Airbnb refund

[picklespark]

Hi,

We booked an Airbnb for last weekend with a moderate cancellation policy (50% back if cancelled 48 hours prior to the event). We’d booked several weeks prior, unfortunately it was in an area affected by Storm Arwen (warnings upgraded while en route so we were caught off guard) and our access to the property was blocked by fallen trees. We also couldn’t contact the host due to power cuts in the area so couldn’t stay the Saturday either and had to pay for a new place to stay for 2 nights.

The host finally got back in touch and will only offer a 50% refund as they said they’d prepared the property already for our arrival. I understand it’s a pain for them too but this feels unfair when there was no way we could get to the property and we couldn’t have stayed anyway as the power was down in the area for several nights.

I’ve escalated it to Airbnb after politely trying to resolve it with the host, and they’re saying it’s the host’s discretion and are ignoring their own extenuating circumstances policy which I’ve quoted below. Has anyone ever experienced anything similar with a reservation? I’m not sure how to escalate it as I do think I should get a full refund in such unusual circumstances.

Extenuating circumstances:

Natural disasters. Natural disasters, acts of God, large-scale outages of essential utilities, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other severe and abnormal weather events.

I guess it comes down to weather you can call snow and high winds in late November/early December an 'abnormal weather event' or argue this storm was suitably 'severe' - for me I don't think they would meet the criteria given I don't think Arwen will be remembered in 2 months time so it's really not that bad, but the area you were in might have been hit hard enough to count.

With regards to electricity you say 'power was down in the area for several nights' - are you sure this is the whole area your airbnb was in? Where my parents live some people only had power restored yesterday, but this was not the whole village, only a couple of streets had to wait that long, and some roads didn't loose power at all. Finally, could there have been a contingency power plan you were not aware of - a generator which could have powered the airbnb even if power was down?

It was the whole area, we checked the postcode on the Scotland power grid website. And the winds were definitely severe in parts of the borders - I was hit on the arm by a roof tile after briefly getting out of the car at one point! We had to stay with complete strangers Friday night (AMAZING people) after we were cut off at both ends of the road by more fallen trees and couldn’t make it to the nearest town to find alternative accommodation. The host confirmed to us 4 days later than they were without power for that whole time - there wasn’t a generator.

Airbnb are just refusing to do anything even when I quote their guest refund and extenuating circumstances policies at them and just refer me back to the host who won’t refund me.

The extenuating circumstances policy allows you to cancel when there is an emergency, unforeseen circumstances etc.

But did you actually cancel? Or did you just not show? Your OP mentions not being able to contact the host so I’m guessing no show.

Did Storm Arwen mean travel was not advised?

I think @minipie has hit the nail on the head OP.
You didn't actually cancel therefore, from Airbnb's perspective, the cancellation policy is neither here nor there.
It's awful luck from your point of view but, IMHO, I'd take the 50% the hosts have offered.

From a fairness perspective both you and the host have lost out due to the storm. So arguably 50% is fair. Do you have an annual travel insurance policy, if so you might find you are covered under it for this?

There were warnings days in advance for storm arwyn, not sure where you were travelling from that you missed them all?

Cancellation policy is irrelevant as you didnt cancel.

I don't think rhink they've been unfair. Thats what your travel insurance is for.

Act of god or not, if the property wasn't accessible, you're covered under the Consumer Act 2015. I'd just take them to small claims.

I agree with the others in that you didn’t actually cancel, and the Air bnb was open for business.

It sounds more like an insurance claim - you may have annual insurance through your bank account - than a full refund from Airbnb situation.

Why does it strike you as unfair that both you and the host share the cost of an act of nature?

Agree with others. If you didn't cancel the stay then cancellation policy doesn't apply.

Similar area and I have an Air B&B let. There were severe weather warnings out for Arwen in these parts for several days beforehand, and we had cancellations. All fine because everyone knew where they stood - the visitors had checked the weather warnings and acted accordingly. I think you do have a grievance but personally I wouldn't have travelled.

Claim on your travel insurance?

Although I suspect you may be one of those who didn't take insurance because it was a UK break? Eeek.