Refund of cancelled holiday due to Coronovirus19

jocridley

I booked a holiday last year through Airbnb for a 40th wedding anniversary celebration mid January. It was cancelled due to the pandemic. The owners of the house in Devon - Choice Cottages - said in an email of 14 January that a refund of £1365.32 had been made via Airbnb.
Our dashboard on AirBNB says that it has refunded you to the value of £1365.32

Best wishes

Choice
No such refund has been forthcoming from Airbnb and it says that Choice Cottages has not issued instructions to make the refund.
The message below is from Airbnb:

"This is to inform you that I've tried contacted your host multiple times, however, did not receive any response. Therefore, I've to close the case.
Kindly reach out to your host from your end to see if they are willing to issue the refund from their. I'm afraid this was the best I could do for you.
I have tried to contact the company which is not answering its phone lines nor its emails, all I get is a standard email response that they answer as and when they can but they have furloughed staff.
Can anyone suggest what I should do next? I would be most grateful as £1300+ is a lot of money to lose.
Many thanks
Jocelyn Ridley

[Deleted User]

How did you pay?

Thrugelmir

Choice Cottages is an agent. Surprised that they are owners advertising on AIRBNB. 

jocridley

I paid with a credit card.
Even if Choice Cottages is an agent (which I did not know but now realise that it stands to reason), they did specify a refund would be due. What should I do next?

[Deleted User]

Did you book via air bnb and were advised that Choice cottages were the hosts?  Or was there a 4th party somewhere?   

Who advised you that your holiday was cancelled?  

Generally speaking if the host cancels they should refund to Air bnb who in turn refund you.  (My experience of a cancelled air bnb).  

If airbnb are saying they haven’t  received it then you will have to ask for proof from the “host” that they have sent it.  

If you get nowhere within a week or two you could try a chargeback?   Send all correspondence to them.  (Some might say do this now but I think they would want you to exhaust other avenues first).   

From my experience Airbnb are good at refunding so would believe them that they haven’t received a refund but mistakes do happen.  Good luck. 

jocridley

Tedber, many thanks for getting back to me. 
I booked the holiday through Airbnb. We were unable to go because all holidays were cancelled due to CV19. At the time of booking Airbnb was not refunding holidays cancelled because of the virus. As you can see from my first post, Choice Cottages said that their Airbnb dashboard indicated a refund of £1365.32. Airbnb says that it needs permission to issue a refund and have been unable to contact Choice Cottages.
How does chargeback work? I could wait until offices are back up and running but I notice on Google that Choice Cottages's address seems to be permanently closed. 

Westin

jocridley said:

Tedber, many thanks for getting back to me. 
I booked the holiday through Airbnb. We were unable to go because all holidays were cancelled due to CV19. At the time of booking Airbnb was not refunding holidays cancelled because of the virus. As you can see from my first post, Choice Cottages said that their Airbnb dashboard indicated a refund of £1365.32. Airbnb says that it needs permission to issue a refund and have been unable to contact Choice Cottages.
How does chargeback work? I could wait until offices are back up and running but I notice on Google that Choice Cottages's address seems to be permanently closed. 

In fairness, like many businesses, work is being done by staff at home.  Their website actually says -

Regretfully you will not be able to reach us on our office phone line, as we are working remotely. However, emails to info@choice-cottages.com are being monitored and responded to 24/7.

sheramber

Except they are not answering the OP.

sheramber

The you a you are out of time for a chargeback as it is over 120 days.
You could ask about a S75 claim on your credit card but the fact you paid Airb&b may exclude a claim.

jocridley

Thanks very much for your comments. My latest automated response from Choice Cottages indicated that their phones would be up and running from next Monday, April 12th. I don't think that I am out of time yet as the holiday was due to start on 14 January. I have written to the bank and wait to see if they come back to me. Thanks again