One would always hope that they didn’t need to bother finding out how to claim a refund from AirBnB. Unfortunately we sometimes bet on the wrong horse. But even then you’d think that claiming a refund would be pretty straight-forward, right?
Well, I can now confirm this is not the case with AirBnB. To be honest, the system is nothing short of counterintuitive… Which is why I would like to share my experience with it, so you can avoid making the same mistakes as I made.
I have previously shared some mistakes I made so that you wouldn’t need to in my Venice guide. While I still enjoyed Venice despite some bad choices, spoiler alert, this case had a less favourable end. So, what happened exactly?
How to Claim a Refund from AirBnB?
I’m sure we all know that booking an AirBnB is a brilliant way to immerse yourself into a new country’s culture from the moment you arrive. For those, like me, who travel for longer periods of time, AirBnBs can offer a temporary home with all condiments unlike hotels do. Such things as:
- cooking equipment and facilities
- washing machine
- privacy, etc.
But when an AirBnB turns out to be not up to the standard you expected, you may be able to get a refund. I say ‘may be’ from experience because despite a disaster AirBnB experience I didn’t succeed in being refunded.
So, here’s everything you need to take into account when you claim a refund from AirBnB.
Read also: 5 Things to Do in Bologna – Your Bologna Guide
1. Report every single issue to your host and AirBnB
If you are dissatisfied with your AirBnB and wish to get a refund, the first thing you must consider is whether you are eligible for one. Oh yes, there are certain hoops which you have to jump through to even have the right to apply for a refund.
The moment you notice something that’s not quite right, not in accordance with the property’s description, or even a straight-up problem, report it to the host. Take a picture of the issue (if applicable). The time of taking the picture will be visible in the photo’s metadata and after taking the photo you have 72 hours to inform the host about the issue.
Here’s the important part: contact the host about issues only through the AirBnB chat! Most hosts will ask you to message them on Whatsapp, but in case of issues, the AirBnB customer care can’t access those messages. But the messages you send through the platform are visible to them, so they can easily confirm that you have reported issues as they occurred.
You can also report each issue to the AirBnB customer care just to be extra sure that they have a record of it all. It may save you a lot of money and bother!
My mistake
There was so much wrong with one of the apartments I stayed in, that after reporting a couple issues (via Whatsapp…) I just got on with the rest of them. Big mistake but I’m sure many of you can relate to my reasoning:
- I travel alone and as a small woman safety and security is always my no.1 priority
- Due to the 1st point I didn’t want to seem like a nuisance because I was able to live in the apartment despite the major shortcomings.
But in order to claim a refund from AirBnB you must report every single issue and you must report them through AirBnB’s chat. I only reported some of the issues and did it through Whatsapp…
2. Know your rights as a guest
Especially us women like to be easy-going and not rock the boat when it’s not absolutely necessary. But as the world around us keeps telling us, we have to learn to do just that! And it starts from knowing what we are entitled to and what our responsibilities are.
So, as boring as it is, always read the terms and conditions. And in AirBnB’s case, acquaint yourself with their ground rules for guests. This will help you determine whether certain things come down to cultural differences or if it’s actually something to be concerned with. It will also be necessary when you wish to claim a refund from AirBnB.
My mistake
As a digital nomad I’ve stayed in AirBnBs all over the place. I’ve never had any issues, which is fortunate, but with such privilege often comes woeful ignorance. And that can be expensive!
For instance, I was not aware that if the AirBnB property is for sale while I’m staying in it, I should’ve been informed about it beforehand. In this particular case there was no mention of the fact that the place was for sale anywhere.
But on the day when I checked in I got a text from the host that the owner of the place was coming over the next day to show the apartment to someone. I’m always polite so I agreed. After all, I wouldn’t manage to make a mess in one night so it wasn’t a bother for me.
But then it became a regular occurrence: every week I got a one-day warning about another viewing. So, I had to rush to clean up the place (even though they didn’t tell me to, you just do that as a decent human being).
As a private person this was a nuisance for me, and after 3 weeks my bestie informed me that it was actually against AirBnB’s rules.
- They didn’t inform me of the fact that the place was for sale
- The viewings were announced with only 1-day warning, not agreed with me.
As such, I told them that the viewings will stop now while I’m staying there. I then gave them 2 dates for the next month when they could book viewings (in accordance with my own cleaning schedule). Those viewings had to be agreed on at least 1 week in advance.
3. Contact AirBnB about the refund before you check out
This is an extra step, but I recommend that you do this. For example with Booking, if you contact them about a refund after you’ve checked out, you might be out of luck. So let them know, even though they will then tell you what they told me:
After you’ve checked out you can apply for a refund. They didn’t specify why it should be done after checking out but I assume it’s both for practical and security reasons.
4. Request a refund from the host
Ooh yes, this is where things start to go south. You can’t actually claim a refund from AirBnB but instead have to send a money request to the host. Awkward! This is how that works:
- From the AirBnB site’s menu at the bottom of the page you can find a button for ‘Resolution center’, click that.
- Choose the right booking and whether you wish to send(??) or request money from the host and click forward.
- Click the option that is closest to the reason you’re asking for a refund and then move onwards.
- Specify a sum that you’d like to request returned and write a description why you are entitled for a refund.
- Send the request and wait for the host to respond.
5. Get AirBnB involved
If the host accepts your refund request, congratulations! But in reality how many hosts would ever agree to pay you back anything even if there is a good reason for your claim? Yeah, none…
So, if the host decides not to refund you they will decline your request and send it back like a boomerang with a message attached. When you open this, you can see a button that says “Get AirBnB involved”. Finally! To claim a refund from AirBnB should surely involve the service provider itself, right?
Now you can chat with a customer care agent. First they give you a regular CCA. From my experience, they can’t help you so ask straight away to be forwarded to someone who’s been trained to deal with refund disputes. I was eventually forwarded to one…
Explain the situation in detail. After that you will probably get a call from AirBnB to go through everything. The call will be recorded. If everything is in order and you have informed the host about issues throughout your stay via AirBnB chat there should be no issue.
The refund will be issued for the days that you stayed in the property starting from the day you reported the issue(s). It may take up to 15 days for the money to show up in your account.
My mistake
As explained, I had not reported all the issues that I listed in my refund request to the host. And the issues that I had reported, I had reported via Whatsapp. As such, AirBnB couldn’t confirm that I had actually reported certain issues. I had reported one issue via the platform’s chat and that was counted, though.
The issue that AirBnB could confirm had been reported 6 days before my check-out so I was eligible for a refund for those 6 days. I had stayed in the apartment for 2 months, so it wasn’t much to celebrate.
Everything else was ignored because I hadn’t operated ‘correctly’. In the end I got a refund of 140€, which means I lost thousands of euros…
Final Thoughts on How to Claim a Refund from AirBnB
We live and we learn, right? Well, not all of us, as the state of the world proves. But those of us who do, can be better going forward! I wish it had been a shorter stay and a cheaper accommodation that required me to claim a refund from AirBnB… Or better yet, I wish I hadn’t had to request a refund at all!
This was an extremely expensive mistake, or a collection of mistakes from my part. And so, I hope you can derive some benefit from learning about them and avoid making such mistakes. To stay in somebody’s house or an apartment is a delicate business to begin with. So, when things go wrong, you’d probably hope for more and better support from the service provider than what I got.
I obviously let AirBnB know about the shortcomings of their useless system. But like always, I don’t expect them to change anything. These companies are not here to serve us, they’re only there to fleece as much money out of us as they can.
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