refund scam

[Fionnan0]

I made a Booking on 18 Nov 2018. The booking total was €1015.96

I paid a Deposit of €577.55 at the time of booking

The booking was cancelled on 24 Nov 2018

As part of the cancellation confirmation in the system I was told I would receive a refund

At the time of cancellation, the policy was that if cancelled after 48hrs you would be refunded but would not get back the service Fee of €139.14.

I received confirmation from the system that I would receive a refund of €438.41 which is based on €577.55 - €139.14 = €438.41 (As expected)

Now AIRBNB are refusing to pay me my refund. They are failing to understand the meaning of the word refund (i.e. returning monies paid over)

Can anybody out there herlp me? Has anybody experienced this before? 

[Roberta2]

Hi

There are multiple variables in your question.

1) Who cancel the reservation? You or the host?

2) What was the cancelation policy of the booking?

3) how far before the start of the stay was the cancelation made? 

All of the above will affect how much you get back from airbnb

[Fionnan0]

Hi Roberta,

1. I made the booking on 18th Nov for a stay on Feb 14th (14 weeks later). Booking deposit of 577.55 was paid

2. I cancelled the boking on 24th Nov (6 days after booking and 13 weeks prior to travel)

At the time of cancellation I read the calcellation policy carefully which stated that payment would be fully refunded however after 48hrs the service fee was non refundable. The policy was read by a second person also in my presence. I was expecting a REFUND of €577.55 - €139.14 = €438.41. The system also confirmed to me that I could expect a REFUND of €438.41. I can send you a screen shot of this.

3. Stay was cancelled 13 weeks prior to start of stay!!

Thank you for you assistance on this matter,

Kind regards,

Fionnan

[Jeff158]

Hi @Fionnan0

It sounds like the place has a strict cancellation policy with 50% refund if cancelled 7 days prior to check in,  hosts have had a lot of confusion over the 48hr grace period.

Airbnb say's:

For a full refund of accommodation fees, cancellation must be made within 48 hours of booking and at least 14 full days prior to listing’s local check-in time

Which translates to:

Limited-time refund within 48 hours after booking when the check-in date is at least 14 days away

Guests must cancel within 48 hours after booking and can only cancel if their check-in date is 14+ days away. This means that no matter how far out your guests book, they only have 48 hours from the time they book to cancel for free. We want to make sure that if guests change their mind, you have enough time to get another booking.

Click the link for a 74 page discussion on its merits

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/New-strict-cancellation-policy-update/m-p/652735

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Fionnan0 

With a strict cancellation policy which takes place after the 48hr window..... the guest is charged 50% of the total accomodation fee.

Maybe you only paid 50% of the total accomodation fee upfront (what you are calling a deposit), and would have had to pay the remaining balance sometime before your check in date? If this is the case and you cancelled, there is nothing from your initial payment to "refund" back to you, since the refund is based on the *total accomodation fee*, not the deposit you paid.

Or it may be that it's just taking Airbnb a couple days to issue you your refund. The wording of policies are a bit confusing sometimes - that I agree on. 

[Marnix2]

Airbnb is a scam with these bad cancellation policy.it is better to book a hotel