Airbnb policies, generally speaking, do not favor guests. When it comes to canceling a reservation past a certain date, there are few accepted reasons that ultimately result in a full refund. In fact, just this past weekend, I saw a thread in which a guest detailed how a refund request was allegedly denied by Airbnb despite the rented house having no running water upon arrival.
I’m sure there are people out there who would argue that a lack of running water at your rental property is not an emergency, and that Airbnb was actually well within its rights to deny the cancellation. However, I’m sure we can all agree that the wildfires that are currently raging in the Los Angeles area are, unequivocally, an emergency, yes?
Not Airbnb, apparently.
“Thank you Airbnb,” X user Ana Mostarac posted to the platform early Wednesday morning, alongside a screenshot of a customer service rep explaining that Mostarac’s situation — seeking a refund and new booking at a rental farther away from the wildfires — was not covered by Airbnb’s Major Disruptive Events Policy.
“To clarify, I called Airbnb to request help with rebooking accommodations farther from the danger zone,” she later added. “As always, their policies failed to account for context. The fires keep getting worse, and unfortunately, many others are probably stuck explaining bushfires to someone in another country right about now.”
Airbnb has since responded to Mostarac’s complaint, which has over 109,000 likes on X at the time of writing, by issuing a full refund, according to the New York Post. An Airbnb spokeswoman also told the outlet that the refund was initially refused because Mostarac allegedly booked the rental on the evening of January 7 after the fires had started.
Unsurprisingly, dozens of users flocked to X to condemn Airbnb after the initial post. “I had a similar experience when hurricane Helene hit,” said one user. “You could turn on the news and see it rolling in. My property had no power or internet and had to tell the guest ‘good luck.’ The Airbnb staff said ‘we have to wait for (X person) to approve that this is a covered event’ before taking any action.”
In the natural disasters section of Airbnb’s Major Disruptive Events Policy, the company notes that “[n]atural disasters and other severe weather events are covered.” But it makes this caveat: “Weather or natural conditions that are common enough to be foreseeable in a given location — for example, hurricanes occurring during hurricane season in Florida — are covered only when they result in another Event covered by this Policy that prevents completion of the reservation, such as a mandatory evacuation order or large-scale outage of essential utilities.”
By all accounts, what is currently happening in Southern California should qualify, full stop. And according to The U.S. Sun, Airbnb told the outlet that this policy “is in effect for areas impacted by the wildfire.”
At the time of writing, the Palisades Fire has burned 11,000 acres and forced at least 30,000 people to evacuate, according to The Washington Post. The Eaton Fire has burned 10,600 acres, prompting evacuation orders for another 52,000 residents. Two civilians have reportedly died.
More Like This
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
