People can get doctor’s notes if they simply have a cold? Blimey.
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If someone wants a Drs note saying they cant travel, they can get it pretty easily. The thing I dont get is Hotels with prepaid reservations wouldn’t refund bc of a Drs, why does ABB?
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It’s laughable they refunded over that!
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A cold though! Next thing, they’ll be saying that they can’t travel because they have toenail fungus or something.
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Actually I have had a ‘pregnancy’ situation come up twice.
The first wanted to cancel because would be too-advanced when they were going to visit, (9-months away), that one I had them cancel and I refunded their other 50% they didn’t get. Had plenty of time to re-book the dates.
The 2nd case was really about the fear of flying now that she just got pregnant and their dates were but two months away; they got zero refund since the pregnancy was again their choice (as also was their fear), but the timing was different.
That was my initial response in the same situation (a refund in line with my cancellation policy) but they took it to air and got extenuating circumstances.
I thought that is what you meant. I see your point.
I totally agree with you, but my thought (being through numerous scammers this summer) is if people want a refund, and the only way to get it is with a Drs note, they will get a Drs note.
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Which is just a matter of paying for it presumably? In the States anyway…
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That or having a good relationship with your Dr, or a friend that is a Dr, or simply going to the ER and showing ABB you went to the ER. Given how lenient ABB is with this policy, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to scam
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Yes and no. Like what azreala said about having a good relationship with a Dr. or a friend who is a Dr. Many employers in the U.S. say you need to have a Dr.s note if you call out sick for a day at work. To me that has always been ridiculous. Do you really need a Dr. to confirm you have diarrhea, a cold, etc?
Thankfully any employer I have had has not pushed the issue (even if it was stated in the employee handbook). They could fire me if they wanted. No way was I going to pay a Dr. to write a note confirming I wasn’t suitable to work with the public.
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Thank you all for your great insights. I followed your advice and used the resolution center to try and get the refund back. The guest accepted to pay me back 1/3 the price I asked for and added: You are right, I took the drop-pin screenshot from a wrong place.
What does that tell you?
I don’t think I can escalated it any more so I just went ahead and wrote a very honest review about what I had to deal with.
Timing was perfect as another guest had just wrote me a great review so his shitty one won’t be the first one to be seen by other prospective guests. His review was one of the worst I have ever had. He not only kept claiming that the location was inaccurate, but also claimed that the beddings were cheap and uncomfortable(while I made sure to invest in very good mattresses and pillows), old dirty and dusty place (yes my flooring has scratches from guests wheeling their luggage in, but the whole building has just been renovated, with everything new from wallpaper to larger bathroom, dusty? the only thing dusty when i checked was the top of the AC that is very difficult to reach). Is this really enough to call my place inaccurate? but I guess when guests are picky?
Lesson learned: if you have a complain coming from customer service, make sure you ask them to forward you any proof the guest provided to make a good defense case. My mistake was to ask last minute and not when I was first contacted.
Also, thanks to your great advices, I got to feel better reading the previous reviews my other guests gave me. They did make me feel better.
Thank you all for everything.
Warm hugs from Tokyo.
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I would write exactly what you wrote here so no future host can be scammed again. That’s awful!
Holycrap Koedigh I just noticed that you just hosted my cousin (he’s not that bad guy Nicholas)! I just saw his photo when I read your listing. How crazy is that for a coincidence!!!
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What a small world!! I am sure he is not a bad guy as his previous reviews show. But the circumstances did not work for either of us. He was not happy about my place so he decided to try everything and anything to get his money back including posting the wrong drop-pin screen shot to explain his side of the story.
Sad outcome as I lost quite a lot of money from interacting with him.
Hi @EllenN,
Thanks for pointing that out. While that Terms of Service agreement does not necessarily mean that one would always end up talking to the corresponding organization, it’s certainly a strong indication.
But if Ireland is handling the whole world apart from the USA and China, they must be swamped. One feature of Airbnb is uncontrolled growth. Basically anyone can add a listing anywhere, anytime, as long as Airbnb has a presence there. I don’t see how Airbnb support keeps up. Maybe they’re deploying bots. That would explain a lot.
To give my 2 cents worth based on BA of Health, personal experience, dealing with pregnant clients and friends who are air hostesses, its quite dangerous to fly at any stage of pregnancy due to the effects of the decompression and compression on the human body. In fact hostesses are really not supposed to work beyond 10 years in the air due to the damage to there bodies. For a pregnancy without any unusual issues and people under 35 (anybody older, which is most these days, is considered a ‘high risk pregnancy’) many fly without known issues in the early stages. However, most airlines will NOT permit travel even if you want after 26 weeks (the beginning of the third stage of the 40 week pregnancy), except for medical emergency, family death etc and even then they can decline and you can’t get travel insurance. The exact cut offs are determined by the individual airlines and visa restrictions and certain countries you simply can’t go to even for a holiday with a certificate from Dr to say you are ok as they are worried you will give birth and stay and the child will become a citizen.
Hope that helps @cabinhost
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I think that I would definitely describe the situation factually as you’ve done here but leave out the bit about it’s a fraud. Maybe just say that
"I provided guest all information about the distance and time needed to travel from my home to the station. Guest mentions no problem to me about distance or time from my house to station.
Rather, 12 hours before the end of the trip but more than 24 hours after check-in, guest calls Air B&B to demand a 50% refund because guest couldn’t find their way home.
Other than that guest followed all house rules and was neat and clean."
I think that sometimes when the representatives preemptively offer a guest a refund it has something to do with training. It makes no logical sense to do something like that right? And that is what all of us who struggle with when guests receive refunds without air B&B ever having contacted the host. It is not logical.
So personally I think that Airbnb has a problem with training their representatives as well as creating and maintaining appropriate processes to be used when handling calls of that nature. I’ve written processes for customer service Representatives before and basically you have to map out the logic of it. But then you also have to monitor calls and you have to use quality assurance to make sure that your logic rules are being followed. And perhaps that is where there is a disconnect in Air B&B training of their reps.
I think it’s pretty damn negligent for such a thing if it exists. But since it defies logic I think that such a training gap does exist. Because some of the things that these reps do are simply not logical.
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Sorry just to clarify, you’re saying that one shouldn’t work as a Flight Attendant for beyond 10 years?
Dare I ask what you think the Captain of a 777 who would have a lifetime of experience should do?
Thank you for updating us on the outcome. I know you may not have the energy to deal with Air’s CS anymore. But if you do have the energy, I would quote exactly what the guest said. I guess they can see it in the message system. He admits to taking the wrong sreenshot. Air DOES have the ability to make this right and reimburse you in full. The whole “case is closed and decision is final” is just a bunch of BS to tire out the hosts.
They owe it to you to have his awful review removed. Especially since he keeps claiming in the review that your location is inaccurate and it is not. He admits it is not!
Although you will be better prepared next time (let’s hope there is not a next time) - this was NOT your mistake. The Air reps. made an error and honestly they should be giving you a voucher for all the stress, on top of reimbursing you in full.
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