Airbnb COVID 19 Refund Policy and Official Documentation
2 min readAirbnb COVID 19 Refund Policy and Official Documentation
Like millions out there, our travel plans for 2020 are affected by COVID 19 pandemic. Before the COVID 19 pandemic, we booked our stay with Airbnb for our trip to Japan. We postponed our stay with Airbnb to end of the year and we decided to call off the trip as our flight ticket is cancelled and there is no way we can travel to Japan in 2020 with the rise of COVID 19 cases in Malaysia.
We requested a refund for our Airbnb stay in Japan and you can use the Airbnb COVID 19 Refund Policy if your host’s cancellation policy do not cover full refund.
You can use the COVID 19 Refund policy if the booking is made before 14 March 2020 and full rules on that at https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2701/extenuating-circumstances-policy-and-the-coronavirus-covid19#:~:text=all%20service%20fees.-,Reservations%20for%20stays%20and%20Airbnb%20Experiences%20made%20on%20or%20before,policy%20will%20apply%20as%20usual.
To find out what your current cancellation and refund options are, go to cancel your reservation and choose My travel plans have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
You will always have these options:
- Refund according to your host’s cancellation policy
- Full cash refund by submitting official documentation for review
Since my host’s cancellation policy is only 50% refund, we have no choice but for full cash refund by submitting official documentation for review.
For the documentation requirements, you need to have screenshot of an official government site explaining restrictions that prevent travel from your location or to your destination.
The effective dates of the restriction must fall within 2 weeks of your check in date and travel advisories that do not prohibit travel are not sufficient.
You can upload multiple files to support your claim.
After more than an hour in finding the official statements and thanks to our friends especially from our PR friends, we managed to get some useful links, screenshot it and submitted to Airbnb.
Within 24 hours, Airbnb replied and gave us the full refund but it can take up to 15 business days for the funds to reach our account.
If you need these official statements, you can use the photos below.
If you plan to screenshot yourself, the links are at below:
- https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/09/12/immigration-dept-updates-travel-approval-list#:~:text=%E2%80%9CTravelling%20abroad%20for%20holidays%20and,not%20require%20permission%20to%20return
- https://www.malaysia.travel/alert
We hope the official documentation will be helpful for Malaysians who are trying to get their Airbnb COVID 19 Refund Policy.
We know we have been posting many travel posts, read first and travel when it is safe to do so. It will be very difficult to travel overseas in 2020 for Malaysians.
Due to the current rise of COVID 19 cases in Malaysia, please take care and be safe. Please take note on the risks if you are planning for Cuti Cuti Malaysia within this couple of weeks. Holiday can wait, be safe and take care.
