How To Get an Airbnb Service Fee Refund—A Quick and Convenient Guide

Airbnb is one of the most popular vacation rental online marketplaces in America, with over 600,000 listed spaces. With millions of guests making bookings, it’s expected that some will cancel their reservations for different reasons. While Airbnb does allow refunds, getting a refund for service fees can be tricky. DoNotPay knows how to deal with tricky refunds, and we can help you get your money back pronto. We’ll provide you with a helpful guide to get you your service fee refund one way or another.

How To Ask for an Airbnb Service Fee Refund by Yourself

After you cancel a booking, you should receive an automatic refund for the full cost, including the service fee. Since the host chooses their own cancellation policy, you might not always get an automatic refund for service fees.

Airbnb will review your case if you cancel because there’s something preventing you from reaching your booked location.

How To Request an Airbnb Service Fee Refund via Phone

If you haven’t received your refund within the designated time frame, you should contact Airbnb to make a compensation request. Here’s how you do it:

1. Dial (855) 424-7262
2. Ask to speak to a representative
3. Request a refund for your booking
4. Provide sufficient identification and proof of extenuating circumstances if necessary

Here are the different methods you can use to get your refund:

What Is the Airbnb Refund Policy?

The Airbnb refund policy is straightforward. If your accommodation wasn’t safe or as advertised, or if you canceled your booking on time, you will be able to receive a refund.

When it comes to service fees, refunds are a bit harder to negotiate.

The host can choose their cancellation policy, which the guests have to follow if they want to get their full refunds. If you don’t cancel during the host’s chosen timeframe, you’re out of luck.

Hosts can choose between six policies, some of which are stricter than others. Here are the policies:

• Flexible
• Moderate
• Strict
• Long-term
• Super Strict 30 days
• Super Strict 60 days

Depending on the policy, you might have to cancel your reservation way ahead of your scheduled stay to get a service fee refund. If the host chooses one of the Super Strict policies, you won’t be able to get a refund for service fees.

Keep in mind that you can only request a service fee refund thrice a year. If you’ve received three in the past 12 months, you are ineligible for the refund.

Here are the deadlines for cancellations if you want to get your service fee refund:

The default time for check-ins is 3 PM local. If the host specifies otherwise, use the provided time as the baseline to figure out when you have to cancel.

Requesting a Refund for Extenuating Circumstances

Airbnb will waive its policy in extreme situations, such as:

• Death of the hosts, guests, or immediate family members
• Unexpected illnesses or injuries
• Government-mandated obligations
• Property damage in the Airbnb apartment or home
• Transportation issues and cancellations with no available alternatives

The guest will have to provide proof for the above circumstances to receive a refund for the booking and service fees. For the death of a guest, host, or close family member, you must provide any of the following:

• Death certificate
• Obituary
• Police report

Airbnb will most likely grant a refund to the guest impacted by extenuating circumstances, even if the guest doesn’t fulfill the criteria for a timely cancellation.

You must submit a refund claim within 14 days of canceling your booking to qualify for this kind of refund.

How Long Before I Get My Service Fee Refund?

The refund should show up a few days after you cancel your booking, though the company says that it could take up to two weeks in some scenarios. If you live in Brazil or India, it might take a while before the refund reaches you.

Use DoNotPay To Get Your Money Back Quick

Negotiating your service fee refund with Airbnb and hosts can be a hassle. Between the Airbnb policy and the hosts, you might have to spend some time on the phone before you resolve the issue. Assuming you get to this point, there’s no guarantee that you will receive your refund even after negotiating.

DoNotPay might come in handy in this situation. You can get a quicker resolution using our handy app. Here’s how you can get your money back using our app:

1. Open DoNotPay in your web browser
2. Locate the Chargeback Quickly tab, and press Get Protected
3. Fill out the necessary details about the charge and merchant in question
4. Add your digital signature and let DoNotPay work its magic

Our app will fax the chargeback request to your bank. It will include Visa and Mastercard codes that can be helpful to your case, as requested by the Fair Credit Billing Act. If you want a more slam-shut case, you can let our app contact the merchant to confirm that you tried to request a refund on your own. It’s going to bolster your chances with the chargeback request.

Will the Refund Be Credited to the Same Form of Payment I Used for the Booking?

Yes, you will be refunded through the same payment method that was used when making the reservation.

DoNotPay Can Help You With Other Day-To-Day Tasks Too

Getting refunds is just one of the many features DoNotPay offers. Our handy AI Consumer Champion app has a few more tricks up its sleeve. If you want to cancel Transunion or NordVPN but don’t want to go through the hassle of talking to customer support, DoNotPay can take care of it in a jiffy.

Want to learn more about your airline passenger rights? We can give you some pointers. They can come in handy when you decide to claim compensation for delayed or canceled flights.

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