I made a booking for 1-week stay in Austria which had to be cancelled because Austrian government shut their door for non-citizens on their green list. Fully aware of the dynamic situation to make a plan, I specifically booked a place with flexible full refund policy.
However, I am very disturbed that AirBnB changed my refund policy from flexible full refund to moderate partial refund after I made the booking. I contacted customer support which took 3 weeks to get back to me. And the customer support staff totally ignored all my proof and closed the case without a proper explanation.
---- Before the Booking -----
On July 24th, I made the booking and received confirmation email stating that Cancel before 2:00 PM on 19 Aug and get a full refund. After that, cancel before 2:00 PM on 24 Aug and get a 50% refund, minus the first night and service fee. The same rule can be found from my AirBnB App for the listing when I made the booking. Screen shots below,
On July 27th, I realize that I cannot visit Austria and decided to cancel my reservation. However, from AirBnB app, I realize that the refund policy has changed from the listing and my confirmation email to deduct the service fee. I made a complaint and pointed out that the service fee should be refunded as I booked with full flexibility and full refund.
After 2 weeks on Aug 7, AirBnB customer support finally got back to me. However, AirBnB have further updated their refund policy to be very specific to deduct my service fee as screenshot shows below,
When I talked to the Customer Support rep, he/she refused to explain to me why AirBnB changed the refund policy to be different from my confirmation email and the listing ad as I have seen. In stead, the customer support rep. provided me with a generic Q&A and policy statement. This information was not provided to me when I made my booking and definitely not listed in the original listing ad or my email confirmation. They suggested me to contact AirBnB to clarify before my booking. People don't contact customer support before they make a booking, let alone it took AirBnB 2 weeks to get back to me about my question.
I asked the customer support specifically to explain to me why the refund policy is different before and after I made the booking. Refusing to provide my explanation, the customer support closed the case abruptly.
I am so disappointed with AirBnB customer support and changing the refund policy after customer made the booking is like stealing money. It is unethical.
