I booked a stay through Air bnb in December. The holiday was due to take place at the end of march. On the 8th of march I decided that travel to the US was unsafe due to the COVID situation. We therefore cancelled the trip in the hope that I would be able to get a refund - quite understandably given the situation and that we were travelling with a my brother who is currently suffering with Lung cancer (the point of the trip really - a final family reunion as we have siblings in the US). 5 days later air bnb made the decision that anyone who had a booking after the 14th March could get a full refund for their stay if they wished to cancel. After contacting the Host he advised that a refund would be made available. I waited 1 month and nothing came through. I therefore contacted air bnb again and explained the situation. Amazingly they advised that because we cancelled before they announced the policy 5 days later that we would not be included in their refund policy even though it would have qualified. I explained the personal circumstances and tried to escalate the situation but was rejected at every point. The most upsetting thing was the lack of empathy shown by many of their representatives to not only the difficult COVID situation but also the the personal circumstances and the extremely high risk of someone with lung cancer travelling while there was a deadly infectious disease spreading across the world. Despite everything, I was left absolutely speechless when they gave up replying to my messages. Very sad indeed.