Homeaway chargeback

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
b_javea
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:38 pm
Location: Javea, Spain

Homeaway chargeback

Post by b_javea »

We’ve just had an email from Holiday Rent Payments who (those that use HA) used to be the Homeaway payment provider until late last year (I think).

Anyway, they say a guest that had booked for 18 July at our villa has issued a chargeback via their credit card company saying “no service was available”. Thing is, they decided not to pay the final 50% balance back in April, saying they didn’t want to travel anyway. I went into great detail exposing our t&c’s (“no refunds on cancellations”) and that she would not get her deposit back. She seemed to accept this...

So now I have to provide proof to Holiday Rent Payment about why I dispute the chargeback.

Of course it’s fairly clear cut - she cancelled the booking, not us, she could have stayed that week with no Spain (villa location) or uk restrictions (where guest lives).... and 3 months before their holiday she decided to cancel as there were a few elderly people in her group.

Now she’s trying the chargeback route.

Anyone had experience with this?

I feel as it’s via a third party provider (or fourth party if you include homeaway) they will make little effort to fight this on my behalf......
dixeady
Posts: 31
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:52 pm
Location: Almunecar, Granada, Spain
Contact:

Post by dixeady »

HomeAway Strict Cancellation policy - quoted below.

'Holidaymakers who cancel at least 60 days before check-in will get back 100% of the amount that they've paid. If they cancel after that point, they will not get a refund'.

I don't understand why they didn't just get their money back, if they did the cancellation? Around April/May, I wrote to anyone booked for mid-summer (HA), coming from different countries to Spain, advising them to cancel and get a full refund (citing Covid), so that I could clear the calendar for local Spanish guests. In the end, it hasn't helped me much as even the Spanish are cancelling! But it should have been a straightforward process.
b_javea
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:38 pm
Location: Javea, Spain

Post by b_javea »

dixeady wrote:HomeAway Strict Cancellation policy - quoted below.

'Holidaymakers who cancel at least 60 days before check-in will get back 100% of the amount that they've paid. If they cancel after that point, they will not get a refund'.

I don't understand why they didn't just get their money back, if they did the cancellation? Around April/May, I wrote to anyone booked for mid-summer (HA), coming from different countries to Spain, advising them to cancel and get a full refund (citing Covid), so that I could clear the calendar for local Spanish guests. In the end, it hasn't helped me much as even the Spanish are cancelling! But it should have been a straightforward process.

Because that’s not my cancellation policy, that’s why.
SPJ
Posts: 468
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:01 am
Location: Aquitaine
Contact:

Post by SPJ »

b_javea wrote:
Because that’s not my cancellation policy, that’s why.
In that case I think you will have to come off HomeAway. Or at least find ways of arranging bookings other than through their platform. Unfortunately these days they have the final say. That's what we sign up to, those of us who are still on it.
b_javea
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:38 pm
Location: Javea, Spain

Post by b_javea »

SPJ wrote:
b_javea wrote:
Because that’s not my cancellation policy, that’s why.
In that case I think you will have to come off HomeAway. Or at least find ways of arranging bookings other than through their platform. Unfortunately these days they have the final say. That's what we sign up to, those of us who are still on it.
Yes I only use as a shop window and accept only a couple of bookings now a year from them. However, you’re missing the point.... I’m interested in anyone that has been through the chargeback with HomeAway....
User avatar
bornintheuk
Posts: 538
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2011 11:18 am
Location: Southern Charente

Post by bornintheuk »

I think you are missing the point.

Irrespective of your cancellation policies it clearly states on the HA website that " an owners cancellation policy should not be different to that of the HA site" - I paraphrase.

So in the fact that you advertise on their site you are breaking their rules, whether you like it or not.
What would Plato do ?
Sunbeam
Posts: 198
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2015 5:24 pm
Location: Spain

Post by Sunbeam »

From what I have understood from HomeAway - the owner sets the cancellation policy and any recommendation about an owner being flexible on their cancellation policy (due to covid) was a suggestion only.

HomeAway said they would reward owners who were flexible (with the equivalent of a five star rating to boost where they appear in ranking).
Post Reply