Airbnb host refuses to refund mum after holiday cancelled by Hurricane Milton --[Reported by Umva mag]

A Georgia mom has taken to TikTok to express her frustration with an Airbnb host who refused to give her a refund for her family’s stay to Florida’s coveted Ameila Island – even as Hurricane Milton was about to sweep the state.

Kaitlynn Thayer, 33, who is mother to five children said she booked the trip in June and ‘could not wrap her head around’ the host’s ‘lack of empathy and humanity,’ over their refusal to give her a refund.

The trip was set to begin on the same day Milton was due to hit the state, with weather outlets predicting torrential rains and winds of up to 160 miles per hour, which prompted Thayer to ask the host to push the trip ‘out a few days.’

She claimed she wanted to ensure the host’s house had power and that the Georgia-based family would not be using resources set aside for those affected by the storm.

The mum-of-five said she contacted the host in the days before their trip but felt the host ‘was trying to ignore the situation’ entirely.

Instead, she was told the trip could be moved to a different date after the storm but the Thayer’s family’s arrangement made the plan impossible to deal with.

Thayer said that she has three biological children and two foster children who require extensive and ‘hard to get’ paperwork in order to cross state lines, which she would have been unable to do on such short notice.

She contacted Airbnb who told her if the host is unwilling to refund the trip ‘there is nothing we can do.’

‘I just feel like that is super tough,’ she said.

‘We are not the only people I know this is happening to right now. We are staying safe, we are keeping our children safe, we’re being responsible foster parents and at the same time trying not pay for a vacation we are not taking,’ she added. 

The day after Thayer’s now-viral complaint video, she posted an update stating ‘the host was not willing to refund or compromise’ but due to a state-issued evacuation order Airbnb policies required a full refund to be granted.

Thayer and her husband, David, 38, said they were ‘very thankful’ for Airbnb’s Escalations Team who told them about the refund. 

Airbnb has a Major Disruptive Events policy.

When asked about the policy an Airbnb representative told Mailonline: ‘To support our community, our Major Disruptive Events policy is currently in effect for impacted areas of Florida, such as those experiencing government travel restrictions or large-scale utility outages. 

‘This policy means hosts can cancel eligible stays without consequences, and guests who have an eligible booking can cancel for a refund.’

The policy also allows a host to cancel a trip without fees or other adverse consequences. It also states that if a reservation is canceled the host does not receive a payout for the canceled dates of the reservation, or, if the payout has already been made, the refunded amount will be withheld from the next payout.

Homes along the coast of the Sunshine State are now in ruins as neighborhoods have been left drowning in storm surge.

Streets are full of debris and devastated by downpours, with as much as two inches accumulating every hour.

The US National Hurricane Center described the Category 3 hurricane ‘dangerous’ and ‘catastrophic’ after it hit sustained winds of 160 miles per hour when it made landfall late Wednesday evening.

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