Airbnb’s Commitment to Guests

Beginning December 15, if a guest checks into a listing that does not meet Airbnb’s accuracy standards, we will rebook the guest to a new listing of equal or greater value, or offer 100% of their money back. Today’s announcement comes after Airbnb CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky announced the new Guest Guarantee initiative in November as part of a series of significant steps the company would take to update trust and safety protocols. 

We’re making good on the Guest Guarantee commitment by updating our Guest Refund Policy. Under our updated policy, if a guest reports a qualifying travel issue up to 24 hours after check-in, Airbnb will either provide a full refund or a comparable or better accommodation. For any other eligible issue that comes up later during a stay, Airbnb will partially refund or rebook guests depending on the nature of the issue. Qualifying travel issues will generally fall into the following categories:

• Host is non-committal or unresponsive. The host cancels the reservation during your trip, or they’re unresponsive or unable to resolve an issue at check-in.
• Place is not safe or clean upon arrival. The state of the space at time of check-in poses an immediate health or safety risk, requires a professional service to address the issue, or appears to have not been cleaned in between guests.
• Listing description was inaccurate. Critical features that were described to you at the time of booking are flawed or not available.
• Key amenities are missing. Amenities that were the central focus of the listing are missing, making the purpose of the stay impossible. 

“We are deeply appreciative of the feedback and collaboration we’ve had with stakeholders as we improve these policies,” said Margaret Richardson, Airbnb’s VP of Trust. “Senator Wyden of Oregon, where Airbnb’s North American Operational Headquarters are located, reached out to us to voice concerns last month, and those conversations helped inspire these new commitments to our guests.” 

In addition to updating the Guest Refund Policy and Airbnb help center web pages, Airbnb has deployed new training materials, including new workflows, training videos and written guidance to all  customer services agents that focus on increasing responsiveness and expediting guest claims.  

“I reached out to Airbnb after reading about some disturbing incidents of customers in bad situations. To the company’s credit, it listened to its customers, took my feedback seriously and is taking steps to do better,” said US Senator Ron Wyden (D- OR). “Every company in the tech and travel businesses should follow suit and offer its customers these kinds of basic protections.”

In addition to serving as North America’s Operational Headquarters Airbnb’s, Portland office employs more than 500 Oregonians that serve teams across the company. 

Claims should be made on our regular contact channel or via the Airbnb app during check-in or as soon as an issue is detected if it comes up during a stay. Airbnb will require documentation to make reasonable attempts to remedy the situation. More information and details about the requirements for submitting a claim are available at: Guest Refund Policy and in our new Help Center article.