We would certainly like to arrive at some conclusion as to why the tourists did not choose to stay at our guest house

 

For Suryagarh Heritage

Rammi

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Rammi1  There is no listing associated with your Airbnb profile. If there is no listing for your guest house showing on the site, then you couldn't possibly get any rentals from Airbnb. You need to relist your guest house.

And this isn't Airbnb customer service. This is a discussion forum for hosts and guests, so no ne here can do anything about your account or your listing.

Chris39
Level 3
Todos Santos, Mexico

Airbnb gave my guest a full refund because his travel companion had a covid positive test.

This is despite him selecting the non-refundable option when booking.

This is despite my own strict cancellation policy that does not allow refunds when cancelling just a few days prior to stay.

And this is despite my the Airbnb covid cancellation policy.

Support told me the refund is due to Extenuating Circumstances policy that he cannot take his flight due to covid positive test. 

Is this an accurate application of the Extenuating Circumstances policy?

How can hosts be financially responsible for guests' health?

Can someone in Airbnb confirm that all guests can get full refund anytime if they cancel with a covid positive test? Or any hosts who have tried to question this successfully? It doesn't seem to make any sense based on the policy.

Chris & Lynn