Wildfires & smoke & cabins & no refund.

Kelli255
Level 1
Washougal, WA

Wildfires & smoke & cabins & no refund.

Has anyone had luck escalating a refund claim due to an event that’s (supposedly) covered by Air BnB’s extenuating circumstances policy?

 

Our rental was a cabin in the middle of a wildfire/hazardous smoke emergency zone up in the Pacific Northwest. The mayor of the town where the cabin was in made an emergency declaration about it. There were numerous other nearby declarations and a statewide declaration as well. 

My host offered to let us stay there for free another time but it’s been over 6 months and he never has dates that work for us and now told us his place is booked up long term. I just want this behind me. 

 

This wasn’t enough proof for Air BnB and they won’t tell me why they aren’t honoring their policy. If they could just explain their reasoning to me that would help! 

2 Replies 2
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Kelli255 what was the disposition of the original booking? Was it canceled, if so by whom, and when (relative to the check-in date)? Did you get any refund at the time?

@Kelli255   I was wondering the same thing as @Lisa723 , so correct me if I'm wrong here but my read on this is that you made a private agreement with the host to accept a future re-booking instead of requesting a refund for the unused dates of your stay. It's not clear whether you actually finalized a cancellation of the booking dates.

 

  The problem is, the Extenuating Circumstances policy is not retroactive to bookings from the past, and can't be invoked 6 months later.  If your circumstances were eligible for it, you would need to have finalized that with customer service on or before your scheduled arrival date. Any alternative arrangement you made with your host is completely unenforceable by Airbnb. The host's offer for a free stay would have to be made outside the system, so it's not an Airbnb issue at all - that's a dead end. If the host is still willing to honor  the agreement, your best bet would be to arrange your schedule(s) to suit the dates he offers you.