Hey Folks,
I am struggling with a major issue.
A guest booked one of our listings for 3 days between Christmas and New Years. They booked several months prior. As you can imagine, these dates get filled up fast and we get a lot per night.
The guests contacted us the day of their arrival to tell us their flight had been cancelled and to HOLD the room for them as they were going to arrive the next day. We said of course, but explained about our strict cancellation policy. The next day, they contacted us again saying they were trying to find a way to get to us through a combination of flights. On the third day, they said they needed to cancel entirely because the flight path to get to us would be too complicated.
Then, they asked for a full refund.
We of course told them we can't issue a full refund. We could offer them a discount on future bookings.
They escalated this to AirBnB and without ever talking to us, AirBnB granted them a FULL refund based on their "extenuating circumstances" policy. The issue here is A) AirBnB did not review the full documentation or details (they didn't even talk to us). Our case manager, Amber, actually sent an email requesting a call and then 4 hours later said she had concluded guests should receive a full refund without ever talking to us. B) The Guest asked that we HOLD the ROOM for 2 nights. They obviously did not want to jump through hoops to get to us (multiple flights or whatever).
Since then, we have implored AirBnB to speak to us to discuss and reverse this decision and they have replied with a "Our decision is final" message and no explanation and no review of our documentation.
We are shocked and dismayed as we are superhosts with an impeccable reputation and all-star reviews. This was $1800+ and incredibly important for us during this busy holiday week. We are now having trouble paying our mortgage and we feel this was handled extremely poorly. We also feel any reasonable review of the guest requests to hold the dates and then telling us they could get to us but would prefer not to take an additional flight should be reviewed and factored.
At this point, we're hoping a discussion here will prompt AirBnB to review this matter.
Alternatively, we are wondering if anyone else has experienced such heinous customer service from AirBnB and such unethical handling & conclusion.
Thank you,
Brent Masters
