Contesting Extenuating Circumstance Cancellation

[Len8]

Is it possible to contest a cancellation claimed for extenuating circumstance?

I have a strict cancellation policy, but I just found out Airbnb overrode that and refunded a guest less than 24 hours to arrival. The reason given was flight cancellations or delays due to a pending hurricane. However, I know for a fact that the guest was driving, not flying. I also know that the hurricane is not expected to affect either the departure city or the arrival city or the path in between, at least not during the time of their trip.

So the guest apparently mis-represented their cancellation reason and Airbnb just unilaterally cancelled the reservation with a full refund to guest.

It doesn't seem right the guest is allowed to lie about cancellation reasons with no penalty. I've searched the community but I can't tell if Airbnb ever reverses itself on an extenuating circumstance claim. This has me out three days rent with no ability to re-rent at this point.

[Alice-and-Jeff0 · Accepted solution]

@Len8 - when the guest claims a refund based on Extenuating Circumstances, they do, indeed, need to provide some proof that their trip is being affected beyond their control.  It's not arbitrary.  Flights that get cancelled have a cummulative affect on other flights - delays, cancellations and such to other airports and other regions.  As an example, a snow storm in the Northeast stranded my husband in Orlando for 4 days because they couldn't get the planes off the ground to fly South so he could fly only a short way to North Carolina.  This resulted in hotels cancelling because they still had guests that hadn't yet left.  Car rentals went unfullfilled because people rented one-way to get home and no cars were coming back to Orlando.  

You have been given a case manager, but you will note in the Terms and Conditions that their decisions on these matters are final.  You certainly can protest, but it's unlikely to get you much except more frustration.  It is certainly a difficult situation to be in - for everyone - the guests who are cancelling are no longer going on vacation either.  

Note that Extenuating Circumstances applies to you as well.  If Atlanta experienced another tornado and your property was damaged, you would need to cancel and Airbnb would protect you from host cancellation penalties.  You would be putting out guests who aren't and were not in an affected area and might have no empathy that your home has had it's windows blown out.  They might not be able to find another Airbnb or a hotel that can accommodate them at the last minute.  

On the upside of a cancellation is the opportunity to help someone who is actually stranded and cannot get home.  Hopefully you will be able to re-rent during this random time of storms and devastation.  

[Martha175]

Hello Alice & Jeff,

I might have misunderstood you, but are you saying that cancelled flights and snowstorms are defined as "extenuating circumstances"? Could you please include a link so the rest of us can understand what you base that on? Cancelled flughts and snowstorms seems to be missing from the Airbnb published article:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoid... . I am always happy to learn something new, but will need to understand where you got this info. Thanks

[David126]

I do not recollect seeing one overturned, but as a general principal you should never ever assume that your Cancellation Condition will be upheld, as you have found out very easy to get around.

[Len8]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess everyone feels shocked their first time experiencing something like this. 

[David126]

@Len8

You just need to include the cost in your rates, it will happen to everybody eventually.

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

I managed to get another guest for half of the cancellation after I took airbnb's automated suggestion to give a ten percent discount. 

I think my place was too basic for the cancelled guest.  

But thanks to your post, I now realize there might have been another reason that she was so insistent that I do the cancellation as the host - I couldn't because I could be suspended if I cancel again. 

Maybe she had already attempted to cancel and they told her that her travel dates meant they would not override the strict cancelletion penalty.   

Hmm.   If that were true, then she wasn't considerate of my losing half of the payout.   That would very cold for losing $100. 

But that's just a maybe - I had contacted her offering her two nights earlier for free if she needed to fly out earlier because of Irma.

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

I WANTED airbnb to give my guest a full refund for extenuating circumstances and thought they had done so until I saw that they had issued the penalty.  So for half an hour before I read the email, the guest must have thought I was a horrible person.   The reason was the same Irma and I guess she could have evacuated and I don't bother to wonder what her reasons might have been for cancelling other than Irma.  It doesn't matter.  

Maybe airbnb didnt issue the full refund because her checkin date was prior to Irma which did indeed bypass her city.   I wasn't going to verify veracity.  I'm not being naive.  Sometimes you are lenient to respect the event like someone claiming to have leukemia and needing to move out early without penalty, or needing housing for 9/11.  

The first time I came across airnbb was when they were in the news offering free housing for Hurricane Sandy and I happened to have a vacant apartment so I thought why not let someone use it for free - but I had so much competition from free donated apartments for Sandy and I think I also responded to a craigslist ad but when I googled them they were actually in Staten Island or something - I can't remember the details but they didn't need a place to live. 

But at that time, I realized that airbnb had a lot of tenants posting their apartments on airbnb and even openly saying they didnt live there and please don't tell.     At least, they were all interested in donating for Sandy. 

[PedroPablo0]

Hello to our Community! Cuba was hit by the hurricane Irma from 9th September to 10th September. I had a guest coming to Havana on 14th September for 6 nights. The guest cancelled her reservation on September 12nd because she stated that she could not come to Cuba because the Jet Blue flight 243 which was supposed to operate on 14th September was cancelled. This is not true. The flight was operated as planned on 14th September by Jet Blue. Also, she said that she cancelled the reservation because Havana was flooded on 12nd September and that is not true either. The sea returned on the same day 10th September (in the afternoon). There are not any bad conditions in Cuba to state an extenuating circumstance from 13rd September because every service is working (electricity, phones, water, etc) and every facility (tourist and local people) is opened from 13rd September. Havana City got to normal life from 13rd September. So, the guest could not be affected by the Hurricane. It is a true that we was hit by a hard hurricane but, the authorities did the recovery works fast for being eager for receiving our guests. Everything is in order and this cancellation came too late without any logic reason because the flight was not cancelled (the guest cancelled the flight) and part of Havana City was flooded just on 10th September (only one day) not after anymore. Airbnb is stating an extenuating circumstance for Cuba from 6th September until 30th September. This is not fair because Cuba is ready from 13rd September. I am discussing the dates to apply the extenuating circumstance policy because everything was working in Cuba from 13rd September. Please, analyze this case, I do not want the 100% of payment but, I am asking for a fair fair deal 50% for the guest and 50% for the host. Let's avoid a "lost-lost" case, let's get a "win-win" case, please. I could not sell these nights because of this late cancellation and this business is the support of my family. Looking forward to your comments, I appreciate all the time you take for this case. Thank you very much in advance and have a nice day!. Best regards, Pedro

[Gill13]

Hi Pedro,

All sympathy with you.  The guest is on holiday - this is your livelihood.  The guest can get insurance - you can't.

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Airbnb needs to get out of the hotel mindset and governing the special relationship that exists between landlord and tenant.  This hotel culture has a lot of ramifications, not the least of which are entitled attitudes of travelers and resulting bad behavior which has provoked many cities to ban short term rentals.  Airbnb also imposes financial hardships upon property owners who do not have the cost structure of hotels.  Just this morning, we received an email from Airbnb rep stating they were 100% refunding a guest for a 19 night reservation...over $2,600, and more than 1/2 month rent... for extenuating circumstances -- 5 days before our mortgage payment is due.  Whether AIRBNB recaptures from our account or deducts from "future reservations," the result is the same -- we've lost a mortgage payment, through no fault of ours.  The guest cancelled the night prior to arrival and we have a strict cancellation policy and we've received no new bookings for the period.  How likely are we to rebook 19 nights with zero notice in the middle of February?  Airbnb had not even informed us that a claim had been made by guest, and they did not call us, just sent an email suddenly this morning with their decision -- 9 days past the scheduled arrival date.  The guest apparently has a serious illness -- which they knew about well before the cancellation, so they might have anticipated that travel could be an issue or they might have cancelled with notice.  But they waited to cancel until the very last minute and then demanded a full refund, with a doctors note.  Add to this that the rental terms published in our listing make very clear our position on refunds and suggest that guests might consider purchasing travel insurance.  We actually publish this, because illness and injury are precisely what travel insurance is intended to cover.  With airlines, you have to prove that someone has DIED in order to get a refund or credit, and airlines also have a cost structure for accommodating these cases.  So then why does Airbnb choose to depart so egregiously from travel industry standards, why do they override the due rights and policies of rental property owners, and why do they expect us to pay for the trials of others when we have mortgage obligations?  Answer -- Because they can and they have set it up this way, with an explicit bias toward travelers and a hotel mentality.  This is all and only about their profits, or they would reach into their very, very deep pockets and pay the refunds themselves, since they seem to have such good will toward travelers and a godlike power to dismiss owners.  

What we can do in response, given we are personally on the front lines of political action seeking to keep short term rentals legal in San Diego -- is to write op eds about the case against AIRBNB and get them published in the newspaper, and we can speak out against Airbnb at upcoming public hearings regarding a proposed short term rental ordinance.  We are even considering withdrawing our support entirely for short term rentals until this platform aligns with customary and sane rental practices.  By the way, VRBO Homeaway and Trip Advisor respect owners, support rental agreements and stand behind our policies.  Airbnb is single-handedly responsible for proliferating a hotel culture amongst travelers, and it is frankly abusive of private rental property owners.  While they are indeed the most politically active platform in defense of short term rentals nationwide, do not be misled, as they would sell us out in a heartbeat for their profit motives, they have already endorsed too many concessions to opposition in San Diego, and we do not feel they are as key as they would like everyone to believe toward keeping short term rentals legal in our city.  The case for support rests upon tax revenues to city, revenues to local businesses and accessibility of affordable accommodations for tourists, which the local Coastal Commission protects in this four seasons destination.  A platform that does not support click-wrap rental agreements, stand behind owner policies and does not protect owners from onerous, unnecessary financial losses does not deserve our continued endorsement -- and they will hear our opposition to their practices publicly going forward.  Enough is enough.  

[Linda882]

Well said. I will no longer use airbnb. Ghastly, greedy company.

[Susan868]

Absolutely!  What are we going to do?  I am NEVER EVER using Airbnb again to host anything except renting out one bedroom in my home while I am living in it.  I am not as good a writer as you so please pardon if I borrow your exact words but what happened to us was even worse believe it or not, and it seems there is NO LEGAL recourse whatsoever.  The only thing I can do is of course, never use airbnb again to rent out my home.... It's a pity because my property is in one of the priciest Zip codes, the Hamptons.  

We had $4618.17 charged to our account due to AIRBNB awarding a guest who booked my strict policy vacation home for 7 days.  The extenuating policy cancelation was done ON DAY OF (wouldbe) ARRIVAL  

I agree.  How can this be legal?  And if you are screwed over by the overriding extenuating circumstances policy, you have the Airbnb-giant to contend with -- and of course, they KNOW that!  Airbnb is all lip service.  They do not treat their hosts right... and considering we generate their entire income/revenue... you are right.  How can they not treat us with every possible respect ?   Airbnb is especially NOT good for hosts who rent out whole properties. 

On top of losing the $4618.17 due to the extenuating cirumstances abrupt cancel, we lost much more on top of that.  We had — in order to rent out our whole primary residence with the pool, in the peak of Summer - moved out our entire family for that week — ironically in another Airbnb(!!) as we lived in this not-so-comfortable other space so we could make money to pay our mortgage etc, while vacation renters would rent out our home -- well it wouldn't be so bad if we had actually been able to make the income we expected... But instead we not only end up paying to stay elsewhere, but with an entirely vacant home -- We were literally paying for our home to be vacant.  It was unbelievable... In the end AT LEAST $6,000 down the tubes.  With our super host status and the bookings in place, we had ALREADY checked into our Airbnb we rented out … then found ourselves regretting being put out of our beautiful vacation home FOR NO REASON, paying for not only our hotel expenses (to Airbnb!) but for travel expenses like eating out etc..  To add salt to the wounds, what would have been a mini-vacation for us ended up in my constantly needing to work on my listing site daily in order to try to get replacement renters in place.... At the time, I couldn't even focus on the unfairness or complaining... I had to get replacement guests in there immediately!!  It was of course impossible to re-rent out the home at last minute that SAME DAY and due to discounting the place like crazy to find replacement renters, we ended up with a two-day rental (which was better than nothing... we thought) of a bunch of cheapies who brought more persons than allowed, and damaged the furniture amongst other problems like leaving us with ten hours straight of cleaning (via two people... It usually takes 4 hours).  Later we spent two weeks communicating with Airbnb's awful resolutions department trying to get back the damages done by the replacement renters.  And due to their rule of only being able to do one resolution at a time, we could not ever submit for our losses due to extra cleaning.  I literally had to do ten loads of laundry at the local laundromat... and in time for our next booked guests (who thankfully did not cancel), but we were literally in our home moving furniture back in place, sweating and harried, when our next very pleasant guests arrived, only to find a pile of food and ants under a table we were moving back into place after vacuuming... which our next guests saw us doing.  How embarrassing is that? 

The “extenuating cirumstances guest” canceled due to a 2-year-old having an illness which they say appeared overnight and getting a doctor’s note for such which they submitted to Airbnb DAY OF ARRIVAL.  Fine.  Having had a baby I understand, but I agree, why should the billion-dollar Airbnb business screw me out of my house and home for 5 days in the middle of peak Summer because of that?   Not to mention how EASY it is to get a doctor's note.  How can I know if it really happened or not.  It was all managed through Airbnb.  

That there is no insurance policy I can even purchase to not get last minute screwed out of a reservation booked with strict cancel policy, is ludichrist.  

What really boggles my mind is that very morning, I got a communication from Airbnb that I would be refunded the full amount (because of my strict cancellation policy) only to be told later that they were overriding that due to the extenuating circumstances policy.  The representative with Airbnb kept saying to me that the extenuating policy is in place for MY protection as well... (because I too could cancel on guests at last minute using extenuating circumstances policy.). Really?!!

The amount they took from us is actually TWO mortgage payments.  In fact, it made the whole rental income for that year a total wash.  It was literally like I was going through all that work renting out my place the rest of the year to make up for that loss.  

I will never EVER rent out my whole property on Airbnb.   I am going back to the old tried and true realtor route.  People walk through homes and choose one for the Summer, rent it out for a month or more, signing a lease agreement.  Both guests and homeowner are protected and have the option of legal recourse if something untoward should happen... As it should be.  Looking back, I don't know why I would ever have abandoned this route.  I don't want cheapies in the home anyway who want to save on a realtor's fee... And the realtor totally deserves their fee...Listing on Airbnb is certainly cheap... However, you get what you pay for.  

[Mari19]

Gail & Beth,

Well said! Totally agree with all you’ve outlined. A similar experience just happened to us. Thanks for your actions and suggestions. We too are considering moving to other platforms like Homeaway or VRBO that respect owners and support rental agreements for long term stays. 

That said, offering optional Trip Cancellation Insurance would provide “Extenuating Circumstances” loss protection for all entities involved, while enabling guest personal accountability at the same time. It could even make those Airbnb pockets deeper with some added revenue from selling trip insurance. If Airbnb doesn’t want to deal with it maybe that’s something we as hosts could look into doing separately with a Travel Insurance provider directly. It’s kind of surprising that isn’t already happening. Maybe it is. 

[Rene126]

Thank you Gail, 

a very similar thing happened to me for £6,000 a day before my booking & with my hefty mortgage due. No empathy from Airbnb regarding me being a consistent AIrbnb host over the years !! 

Disgraceful & not supporting the Airbnb communities huge endeavours for a billion dollar comp !!!