Section 75 claim via lloyds credit card for Airbnb booking rejected

s1edgehammer

We booked a villa in Jamaica for 2weeks at a cost of £5000 through Airbnb, the full payment was made with a Lloyds credit card via Airbnb, as we were told we had too. The property was appalling and was in a very poor state of repairs, we took pictures and videos. On our return we tried to make a section 75 claim via Lloyds credit card for a full refund, after 3 weeks we have been advised the following:
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• [FONT=&quot]Due to the fact that you had stayed the full duration of your trip we are unable to assist from a Credit Card Disputes point of view as we are bound by the Mastercard regulations.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Having reviewed this transaction as well under Section 75 liability, we are unable to consider your claim as no breach has occurred as the merchants terms and conditions state they cannot be held liable for any issues with your stay. They are solely used as a booking agency who pass the funds on to the owner of the property. Any issues that have arisen from your stay should be raised with the property owner. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There is no fault from AIRBNB as they have stuck to their end of the binding contract between yourselves and them, in which they have provided you with the completion of booking the property and transferring the funds to the property owner.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]We complained continuously to Airbnb, with no solution, they simply advised the owner who lived in Canada, Can anyone advise if this is the case as stated above and that we have no claim under Section 75 of the consumer credit act[/FONT]

eco_warrior

I am afraid to say I agree with Lloyds stance on this one and I'm sure the Ombudsman would as well.

The two points they raised are correct. Claims about the standard of a holiday/hotel rarely get anywhere in my experience, even less so when paid through an agent such as AirBNB.

s1edgehammer

thank you, is this the case even if the property does not match the description and services provided?

eco_warrior

s1edgehammer wrote: »

thank you, is this the case even if the property does not match the description and services provided?

It would really depends on the specifics of the case, but in terms of S75 using AirBNB kills any claim dead imo.


Had you paid a hotel directly and the service provided differed then you could be covered under Chargeback or S75 in some circumstances. Examples of these could be:


Chargeback: Paid for a room with 4 beds for 4 guests but upon arrival the room provided has 2 beds for 2 guests. You refuse to stay and the merchant refuse to refund or offer the correct room- this would be a valid chargeback claim. However, had you stayed then the claim is no longer valid.


S75: You paid for a hotel penthouse suite with a sea view costing £200 per night but you receive a room with no sea view and is not a penthouse suite and was advertised as £100 per night. The merchant cannot offer what you paid for and will not refund you. You would have a valid claim for the difference in cost between the two rooms.

I know these must seem quite random examples but its very specific cases like these that could be covered.


Most claims I've seen (like 99% of them) are more like yours and are down to issues with the hotel such as maintenance, closed pools, cleanliness etc. I've even known a claim as there was too much seaweed at the breach.

Ultimately, in the eyes of Lloyds, you received the service you paid for but the standard was not what you'd expected or to your satisfaction. As this cannot be substantiated and is down to opinion its not something banks will cover. You are really due compensation for poor service and that's not really where S75 or chargebacks come in.

elsien

You did also stay and use the property for the duration, so expecting a full refund seems a bit much. What did you do to try to resolve the issues while you were there?

jonesMUFCforever

I agree no valid S75 claim but what do Airbnb have to say about this?
Do they not have some sort of guarantee that the properties they are agents for are of a good enough standard?
As with the Lloyds decision - the fact that you seemed to stay for the whole period there might be an obstacle to get a full refund?

[Deleted User]

Isn’t this what travel insurance may cover?

What was the result of your complaint directly to AirBnB via their complaints process and not just a standard email?

Have you tried going via Resolver?

s1edgehammer

thank you all for your replies and answers, it was a 5 bedroom villa, we had two elderly parents, and another family with a 6month infant and 2 year old. we had also on arrival purchased £500 in food and drink for the party of 10 adults and 2 children. We experienced flooded rooms, locked out of a room, as there were no keys, had to wait for the housekeeper who opened the door with a knife as she had no keys. loss of water supply on several days, the list goes on, we have video and audio recordings plus photographs. On each occasion when an event happened we contacted Airbnb, all they did was pass the message/problem to the owner who simply ignored us. Our first complaint 1 day after arrival, resulted in a threat to leave the property in 24hours which was later withdrawn after airbnb contavted the owner and advised her that there would be a severe penalty if she cancelled the booking. We could not leave as we had no where to go, we were in a country which we did not know, plus the upheaval to the elderly and the young family. We did ask airbnb to arrange another villa, but recieved no support, they advised that if the owner cancelled then we would get a full fund.We will never book anything with airbnb again.

mt99

As far as S75 is concerned you paid AirBNB not the property owner.

AirBNB gave you the servce you paid for ie booked the property on your behalf. That is why they are refusing S75 refund.

If you had paid the owner direct you might have had a claim

s1edgehammer

ok thanks guys, airbnb were a waste of time, no process for recovering monies. hence the attempt via the credit card company. we will definately not be using airbnb, and would warn others to be careful especially when large sums of money are exchaged. no s75 available

snilloct1957

Is this something you could chase through the Small Claims Court? The accommodation and service you received doesn't appear to have been "merchantable quality" and definitely fell short of what you were expecting. Trustpilot is a great place to put comments about poor service; I just had a bad experience with Hotels.com and vented my disappointment there.