Cancellation & Refund

[Jaikrishnan0]

Hi Friends

I am a host from India. A guest booked with me two months ago for their visit this month. On the previous day of my check in, they cancelled their reservation due to medical issues. As per the cancellation policy, 1/3 of the amount got refunded to them instantly. The lady then asked for the whole refund and i told her i would be glad to refund the whole amount if I can get a guest for the cancelled days. Unfortunately I could not get any guest on such a short notice and I apologised to her for the same. She reached out to Airbnb and they were totally partial in favour of the guests. They refunded the whole payout amount to the guest and debitted the same from my future payouts. But I am very sure they would not have refunded the amount collected as service charge. My point here is why only the host should suffer? The loss should be equally borne by the host, guest and Airbnb. Its high time that Airbnb upholds the interests of its hosts on priority and not leave them to bear all the loss and suffer alone. Moveover I dont find any option to raise my voice against it. I hope none of my fellow host has to go through this. Its not far before hosts like me who face this partial behaviour opt to back out from Airbnb. What if this happens to you tommorrow? Cant we get this heard to the officials of Airbnb?

[David126]

Medical may well be an extenusting circumstance.

[Ange2]

@Jaikrishnan0   Airbnb has what they call "extenuating circumstances" policy. Apparently,  if the guest can prove, with documentation, that they have an extenuating circumstance Airbnb refunds them. I assume, as per Airbnb policy,  it received documentation of the person's medical issues as proof, but I have no idea how thoroughly these things are followed up on.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-is-airbnb-s-extenuating-circumstances-policy?topic=259

It would be far better if travelers had travel insurance and hosts had  some protection. It happened to me once and the frustrating thing was,  I typed in a search for  'medical issues' and got nothing, eventually I found it under  'extenuating circumstances'.   How many people know to search for that ?  And no, the person did not get their Airbnb fee refunded, just my fee.

[Basil1]

Hi Jaikrishnan

You can call to Airbnb India tollfree number: 0008004405103.

Regards

Basil

[Sally38]

Someone cancelled on me a few days before she was due. We had lots of messaging and I had given her lots of help about the local area etc i felt entitiled to keep the £29 but she sent a request via airbnb and felt obliged to refund it but airbnb keep their cut and I get nothing for all my time spent helping this guest. I know I didnt have to refund but it makes airbnb look bad if not. So who knows what is fair!