Airbnb question

[Wingedharpy]

Posting for traffic.
It goes without saying that in the general sceme of things, this is unimportant, but, I wanted to ask.

I booked an Airbnb appartment in a city in England for a few nights in May.
In view of the pandemic and my vulnerable travelling companion, I decided to cancel the booking on Friday.

The Airbnb website gave the option of requesting a refund, so I did.
It also recommended sending a message to the owners to explain your reason for cancelling, so I did this too.

Owners replied very quickly and were very understanding and said they would refund in full.

I was surprised, but very pleased and sent them a message of thanks.

Today, I get a message from Airbnb, saying the host has declined your request for a refund.

Is this Airbnb trying to screw over both the owners and us?

I should say, I would have fully understood if the owners felt they couldn't refund the booking costs.

Just wondered if anyone else had had any experience of this?

I'm a host and as I understand it we have no choice but to give full refunds at the moment. Having said that I have as yet had no cancellations for after April 15th. They are obviously still hoping to come.

Get onto Airbnb or the host and ask wtf (nicely though!) It could just be an admin thing

Having said that I have as yet had no cancellations for after April 15th

The current cut off date for a guaranteed full refund is April 14th. After that it appears to he at the hosts discretion. I imagine the date will be extended and more cancellations will come in then

Thank you both for your responses.
@Smithesque: I had a very amenable message conversation with the hosts originally and I outlined my/our issues and did say, can I have a refund but I will fully understand if you are unable to do this.
I suppose my concern is not that the hosts have changed their mind but that Airbnb are pulling a fast one which works to their advantage at the expense of both hosts and bookers.
I will message hosts again but didn't want to be hassling them unnecessarily as I'm sure they've enough on their plate at the moment - like the rest of us!

Our air bnb for the end of may has cancelled us and given us a refund without us even asking
Hope you get one too

Just requested refund from our airb&b in June and it’s gone straight back into my PayPal account.

As an Airbnb host I have agreed to all cancellations requests personally this then triggers an official Airbnb request which I also clicked yes to. Potentially your host just clicked the wrong button there? Ultimately I don't receive any money until after the stay so nothing to refund in reality.

I think Airbnb's reaction has been swift and detrimental to their own business and therefore to be applauded.

In most cases refunds are up to the host not Airbnb. I don’t think Airbnb are trying to “pull a fast one”. Maybe the host made an error or had a change of mind. Perhaps try contacting them again or alternatively if you have it in writing that the host agreed to a full refund you could try contacting Airbnb instead.

Apologies...again.
I should have come back sooner to update.
Messaged our hosts again who got back to me immediately to say it was an admin error at Airbnb end.
Will attempt to contact them, in a few days and get it sorted.
Many thanks for all responses.
Much appreciated.

Glad to hear that OP. Ime Airbnb are quick to rectify straightforward problems like this one. Hope you get your break later in the year 🤞