Watch out for Airbnb's new policy!
FR

Translated into English.

Original post
JO
We’ve been using Airbnb’s services for years during our trips across Europe, mainly in France. We were pretty happy with it, but we’d never needed to contact them (we only booked with Superhosts) before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Airbnb introduced a "Force Majeure and Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy." This policy states (the BOLD is mine) "Bookings for Airbnb stays and experiences made on or before March 14, 2020, with a check-in date between March 14, 2020, and June 15, 2020, may be canceled before the check-in date. As a result, travelers who cancel in accordance with our Policy will receive, at their discretion, a travel credit or a full refund. Hosts can cancel in accordance with our Policy without fees or impact on their Superhost status, and Airbnb will issue a refund or travel credit for an amount including all service fees."

Since we complied with their policy, we were able to get refunds for 4 out of 5 bookings—MINUS the service fees, which they credited back to us with a useless expiration date of December 30, 2020, knowing full well we won’t be able to travel this year. :-(

However... NOWHERE in this policy do they mention that these cancellation terms are tied to the listing’s cancellation policy at the time of booking. They only refer to the "Force Majeure and Coronavirus (COVID-19) Policy." So for the 5th booking, since we only had 48 hours to cancel without fees, they’re "offering" us... $11.23 back on a $349.19 deposit! Of course, we also have the "option" to accept a credit for the full amount... to be used by December 30, 2021 (oh, that’s *so* much better, right?). Except, how is it fair that WE are penalized because not only are we under travel restrictions, but the HOSTS of this booking CAN’T HOST US?

We’ll have to go along with their bad faith (those 2020 expiration dates), and hosts who work with Airbnb should expect to lose customers they might’ve seen again once travel resumes... but they can forget about us—that’s for sure.
MA Masterpo Globetrotter ·
Bookings made before March 14, for arrival dates between March 14 and June 20, are supposedly fully refundable according to their Policy—but none of the 5 I checked actually qualify.

Did they meet the conditions? Because based on the refunds offered, it looks more like a standard, run-of-the-mill refund...
JO JoDquébec ·
Hi Masterpro,

Yep, all our bookings met those date conditions, which is why we're so outraged. We realized that Airbnb, contrary to what we thought, wasn't a reliable booking site when we saw all the negative reviews on Trust Pilot since the start of the pandemic. And we found out there are travelers who’ve been scammed in an even more shameless way!

Indeed, the only difference from a standard refund is that we had the option of either losing our money (the original cancellation terms were 48 hours) or accepting a credit note with an expiry date in December 2021, even though at the time of our booking, our country was preventing us from traveling to France AND France wasn’t accepting international travelers. Our other four bookings were refunded EXCEPT for Airbnb’s service fees, for which they issued us a credit expiring on December 30, 2020 (yes, you read that right).

Everyone loses out in this poor management by Airbnb because this is the 5th consecutive year we’ve visited different regions of France, bringing capital to the regions, supporting small businesses and local village restaurants. The more travelers refuse to use Airbnb (and we’re not the only ones, judging by the comments on Trust Pilot), the higher our travel accommodation budget will be, and the less often we’ll be able to afford to travel in Europe since the exchange rate is already very high for us Canadians.

Anyway, there will always be sharks... but we can decide not to be on their menu!

Cheers!
HA Hannahannah Globetrotter ·
A friend who booked before March 14th for 4 days in Brittany got 50% of her rental back. It was her first time using Airbnb, and it’ll be her last.

Personally, I’ve never favored these platforms—they’ve long since strayed from their original values of solidarity. In Bordeaux, families in need and students on tight budgets can no longer find housing in the city center. All the apartments have been bought up by owners to turn a profit. We’re far from the original idea.
Que se vuelva la tortilla
LA Lacalo Globetrotter ·
Hi there, For an Airbnb booking of one week in April, made in December, I was fully refunded. Fees included.
" Nous ne saurons jamais tout le bien qu'un simple sourire peut être capable de faire." Mère Teresa
JO JoDquébec ·
Hi,

An update on the situation: we managed to get our booking CANCELLED by the host (not by Airbnb, who weren’t responding to our email).

Our first request to the host to cancel our booking was refused, but a few days later I wrote to them again, and it seems my arguments were more persuasive because they then agreed to cancel. It’s worth noting that these weren’t private individuals but a rental company acting as the host in this case. I’ve never had any issues with hosts who were private individuals. Unfortunately, you don’t know at the time of booking whether you’re dealing with a management firm handling multiple rentals or private individuals—and that’s a real shame because, for all sorts of good reasons, the latter are definitely preferable.
HA Hannahannah Globetrotter ·
. Unfortunately, you don’t know at the time of booking whether you’re dealing with a management company

Originally, this platform excluded management companies, but the drift came quickly, distorting the initial project.
Que se vuelva la tortilla
MI MirtilleM Regular ·
We’ve been using Airbnb’s services for our trips across Europe, mainly in France, for several years now. We were pretty happy with them, but we’d never needed to contact them before (we only booked with Superhosts) until the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Airbnb introduced a Policy for Force Majeure and Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. This policy states (the BOLD is mine) "Bookings for Airbnb homes and experiences made on or before March 14, 2020, with a check-in date between March 14, 2020, and June 15, 2020, can be canceled before the check-in date. As a result, travelers who cancel in accordance with our Policy will receive, at their discretion, a travel credit or a full refund. Hosts can cancel in accordance with our Policy without fees or impact on their Superhost status, and Airbnb will issue a refund or a travel credit for an amount including all service fees."

Since we complied with their policy, we were able to get refunds for the deposits on 4 out of our 5 bookings MINUS the service fees, which they credited to us with a flimsy expiration date of December 30, 2020, knowing full well we wouldn’t be able to travel this year. :-(

However... NOWHERE in this policy do they mention that these cancellation terms are tied to the booking’s original cancellation policy. They only refer to the Policy for Force Majeure and Coronavirus (COVID-19). So for the 5th booking, since we only had 48 hours to cancel without fees, they’re "offering" us... $11.23 back on a $349.19 deposit! Of course, we also have the "option" to accept a credit for the full amount... to be used by December 30, 2021 (oh, that’s better, right?). Except, how do they explain that WE are penalized because not only are we under travel restrictions, but the HOSTS for this booking CAN’T HOST US?

We’ll have to go along with their bad faith (the 2020 expiration dates), and hosts who work with Airbnb should expect to lose clients they might’ve seen again once travel resumes... but they can forget about us, that’s for sure.

Hi Johanne,

For other reasons, we’re done with Airbnb and other competitors like VRBO! Why? They all claim our money is protected, but when you actually need them to step in, they wash their hands of it. We’d rented an apartment for almost an entire winter trip, and it turned out the place was disgusting—bugs, dirt, etc. The owner acted like nothing was wrong and even got aggressive, saying we were being too difficult. We called VRBO to find out they don’t help at all! It’s understandable—they’re "caught between a rock and a hard place," on one side the unhappy customer, and on the other, the host who pays them a fee to list their place. They just suggest trying to work it out. But how do you do that with an owner who’s convinced everything’s perfect? We’d paid nearly 4000 €!!! In reality, companies like Airbnb only guarantee deposit money against fraud—for example, if your bank account gets hacked during a booking or deposit transaction. They never refund you if you’re unsatisfied for a major reason. I wasn’t the first guest at this apartment—digging deeper, I found another customer from Montreal who’d left a super negative review and complained about the same things: dirt, bugs, etc. Same story for them—they never got a refund, with Airbnb just saying they don’t handle that kind of dispute.

These companies don’t refund you if, for example, the listing says there’s an appliance X, Y, or Z, a pool, an air conditioner, etc., but it turns out that equipment doesn’t exist! So the door’s wide open for fake photos and misrepresentation. After the fact, the owner can claim their AC system just had a recent issue, but who’s telling the truth?...

We had to turn to VISA, who took legal action against VRBO for us. We obviously won—with photos and proof, they saw the owner wasn’t managing their property and that the apartment didn’t match the photos. The worst part? They let me leave a review to warn others. VRBO posted it, but afterward, the owner decided to pull their listing from that platform entirely and put it somewhere else! So my review doesn’t show up anywhere now, but their dishonest listing keeps circulating on other platforms!!!

Don’t kid yourself—these companies are on the side of the listers, meaning the property owners!
DE DesHuards781 ·
Hi there, and thanks for your comment—it really sheds light on how vulnerable we are to these rental platforms. Right now, we’re trying to find places in Quebec to book Airbnbs for 2-3 days at a time just to "use up" the credits Airbnb forced us to accept (a total of $325) instead of refunding the service fees, even though it’s because of the pandemic. With an expiration date of December 30, 2020, we’ve got to move fast 😩😩
MI MirtilleM Regular ·
Hi there, and thanks for your comment—it really sheds light on how vulnerable we are to these rental platforms. Right now, we're trying to find places in Quebec to book Airbnbs for 2-3 days just to "use up" the credits Airbnb forced us to accept (total of $325) instead of refunding the service fees, even though it was due to the pandemic. With an expiration date of December 30, 2020, we’ve got to act fast 😩😩

I hate this kind of "refund"—it’s not really a refund at all because it forces us to make plans we wouldn’t have chosen otherwise! Good luck finding something you like.
AC Accolade Globetrotter ·
Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I think you all know way more about this than I do... I’m completely lost and really need some help, please.

I booked and paid for a January 30, 2020 rental for a month and a half, starting December 1, 2020 in Chiang Mai, Thailand (which is closed due to Covid-19).

Since I had no idea what would happen in December, I waited to see if my flight would still be on.

This morning, Qatar Airways canceled my flight.

I went to the Airbnb site to cancel my booking and saw that since my check-in date is after August 15, I only get 7 € back 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️.

What’s going on?? This is a force majeure situation! What are my options?

Thanks in advance to anyone who knows Airbnb well—I’ve been using this platform for years, but I’m really shocked this time.
Fungfungfung.com
SA Sawadeebaht Regular ·
Did you get it back, your deposit? I lost a day and a half of rental out of a month on Agoda. In fact, whenever possible, I only choose bookings that can be canceled.
Toujours une fois. Au moins.

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