Proprietor and Airbnb disagree on refund for rental. Who’s appropriate?

Dear Journey TROUBLESHOOTER: Last spring, I built an Airbnb reservation for a vacation rental in Lanai, Hawaii, in November 2020. Since of the COVID-19 travel restrictions, I canceled the reservation in Might.

Airbnb denied me a entire refund. I tried to cell phone Airbnb to discuss this denial, but the maintain time was regularly in excess of two several hours. Emotion I experienced no other recourse, I disputed the assert with Funds A single, my credit rating card company, and was presented a conditional refund.

Capital Just one sided with Airbnb a thirty day period later on and urged me to take care of this instantly with Airbnb. I attempted to do so. I utilized for a refund online and was instructed that, because of to the holiday rental’s refund policy, there would be no refund.

I named the operator, and she explained that she does not have a record of my reservation, nor does she have any income from me for my reservation. She also has no coverage that would have denied me a refund.

I contacted Airbnb with this information. A representative promised to connect with the owner and get back to me. Despite the fact that she did not call back again, I been given a notification from my credit rating card issuer that a refund of $282 had been issued to my credit rating card. But I in no way received it. Can you assistance me get my money back?

— Carl Baeuerlen, Los Altos

Reply: You need to be ready to get a whole refund. But your case is a tiny sophisticated. Let’s see if we can unpack it.

Airbnb had an “extenuating circumstances” policy that allowed guests to terminate reservations for stays designed on or before March 14, 2020, with examine-in dates involving March 14, 2020, and April 14, 2020. But you were being exterior of that window.

That means the Airbnb extenuating circumstances plan didn’t utilize to your rental in Lanai. But here’s where by factors get appealing. Airbnb statements your rental wasn’t refundable, but the operator suggests there was no this kind of coverage. So who is appropriate? I’ll get to the solution in a second.

You ran out of tolerance and submitted a credit history card dispute. In credit history card parlance, which is known as a friendly dispute, since you were being executing organization with Airbnb. And your financial institution sided with Airbnb, which additional complex your situation.

I assume a short, well mannered e mail to just one of Airbnb’s executives may have assisted. I checklist the names, figures and electronic mail addresses of Airbnb’s top rated consumer service administrators on my internet site at elliott.org/organization-contacts/airbnb.