Authorizing refund

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

Authorizing refund

My guest cancelled their booking for next week. My policy is strict. I've decided to authorize a full refund. But when I click 'issue full refund' from within the email from Airbnb, it takes me to the resolution center, where my only option is to click a button that says 'send money'. I don't want to send the guest money, as I haven't received a payout. Clicking through, it then wants me to tell the guest why I'm 'sending them money'. That wording is tripping me up. I'm not familiar with this process, and I don't trust Airbnb. Is this right, though?

11 Replies 11
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Colleen253 no, this is not right. You should be able to authorize the refund without sending money. If that option does not appear I would wait until you actually get paid to send a refund.

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

Ok, glad I asked! Thanks @Lisa723 

Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Colleen253 What you're doing is correct. The way it's phrased on the site makes it look wrong, but if you "send money" in this instance, you just won't receive a payout after the guest stays. I had the same experience as you, called CS, they told me to go ahead, and it all turned out the way it was supposed to: the guest got their money back right away and I just didn't get a payout. 

 

I really wish that they would fix this process so the wording wasn't so misleading/flat out wrong. 

Thanks for sharing your experience with this @Alexandra316 . Good to know. Yes, it needs to be corrected!

@Alexandra316  Airbnb seems to specialize in ambiguous and misleading wording. It leaves one with an apprehension that you might be getting tricked into doing something you actually don't want to do. It's almost like they go out of their way to do so, or the people who come up with this stuff are socially challenged techies who don't understand how normal people phrase things.

 

Their "prep time" setting is a classic example. "Block one day before and after each reservation" sounds to most people like you'd end up with a 2 day block- one after one booking and one before the following booking. But in fact the "day after" doubles up as the "day before". Nowhere is this explained. Why doesn't it say "Block one day between reservations", when that's exactly what it does? What's so hard about that?

Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

  Interesting! I also got one of these and felt the same way Colleen did and refused to proceed.  I told the guest that I would not refund money I haven’t received yet, which is the way it reads. Airbnb found some other way of sorting it out.  

 

Even after reading about your experience, I have enough cynicism about Airbnb processes and evidence of inconsistencies to suspect it still might not work for me!  They need to change the wording so that it is indisputable.

@Pat271  Agreed. I don't trust Airbnb and it's processes. I'm not taking any chances so I'm just going to wait for the payout and then send it to the guest. 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Colleen253 @Pat271  I got tripped up by the same wording - followed by "we'll take the funds from your payment account" - and wouldn't proceed until @Alexandra316 told me it works.  I did it recently with two cancellations and it worked - the 50% payout no longer shows up in upcoming payouts, and the refunds issued don't show as deductions from other upcoming payouts.

@Ann72  "we'll take the funds from your payment account". It goes from bad, to worse! 😩

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

We all know that ABB can do whatever they wish at any time and also that just bc things were one way before doesn't mean that they will be that way again in the future.

 

But for context, I had a guest cancellation (pre-COVID turning everything to EC) that I agreed to fully refund anyway. I told CS that I would ONLY agree to do so if it meant the cancellation of the payout and NOT be pre-paying the guest. "of course, certainly, we wouldn't dream of doing otherwise"

 

-I knew to ask the question, bc I've had this happen before where over-refunding was charged to my current reservations payouts.

well, lo and behold, the refund immediately appeared as a negative in my account and then was applied against my next payout for a guest who did arrive and then my account did not go back into positive until the original cancelling guest's reservation payout date arrived days after that other guest payout.

 

So, just beware that despite what CS may say, it is always possible that any overage you refund (and in my case neither the guest nor I created the cancellation, but CS did it) WILL be taken from you immediately and you may not see the return of that money until the original payout date. Which means you will be loaning money to ABB in the meantime.

@Kelly149  So yes, this is standard procedure now, apparently. I did put the question to CS and this is the answer I received (17 days after posting the question to a chat session 🙄😕) :

 

”Yes, we understand that you have not received your payout for this reservation but there will be an adjustment. You will still be receiving your payout for this reservation if you will refund the now. If you want to, you can wait till you receive the payout and then process a refund to the guest the day you receive the payout“

 

Airbnb sits on the money and makes the host bear the burden if they want the guest to receive their money back immediately. If not, the guest has to wait until after their check in date to receive their money back. Ok then.

If you want to over ride your cancellation policy and refund a guest, make sure you are clear on how this works now. DO NOT elect to “refund” until after you’ve gotten the remaining amount paid out. When it says “send money” it really means “send money”. 

@Ann72 @Alexandra316 @Lisa723 @Pat271 @Sarah977