How Long do Refunds Take after Cancellations?

I made a reservation through Airbnb for this coming August to Iceland. We paid half of the bill for $905, and the following morning I received a text from the host informing me her place was already booked and she apparently did not block it properly. I immediately called Airbnb, explained the situation and told them to cancel it and not process my deposit. The host also called them and explained what happened. Later in the day I called again as my deposit was still pending and I had not heard back from them. Of course I got another person, said she saw the comments and it would certainly be resolved. This morning I checked my checking account and, voila, they processed it. I called again and got another person who resolved it in five minutes. She said all she had to do there on their end was cancel it. Now why couldn’t they do that yesterday? Now, as we are a retired couple, we have to hold back on a few payments until the refund hits our bank, and that may take up to fifteen business days. There is absolutely no way to email a complaint to the main office.

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

4 Comments

  1. Our issue is AIRBNB canceled our reservation due to an error on their end. The 1st deposit was $1587, made with a card and bank we no longer have. They will not redirect refund to our new account stating “it can only be refunded to the card used, you’ll have to contact the bank you had the account with”. No that is not how it works per Chase Bank. They have to send it back to Airbnb. To get a human in the phone is a joke.

  2. Have you got a Twitter account? Tweeting is the best way to make Airbnb respond. We got our refund quickly – although it was a slightly different situation – but if anything goes wrong your best option is Twitter. Hope you get your refund soon.

  3. The15 business days is all on your banks side of things. If you want to complain to a main office. Call your bank. It’s their incoming funds availability policy that’s holding up your refund. Not Airbnb!

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