If you’re considering reserving with this property owner, please read about our experience with these people.
My wife and I needed to attend a funeral in Los Angeles because we had a devastating and unexpected death in our family. There was a miscommunication within our family and we reserved the Airbnb place a day too early. Thus, within 24 hours of our booking we contacted Winnie, the property owner, via the Airbnb website to explain our circumstances.
Rather than demonstrating compassion and human decency in a difficult period for our family, Winnie refused to offer us a full refund. Winnie’s representatives cited their “strict cancellation policy.” I attempted to call Winnie directly to ask for an exception to their policy given our extenuating circumstances of losing a loved one, but she rejected my call. Instead, she had her representatives contact me through Airbnb messaging.
Then, Winnie’s representatives disingenuously offered us a 50% refund provided we book another property they own. They actually tried to leverage a family dealing with a loss into giving them more money. Unfortunately, we obliged because we didn’t have any other options and we didn’t want to lose all of our $114 spent on the initial reservation.
After our stay was complete, Winnie had the audacity to message me asking for a 5 star review. That was the only time she personally messaged me. When I had tried to call her about our situation earlier, Winnie ignored me.
If you’re trying to decide between this place and another one, this is the tiebreaker: I wouldn’t book with a property owner that thinks money first and empathy last.