Comment by mikeodds | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikeodds | Hacker News Reader

(Apologies for hijacking)

I booked recently for 35 nights in SF. Around $3.5k booking, turned up, completely unworkable construction noise from next door, to the point you couldn’t hold a conversation. Tried to make it work, didn’t work.

Told the host I needed to cancel, who told me to contact Airbnb about the refund. I speak to Airbnb, they say I will pay for the days I had the keys and get refunded for remainder. Heard nothing from Airbnb for 10 days after, despite prompts.

At this point Airbnb informs me they can’t contact the host. I contact the host, they immediately respond. I have to act as the go between, this lasts for days.

Host had a 30 day cancellation policy. At this point Airbnb tells me that because I didn’t let them know within 24 hours and because of the hosts refund policy. I will get nothing and their decision is final.

They offered a $20 credit against my next booking and wondered why I laughed.

Interesting side note, requested all information including phone calls via Subject access request. They provided inaccurate/bad transcriptions instead of audio recordings.

Now exploring arbitration / legal action. If anyone has resolved a similar situation I’m all ears.

Seems insane to me there is no other option to escalate. Are they assuming people will just drop it at this point?

I had a similar thing happen with a 30 day stay in Europe last year. Same cancellation policy. Host refused to refund us and Airbnb kept saying it was in the hands of the host. Basically each party refusing to do anything.

I contacted my credit card company and disputed the charge on the grounds that the host wasn't providing the product that was advertised. They agreed and refunded me.

Disputing the CC charge is a good option I didn't consider!

Won't AirBnB just ban you for life if you dispute the charge?

After this are you ever going to want to stay in an unlicensed hotel again?

It's all wonderful until something goes wrong.

What other options are there? I'll go with the CC option if nothing else works.

My first support agent just disappeared on me. No acknowledgment from the second that picked it up weeks later.

You can call and that was a faster option for me to get responses.

In their terms and conditions you agree to arbitration. IANAL so I don’t know if this is binding in all jurisdictions. Amusingly(/not depending on your side) there are stories in their forums where a guest has taken the host directly to small claims court.

What's their phone number? I couldn't find one.

On the mobile app, go to the booking page, click “help centre” at the bottom, scroll to the bottom of that page and select the “Still need help option”, then you should be able to select the booking it’s about and get a phone number.

You can then keep ringing that number without going back through the app. First person you speak to will likely be the first line support and you will need to be transferred to their resolutions team, you only seem to be able to escalate 1 level before being told the decision is final.

I would record everything because you will get given contradictory statements and the transcriptions if you request them are inaccurate.

Good idea to record the conversations +1

Probably.

Good news is email addresses are cheap, and it's unlikely that the bans are based on anything other than the email. Have had problems with PayPal in the past, and had to just make a new account.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try, I’d prefer they just rectify it but they now just close the support chats with a blanket answer after I open them…

Seems crazy, I provided video evidence from inside the apartment and outside the apartment after they asked and then they just ignore it as the host doesn’t want to refund.

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