Cancellations During Pandemic Mean No Refund

In January we booked an Airbnb in Bath for two nights. The venue was booked so family and friends could celebrate an uncle’s 70th birthday. We paid £1,960.85 including an exorbitant service fee of £262.85 (for what we have no idea).

Due to circumstances beyond our control, i.e. COVID-19, we had to cancel the booking and did so in May. The guest of honour who lives in Ireland was not able to fly to England for the party due to flight restrictions caused by the virus. Consequently, we cancelled when we did in order not to lose the full amount. Had the coronavirus not happened, our party would have carried on with the booking as planned.

We received a refund of only £849 from Airbnb (50% minus the service charge). Our party of 10 had hoped under these unusual circumstances, the host would have given us a full refund. The owners did say that if their Airbnb was rented during the weekend we booked, then a refund would be issued. No surprise that this did not happen so we didn’t receive the other 50%.

Losing this amount of money through no fault of our own was devastating for our financial situation which, because of the lockdown, is precarious at best. We appealed twice to the owner’s sense of fairness and compassion by asking them to send the other 50% refund (£849) realising that the hefty service charge Airbnb charges is likely beyond their control. This did not happen nor did we ever hear from them. Consequently, they have £849 of our money for doing absolutely nothing at a time they couldn’t have rented their place anyway.

We also appealed to Airbnb but they were useless in resolving this issue. This Airbnb in Bath did not act in good faith and if you are looking to book this venue in the future, buyer beware — the owners have no scruples and will take your money and run if given the opportunity. Our advice is not to book this place now or ever.

Posted in Airbnb Guest Stories and tagged , , , , , .

One Comment

  1. That is such a similar story to mine (which I’ve just posted). Was your host a Super Host? Ours in Sydney refused to refund our 50% but also said they would if they replaced our booking with a new one.

    Our booking was a trip to Sydney for my wife’s birthday but we also cancelled – 2 months in advance (though past the host’s refund/cancellation deadline). Our booking was for Easter 2020. By that time, the borders were closed or closing between our two countries (Australia and New Zealand) meaning we wouldn’t have been able to travel anyway.

    Airbnb “Customer Support” has been useless and simply kept to the company line (their Extenuating Circumstances policy).

    Good luck with your battle if it’s ongoing.

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