AirBnB credit

Adywheels

Hello 

So i tried to book an apartment for next year in France, the host immediately told me i have to cancel the request as they had not set the prices for that time period in 2024, i agreed and cancelled the booking.

AirBnB gave me 2 options.....
1- Have the payment i made of £550 returned to me credit card which takes 5-10days.....
2- Put the is £550 into AirBnB 'Credit' and use on another booking at any time...

I stupidly choose the credit as i had a few apartments saved and didn't want to wait 5-10 day to get a refund.
So i selected my second choice apartment but got the same answer that the host had not set the prices for 2024 & please cancel...

I then decided this was probably going to happen with all the apartments, so i'll take back my £550 and try again in a few months, I reached out to AirBnB to ask for that money back and they refused and sent me the T&C highlighting that once i had put any money into 'Credit' i could never withdraw it !!!!!   "But it's OK sir its valid for ever" they said !

So now i'm stuck with £550 in AirBnB's bank account and paying interest on my credit card for the pleasure

Where do i stand with this ?

I could ask my credit card company to claim the money back, but then i hear AirBnb will cancel my account !?!


 The T&C they sent me, to me it is a load of legal jargon which is don't fully understand 


Thanks in advance for any help 

 

Aylesbury_Duck

Adywheels said:

Hello 

So i tried to book an apartment for next year in France, the host immediately told me i have to cancel the request as they had not set the prices for that time period in 2024, i agreed and cancelled the booking.

AirBnB gave me 2 options.....
1- Have the payment i made of £550 returned to me credit card which takes 5-10days.....
2- Put the is £550 into AirBnB 'Credit' and use on another booking at any time...

I stupidly choose the credit as i had a few apartments saved and didn't want to wait 5-10 day to get a refund.
So i selected my second choice apartment but got the same answer that the host had not set the prices for 2024 & please cancel...

I then decided this was probably going to happen with all the apartments, so i'll take back my £550 and try again in a few months, I reached out to AirBnB to ask for that money back and they refused and sent me the T&C highlighting that once i had put any money into 'Credit' i could never withdraw it !!!!!   "But it's OK sir its valid for ever" they said !

So now i'm stuck with £550 in AirBnB's bank account and paying interest on my credit card for the pleasure

Where do i stand with this ?

I could ask my credit card company to claim the money back, but then i hear AirBnb will cancel my account !?!


 The T&C they sent me, to me it is a load of legal jargon which is don't fully understand 


Thanks in advance for any help 

 

If it was successful, then it would be entirely up to airbnb (or any business) whether or not they want you as a customer.

Can you post the T&Cs they've sent, plus details on how airbnb outlined those two options?

Adywheels

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Adywheels said:

Hello 

So i tried to book an apartment for next year in France, the host immediately told me i have to cancel the request as they had not set the prices for that time period in 2024, i agreed and cancelled the booking.

AirBnB gave me 2 options.....
1- Have the payment i made of £550 returned to me credit card which takes 5-10days.....
2- Put the is £550 into AirBnB 'Credit' and use on another booking at any time...

I stupidly choose the credit as i had a few apartments saved and didn't want to wait 5-10 day to get a refund.
So i selected my second choice apartment but got the same answer that the host had not set the prices for 2024 & please cancel...

I then decided this was probably going to happen with all the apartments, so i'll take back my £550 and try again in a few months, I reached out to AirBnB to ask for that money back and they refused and sent me the T&C highlighting that once i had put any money into 'Credit' i could never withdraw it !!!!!   "But it's OK sir its valid for ever" they said !

So now i'm stuck with £550 in AirBnB's bank account and paying interest on my credit card for the pleasure

Where do i stand with this ?

I could ask my credit card company to claim the money back, but then i hear AirBnb will cancel my account !?!


 The T&C they sent me, to me it is a load of legal jargon which is don't fully understand 


Thanks in advance for any help 

 

If it was successful, then it would be entirely up to airbnb (or any business) whether or not they want you as a customer.

Can you post the T&Cs they've sent, plus details on how airbnb outlined those two options?

Hello thanks for answering,
I cant post a link directly as I'm new here, so I have copied the relevant part

“Booking Credit” is store credit awarded upon a Member’s Qualifying Cancellation. Booking Credit: (i) is non-refundable and non-transferable; (ii) is not cash, currency or a gift card product; and (iii) cannot be redeemed for cash except where required by law. You may not purchase or sell Booking Credit and Airbnb does not sell Booking Credit.

How it Works

When you initiate a Qualifying Cancellation, Airbnb may provide you the option of receiving either a cash refund or an equivalent amount in Booking Credit. Booking Credit may only be redeemed through the Airbnb Platform. Booking Credit may be applied during checkout and will reduce the cost of that booking by the applied amount. You are not required to apply the Booking Credit to your next booking and may elect to apply it to a later booking. If less than the total available balance of your Booking Credit is applied to a booking, the balance will remain in your Airbnb account until used or subject to applicable unclaimed property laws.

If you apply the Booking Credit to a booking and the booking is cancelled: (i) you will be refunded based on the Host’s cancellation policy for the amount paid with your Payment Method (e.g., your credit or debit card), and (ii) the amount of the Booking Credit you used for the cancelled booking will be refunded for future use.

If you initiate a chargeback with your bank or credit card company (also known as a “charge dispute” or “reversal”) for the return of funds charged for a Qualifying Cancellation, you will not be eligible for Booking Credit for such cancellation. Airbnb reserves the right to refuse, void, cancel, reject or hold for review your Booking Credit, if it believes that you initiated a chargeback for the Qualifying Cancellation and elected to receive Booking Credit despite the chargeback.

If for any reason you believe that there is a discrepancy regarding your Booking Credit, please contact us. Airbnb may require you to submit additional information in order to make a determination regarding your Booking Credit.

Your Waiver and Release

By electing to receive the Booking Credit, you are agreeing to the amount of the Booking Credit is in lieu of any cash refund you might be entitled to receive in connection with making the Qualifying Cancellation—whether under the Listing cancellation policy, our any other Airbnb policy, or applicable law. By electing to receive the Booking Credit or by using the Booking Credit you are agreeing to these Booking Credit Terms.

You release Airbnb and the Host of the Qualifying Cancellation from any and all claims and liabilities, without limitation, relating to the Qualifying Cancellation, and/or any refund or compensation you might be entitled to in relation to the Qualifying Cancellation.

Adywheels

when you cancel the booking , a pop up appears with the 2 options you just select one of them, there was nothing on the pop up to tell you that you can never get it back if you selected credit

HillStreetBlues

Adywheels said:

AirBnB gave me 2 options.....
1- Have the payment i made of £550 returned to me credit card which takes 5-10days.....
2- Put the is £550 into AirBnB 'Credit' and use on another booking at any time... 

It does tell you what you can do if accept the "credit".
If you could take the money back out I expect it to say "use or withdraw at any time"

tightauldgit

I'm pretty sure you would be reliant on the goodwill of Airbnb to refund based on the circumstances and if they've said no then that's probably the end of it. 

Anything beyond that like trying to challenge the T&Cs in court, lets face it, isn't going to be worth the difference between a £550 credit and a refund.

In your case I'd just use the credit when the properties you want become available. 

born_again

Adywheels said:

Hello 

So i tried to book an apartment for next year in France, the host immediately told me i have to cancel the request as they had not set the prices for that time period in 2024, i agreed and cancelled the booking.

AirBnB gave me 2 options.....
1- Have the payment i made of £550 returned to me credit card which takes 5-10days.....
2- Put the is £550 into AirBnB 'Credit' and use on another booking at any time...

I stupidly choose the credit as i had a few apartments saved and didn't want to wait 5-10 day to get a refund.
So i selected my second choice apartment but got the same answer that the host had not set the prices for 2024 & please cancel...

I then decided this was probably going to happen with all the apartments, so i'll take back my £550 and try again in a few months, I reached out to AirBnB to ask for that money back and they refused and sent me the T&C highlighting that once i had put any money into 'Credit' i could never withdraw it !!!!!   "But it's OK sir its valid for ever" they said !

So now i'm stuck with £550 in AirBnB's bank account and paying interest on my credit card for the pleasure

Where do i stand with this ?

I could ask my credit card company to claim the money back, but then i hear AirBnb will cancel my account !?!


 The T&C they sent me, to me it is a load of legal jargon which is don't fully understand 


Thanks in advance for any help 

 

On what basis? Given you agreed to a account credit.

Alderbank

The T&Cs you quote include:

“Booking Credit” is store credit awarded upon a Member’s Qualifying Cancellation. Booking Credit: (i) is non-refundable and non-transferable; (ii) is not cash, currency or a gift card product; and (iii) cannot be redeemed for cash except where required by law. You may not purchase or sell Booking Credit and Airbnb does not sell Booking Credit.

You say that this is 'a load of legal jargon which you don't fully understand'

Booking credit
   is non-refundable
   is not cash
   cannot be redeemed for cash

HillStreetBlues

TBH  I'm a bit puzzled at not wanting to waiting 5-10 days for refund on credit card unless credit card is maxed out.

Adywheels

Hello all and thanks for taking the time to reply.

You are all pointing out that "the t&c clearly state this is the case, and hindsight that's great.....

But whilst your using the app to make or cancel a booking there is no information about the fact you click on that 'credit' button your money is now AirBnB's forever, if there was I would not have selected this option.

I only knew about this couple of paragraphs in amongst the many pages of T&C once the chat agent sent it to me.

So what my actual question is, as this is misleading is there no law in the UK that gives you rights to claim back money within a certain period or something ?

If not, I thank you for your time and I will have to suck it up, and use the £550 on a place & once done not bother using Airbnb again as there seems to be a lot of other options now like Vrbo and Booking. com that offer the same apartments 

Thanks again

Adywheels

HillStreetBlues said:

TBH  I'm a bit puzzled at not wanting to waiting 5-10 days for refund on credit card unless credit card is maxed out.

yes it is maxed out, i had enough on the card to book and pay deposit for one apartment at the time, and as i have a few saved i didn't want to miss one of them. Then it turns out none were going to be available for another 3-4 months, so i wanted to money back on the card, so now i am paying interest to a credit card