They are not following their own policy

[Bilal127]

They said if I cancel before 3 PM I will get 100% refund. I did not. I only got partial and then when I contacted them, they said they will call me back in two minutes and they never did almost been two hours right now is ridiculous and shame and it’s illegal. I have been enjoying Airbnb since 2017 with no issues whatsoever. This Customer service name I think shubhan Or something like that is the person I was speaking to I have documentation of everything if this is not resolved with them I’m gonna have to file a complaint with BBB and other places as well.

[Shelley159]

No @Bilal127 , I saw the whole screenshot. You canceled after 15h00 on 20 Aug in the listing's time zone, so you're getting the payout for canceling by 25 Aug. There seems to be no error here,  Airbnb is applying its refund policy correctly.

Your complaint now seems to rather be about the way time is displayed, which is a separate matter from refund policy. I see you say you have since suggested Airbnb displays time in the local time zone of the user - I think this is a helpful suggestion. You can also post your suggestion at this link:

https://www.airbnb.co.za/help/article/1640

[Bilal127]

lol no my friend you’re absolutely wrong and they admitted it they were wrong and they apologize and they gave me my money back and they said it is a problem that they need to adjust and fix because imagine if somebody is in a different country or different different time zone and they tell him to cancel by 3 o’clock, but they don’t mention what time zone is that and then he loses hundreds of dollars because they did not put in there the time zone do you think that would be fair? Absolutely not

Who told you I can at 3 o’clock? I did not. I said I canceled at 12:20. And I said it many times . It’s very important for somebody to pay attention to somebody else complaint because we don’t have all day and every day to keep repeating ourselves. This is a time sensitive situation so pay attention to what I said about the time is very important.. 

Other than that, thank you everybody who was trying to help me solve this problem that never happened to me before since I’ve been loyal client for Airbnb for seven years. 

[Lorina14 · Accepted solution]

@Bilal127 

I’m glad that everything worked out in your favor and that Airbnb will further improve their platform for the ease of guests and hosts to prevent miscommunication in the future. 

@Bhumika @Rebecca @Paula (community managers who moderate these boards that can flag issues but are not directly customer service for Airbnb) Can you pass up this issue to the right team to address- I think the cancellation policy on the reservation and reminders should list the time to cancel in the user’s time zone as well as the time zone of the listing they are booking in.

I’m sure there is a way to add that feature so it automatically translates to both the guest’s time zone and the host’s time zone so there is no confusion about when the cut off time would be?

[Bilal127]

Absolutely and thank you so so much you know it took me about six hours to fix it yesterday. It really killed my day and it drained all my energy. 

[Shelley159]

@Lorina14 

If this guest did indeed receive a full refund as he says, I think the host is left with zero income on the booking,  despite it being canceled too late according to the listing's time zone. It doesn't seem fair, unless Airbnb itself absorbs the additional part of the refund due to the time zone difference? Is that an exception Airbnb sometimes makes?

[Lorina14]

@Shelley159 

I don’t know the answer to your question. You could contact customer service yourself to ask. Sometimes it is better to refund guests who cancel outside of your policy on a case by case basis as to provide good service and hope your space gets filled with a new booking.

I had someone who booked the listing and showed up to the airport to be told his ticket was for a different date. He tried to cancel the day of, and while I understood his problem, he should have double checked it himself. It was high season and we have a moderate cancellation policy so I told him that when he made his reservation, he blocked off one day before that could have been booked (as we have a 2 day minimum) and the time he booked himself was blocked from other potential bookings during high season. I did not have to, but offered to refund him if I was able to get a last minute booking. I did get a last minute booking and refunded him through the resolution center.