In recent days, short-term renters with reservations on Hilton Head Island had to make a choice: weather the storm or leave their rentals for all or part of their trip. This decision is being forced by the arrival of one unwanted intruder, Tropical Storm Debby. Guests looking for a refund have a complicated path to seeing any refund for the days not used.
Some families, like the Gesks from Pittsburgh, PA, stuck it out on the beaches Tuesday, making the most of the gray skies by building sandcastles while wearing rain-drenched clothes. Others have decided to flee the island, fearing the worst.
Short-term rental owners and operators also face a complicated choice: should renters get their money back if they cancel their trips because of tropical storms?
What is Airbnb’s policy?
According to the Town of Hilton Head dashboard, as of June 6, there were 6,700 short-term rental properties on the island. Thousands of these properties are Airbnbs.
According to Airbnb’s community policy page, the general rule of thumb is that renters should follow the individual host’s cancellation policy. Hosts are able to set their own cancellation policies, and can make them as strict or flexible as they see fit. Some hosts on the island allow renters to cancel their stay up to 48 hours in advance. Other hosts have completely non-refundable policies in place.
If a large-scale event, like a hurricane, “prevents or legally prohibits” guests from staying in the rental, Airbnb’s Major Disruptive Events Policy will likely trump hosts’ policies. Guests can, for the most part, cancel their reservation and receive a refund or travel credit. Hosts could also cancel guests from arriving without fees or consequences, but their home’s listing will be blocked on the rental calendar for the remainder of the reservation window.
When it comes to natural disasters like Tropical Storm Debby the policy becomes a bit more complicated. The policy does not include inclement weather that is “common enough to be foreseeable in a given location,” unless the storm causes another major event, like large-scale outages or mandatory evacuation orders. So far, there have only been incremental power outages and no mandatory calls for evacuation in Beaufort county. The Airbnb website also says that South Carolina is likely to face tropical storms, cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons from June through November.
Renters can also purchase travel insurance, which allows up to 100% reimbursement if they need to cancel their trip for any of the “covered reasons.” There are exceptions to the rule including renters who would not be reimbursed for events that have already happened or are predictable (for example, if a hurricane was already named).
What do the hosts think?
Chaz Holden, a Hilton Head resident, has been renting out his short-term rental property for three months on the island. In response to Tropical Storm Debby, he experienced his first round of cancellations since becoming an Airbnb host.
Holden has a strict cancellation policy for his rental property, but he felt reimbursing his guests for this washout week was the right thing to do. One of his guests booked their trip three months ago, so they could not have predicted Tropical Storm Debby’s trek, he said.
“It was out of my control, and I would never force them to not have a refund even though my cancellation policy says so. That’s just not right,” Holden said.
Two separate groups canceled their stays for his property, and Holden lost out on approximately $1,400, he said. For short-term rental hosts on the island, he said, “it’s kind of the cost of doing business.”
Alex St. Martin lives in southwest Atlanta, but has owned and helped manage several properties on Hilton Head since 2017. After getting through Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Matthew, she understands that getting through storm season comes with the territory of hosting on the South Carolina coast.
If short-term operators were to refund everyone who does not want to take their vacation last minute because of bad weather, she said, it could become a very slippery slope.
In recent years, St. Martin said, short-term rental companies like Airbnb and VRBO have gotten much less host-friendly. Because they have so many hosts on their platforms, she said, the companies do not have to worry about “keeping us happy like they used to.” She said that Airbnb often pushes hosts to do things that are “not in their best business interest,” which ultimately hurts “small, family-owned Mom-and-Pop” kind of operations.
Even if hosts have strict cancellation policies in place, guests can call Airbnb to ask for a refund. She said that Airbnb then “pressure” operators to be “a good host” and provide the refund. St. Martin believes that this makes Airbnb look like a better renting option for guests, but doesn’t do anything to support hosts.
“When you have a mortgage to pay and you have taxes and insurance… you can’t just give everybody a refund because it’s going to rain,” she said. The end of the busy season, coupled with cancellations from Tropical Storm Debby, can have a “devastating” effect she said, leaving operators thousands of dollars under below expected revenues from the rental properties.
A representative for Airbnb declined to comment on the record for this story.
