when I had first booked this trip, henry was really sweet and quick to respond. however, about a week before our trip, we decided to cancel due to the increase in omicron cases. it was the last day we were able to cancel for a 50% refund, and i had messaged henry a little before 1 pm pst apologizing for the last minute cancellation - when we had booked the airbnb originally, the omicron variant didn’t exist and i wanted to let him know personally why we decided to cancel and apologize that it was so last minute. we felt it was safer for us to stay home to protect my high risk mother and pregnant sister in law due to how contagious this variant was. when i had tried to cancel, it only showed a refund for my cleaning fee. confused, i thought i would come back to it later and try again. around 2:20 pm pst i saw the same thing, and i had messaged henry asking why we only saw the cleaning fee if we were able to cancel by 3 pm. i realized that it meant 3 pm est - i missed it by 57 minutes originally. the one hour response time went out the window as henry responded the next day at 5 am pst, mentioning that our reasoning didn’t qualify for a refund according to the airbnb strict cancellation policy. we understood and i messaged that we’d think about it, but asked him later that day around 4 pm pst if we could reschedule instead to a later date because we wanted to go to new york and stay with him still, just at a later time when it was safer to do so. he responded the following day around 4 am pst with a message about the check in process to our airbnb for our trip the following week. i asked him again about rescheduling but he said that he couldn’t do any refunds or rescheduling since it was less than five days before our trip. confused, i told him that i had inquired about a rescheduling 5 days before the trip, and he responded with a “correction” that his policy for cancellations or rescheduling must occur at least 14 days before check in, even though we searched all over the listing for a rescheduling policy and we couldn't find one anywhere. because of this, we decided to go since we paid so much for the airbnb, but two nights before our flight we found out that my brother was in close contact with someone who had tested positive. i contacted airbnb support as well as henry asking for a reschedule due to the circumstances, and henry told me that according to the airbnb company policy, this is not covered for rescheduling or refunds. however, when airbnb support got back to me, they told me that it is actually up to henry’s discretion when it comes to refunds or rescheduling. essentially, henry could have refunded us still after we had missed it by less than an hour per east coast time, or rescheduled our dates to a later time. because we weren’t able to receive any refund, no rescheduled dates, and didn’t go on the trip because brothers’ test results weren’t back, we felt the next best thing was to leave a review to let others know in case they might be put in a similar position as us. with that being said, i’m sure he has a wonderful place to stay at and is a great host if he knows you are for sure going - not only that but the location is phenomenal. but if you are traveling at a time during the pandemic with uncertainty and are looking for an understanding and accommodating host, we don’t think this apartment is the place to choose.