Airbnb Cancellation Policies

[David1408]

Is anyone else having problems with Airbnb backpeddling on their cancellation agreement? We use the Superstrict 60 policy as our specific marketplace requires that we use such a policy. We're a full service agency and we book homes on behalf of our owners. In order to confirm dates - I need to give the owner a deposit or he simply will not confirm my dates. This is how it works in this region as many owners have been "burned" with a promise to pay... now Airbnb is doing just that... I've paid on behalf of the guest because Airbnb PROMISED me at least a 50% payment. Twice now people have cancelled for their own reasons and complained to Airbnb and Airbnb just waves their "magic wand" and refunds them in full because they whined!! Now I am out of pocket!!! Anyone else??

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@David1408 - There's a few things for you to consider here.  You are actually not the host.  None of the properties are showing up on your profile at all which means you are also not the co-host.  Now you might have contracts with the clients and have been offered the Super Strict policy, but the VAST majority of hosts on Airbnb do not have this policy and we've ALL lost money to Airbnb's policies and proceedures at some time or another.  There are many policies that give money back to the clients, not willy-nilly, but with cause.

• Cancellation policies may be superseded by the Guest Refund Policy, extenuating circumstances, or cancellations by Airbnb for any other reason permitted under the Terms of Service. Please review these exceptions.

  Are any of these refunds because of those policies?  

So many of us do not have the protections that your area (and wealth) provide.  Most of us are making our earnings $50/night.  And after a quick search of "your area" I could not find a single property with this policy, which means it was offered to your company, not the area.  

[David1408]

Hi Jeff - 

I think it  was logged into my FB account or something else when I posted this, but it did not ask me to login before I posted which I thought was weird OR I was already logged into my account - but was not. You can see one of my listings here. 

https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/11183287 and yes I AM the host 🙂

Airbnb's "extenuating circumstances" in this most recent case was Zika virus. Even though Zika has been running throughout Florida, Texas, California, etc. for quite some time now and since 2015 at least... all of a sudden they want to cancel because they "read" about a warning about Zika in Mexico. In Baja Sur - we have had NO reported cases in the last year. I'm also good friends with a Dr. at a major hospital here and he confirms that as well. In any case, nothing had "changed" as the customer had only booked a few months prior and ALL of these conditions were exactly the same. Only thing that change was he didn;t want to go anymore.  I had SS60 in place. I did refund 40%, but customer complained and got a 100% refund!! The part that was MOST aggravating is that the customer care team sends me an email to call them - at a toll free 855 number with NO return email address to "discuss it". It just so happens I am OUT of the country for a week and cannot call 855 toll free numbers!!! How stupid is that!!!

[Amatoga0]

I would like to suggest an amendment to the Cancellation policies. I recently had my flight canceled by an airline and when I went to cancel my reservation and request a refund, I was only offered 17% of the total amount of the reservation. Although I was well aware of the Cancellation Policy, all of the requirements for a full refund did not recognize my situation as an "extenuating circumstance", which I feel is unfair. I should not be penalized for the decisions made by an airline. 

[David126]

@Amatoga0 Which Air Line was it, when I have been cancelled by an Air Line or delayed I have always done pretty well.

Were you not able to recover from your Travel Insurers?

[David126]

In these circumstance I usually check the Posters profile and was also wondering what listings, you have none.

Does not realy matter what your Cancellation Policy is for the purposes of the discussion, you should never ever assume that AirBnB will uphold your terms. Very easy for a Guest to claim Extenuating Circumstances. 

[David1408]

David. Yes it appears that way. Thought I was protected fairly well with the SS60, but definitely not the case. Cost me $5000 😞  Time to reevaluate the whole deal I guess 😞

[David126]

With properties like that the lack of a SD would worry me more.

[David126]

Not sure how discussing would help you, too late.

As an side are you aware how the Security Deposit works wuth AirBnB?

[David126]

Reminds me that somebody posted the ther day wanting to cancel a Cancun Trip claiming Extenuating Circumstances due to a fairly mild travel warning.

[Mark26]

@David126That doesn't look like a mild warning to me.  The latest Warnings are updates that added areas that are included, along with stronger statistics backing up their reasoning.  Everything I've read tells me I don't want to be there, and I used to get paid to travel to Mexico. 

And, though it may on the surface read as mild to you, I've got some long time friends who took a cruise departing from California and arriving in Florida by way of the Panama Canal last winter. Both are retired military, and work for the Government.  They were prohibited from departing the ship in its two Mexican Ports of Call by their employer.  Those were the only ports they were required to remain on the ship.

[Fred13]

@Mark26They work for the Goverment and the warning is technically by their 'employer'. Makes sense. The other 3,998 that disembarked (guessing at size of ship) didn't get the memo. LoL

[Mark26]

@Fred13  To be honest, if I had been on that ship with them, my wife and I would have stayed behind as well.  My friend and I traveled through Baja California by car many times in the 60's and 70's The last time I drove to Cabo San Lucas was in the 80's    I'd stay on that ship.

[Fred13]

I hear you, I would tend to also. You and I probably passed each other on road during those days. I used to hang out in Puerto Escondido and Cabo. Those were the days!

[Jake58]

Hi guys.

Can anyone direct me where to go when a Hosts cancels on us? Oddly enough I'm a Travel agent and get clients asking about Air BnB quite a bit which we can't help them with. I only used Air BnB as I had a group of 9 (down to 7) so was going to be more cost effective for the others (I still prefer a Hotel). I had paid a deposit 3 months ago and got a message 2 nights ago saying there's been "issues" with the property and they can no longer accommodate us. I asked for more information which wasn't forthcoming. The price was great and I truly believe she has realised she can get more elsewhere (she didn't realise what was on that weekend). Where do we stand on this?