In a heartbreaking turn of events, a woman shares that she had to cancel her upcoming birthday Airbnb because her mom was dying from cancer.
The Airbnb host seemed compassionate, TikToker Andrea (@andrreamarriie) says. However, Andrea says that instead of granting her a refund because of the difficult situation, the person slyly kept the money.
In the TikTok, Andrea explains that her birthday falls on Halloween, and a few months back, she’d booked an Airbnb in downtown Dallas to celebrate her birthday weekend.
About two weeks before her Airbnb stay, Andrea says she found out that her mom, who has cancer, was admitted to the hospital on a Thursday. Normally, Andrea explains her mom gets admitted for a few days and then goes back home. But the weekend rolled around, and she says her mom was still hospitalized, and they weren’t getting good news from her doctors.
Given the situation, a week before her Airbnb stay, Andrea says she reached out to the host asking for a cancelation and full refund and explained the situation with her mom. She says she paid about $1,600 for the weekend booking.
“I’m please asking you to refund me. I’m sad I can’t celebrate my birthday, but I need to be with my mom with what time she has left,” Andrea told the host.
Andrea says the host seemed understanding and asked Andrea to reach out to Airbnb and that she’ll do “everything I can to assist in this matter.”
Andrea says she did reach out to Airbnb and had a pending cancelation request. But when the day of what would have been her check-in rolls around, she says she still got check-in instructions from Airbnb, meaning her reservation was never successfully canceled.
Meanwhile, Andrea says she dealt with this while her mom was in hospice care.
As it turns out, Andrea says she found out the host didn’t accept the cancelation and even wrote Andrea a review for her stay. This is all backed up with screenshots.
“She’s basically taking all my money from me, knowing that my mom is about to pass away. So this is just a complete and utter nightmare. Especially having to deal with this with my sick mom,” Andrea says.
@andrreamarriie I cant believe the host did this to me #greenscreen #airbnb #airbnbhost #cancer #grief @airbnb ♬ original sound – Andrea
The video has over 115,000 views and over 700 comments. “I cant believe the host did this to me,” she wrote in the caption.
Commenters were upset on Andrea’s behalf.
“So she basically held onto the reservation in hopes to keep the money? If she cancelled on her end she could’ve rebooked it,” a top comment pointed out.
“Some air bnb hosts are so shady. I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” a person said.
“This is so low and evil I’m so sorry,” another wrote.
Others suggested that Andrea would have better luck disputing the charge with her credit card company.
“I had the same thing happen to me with a beach trip before my mom got diagnosed. I called my credit card company and explained to them what happened,” a commenter shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Andrea for comment via Instagram and to Airbnb via email.
Update 8:12am CT Nov. 6: An Airbnb representative shared via email that the Airbnb team is in touch with Andrea “to provide additional support.”
While the company has an Extenuating Circumstances Policy, it only includes changes to government travel requirements, declared emergencies and epidemics, government travel restrictions, military actions and other hostilities, and natural disasters.
The death of a family member is not covered under this policy or Airbnb’s travel insurance policy provided by Generali.