Need Help! Any suggestions?

[Keith950]

Recently, I had to cancel a trip to New Orleans due to the inclement weather they were facing on January 22, 2025. I feel I should be refunded due to the fact that the entire city was under state of emergency and there was no possible way for me to make the trip without going against state guidelines. I have already provided AirBNB with all evidence proving that the situation was untravelable; however, they declined and left it up to the host's discretion. What do you guys think my next steps should be? 

[Helen3]

So you cancelled because of the weather but feel you should get refunded because of another reason.

Absolutely if you have evidence your government issued a no travel advisory to the part of New Orléans you were staying in it should go under their EC policy or you claim under your travel insurance.

if Airbnb have declined I would double check the government advisory covered specifically the area you were planning to stay in.. .... I didnt think that all of New Orléans was affected . 

[Jennifer1897]

This is why I always recommended travel insurance especially to areas that are prone to bad weather. Airbnb has what's called the Major Disruptive Events Policy. I have copied and pasted what events might qualify under this. My assumption here (and I could be wrong) was that you were traveling during the cold front that came through where they initiated the freeze plan (January 19th-22nd or so) Given that I am in CA, I have no idea what measures of that plan were actually activated and ultimately affected travel, but it seemed to be more of a guidance plan vs actual orders. Given that airbnb support allowed the host to stick to their cancellation policy I would assume the events did not fall under one of those qualifying areas. 

What events are covered

The following events are covered under this Policy if they impact your reservation location, occur after the time of booking, and prevent or legally prohibit completion of a future or ongoing reservation (referred to in this Policy as “Events”):

Declared public health emergencies and epidemics. Government-declared epidemics, pandemics, and public health emergencies. This does not include diseases that are endemic (for example, the flu) or commonly associated with an area (for example, malaria in Thailand). COVID-19 is not covered under this Major Disruptive Events Policy.

Government travel restrictions. Mandatory travel restrictions imposed by a governmental agency, such as an evacuation order. This does not include non-binding travel advisories and similar government guidance.

Military actions and other hostilities. Acts of war, hostilities, invasions, civil war, terrorism, explosions, bombings, rebellions, riots, and insurrection.

Large-scale outages of essential utilities. Prolonged outages of essential utilities, such as heat, water, and electricity, impacting the vast majority of homes in a given location.

Natural disasters. Natural disasters and other severe weather events. Weather or natural conditions that are common enough to be foreseeable in a given location—for example, hurricanes occurring during hurricane season in Florida—are covered only when they result in another Event covered by this Policy that prevents completion of the reservation, such as a mandatory evacuation order or large-scale outage of essential utilities.