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I suspect you are also powerless in this regard. Somehow I’m imagining that these “supervisors” probably have predetermined factors that they consider, even a matrix that they consult in order to determine if they will refund or not. As for your laundry list of stuff including seeing the documentation, forget it, privacy laws prohibit them sharing medical information with you.
I hope you feel better spending all this time on it.
I don’t think privacy laws prohibit. Privacy laws concern with personally identifiable information, plus even sensitive information can be accessed on a need to know basis. I intend to take this fight up to Aisling Hassell and Greg Greely, or even the ombudsman if necessary. It’s a long shot, but I’ve won these fights before. I once wrote into the local financial authority to file a complaint against Citibank, and won the fight, so why not give it a shot?
I would bet anything that they tell you “privacy laws prohibit,” and don’t even bother to read your laundry list of demands. That’s all I’m saying. You do what you have to do and good luck.
Wanting you to refund is not the same as telling you that you get zero payment from these guests because of extenuating circumstances. If they are asking you to refund in full, that means you have the option of saying no. Right?
That might be one case where I would be really tempted to research the guest on social media. Perhaps you find something to support your hunch. It is just too much money to let it go easily.
Are grandparents travelling too?
Also what you mean " they want to refund" ? Did they say they determined it or they are asking you to agree?
AirBnB will probably ask for proof, maybe a doctor’s note. I had to cancel a one night stay because trains in Spain were on strike. AirBnb asked for proof. I had to submit the train ticket and a picture of the cancellation sign posted at the train station.
Well, update is, they decided to issue the refund. And lol, they really did reply point by point to my full laundry list, much to even my own surprise.
And the process for determining whether the refund applies is shockingly basic. All that’s needed is a doctor’s name, and an institution that can be googled, stating the person cannot travel. The medical diagnosis is not actually needed. They attempted to hide privacy laws without actually having a real understanding of how these laws work. (for example, getting documentation to verify something the guest already revealed herself is usually seen as verification of information, and is usually no longer considered “private” information. “Need to know” basis also provides a channel through which someone can obtain access to “private information”.
I know I won’t get my money back, but if i can use this example to make the whole process more robust? So I pushed for a legal response, to which they’ve escalated to the legal dept for a more proper excuse. Nobody gets my money so easily, they gotta earn it. I also took to Twitter and posted a tweet, and sure enough, 1 hour later, Airbnb Help responded with a different team to investigate my case.
Whatever the outcome is, if the process can be enhanced or made more robust, it is money well spent. I will push hard for reforms, and not Airbnb get away so easily with their shoddy due diligence.
unfortunately she’s got a low profile. Couldn’t find her social medial pages, except for a business she is running, which doesn’t seem to get a lot of traffic.
Nope, no option to say no.
Once again, several people have mentioned but you didn’t respond: Were the elders listed on the booking as guest? If not, the refund was issued in error and you need to have it elevated to a higher level.
Jackie, could you say a little more about how you post to social media? I’m looking for ways to publicize my listing but I’m not very knowledgeable about social media. Thanks, Kay
Hi Kay,
I’ve had Twitter and FB pages for a long time so I have a lot of followers but that’s NOT necessary 
What you really need to do is identify who is an influencer in your area. For example, I am in Fort Lauderdale and the local Convention and Visitors Bureau has thousands of followers. They are followed by locals but mainly people who are planning to come to the area either in the near future or for a trip sometime in the future.
Social media managers for organisations like that are always on the lookout for articles and information to post about for their followers. When you post to social media be sure to ‘tag’ the influencers so that they will pass your message to their own followers.
Rather than post a link directly to the listing, I prefer to write an article about the area in general and then add links to our listing at the bottom. (This is easy for me because I have a website but I, like many other people, am happy to accept guest posts). Your local authority / tourist people etc. will be more willing to post an article that has general useful information rather than a blatant ‘stay here with us’ things.
For example, one of our members here wrote what I think is an incredibly useful article about a frequent NYC problem.
This is one to promote our own listing.
And I wrote this one for another member here.
As you can see, they are useful info but they also promote the listings.
To get a response from Airbnb I have found that I got results from posting my unemotional and rational “plea” for help to their Facebook page but also their Twitter feed. With the Twitter feed, I got a response and a good resolution in about an hour.
Good luck!
Thanks for helpful response, Jackie!
Final update here…
I eventually lost the fight, lost my 5k, but gave it a good shot. I escalated it all the way up to consumer affairs, which advised me to get a lawyer as it falls within a commercial dispute.
And in between , I received a non-legit complaint from a hostile neighbour to my OC, which I resolved after a whole load of headache.
Farcical policies, hostile neighbours , poor guests. I may be forced to wind down my Airbnb earlier than planned. Salute to all the hosts who have endured it to this day. I received a small booking which cut my current losses to $4k. Remains to be seen whether I’ll still open my business in Dec.
Thanks for returning to update us.
Thank you for the update. I hate this did not go as you wanted. If you continue hosting in December do you stand a chance of getting more short term rentals to fill in what was lost?