Airbnb extenuating circumstance - airbnb not enforcing official policy

[Lee353]

I had a guest who was suppposed to check in Jan 15. At 9pm on Jan 15th, the guest sent a message saying she would not need the home and wanted a refund.  I explained my Strict cancellation policy, and told her I would not be able to provide a refund other than her cleaning fee.  

She never responded but gave her brother-in-law my phone number, and he began calling and texting me about this.  I opened a case with Airbnb and had to call after 24 hours to get it assigned.  They told the guest on Friday, Jan 17th, she had 24 hours to provide documentation of an extenuating circumstance.  It is now Sunday night, Jan 19th, and I’m on my 4th case manager.  

She informed me that the airbnb policy stating guest cannot get a refund unless they cancel and notify the host and airbnb BEFORE the date of check-in is not an actual policy, and that the 5 extenuating circumstances listed on the airbnb web site are not an exhaustive list, and the case manager has the discretion to award a FULL refund even if the guest cannot meet one of the extenuating circumstance reasons.

As a host, I take great pride in hosting my home, and I follow all rules.  To find out that airbnb policies are “suggestions” rather than policy makes me really wary that airbnb is doing the right thing by hosts.  If I canceled the reservation, would I get the same treatment?  

Note: We’re 4 days into the no-show reservation, and my calendar is still booked.

Has anyone else had an experience like this with airbnb case managers?  I’m at my wit’s end and considering taking all 3 of my properties that are exclusively on airbnb to VRBO or another platform.  

[Linda108]

As soon as a guest seeks to cancel, I refer them to Air BNB.  I take the position that the sooner the cancellation, the better for refund if the listing is booked.  I do not assume the guest is scamming me even though I know that is a possibility  Now if there is a true extenuating circumstance with trumps the host cancellation policy, the guest may be in a situation that requires their attention and the guest may not be attending to your communication.  I state that just to humanize this experience..

Presumably this communication is on the Air BNB system.  It seems you have taken the correct steps and are still awaiting Air BNB response.  Right?  Let us know what happens.  

[Lee353]

That’s the thing. The guest never canceled. After 5 days, I was finally able to get a case manager to cancel the reservation off my calendar. 

I’m now waiting 48 hours for the case manager to see if the guest produces documentation for the extenuating circumstance. 

I just can’t fathom how Airbnb would allow a guest to never cancel and then come up with an excuse 4-5 days into the reservation. The process is documented very plainly on the Airbnb site, but it sounds like the case managers don’t have to follow it.

I’m hopeful Airbnb will make this right, but at this point, I may lose all revenue from this booking even though my calendar has been blocked for a week for this reservation and the guest just now said she has a family member who is sick. 

[Lee353]

So here's the latest.  The guest was unable to provide documentation for the extenuating circumstance in 48 hours, so the case manager is now giving her more time to produce documentation but will not tell me how much longer?

The rules for extenuating circumstances is quite clear, but airbnb case manager(s) seem to have full latitude to allow whatever they see fit.  It feels so unfair that they are bending the rules at a host's expense.  I'm terribly disheartened.

Surely others have had this experience before?  Is this case manager allowed to ignore the published process?  I'm so perplexed and am 5 days into the open case and now awaiting a call from a supervisor.

[Rowena29]

@Lee353 I'm so sorry you are having such a negative experience.

This hasn't happened to me ( fingers crossed) so I can't really offer you any real advice. However I CAN tell you that these community boards are full of stories similar to yours  - airbnb are notorious for interpreting rules to suit themselves, bending over backwards to accommodate guests at the hosts expense.

I have experienced their type of customer service where they just close a written enquiry without responding, or fob you off on the phone and promise someone will get back to you and no one ever does - you feel so isolated and alone don't you?

It is reasonably likely that airbnb will refund the guest in full - especially as they already seem to be making so many concessions for her.  As a host you have very little power or control as you have discovered. All I can suggest is that the company really really dislike negative publicity.  You may want to consider this angle, especially as in this instance they are clearly violating their own terms and conditions at your expense. This is good media fodder I would imagine.  You have an advantage in that you are able to state things clearly and precisely without sounding too hysterical, so people will be more inclined to listen.

@Susan17 often has good strategies about how to handle things

Other than that, I would also suggest not using airbnb exclusively as your hosting platform.   VRBO offers a similar type service ( it's far from ideal also and has a raft of problems of it's own but at least you are not held hostage to the one company's whims)

Good luck with this and do let us know how things go.

[Lee353]

Have you had similar success with VRBO? I find it's user experience and UI really unintuitive and outdated.  I've always assumed VRBO is more focused on longer term rentals rather than short term.  Is that not accurate?

As expected, the case manager sided with the guest and refunded all $2300.  The case manager and supervisor told me they justified the decision using the following extenuating circumstance:

"Unexpected serious illness or injury affecting a host or member of the traveling party. You’ll be asked to provide a statement from a physician confirming that the person can't host or travel due to an unexpected, serious illness or injury. The statement must be also dated after the reservation was booked and provided within 14 days of cancellation. At this time, pre-existing conditions known to the user at the time of booking are not covered by our Extenuating Circumstances Policy."

The policy clearly states that the serious illness or injury MUST be affecting a host or a member of the traveling party.  According to the case manager and supervisor, they have an INTERNAL policy that extends this extenuating circumstance to immediate family members or people who are LIKE immediate family members.  The supervisor agreed that this didn't seem fair because the published policy doesn't match their internal policy and tried to get me something for the hassle but was told that their INTERNAL policies supersede published policy.

This seems backwards right?  Shouldn't the published policy that I agreed to in the Terms of Service be the standard I'm held to?

Also, just to be clear: I'm not a jerk.  If I believed this guest truly had an issue like this, I'd gladly give her a refund.  The dynamics of her story evolved greatly during the 5 days of airbnb case managers trying to reach out.  I can't help but believe she was coached on how to get around this.

Airbnb using hosts as travel insurance when they could actually make money on the venture is mind-boggling.

I guess I'll be removing my 3 properties from the platform to avoid this type of treatment in the future.  I'm genuinely shocked that a host who was generated roughly 75k in revenue over the last 3 years for airbnb couldn't be bothered to at least reimburse me half of the stay.  Seems like a really poor business decision on their end.

[Inna22]

@Lee353 I have had somebody produce a fake death certificate which I proved to Airbnb with ease was fake. I made a post about this if you want to search past threads. Airbnb did not even want to look at my explanation. The extenuating circumstances are really a cover for Airbnb to be able to give any guest a refund. Their goal is to keep guests happy and this is the policy that allows them to do so unconditionally.

When taking a reservation from a guest, You just have to assume that this is a possibility and look at your percentages. I view it as a cost of doing business with Airbnb. You’re right, this would never happen on VRBO but that site has its own shortfalls, with the main one being that it produces far fewer reservations then Airbnb.

Don’t take me wrong, I am extremely frustrated with how unfair this process is and it makes me livid every time it happens to me or I hear about it happening to someone else. Particularly since there’s a really easy solution – they can just sell travelers insurance to guests and cancel extenuating circumstances policy altogether. However with time I have become philosophical about it. It has happened to me before and it will happen again.

[Lee353]

Absolutely agree about trip insurance.  It's really insane they don't offer or actually require it.  They could make a killing and protect both parties in the process.  

Did you take it to arbitration?  I think $2300 is worth the risk of losing to get a response from someone who can explain to me how an INTERNAL policy that hosts have no visibility to actually supersedes PUBLISHED policy.  That's what's so astounding to me.  I could tell the supervisor actually agreed with me, as she kept reiterating how unfair this was, but despite her attempts to have airbnb honor the payout, her manager denied the action.

[Sean433]

@Inna22 

That is extreme. All a person has to do is book a doctors appointment with their family doctor. A lot of times, doctor's are very relaxed about writing letters based on what you tell them is wrong with you. It just takes a doctors letter stating that "Mr Guest is unable to travel due to psychological reasons of severe anxiety". It really isn't that hard to get around this policy.

[Lee353]

The irony here is that the guest and her husband who was harassing me are both doctors. haha.  I'd love to know who the doctor was who signed the document.

[Inna22]

@Lee353 in your case considering the amount, and the fact that it’s all documented and there is a written policy in place, you may want to file for arbitration with Airbnb. Read those rules carefully and follow them. It starts with a notice. I have a feeling they will settle with you once you send the official notice.

[Lee353]

I've been researching it all morning.  I can't tell if I'm reading the TOS correctly that I pay $200 to initiate the claim, and airbnb covers all other fees unless the arbitrator deems my claim meritless.  Is that how you understand it as well?

[Inna22]

@Lee353 Last time I looked the first step was a notice and it was free to send. In majority of cases they settle at that point

[Lee353]

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS.

In 3 years of hosting and 2 1/2 as a superhost, I have NEVER had a same-day cancellation like this, and today, I had ANOTHER at another property.  

Same exact spiel: serious illness of a family member who was not part of the traveling party that caused them to cancel 30 minutes before check-in time.  I do not want to be jaded, but are we sure that buzzfeed or someone didn't just run an article telling people that airbnb will allow you a full refund with minimal or questionable documentation?!  

Like, what are the chances I'd have two bookings back-to-back, at different properties in different cities, would cancel on check in date with the same excuse?!  

[Kyi1]

We had similar experience couple of years ago. A couple from New York booked and cancelled the reservation. Based on our cancellation policy at that time, they were only entitled part of it. But Airbnb agent forced us to refund in full amount because guest is “difficult to deal with” . What’s the point of having cancellation policy if you are going to pressure hosts to refund.? Luckily, we haven’t had the same issue since then