I am trying to move into a new city but finding a permanent rental unit remotely was difficult. So I had to find a temporary place to stay for 2 weeks and hope that I could find a place to rent. Hotels are too expensive now, so I am trying out airbnb for the first time. The good news is that I managed to find a place to rent, the bad news is that it is more than 48hours after booking. The booking's cancellation policy is "Strict" type which according to here https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/475 states that:
- To receive a full refund, guests must cancel within 48 hours of booking, and the cancellation must occur at least 14 days before check-in
- If they cancel between 7 and 14 days before check-in, you’ll be paid 50% for all nights
- If they cancel after that, you’ll be paid 100% for all nights
I cancelled the booking 26 days before check-in. So my situation is not covered at all, i.e. more than 48 hours AND more than 14 days before check-in. The host insisted on interpreting the policy as 50% refund. So now I lost more than $600 without receiving any service at all, and the host gets to double-dip, such easy money! I have used many online booking services like booking.com, kijiji, japanican, etc. this is the first time I need to have a lawyer to scrutinize the cancellation policy. Whoever is considering/researching to use airbnb for the first time, make sure you get a friend who is a lawyer and get him/her to explain to you about airbnb's terms and conditions and cancellation policy and the potential loopholes.
To make the experience even better, I had to waste an entire weekend with the customer service. Most of them are fine and just doing the best they could, however the customer service supervisor called "Jefrey" left me hanging because the missing F in his name shows how much f*** he gives. He said this in his message:
"Should you have concerns or questions regarding what I discussed, please feel free to respond to this message or let me know if you would like to discuss this over the phone as I will still be in the office in the next 5 hours ready to help. "
I responded to his message and waited for a few hours until 5am my time, but he did not respond at all, and then he mark the ticket as solved. Next morning, I contacted them on the phone again to get this guy to contact me ASAP, he simply closed the ticket.
P.S. beware of this listing **
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