Cancelation Refunds

Cancelation Refunds

Guest booked in August 2021 for a stay in April 2022.  She recently cancelled.  Under my cancellation policy, she is due a full refund.  $900.   This should have been processed by airbnb automatically.  

 

Now I am getting messages that I need to authorize a refund.  Fine. She should receive a refund. But when I click to refund her money, airbnb is saying they will deduct it from my next payout! WHAT?????

 

I have received no money from airbnb and would not normally receive a payout until mid-April of 2022.  So I haven't received anything, but am expected to pay a guest $900 because she cancelled? 

 

Where do I turn for resolution of this? 

8 Replies 8
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@R9  Did you receive a message saying the guest wants to cancel and asking you to approve it? If so, this is registered as a host cancellation. You need to decline that. The guest needs to cancel on their own.

 

I also see you have 3 host cancellations on your review page, due to health issues. Did you try to get Airbnb to cancel those penalty free with documentation from you of your medical diagnosis, or just cancelled them yourself?

After a long and tortuous conversation with airbnb, they are telling me that since this is a long term reservation, the cancellation policy does not apply. (That's news to me). I have been informed by the support team that long term rentals are not eligible for refund.

 

I find this policy extremely harsh. My guests are college and grad school students who stay with me one to three months during internships at local hospitals, law firms, or accounting firms. They book six months to a year in advance, paying the first month's rent at that time. This guest booked in August 2021 for April-May 2022. Her recently mother died. She can no longer afford to take up her internship in Houston.

 

Airbnb refuses to refund the charge to her credit card. If I authorize a refund now, the money will come from the payout I will receive from my current guest in December. I would be out the money until sometime in April 2022, when airbnb says they will pay me her first month's rent. (I just saw some pigs flying by the window.) I have left it with the guest that when/if I receive payment from airbnb, I will authorize a refund to her. 

 

As for your question about my cancellations in February 2020, I suffered a heart attack and immediately cancelled 3 future reservations. Each guest had plenty of time to re-book with another host. My guest at that time stayed and completed his internship. Of course right about then covid happened. So I had time to recover and accepted no bookings. Fast forward to September 2021, I am hosting again. Airbnb deducted $150 from my September 2021 payout to penalize me for cancelling in 2020.

@R9  I was asking about those cancellations on your review page, because if you had a medical emergency that prevented you from hosting, that seems like it would have been eligible for penalty-free cancellation as long as you could provide documentation. In which case those cancellation notices wouldn't have appeared and you wouldn't have been fined.

 

But I'm well aware of how difficult their CS dept is to deal with.

 

I had no thought about you having cancelled last minute, leaving a guest in the lurch. It was clear from your responses what the situation was.

 

 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@R9 Look at your Past and Pending Transactions and see IF indeed Airbnb thinks it has paid you or if has scheduled to pay you in the future. That should explain why that awkward message was send by their computer.

 

True, as @Sarah977  pointed out, best to always let the guest or Airbnb do the cancelling.

 

You have a lovely place indeed.

Thanks for your note.  Since the guest cancelled her reservation this has now disappeared from pending transactions.  I am fairly confident neither the guest nor I will ever see that money. 

@R9  Airbnb has no right to keep that money. It is supposed to go to to you, or refunded to the guest if you authorize that, although I know they insist on keeping it until the cancelled check-in day. Which is ridiculous.

Airbnb doesn't care at all about what's "right." If that was the case, they would pay what's due to hosts when a cancellation happens and not wait until the arbitrary date when the check-in would have occurred.  They make money off keeping your money, so they keep it. There's no justification beyond that.

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

And it doesn't show in Past Transactions right?