service fee withheld, despite cancellation policy

[Ashley1233]

I booked a reservation on October 11th with the following cancellation policy: "Cancel before 5:00 PM on Nov 6 and get a full refund. After that, cancel before 4:00 PM on Nov 11 and get a 50% refund, minus the first night and service fee."

I canceled this reservation on October 14th and airbnb would not refund the service fee. I called the help line, to which they have given me different explanations and changed the reasoning multiple times. The listing now reflects the cancellation policy that they are holding me to, but my confirmation email from the reservation states full refund. They have asked me to send this email to "response@airbnb.com" to prove my case, but the email always kicks back and "cannot be delivered". I have sent them screenshots of my confirmation email that details the policy, and they still will not honor my reservation policy. 

Is there any way to escalate this issue and bypass the help line? Frustrating that I have proof, and they are unwilling to help me. 

[Emiel1]

@Ashley1233 

The cancellation policy matching to your description seems to be "moderate" :

https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#moderate

Quoted from the URL:

Note: Guests won’t get a refund of the Airbnb service fee if they’ve received 3 service fee refunds in the last 12 months or if the canceled reservation overlaps with an existing reservation.

[Ashley1233]

@Emiel1 Thank you for sharing. I unknowingly overlapped a reservation (booked a new one before canceling this one). I didn’t think that would be an issue based on my full refund policy and I was never notified of that overlapping policy before booking a new one? I would assume Airbnb would notify a customer of that policy if they started an overlapping reservation. 

I would also assume since I have a new reservation (still providing Airbnb with money) that they would understand and be willing to provide the refund. I have never asked for a refund before. 

[Sarah977]

@Ashley1233  When you go to make another booking for overlapping dates, without having cancelled the first one, there should have been a pop-up saying you can be charged for both reservations. Maybe you missed reading it? 

[Emiel1]

@Ashley1233

At least the reason is found now.

I fear you will end up in endles discussions with Airbnb CS.

But you can give it a try

[Inna22]

@Ashley1233 The policy makes sense. They do not want people holding on to multiple prosperities till 5 days before and have a host calendar blocked knowing you won’t stay at one of the properties for sure. It should be made very clear though.