Maria Wainer should have been boarding a flight from Israel to Boston on Thursday to visit loved ones. Instead, another war had broken out, and she was locked in a protracted row with an Airbnb support agent.
She was trying to get a refund after canceling her reservation. The agent was sympathetic, yet unwilling.
“It tears me apart to know you are constantly threatened by the ongoing geopolitical conflict in your location right now. And I feel so bad that I still cannot help you with your full-refund request at the moment,” an Airbnb agent wrote in a message to Wainer on Thursday.
Israel’s airspace has been closed since February 28 after it and the US launched a joint attack on Iran, sparking retaliatory strikes across the region. Those strikes brought travel to a near-total halt, forcing stranded tourists to launch GoFundMe campaigns to afford extended stays.
It was in this climate that Wainer contacted her Airbnb host in Boston to cancel her trip before reaching out to the company about a refund, citing its Major Disruptive Events policy. The policy covers “military actions and other hostilities,” which includes bombings, acts of war, and explosions, among others. Wainer had paid about $800 for the room.
“Our Major Disruptive Events Policy is in effect for areas of the world impacted by issues covered under this policy, like military actions or closed airspaces,” an Airbnb spokesperson told Business Insider. “This means guests who have an eligible booking in one of those areas can cancel for a refund, and hosts can cancel without consequences. To be clear, this means the listing itself needs to be in the impacted area.”
So, even though she was unable to fly due to the conflict, since Wainer’s reservation was elsewhere, she didn’t qualify.
“For now, the only option there is for this reservation is a cancellation outside the policy,” the support agent told Wainer in messages viewed by Business Insider.
The company eventually offered her a partial refund. When Wainer asked why Airbnb couldn’t provide her with a full refund, the support agent said the policy “states that ‘guests can cancel their reservation and receive a refund.’ Please know that it does not state a ‘full refund’ clause. I hope you understand better now.”
Wainer, who said it was her first time booking with Airbnb, told Business Insider that the decision baffled her. “I said, ‘Well, it doesn’t say ‘partial refund’ either. If you don’t put in that adjective, you assume it’s full,” Wainer said.
Airbnb eventually gave Wainer a full refund after Business Insider contacted the company for comment.
Some travelers in the region who posted online also said they struggled to secure refunds from Airbnb over the past week.
On Tuesday, a Reddit user with a booking at an Airbnb in Abu Dhabi said they requested a refund under the Major Disruptive Events policy, but were told to refer to the host’s cancellation policy instead. An X user described a similar scenario on Wednesday.
Wainer’s advice for them: Be persistent.
“I really am into consumer rights. I’ll write letters if I feel like I’m not being treated fairly, and I figure it’s not just me,” Wainer said. “Maybe other people will just give up, but I don’t think they should have to.”
