AirBnB cancellation fees? Shelling out 600 USD over something I have no control over?

[Mark1623]

Hi, I have a condo unit that I rent out on the platform. Unfortunately, due to the recently horrible weather perhaps, that my applicances aren't doing so well. Not to mention that we're finding leaks on the walls, which may or may not come from other rooms. 

By all means, this sucks. Adding to that there seems to be some convention happening so my 2 weeks of bookings are now gone. Now, we don't want my guests to live in my unit for a while since we want to get all these problems sorted out. Naturally my guests demand a refund, which is acceptable, but after calling AirBnB they mention that there's not much I can do other than file a claim to be reviewed? 

All of this makes sense, but to incur a 100 USD per cancellation fee for something that's out of my control? Outrageous. Especially on how they aren't that clear with the whole cancellation policy right as you sign in. 

In any case, I would just like to ask for advice on getting my claim done. I don't want to end up paying 600 USD for missing documents or giving the wrong impression. How is AirBnB during these types of claims? 

[Alexandra316]

@Mark1623 You should be eligable for a penalty-free cancellation under Airbnb's Extenuating Circumstances policy. See https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoida... for more details. It tells you what you need to provide, depending on what your claim is based on.

However, this will only prevent you from paying the $100 cancellation penalty. You won't get any money for the cancelled reservation: they won't pay you money for missed income.

[Anonymous]

@Mark1623  You are not required to cancel the bookings yourself. In fact, I don't recommend that you do this. You have two other options:

1. Inform your upcoming guests that your amenities are not functioning properly due to extreme weather, and offer them a waiver on your cancellation policy or a partial rebate if they choose to stay

2. If the weather has caused the property to be genuinely uninhabitable or inaccessible, you might qualify for an Extenuating Circumstances override - you would have to call Airbnb to ask about this.

One thing to bear in mind is that extreme weather is still going to affect guests even if they're forced to move to another place in your city. So they might prefer to stay in your home in a suboptimal state over the inconvenience of finding another room at the last minute. Yes, you'll probably take a hit for this in your reviews/ratings - but it's a much easier thing to recover from than a Host Cancellation.

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Mark1623 We had a similar unfortunate experience just a few days before we were about to host our very first guests. We'd also taken 5 or 6 upcoming bookings at this stage.

There had been some major rainfall, and we'd been away for a few days and came home to water leaking into our Studio, floor boards, skirting boards damage etc. it was uninhabitable. 

I contacted Airbnb straight away.... Explained the situation. They asked me to provide photos, the damage was obvious, and so they cancelled the reservations for me. I followed up with an apology email to all the cancelled guests. Thankfully, we weren't penalised for the cancellations. Airbnb were really understanding. As the others mentioned prior, as long as you can prove Extenuating Circumstances, you should be okay. 

It took us several months to get it back to being ready to accept bookings. The hardest part was finding where the leak came from in the first place! We wanted to make certain that it wasn't going to happen to us again! I'd recommend you do the same. 

Best of luck!