non-policy extenuating circumstances

[Paul1552]

Hello all

My situation. Our young daughter felt uncomfortable with a male in her host family but didn't feel confident enoughto complain to Airbnb about him. So i rapidly booked a different accommodation for her on my account after a tearful late night call. Then the situation changed. The male family member mentioned he was going away for 10 days. My daughter then told me she was ok to stay there in that case because the property was close to her work.

I tried to cancel the second booking straightaway but was told that unfortunately the host would stick with his 'Strict' cancellation policy and pocket my £442.00. I appealed to the Case Managers at Airbnb, some of who felt I had a case, but in the end an inflexible manager said that the extenuating policy (wars, earhuakes, etc) didn't cover my situation and she couldn't show discretion as it would endanger her job.

I hve further appealed to the host's humanity and understanding to no avail. I cancelled 24 hours after the booking but I had only booked three days before check-in. 

Does anyone know if there is anything else I can do? The potential check-in time is 24 hours away

Paul

[Denis-Mark0]

Hi @Paul1552 , 

I think you also understand the situation of the second host. In the end he cannot take responsibility for what happened to you, your daughter and the other host family.

But still, I would behave more fairly as a host in this situation, as far as my possibilities allow.

As soon as a guest cancels, my calendar will be available again on these days. If I, as the second host, am lucky enough to get my apartment rented during this time, even if only partially, then I would reimburse you a part of the accommodation costs.

Maybe the host would be willing to accept such fairness as well. So that he will reimburse you at least as much as he could compensate by an alternative booking in time.

If, however, the host has not been able to achieve a rental during this period, then he will not do so.

[Lawrene0]

I don't know what you can do at this point, @Paul1552 -- it sounds like you are stuck with it. You agreed to the strict policy, etc. But in future, if your daughter is in a home where she feels unsafe, she needs to call Airbnb herself and get them to rehouse her. She doesn't need to "report" the host. It is enough to feel uncomfortable. 

Customer service is far more understanding of that than of a new booking made and cancelled by her father.

I hope your daughter is okay. Tell her not to put up with anything -- to get out if she's uncomfortable, and to get Airbnb involved if she needs to.

[Paul1552]

Thanks for your help guys. I just put myself in the host's shoes and i would think - yeah, a pain in the a**e but we all have to cancel occasionally and these things happen. Easy come , easy go etc. Maybe that's why I don't have much money!

[Sarah977]

@Paul1552  I'm sorry that your daughter was in a situation where she felt unsafe. I have 3 daughters myself, all grown now, so I can relate.

But your daughter shouldn't be travelling on her own if she doesn't even feel confident to call Airbnb to say what's going on and that she needs to be rehoused.

Also, are you aware that 3rd party reservations are against the Airbnb TOS? It's not okay for you to book a place for your daughter unless you are going to be travelling with her. The booking party has to be among the guests on the reservation. Hosts can refuse to let a guest in if they are not the person who booked. That would be a bad scenario for your daughter as well, to find herself out on the street with nowhere to stay. She needs to book places under her own account.

I'm not sure what you mean about putting yourself in the host's shoes- putting yourself in the host's shoes means understanding that your reservation, which was for only 3 days away, and which was cancelled 24 hours later, blocked the host's calendar so no one else could book, and then it was likely too late to get another booking. As other hosts have mentioned, many hosts will agree to refund if they can, in fact, rebook the dates. Sorry you got one who wasn't willing. 

There's a reason why hosts have cancellation policies. If we didn't, guests would just be booking and cancelling willy-nilly. And everyone has some reasonable, to them, explanation for having to cancel. Can't run a business like that. By the way, there are severe penalties to hosts for cancelling guest reservations. The penalty for cancelling, for guests, is possibly being out some, or all, of their money, depending on the cancellation policy in place.