If Airbnb is not taking your complaint seriously, there is a legal option that can get you a fair resolution to your dispute.
Have you booked a reservation with AirBnB or are looking at one now but you can’t quite tell what all the charges are? Maybe you’ve paid for multiple bookings but now something is different. To help you understand what you are paying for, we’ve put together an explanation of AirBnB fees.
You are charged either immediately for this grand total of everything mentioned below if you are using an instant booking or you are charged only after the host accepts the reservation. When you look at a reservation using AirBnb, it will show you a few things like:
Let’s look at those in more detail:
Cost per night
This is the cost of the room per night of your stay which is set by the host. Some hosts are more flexible than others and will provide you with discounts if you booked for a longer stay. All of this is easily noted on the page for the reservation before you book.
Cleaning Fee
This is set by the host, and they can choose to apply it or not. This is often to cover the cost of cleaning the space, whether they are buying materials and cleaning themselves, or they hire a service.
Service fee
This is determined by AirBnB. You are charged a service fee to, accordingly to their help center, help them offer 24/7 community support and keep the operations smooth. It ranges between 5% and 15% of your total booking.
Extra guest fee
Sometimes hosts will put a limit on the number of people who can use a space, the same as hotels assume a booking has 2 adults. If you bring more than that limit, like a hotel, they may allow it but charge you an extra fee for each person above and beyond the limit.
VAT and/or Local Taxes
If you live in an area that applies value out attacks, such as Europe or Asia, this is a tax that will be charged to you as a guest. Local taxes might also be charged depending on the location of the listing.
Security deposit
Some reservations may require a security deposit which is above and beyond the booking fee for the room. This security deposit can be put into place by either the host or AirBnb. 2 days before your stay, if Airbnb requires the security deposit, they put an authorized hold on the amount in question. They don’t actually take it out of your account and they’ll release it 14 days after you check out assuming there was no damage. This is a requirement and if they are unable to authorize the hold and you don’t get a hold of them, they’ll cancel the reservation. If the host requires it, they will tell you beforehand and this is different in that they don’t place an authorization on your card but they charge you if there was damage during your stay. Hosts are required to use the resolution center within 14 days of your departure and document the damage in question.
If there is an issue and damage was caused during your stay, the claims for the security deposit work the same way whether it was Airbnb or the host that put it into place. Evidence has to be submitted within 14 days to the appropriate department to substantiate the claim.
Technically you can try and refute these fees with Airbnb. Regardless of who filed the claim, they have to send you an email informing you of what happened with the evidence that was presented against you and if you have any evidence to the contrary you can submit it.
Now let’s look at some of the other fees you might see to better understand what you’re paying for when you use Airbnb.
According to AirBnB, some hosts can set up a cancellation fee. In fact, hosts have the ability to set up varying degrees of refund and cancellation policies for their individual properties. If you book a reservation for a property that has a flexible plan and allows you to cancel up to 14 days prior to the booking date and you cancel it 13 days out, for example, you will be charged whatever the cancellation fee is to whatever card you have on file.
Beyond these items the only thing you need to be aware of as a temporary authorization which can be applied to your card on file during the situations mentioned above such as a security deposit or certain bookings. However, if the host cancels or doesn’t approve the booking, you aren’t charged and the hold is released. However, that doesn’t mean that the money necessarily gets right back into your account because this part is contingent upon your bank and whether the bank determines authorizations or pending transactions as charges or not. That said it could take a couple of weeks for the money to be released back into your account.
If you were incorrectly charged a fee and you have already tried to fix it with Airbnb customer service and they haven’t been able to help you, you have two options.
The first option is to use small claims court. If you go with this option you need to make sure that your case qualifies. Most small claims courts have a minimum and maximum amount for monetary damages that hover between $5,000 and $10,000. So in some cases your situation might not apply because the amount in questions is too little or too high.
That doesn’t mean however that you have no options. The second option is to use consumer arbitration. When you use consumer arbitration you have a lot more flexibility as to what qualifies and it’s often a much faster and easier way for a quick resolution when you are incorrectly charged a fee with Airbnb.
The Ultimate Guide to Consumer Complaints
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