Airbnb not refunding, travelling from London to Amsterdam

BashamandCo

Hi All,

We were due to travel from London to Amsterdam on 17th October to run the Amsterdam marathon which has been cancelled due to Covid-19. Our airbnb host is refusing to give us our £315 / 50% deposit back. We have passed the period whereby we can cancel for free, but feel this is very unfair to keep such a large amount of money for a service we are not going to use and especially as we have given around 6 weeks notice. Airbnb has a Covid refund process in place that deals with bookings made before March 14th (which ours was) with travel up to the end of October, but we do not qualify as travel to the Netherlands is "advised against" and not "prohibited". We paid by Paypal so could maybe open a case with them. Is there anything we can do here??? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

mattyprice4004

Why should the host lose out completely because you’ve changed your mind about travelling? 

The event being cancelled isn’t relevant; you’ve decided you don’t want to travel for reasons of your own and can’t expect different treatment to everyone else. 

I would say a 50% split of the total is fair - then you’re both shouldering some of the loss.

Non refundable rooms, flights and services in general are a part of day to day life, and as you’re past the ‘free cancellation’ period this is now non refundable. 

Insurance would be your only route of recourse.