cleaning tips and tools: Trip canceled due to COVID-19? 7 On Your Side offers tips on Airbnb refunds

6.29.2020

Trip canceled due to COVID-19? 7 On Your Side offers tips on Airbnb refunds

NEW YORK (WABC) - Airbnb refunded $ 1 billion to hosts and travelers who booked and canceled trips due to COVID-19. 7 However, On Your Side continues to receive complaints from travelers who cannot receive a refund

It was a Sigma Gamma Phi meeting for a group of 12 sisters who recently graduated from Oneonta College.

Danielle Grieco found the Rhode Island home to rent on Airbnb, collected the money from her 11 friends, and made the deposit for the Memorial Day weekend.

They paid $ 1,010, then the first warnings about the corona virus came.

"It was March, we thought May was fine, we'll wait, we waited until May 1st and then we said we had to withdraw this," said Grieco.

In May, the state of Rhode Island published clear rules for visitors who prohibited gatherings of more than five people, and the state imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine on travelers.

"I sent a message to Airbnb on May 1 and sent information to them on the Rhode Island website that the quarantine was no more than five people," said Grieco.

"Obviously the state of Rhode Island said it shouldn't come here ... and then Airbnb said it wasn't mitigating," said Greico's mother Sandra Grieco.
He got involved when the girls, most of them at school or on their first job, only got $ 104 or $ 9 each.

Airbnb's Mitigating Circumstances Policy allows full reimbursement if a member of the group has died, suffered an injury or illness, or has a government-imposed travel restriction.

The company continued to refuse its refund request and also charged cleaning fees.

"I was angry," said Sandra Grieco. "They had to pay a cleaning fee for a house they never went to, a $ 300 cleaning fee."

When the mother-daughter duo was unable to contact anyone on Airbnb, a lawyer sent a certified letter twice.

After receiving no response, they decided to ask 7 On Your Side for help.
Nearly two months after the rental was canceled, Grieco said he woke up one morning with several emails apologizing and offering him a full refund.

Airbnb apologized to Grieco and said that his response did not meet the high standards.

Some important things to keep in mind: Please read the rules of your rental agreement carefully, especially the cancellation clauses. If you need to cancel then collect the documentation to prove your case.

This may include letters from the doctor or screenshots from a state's website. And don't forget to be persistent.