Extenuating Circumstances Policies applied on the wrong dates, bookings lost for no reason

[Que-Lam0]

Hi all,

On the 24th november there a storm named Usagi that reach Vietnam. On the 25th it left the country.

The rains were heavy, streets were partially flooded, but there were no big damaged in the country.

The sun came back and everything went back to normal on the 27th, not even a rain drop and very beautiful sunshine forecasted for the next days (I have screenshots)

However, the airbnb team set an extenuating circumstance policy that allowed guests to cancel without penalty up to the 3rd of december despite there were no storm or any bad consequence anymore after the 27th.

I got a guest who cancelled on the 30th november for a 7 nights booking starting on the 1st december. When I reached airbnb support, they roughly answer me:

The policy has been decided, nothing can be changed

The airbnb team who decide to choose these dates cannot be contacted.

No discussion is possible, the decision has been made and nothing can be done to change anything, not even to improve anything.

This is completely unfair for the hosts and it also open a breach that unhonests guests can use to cancel their bookings for a catastrophic reason even there is no catastrophe anymore.

Airbnb should set the dates more accurately or at least give a chance to hosts to reach this team who set these dates to correct them. 

A lot of hosts here are very frustrated by this unfairness and airbnb only take the side of the guests.

We are not against this policy, but it really need to be improved to match the reality.

Best regards

[Linda108]

@Que-Lam0, In the last Q and A this uneven and unfair application of the extenuating circumstances policy was acknowledge by Brian C.  Not sure what they are going to do, but at least it is on the radar. 😛

Air BNB is tackling what is essentially an insurance policy without the proper training and guidelines to do so.

[Que-Lam0]

Hi Linda,

I don t question the policy itself.

My point is mainly to question the dates which are choosen for its application. It should match the reality.

On my case (and many other hosts case) , the dates have been inacurately & randomly chosen by someone(s) who sits quietly and comfortably in its chair far from where the events happens and far from the reality.

the worst is that the case manager doesn t want to listen, she just want to close the case whatever we say abd this cause more injustice and frustration.

This is what airbnb should improve.