Post by High Priestess on Sept 29, 2015 14:28:34 GMT
Tammy shared:
Altering reservation due to flight cancellations..?
Hi,
I was wondering what do you do if a guest's flight was cancelled the last minute and he requests a refund for the first night of the reservation? Is this considered an emergency that a host is expected to honor?
Gail:
If his flight was really cancelled (you can verify this.by getting his flight info and calling the airline), I think it's not his fault and give him his refund.
Tammy:
I was hoping that airlines should be able to cover his loss, wrong? I have no way to fill that night either.
The worst part is that I did offer to refund 50% of the cost for 1 night, but airbnb stopped the payment for that reservation altogether and no money was transfered. It's been over a week already.
Gail:
Airlines will compensate or make up for his missed flight but I am not sure they would cover his lodging losses. Now maybe if he had travel insurance, they might do so but my understanding is that travel insurances may cover the missed reservation for a hotel room but I am not they would cover if it's an Airbnb rental.
Peter:
I know we are not hotels, but sometimes it's instructive to consider what a hotel would do in similar circumstances - answer, they would not refund. And the reason is simple: hotels (and Hosts on Airbnb) have cancellation policies. Guests agree to them upon booking. Also, last minute cancellations give Hosts little to no chance of finding a replacement booking, so by refunding, the Host is accepting the economic loss instead of the Guest due to the flight cancellation. Why is it fair or proper that the risk of economic loss in these circumstances should be borne by the Host? If anything, the Host is even further away from the cause of the economic loss than the Guest who made the flight reservation and transacted with the airline.
Tom:
Very good points Peter!
Tammy:
Exactly for the above reasons I offered 50% refund, thinking that I'm still being nice and we share the loss.
Well, I'm glad to report that after 8 days of processing my request - airbnb refunded the guest for that night, yet only took 25% of the cost from us (not 50%) and the payment was finally released today.
Altering reservation due to flight cancellations..?
Hi,
I was wondering what do you do if a guest's flight was cancelled the last minute and he requests a refund for the first night of the reservation? Is this considered an emergency that a host is expected to honor?
Gail:
If his flight was really cancelled (you can verify this.by getting his flight info and calling the airline), I think it's not his fault and give him his refund.
Tammy:
I was hoping that airlines should be able to cover his loss, wrong? I have no way to fill that night either.
The worst part is that I did offer to refund 50% of the cost for 1 night, but airbnb stopped the payment for that reservation altogether and no money was transfered. It's been over a week already.
Gail:
Airlines will compensate or make up for his missed flight but I am not sure they would cover his lodging losses. Now maybe if he had travel insurance, they might do so but my understanding is that travel insurances may cover the missed reservation for a hotel room but I am not they would cover if it's an Airbnb rental.
Peter:
I know we are not hotels, but sometimes it's instructive to consider what a hotel would do in similar circumstances - answer, they would not refund. And the reason is simple: hotels (and Hosts on Airbnb) have cancellation policies. Guests agree to them upon booking. Also, last minute cancellations give Hosts little to no chance of finding a replacement booking, so by refunding, the Host is accepting the economic loss instead of the Guest due to the flight cancellation. Why is it fair or proper that the risk of economic loss in these circumstances should be borne by the Host? If anything, the Host is even further away from the cause of the economic loss than the Guest who made the flight reservation and transacted with the airline.
Tom:
Very good points Peter!
Tammy:
Exactly for the above reasons I offered 50% refund, thinking that I'm still being nice and we share the loss.
Well, I'm glad to report that after 8 days of processing my request - airbnb refunded the guest for that night, yet only took 25% of the cost from us (not 50%) and the payment was finally released today.