Thanx mate! Your post now makes complete sense. I agree that she should have updated her op and perhaps not holding back the train part. It does indeed seem a bit trolly.
Thanks for the update. You’re completely in the right 
3 Likes
I’m not sure about that. LOL. I’d like to see Joa become a member of the community. Perhaps if they would read and not just post they could avoid some of the problems they are having.
1 Like
I’ve been burned a couple times by the EC policy. It’s a bad policy that puts burden on hosts.
However I feel we’d be doing you a disservice by simply sympathizing with you and making Airbnb the bad guy.
Straight talk: Airbnb didn’t fuck up your life. Your poor financial choices did. You floated your vacation on money you didn’t actually have. That was a bad idea and you got burned.
That sounds harsh, but if you don’t take responsibility for your mistakes you’re bound to repeat them.
Vacations are a luxury item you allow yourself when you have the basics covered. The basics should include some kind of emergency fund so your family can eat and cover bills when shit goes bad (and it will at some point).
There are a lot of great resources out there to build your financial literacy so you don’t get stuck in the future. You might check out Dave Ramsey and the app “you need a budget”.
10 Likes
Hi @Joa
I think everyone can sympathise about how unfair the extenuating circumstances policy can be in situations such as yours. However I do agree, that knowing it is in place, it is never a good idea to count on future income to fund current expenditure.
We all have a choice as to whether we use Airbnb knowing this policy is in place. For most of us we continue to do so, because on balance we feel that how Airbnb works and the amount of bookings we receive make it worth our while.
It’s hard to believe that you and your children will starve because of not receiving income for just one weekend for just one of your properties. Here in the UK we have food banks for those on low incomes. Is there something similar where you are?
I am a single parent too and appreciate how important budgeting is. If you really need to you might need to borrow from family/friends/ cut back on luxuries to help you get back on track.
I do agree it would be worth your while sitting down with a friend or two and going over your budget so that you are able to save and make some profits from all the hard work you are putting in with your full time job and various properties you manage.
It is somewhat difficult to help as you seem to post a problem and then don’t return to the forum again until the next problem arises so we don’t know if any of the advice we offer is helpful.
4 Likes
they accept nearly any reason as EC. I think it is awful.
I feel very badly for you. Horrible situation. They don’t give a hoot about hosts.
1 Like
Grow Up Folks!! There is no “unfair” in life. People interpret things they way they want regardless of whether that is factual or not.
It is NOT Air’s fault that @Joa spent money he did not have on a vacation (no matter how well deserved).
Air did NOY “fuck up” @Joa’s life. He did that all by himself by the choices he made. Living beyond one’s means is always a bad decision.
Air didn’t make @Joa “foot 100% of the cost” of anything. They simply did not pay him for services he did not provide to a guest who failed to show up.
This is the second time @Joa is posting about a guest missing a train, and not getting paid for extenuating circumstances. Or is this the first time re-visited to gain additional sympathy??? I can’t tell…
BTW I agree that “missing a train” – if that is truly the case – is not an extenuating circumstance. Unless, of course, the host is so far away from the real world that only one train per week comes to town. Not very likely, I’d say.
11 Likes
I think any of us who get EC’d by Air should continue to follow up with Air, tell them you do not consider the matter closed. Lay out your arguments as if you were writing a review, keep to the facts and in this case I would show all the ways the guest could have travelled, train, car, air, bus and keep at it. Keep asking for it to be handed off to a supervisor.
RR
4 Likes
Can you point to successes you have had following this approach?
@Helsi
They were ignoring me for days, I kept at it polite but firm read through you will see the final result.
RR
2 Likes
I appreciate you are trying to help @RiverRock , but rather confused as to why you are linking what happened to you and Joa’s situation? As they are completely different.
In your case - a customer service rep messed up and made the wrong decision - so all Airbnb did after you queried it with them was to ensure their policy was followed through correctly and you were reimbursed as you should be been.
In Joa’s situation, the guest cancelled. Airbnb accepted it was extenuating circumstances (although many of us would argue it wasn’t). And therefore the guest is refunded in full.
@Helsi In my case the CS person told me I would not be paid because of EC, I kept at it and I was compensated in the end. I would have had no results had I accepted the CS persons decision. I think Joa has a valid argument that the train was not the only option and may get a different result if he/she keeps at it. Although I have no sympathy for poor planning, knowing before the trip that the guest was cancelling and going on vacation depending on money that any reasonable person would see was at best a 50% shot at coming through.
RR
For the first few years, I relied solely on VRBO despite yearly fee was USD$1500.
This is because on VRBO, only I had the authority to make refunds. Also I received half of rental income immediately and then the rest 30 days before arrival day.
I’m now 100% Airbnb. I haven’t been hit by Airbnb’s unreasonable EC policy yet. But I’m always prepared to get screwed. As long as hit is less than VRBO fee I won’t be too stressed.
It’s all cost of business. We hosts are dime a dozen for Airbnb.
3 Likes
when you get hit, it hurts.
It is the dumbest thing they do to hosts and owners, but they dont give a hoot
The customer is the traveler and not the owner; we are now a dime a dozen and replaceable.
4 Likes
I have had guests claim extenuating circumstances and in all but one have received my payments. (Cancellation due to a blizzard which I didn’t contest because it was reasonable.) I stay polite, asked for documentation, respectfully disagree with customer service and then escalate. I never get off the phone until I get an email documenting what I talked about on phone. The level 1 customer service reps often are too quick to accommodate and believe a guest.
2 Likes
My apologies. I didn’t think your guest was trying to cancel through extenuating circumstances, I thought it was just a straight forward cancellation.
1 Like
I thought of limiting my max stay to 14 days in case I get hit by the EC policy. The most I’ll lose is 14 days, which is substantial, but not as substantial as a 1 month cancellation.
Seriously Air’s EC policy is deeply questionable, some hosts have mortgages to meet , and even hotels don’t always give 100% refunds after the cancellation period. There should be clear defined EC scenarios, as to what constitutes EC, the acceptable forms of documentation, and finally, some administrative compensation (e.g. 20%) even if it is a real EC case. These scenarios should be explicitly made known to hosts. From my point of view, nearly all ECs should be covered by their own travel insurance, and only death of a family member should be an EC, on compassionate grounds, or there are travel warnings such as local political unrest and riots etc.
2 Likes
I agree with you 100%. It is awful to make us be an insurance company.
2 Likes
I agree that making the host responsible for a guest’s circumstances is horrible. If Airbnb wants to refund the guest they should, and they should take the cost out of their profits.
Perhaps this poster should reduce their exposure to Air’s policies by cross-listing with Homeaway and MisterBNB
You can still use AirBNB to fund your vacations but you just can’t do this simultaneously! Do one inexpensive trip (where you stay with friends, drive, etc) and bank that money from AirBnb for your next vaca. This is kind of basic? Although I do agree that extenuating circumstances are often b.s., you always have to factor it in as a variable and possibility.
In truth I have used the extenuating circumstances clause as a host. Last spring an old friend died and I picked up a bug in the hospital where she was. Then the toilet blocked…and I was very grateful that extenuating circumstances was there.
1 Like