Coronavirus Causes Hours of Customer Service Wait Time

My host will not cancel and told me to go through Airbnb. Their chat is a bot and not a human, so that got me nowhere. I am on hold, but they said “we are experiencing higher than usual call volumes, expect to wait hours” and then started on hold.

Hours? I have never heard that before. I can’t believe they don’t have a away to easily cancel online with this coronavirus stuff. We have a family member with a respiratory illness whose doctor has said not to travel. We need to cancel and can according to their policy, but I need to be able to do it.

I will never book through Airbnb again. I have never had such a problem and it is so stressful.

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.