Just wondering if anyone has experienced this. I waived a cancellation fee because guest said that her whole family has asthma and they don’t feel comfortable traveling. She wasn’t scheduled to stay with us until July. When the cancelation went through, Airbnb said that they are going to take her fee out of another guests reservation of mine that is staying in June for her to get her money back quickly. I don’t have her money to give back to her, Airbnb does and now they are forcing me to advance payment to her. This is seems outrageous. BTW - I reached out to ABB support but have not heard back yet.
Plenty of folks experienced it as it’s standard practice for Airbnb. Incidentally, they are the only OTA that does this to hosts.
JF
Thanks @JohnF. So do they then reimburse me for this out of pocket $ when the guest was supposed to check in? Appreciate it.
No, they are not going to reimburse you anything- they have fully refunded the guest and penalized you for what they consider to be a host cancellation, I think. If that reservation is now marked cancelled and the dates are still blocked, that’s what has happened.
I didn’t cancel, the guest did. The only thing I waived was charging my strict cancelation fee which I apparently have to pay for in advance so guests get their money quickly. I am awaiting to see from Airbnb when they will pay me back since I will be out of pocket money, which I never had to begin with.
I don’t think they’ll ever “pay you back.” Let’s say the refund was $100. They will deduct $100 from your next reservation payout, whenever that is.
Yes, you won’t get reimbursed until 24-hours after the guest’s originally-scheduled check-in.
From the host perspective, the host is giving Airbnb an interest-free loan which allows Airbnb to earn interest on the money. On top of that, the host is doing Airbnb a favor by not making Airbnb process an extenuating circumstance claim.
From Airbnb’s perspective, the host is willing to violate their own cancellation policy in order to refund the guest, so they must not need the money that bad. Airbnb is making a point that the host should either change their cancellation policy or let Airbnb handle all guest cancellations. Remember, if a host decides to refund a guest, Airbnb loses their fees without being able to determine if the guest was actually eligible for a full refund.
My opinion is that it’s just another reason hosts should direct guests to Airbnb for cancellations.
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As @Brian_R170 says above, you’ll get your money as per your usual payment channel and timescale, usually the day after check in.
JF
A huge part of Airbnb’s profit strategy is to hold on to one party’s money for days, weeks, months, even over a year before shelling any out for a given reservation. Thus this approach to cancellations doesn’t surprise me a bit. When I travel and require stays longer than a few days, I prefere VRBO because I can stretch out the payment and have a better chance of getting money back if I cancel.
This is a common strategy in lots of businesses. I’ve got hundreds of dollars tied up in concert and performance tickets. I subscribe to the local theater program that has a “Broadway in El Paso” series. In August of 2019 my credit card was charged. Most the shows were scheduled for this spring and they were all postponed. One, Les Miserables, was moved to 2021, then cancelled altogether. Now I’ve been notified I’ll have a refund within 30 days.
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