Airbnb Refused to refund service fees San Francisco California
BEWARE of Airbnb cancellation policy regarding refund of service fees. I had to cancel 6 Airbnb reservations in September, 2021 due to the forest fire emergencies throughout California. Our planned route to access Airbnb locations were closed by a declaration of Emergency by Gov. Newsom and official closures of certain National Parks by the National Park Service. Each of our 6 confirmed reservations stated "Cancel before 3:00PM on Sept XX and get a full refund.
After that, cancel by 3:00PM on Sept XY and get a full refund, minus the first night and service fee." I cancelled each of the reservations before the cutoff date and received a full refund (including service fees) for the first 3 reservations. Airbnb refused to refund the service fees for the other 3 reservations stating that those refunds were limited to 3 per year. There was no reference to this restriction or policy in any of the 6 confirmed reservations.
I then asked for a refund under Extenuating Circumstances and again was refused when they stated that "Extenuating Circumstances Policy do not cover road closures which are used to access listings."