Guests Wanting to Cancel But Stuck In the glitchy, confusing Covid 19 cancelation system= Airbnb's way out of giving 12.5% to hosts

Mary419
Level 10
Savannah, GA

Guests Wanting to Cancel But Stuck In the glitchy, confusing Covid 19 cancelation system= Airbnb's way out of giving 12.5% to hosts

The Covid 19 Cancelation emails are still coming fast and furious, without any changes after the broadcast last night.

 

If you deny the refund you end up with an angry confused guest who lingers on your calendar for days after intending to cancel and intending to not pay. They say they cannot choose Covid 19 as their reason after getting denied for 100% voluntary host refund...

 

On the other hand, If you click GIVE A FULL REFUND you get the guest off your calendar and end all the confusing back and forth trying to help the guest but I am realizing hosts will NOT get the quarter of our cancelation fee from Airbnb if they do it that way. Voluntarily refunding the guest using these emails is framed to be saving you as the host from penalty etc but it is still voluntary, not Airbnb's fault or problem if you say yes to it and lose every dollar. And since guests are pushed to use this method instead of a normal cancelation it is obvious that Airbnb is hoping to escape the 12.5% compensation offered last night. Does anyone see it any other way? Accepting this is a voluntary 100% loss, But declining it sends the guest back into a circular argument and a "normal cancelation" is evidently not so easyAccepting this is a voluntary 100% loss, But declining it sends the guest back into a circular argument and a "normal cancelation" is evidently not so easy

38 Replies 38
Mary419
Level 10
Savannah, GA

A guest sent me that, so I thought the emails asking me to voluntarily refund 100% should stop, but I have gotten 5 more since the broadcastA guest sent me that, so I thought the emails asking me to voluntarily refund 100% should stop, but I have gotten 5 more since the broadcast

Hi @Mary419 

Got your PM. I'll message you on Whatsapp now. 

Wende2
Level 10
Church Creek, MD

@Mary419  good question, altho it does say uncomfortable traveling and Covid19, one would hope that would be enough to warrant us our pittance.  But why keep the booking active, that makes no sense, I did see on another thread someone mentioned getting the cancellation fee when the booking was to take place, not when the booking was cancelled, even so why wouldn't they open the dates back up as usual.

Alameda0
Level 2
United States

I am also not clear on the 25% paid to Hosts for cancelled reservations. Is Airbnb providing hosts 25% for cancelled booking from March 14 - May 31 prior to today AND cancellations initiated through May 31. From the requests for cancellations occurring with me today, it appears the 25% is not going to be paid to Hosts because I am being requested to cancel on guests initiating a full refund. Can anyone clarify this?

Mary419
Level 10
Savannah, GA

@Alameda0  I am worried the quarter of your cancelation fee special relief is coming to you only for the forced instant refunds that happened Mar 14- Apr 14 (not for any voluntary refunds you issued during that time) and going forward for canceled bookings afte 4/14  it does not apply. And post 4/14 for better or worse the guest refund for Strict listings is not forced on the host like that month of full refunds, now they enforce our policy on the surface so instead we are stuck with those special emails asking us to voluntarily refund 100%, and if we do not click Give Full Refund then we are stuck in endless dialogues with guests who are still on Confirmed status, and still determined to get 100% back and there is no easy button for either host or guest. And all the guests are going to file EC claims

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Mary419 

I've had somewhere between 30 and 40 similar screenshots sent to me by totally bamboozled hosts (and a few guests) since last night, asking if I can explain what's happening with these Full Refund Cancellation Requests, but I actually don't know how this is working now, or how a host is meant to reclaim their 12.5% if they accept the cancellation request. I may be mistaken, but like you, I do believe that voluntarily refunding the guest this way, may very well be signing away one's rights to the 12.5% payout.

 

So I'm going to tag Aisling Hassell, Airbnb VP of Community Support in here. Aisling posted here in the Community Centre recently that it's her job to "ensure that you and the rest of our community have the support you need, especially at this difficult time and make sure we have the resources in place to do so"

 

With that in mind, I'm hereby calling on @Aisling to kindly come back to the CC to clarify any points of contention and clear up all the chaos and confusion surrounding the latest wave of amendments. And if you're too busy yourself Aisling, could you please appoint - at the very earliest possible convenience - a dedicated, high-level team member, with full and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of both the latest and the previous EC/COVID policies, to spend some time on the CC each day, answering queries and clearing up any misunderstandings.

 

Members - both hosts and guests - have a right to openness, clarity and transparency in relation to such issues, without being forced to spend hours/days/weeks going round in circles and jumping through hoops, trying to find answers to what should be the simplest and most basic of questions. 

 

Thank you.

OK thank you so much @Susan17 ! How were you getting all of those screen shots sent to you, is there a private group you belong to? I am a high volume host but still just a normal person not part of a chain hosting company and feel pretty alone in dealing with things like this.

 

And to clarify what I said earlier, @Alameda0 I am not at all certain if the 25% of our fees continues for the new wave of cancelations. I suspected it might because they are not letting guests get the 100% instant refund via Easy Button anymore. I was told that all guests who appeal to Airbnb for the 100% refund after 4.14  have to send documentation to Airbnb... making it sound exactly like traditional EC refunds. So if they are still letting us keep a quarter of the cancelation fee after reviewing EC documentation then that is good but I am not seeing it clearly stated.

Hi @Mary419 

Sorry for slow response, just seeing this now. 

 

There are a lot of private FB groups that you could join too, that are a mixture of every type of host (the Community Centre tends to be predominantly homesharers and small independent hosts and co-hosts). Tbh though, no matter where you go, chaos and confusion reigns supreme when it comes to Airbnb''s policies and practices, mainly due to the lack of clear communication from the top and constant failures to outline the exact parameters and ramifications of each new policy and amendment that's released. Makes for an extremely difficult, time-consuming and stressful operating environment, unfortunately. 

 

The reason I get so much stuff sent to me is that I've built up my own network over the years - now standing at over 250 hosts, guests, co-hosts, property managers, software partners and other Airbnb-related/interested parties - initially, as a means of research for a couple of projects I've been working on. A lot of the time now too though, people get in touch when they need help or information themselves.

 

My contacts are based in different Airbnb markets all over the world, so it helps me figure out what's happening and where it's happening, and get a clearer overview of the "bigger picture" overall. Works well for me usually, but then when there's any major issues going on in Airbnb-land (as there have been for the last number of weeks), everyone tends to start contacting me at once, which can get a little hectic! 

 

Feel free to PM me, if you want any info about the other groups for high-volume hosts, or if there's anything else I can help you with :))

There appears to be (another!) new Cancellation Notification being received by hosts in the past 24 hours or so - obviously the latest update after the most recent 31 May EC extension policy. 

 

It reads:

Your guest XXXX can't travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they've cancelled their stay at your place. 

 

Airbnb will share in the costs of COVID-19 cancellations 

Even though your guest cancelled under the extenuating circumstances policy, we want to support you in these tough times with a payment from our coronavirus emergency support fund. It should arrive in your account within 4 weeks.  

 

Thanks for being a host. 

The Airbnb Team 

 

All booking amounts zeroed on the host's side (but if needed, can be found in the original booking email), and no mention of the actual payout amount the host will eventually receive. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

Interesting. This is NOT the message I got when a guest cancelled after the announcement. Instead, I got this:

 

Airbnb Support
13:04
Dear Huma,

This is X, from Airbnb Customer Service.

I'm contacting you regarding your reservation with Y.

Your guest is elegible to cancel her reservation without any penalty because of Cov19's Emergency;

As you can see in this document the Terms for Extenuating Circumstances have been extended until the 31rst of May 2020:

https://www.airbnb.ie/help/article/2701/coronavirus-information-and-extenuating-circumstances-policy

If you still need assistance, don't hesitate to contact us. Otherwise, for the moment we will consider this case closed.

For any need, do not hesitate to contact us at: www.airbnb.com/help.

Sincerely,
 
 
So, as you can see, no mention of any payment to me. There is no pending payment on my transaction page and the cancelled booking is showing as £0 payout.
 
I went back to the rep asking if I would be paid 25% of the cancellation fee as per the normal long-term policy that would have applied. She said yes. I asked her in that case to update my transaction page etc. to reflect the payout I am due.
 
This is what she responded:
 
Hi Huma,

We'll send an email with more details in early April to hosts who are getting a payout. Future payments from the fund will be made on a monthly basis to hosts with qualifying cancellations.
Why can't I receive my 25% payout immediately after a cancellation?
You may actually qualify for multiple payouts. We can better manage and account for the payouts we’ll be sending to our hosts by sending them on a monthly basis instead of in a single batch.

@Huma0 

There are so many different versions of COVID-related cancellation notifications and emails flying around now, that I have no idea how CX are supposed to make head nor tail of what's what! It's an absolute sh*t-show - no wonder CX is in meltdown! 

 

So one of the hosts who sent me screenshots of that new notification I posted about above (with the zeroed booking amounts and info that the funds would be received within 4 weeks) actually received a payout notification today,  just 24hrs later, for just under a £60 value, which was in or around the 12.5% mark of the original booking amount. It was marked on the notification as a resolution payout. 

 

So that goes completely against what your rep told you.. how typically Airbnb. 

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

Well that's interesting. I still have no payout for that cancellation showing as either processing or pending and no notifications about it. So, I am still not convinced they are actually paying out what they have promised, at least not to all hosts. Like I said, I will believe it when it's in my bank account.

 

On the other hand, my Airbnb transaction history shows my pending payouts in a large negative amount due to the previous wrongly issued refunds (not COVID-19 elligable either then or now, but issued in the general mayhem) which no one at CS will deal with 2.5 weeks later. So, I imagine any payouts I am still due will be swallowed up whole by Airbnb.

Alameda0
Level 2
United States

I do not want to add complaints to this community board but am I to understand that the 25% promised for hosts who have strict cancellation policy will not be honored for bookings made prior to March 14 and occurring before May 31? Airbnb is requesting that Hosts initiate cancellation for guests for a full refund/loss to Host or the reservation will remain active? I just need this clarification so I can plan future income/loss & other channels of renting.