Comments on: Airbnb Refund Confirmed then Rejected

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 14:05:57 +0000

Hi 🙂
I’m afraid you have misunderstood the cancellation policy. If you cancel you are suppose to get 50% back of the ENTIRE amount. You chose to only pay half of the amount when you booked so you are not refunded anything. Airbnb cannot refund you something you didn’t pay. A guest are of course allowed to cancel whenever he/she feels like it and when the guest press the cancellation button you are refunded according to the cancellation policy. It all happens automatically. You don’t have to contact the host or airbnb.
So no one cheated on you. You only paid 50 % and cancellation policy says 50% refund.
Kind regards Sandra

By: Ann Oyed

Ann Oyed — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 14:02:49 +0000

Hi Brian – It was a privately-owned apartment in Vegas which could not be booked direct. It was not my first stay in Airbnb private accommodation, and I have met some lovely people and stayed in some amazing properties over the years, and as a guest, have some glowing reviews. I submitted a request via the resolution centre first and the host initially agreed to a refund of my full payment, which was then overruled by Airbnb who informed me I was entitled to nothing – not even cleaning fees which equated to over £250. The full details of the complaint including screenshots of the host and owner T’s and C’s can be found under the Airbnb community thread entitled “host won’t issue refund”. In my case, the owner T’s and C’s were ambiguous – which is why I raised my initial complaint above. Airbnb were also refusing to refund cleaning costs and service charges, and yet the T’s and C’s I had received were saying that these were refundable. After lots of communications back and forth through the Airbnb App and forwarding lots of screenshots of T’s and C’s, a settlement was reached. For such a big company, no-one should have to remind them of their own T’s and C’s!
It is a shame as I have met some genuinely lovely people through Airbnb, but I will not be booking through them again and have deactivated my account accordingly and requested that their DPO delete my details.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 17:15:46 +0000

What was the cancellation policy of the listing (flexible, moderate, strict, etc.)?
Did you actually cancel the booking before requesting a refund via the resolution center?
Why didn’t you call Airbnb in the first place?

Just FYI, Airbnb has your money, not the host. Hosts don’t get your money until 24 hours after your scheduled check-in. It makes no sense to ask the HOST for a refund before then and you should not expect any refund from a host before then.

Another question, if this was a hotel, why book it through Airbnb? Airbnb’s fees are 12-20%, would it not have been cheaper to book direct?