Airbnb's Changing Stories & Refusal to Refund

[Ladd14]

On Sunday March 1st, I booked an Airbnb reservation for a 5 bedroom house the second week of July to celebrate my 40th birthday with friends.  I paid $3200 as an upfront deposit and we had each bedroom allocated and ready to split the costs with our group.   Sadly, three out of the five attendees became unemployed  in mid-March due to COVID-19 and had no choice but to back out.  A fourth attendee is a nurse and can no longer commit to being away.  So we had no choice but to cancel our reservation, and did so on March 26, 2020, just about three weeks after we had booked and three and a half months prior to the reservation.   We received the following confirmation email from Airbnb:

Reservation Canceled

We’ve issued a refund of $2807.00 to your VISA •••• 6620.

Refund Details

Reservation Price$2432.00Cleaning Fees$375.00Service fee (Non-refundable)($739.63)Total refund$2807.00

Of course I was a bit dismayed that this situation would cost me over $700, but I came to peace with it.  However, over a month later my credit card has still not been refunded one single cent.  I've of course contacted Airbnb support numerous times, which for a few weeks they told me that I need to contact my credit card/bank because they sent the refund already and it's beyond their control.  My bank denied this and said that they had received no credit to process.  Later, Airbnb switched their story and said they will not actually process a refund because the cancellation falls outside of the current COVID-19 policy. 

I fully understand that the Airbnb host community is suffering right now, and I am willing to settle this fairly and compensate both the host and Airbnb for the ~3 weeks we held the reservation in March.  But keeping $3200 and refusing to offer any refund at all, even after they told me for weeks and weeks that one was coming, is absurd.  I've been a loyal Airbnb guest for years and respect this community enough to know unfair treatment when I see it.  

I'm interested to get the community's thoughts on how best to get this resolved.  Thank you!

[Sarah977]

@Ladd14   One thing you need to be aware of, which it doesn't seem like you are, is that the % you receive back is based upon the total amount of the booking, not upon what you paid upfront. So if the entire booking was, say $3000, and you paid half up front i.e. $1500, and the cancellation policy says that you'll receive 50% back, that 50% is on the $3000, so the half you paid up front is not refundable. The half-up front option is simply a convenience to guests so they don't have to come up with the entire cost of the booking in one shot.

Have you communicated with the host about this at all? If not, I suggest you do- the host may be amenable to giving you a partial refund, especially if they are able to rebook the dates. Do be aware, though, that hosts don't get paid for reservations until a day after check-in day, so at this point, the host doesn't have your money, Airbnb does.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ladd14 Perhaps you could claim on your travel insurance? At the end of the day you agreed to the cancellation policy when you made the booking when, in March, Covid 19 was a known phenomenon.

You could see if the host will refund you but they may well be in dire financial straits as well.