AirBnB credit

Alderbank

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.

Indeed, especially since that is fairly standard script from call handlers to allow for any slight delay in processing.
I've been told that many times with the actual refund in my bank almost at once.

Alderbank

Adywheels said:

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

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... 

It's an important part of consumer contract law that all the T&Cs must be available to you before you make the contract. Any contract terms which are only revealed after you have agreed are considered Unfair Contract Terms and can be ignored.

Before you confirmed to take booking credit, was there a link anywhere where you could have viewed the T&Cs?

You said the terms were a load of legal jargon which you don't fully understand

T&Cs have to be written in clear English. Again, if they are in legal jargon they can be considered Unfair Contract Terms.

However the terms I quoted above look pretty clear to me.

HillStreetBlues

Alderbank said:

Adywheels said:

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

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... 

It's an important part of consumer contract law that all the T&Cs must be available to you before you make the contract. Any contract terms which are only revealed after you have agreed are considered Unfair Contract Terms and can be ignored.

Before you confirmed to take booking credit, was there a link anywhere where you could have viewed the T&Cs?

You said the terms were a load of legal jargon which you don't fully understand

T&Cs have to be written in clear English. Again, if they are in legal jargon they can be considered Unfair Contract Terms.

However the terms I quoted above look pretty clear to me.

Wouldn't them being on-line be classed as being available to you before you make the contract? Does there need to be a link?

Alderbank

Original case law was hiring deckchairs on the beach and only being able to  see T&Cs once you had paid and could read them on the back of the ticket.
Resolved by printing them on a poster on display in the kiosk where you could read them at the point of sale. Saying 'T&Cs can be viewed in the Town Hall' would have been too remote from point of sale.
I don't know of any website case law but I suspect that saying afterwards they could have been found somewhere by Googling would be too remote.

HillStreetBlues

Alderbank said:

Original case law was hiring deckchairs on the beach and only being able to  see T&Cs once you had paid and could read them on the back of the ticket.
Resolved by printing them on a poster on display in the kiosk where you could read them at the point of sale. Saying 'T&Cs can be viewed in the Town Hall' would have been too remote from point of sale.
I don't know of any website case law but I suspect that saying afterwards they could have been found somewhere by Googling would be too remote.

I don't think the town hall is a good analogy, as the terms can be found on their website, the same site where the refund occurred.

A better one would be the T&Cs were on the beach, but were they close enough to the deckchairs?

user1977

HillStreetBlues said:

Alderbank said:

Original case law was hiring deckchairs on the beach and only being able to  see T&Cs once you had paid and could read them on the back of the ticket.
Resolved by printing them on a poster on display in the kiosk where you could read them at the point of sale. Saying 'T&Cs can be viewed in the Town Hall' would have been too remote from point of sale.
I don't know of any website case law but I suspect that saying afterwards they could have been found somewhere by Googling would be too remote.

I don't think the town hall is a good analogy, as the terms can be found on their website, the same site where the refund occurred.

A better one would be the T&Cs were on the beach, but were they close enough to the deckchairs?

Though to confuse matters, note that you're contracting with an Irish company under Irish law - unless your local laws give you better protection than whatever Irish law says:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2908#EU22

"If you are acting as a consumer and if mandatory statutory consumer protection regulations in your country of residence contain provisions that are more beneficial for you, such provisions shall apply irrespective of the choice of Irish law. As a consumer, you may bring any judicial proceedings relating to these Terms before the competent court of your place of residence or the competent court of Airbnb's place of business in Ireland. If Airbnb wishes to enforce any of its rights against you as a consumer, we may do so only in the courts of the jurisdiction in which you are a resident. "

apcd2

Adywheels said:

the host immediately told me i have to cancel the request as they had not set the prices for that time period in 2024
 

It's no help to you now unfortunately but worth knowing that airbnb will only let you cancel a certain number of reservations in a certain period of time before they stop offering you fully refundable bookings. I fell foul of that rule during covid when it was necessary to change plans constantly. All of a sudden I was asked to pay a fee when I tried to cancel a reservation which had been fully refundable when it was booked. Fortunately airbnb made a goodwill gesture and allowed me to cancel.

If a host is unwilling to honour a booking for whatever reason you should politely request that they cancel the booking at their end. They probably won't like it since they may face a penalty from airbnb but if they're too lazy to block out future dates they don't want bookings for yet then it's only fair and it leaves you with cancellations 'in the bank' should you need them in future. Airbnb's own host cancellation policy makes it clear that hosts should not encourage guests to cancel in such circumstances.