Air B&B won’t refund me.

[Baljit6]

Hi,

This is regarding an Air B&B booking that was made from the 1st August - 31st August in the UK. The full payment was for £5059.82.

I’ll try and keep this as short as possible. 

I moved into the Air B&B property with my family on Thursday 1st August. There was no host to greet us upon arrival. Immediately after moving in, we noticed many issues with the property (lamps not working, shower not turning on, wifi constantly disconnecting, etc.) that were not outlined in the listing. I notified the host of the issues on the same day. He said he would try and rectify them, but gave no real solutions. I told the host that we would like to leave and he told me that I would need to contact Air B&B. 

On Friday 2nd August in the morning, I contacted Air B&B. After speaking to two members of customer service, I was told that I was entitled to a refund. She said that the cleaning fee would be waived and I would be entitled to a refund of £4873.28. The refund was less as we had stayed one full night (on the Thursday). I asked for this refund to be confirmed via email and she stated that it would be sent after the phone call. I was given permission to leave the property that same day. I would not have left the property had I not been given verbal confirmation of a refund. 

After leaving the property, I never received an email confirmation or a refund. 

From Monday 5th August - Monday 12th August, I was in constant contact with Air B&B via telephone. I asked to speak to a manager or a senior member of staff, but they said it wasn't possible. The case was consistently passed around to multiple members of customer service who all promised that I would be sent a refund, but no refund came through. On the Thursday 8th of August, I received an email confirming that we would receive a refund, but no refund came the following day. I also had many conversations with Air B&B via the app where I sent photo and video proof of all of the issues. The final email that I received from Air B&B customer service was on Monday 12th August and they stated that we were not entitled to a refund with no explanation. 

Shortly after the 12th August, I raised a claim with my Credit Card company and I have just sent all of the details to them.

What else can I do and who else can I contact?  

[Shelley159]

Hi @Baljit6 

You left the Airbnb after one night, where did you stay then? Did you move to another Airbnb that you paid for in full?

[Zheng49]

Essentially how the refund works is that, it basically takes place right away. You should be able to get an email from Airbnb shortly that a refund has been issued. 

As a host, when I issue a full refund to the guest, I can see it reflected on the reservation basically immediately. This often happens during the call to the support ambassador as it is not a complex operation and it's something they do very often. 

The only complex part about this is that the host may not be willing to approve a full refund in this instance as the cancellation policy of this particular listing may not be set as flexible cancellation policy. If it is something like strict or moderate, then I wouldn't expect a full refund in such a case, if the host didn't approve it.

[Helen3]

Sorry that's incorrect you don't get refunded straight away it can take up to two weeks for refunds to come through @Zheng49 

[Zheng49]

I mean you see it reflected in your itinerary right away on the host side and the guest gets the email confirmation of the refund also in a minute or two.