A customer can get back the service fee from airbnb only if they get a full refund from the host – Is it a bad loop that if airbnb does not try hard to get a full refund for a customer, then they can get their full service fee?
Think of a case where a customer has to cancel their booking due to external issues that they cannot control, which is understandable but is not covered by the cancelation policy for full refund such as natural disasters, and the customer has informed both the host and airbnb as soon as possible, two weeks before the start date of the booking. I believe most people would agree that the customer should be considered for a full refund.
But it is only subject to the agreement of the host, and it is likely that the host does not give a full refund to the customer. The customer will be already very frustrated at this point, and we should notice that they have been looking forward to this trip for a long time but cannot do it because of external issues that they cannot control.
Then what will airbnb do? “Sorry, no service fee will be given back to you because you cannot get a full refund from the host.” or “Sorry, we are able to get all the service fee because we are not able to help you get a full refund.”
How ridiculous!
This is exactly what happened to me. I have included my story after the horizontal link, because it is long.
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I have a valid visitor visa and can legally stay in the country for six months. However, when I passed the border, the officer at the border changed the condition for me and only allowed me to stay for a week. I was very shocked at that point. Hence, I have to change my later trips, and also cancel the airbnb booking. This cancellation is really caused by external issues that I cannot control.
I informed the host the time I knew this message, two weeks before the start date of the booking. No reply. I also contacted the support team at the same time, and they claimed that they could contact the host and get back to me if they have heard back from the host. Still, no reply. I was alone and hopeless in the country far from home.
I kept sending messages to the host over the two-week time, but it wasn't until the start date of my booking that they finally got back to me. They said they were only willing to refund me half of the booking. OK, but being in a very disadvantageous situation, what else can I do? I then contacted the support team to see whether I can at least get support from airbnb to get back the service fee. But what I have found is that they will not refund me any of the service fee, because I cannot get a full refund from the host.
How ridiculous it is!
I think my case should be considered for a full refund, but I cannot get it. Then airbnb were telling me that because I cannot get a full refund, which itself was already very frustrating, I cannot get any of the service fee back from them, which makes the whole case even more frustrating and unreasonable.
Meanwhile, I do not think the support team is very helpful over the whole process. They have claimed to contact the host from the first day I informed them, but no effective information has been obtained by them during the whole time. I would not be able to get any refund from the host if I stayed waiting for a reply from the support team. Even though the host eventually is only willing to refund me part of the booking, it was achieved through my conversation with the host. If I were airbnb, I would feel ashamed of not being able to achieve it myself.
Finally, I think airbnb is here to support a customer, not to add to the customer’s pain. I know the policy is here to help simplify things, but I believe airbnb is here to help their customers, right? I know airbnb might not change the host’s decision not to give me a full refund, but what they can do is to support the customer by something they can, e.g., refunding the service fee.
Don’t anyone think that they fall in this bad loop where if they cannot give a full refund to a customer who should be considered for this, which already very much hurts the customer, and then because of this, the customer cannot get any service fee back, which makes the customer even be in an even worse situation?
Does airbnb really have your customers in mind? I am not sure.
