Tourism nixed by coronavirus: Airbnb got it right. Hotels.com didn't.

This is a tale of three websites, one that lightened the stress of Italy's coronavirus lockdown and two that screwed up.

As the Italian government focuses on the health of its citizens while it deals with the severe coronavirus outbreak, tourists who can no longer enter the confined country need to cancel their trips. While not a contagious and potentially-deadly disease, the process can cause headaches of its own.

My husband and I were set for a multi-city trip to Italy this month, flying Delta and staying at accommodations booked on Airbnb and Hotels.com. In late February, as the news of coronavirus' spread trickled in, we held steady, as we weren't planning to travel to the affected region in the north. For a fleeting moment, I imagined going to Italy and blissfully not dealing with crowds. Fast forward to this week and that daydream turned rotten. On Monday, all of Italy was put under lockdown by the government through April 3. Travel both inside and outside the country would be severely restricted as the case count jumped above 10,000.

By Tuesday, Delta had canceled all flights to Italy. It was time to get our money back.

While we easily booked everything online, unraveling our reservations online was maddening — minus one bright spot, Airbnb. (To be clear, my fight for refunds is nothing compared to the rising death toll of more than 4,600 people. Yet, I'm not alone in being frustrated and confused by travel issues right now.) Here's how my irritating journey unfolded.

This is what the normally crowded colosseum looked like during the coronavirus clampdown on March 11, 2020. Credit: Andrea Pirri / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Hotels.com: Not on us

We had booked a five-night stay at a boutique hotel in Rome on Hotels.com, that was, unfortunately, non-refundable. Surely, I thought, Hotels.com wouldn't hold us to that since we couldn't get into the country? From what I could discern from the website, however, we seemed to be out of luck.

When I clicked to cancel my reservation, I was informed I wouldn't get any money back because of the hotel's policy, and I may even be charged a fee for canceling at all. After some googling, I found the company's number (inconveniently absent from the website) and called in a huff. I waited on hold for more than an hour. A customer services agent told me it'd be up to the hotel to offer the refund and since it was 4 a.m. in Italy, another team member would call on my behalf during business hours to inquire. I'd get an email in 24 hours about the hotel's decision. At that point, it seemed like we may not get a refund.

I was worried my case would get lost in the onslaught of coronavirus-related calls, so I emailed the hotel asking for help. A few hours later, a hotel representative responded that they'd be happy to give me a refund, but that was actually up to Hotels.com. "Please contact Hotels.com for more information," they wrote.

Ahhhhh!

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By 10 p.m. that evening, I still hadn't gotten an email from Hotels.com. So I called back, armed with the email from the hotel. After about 45 minutes on hold, I spoke to a customer service representative who asked some questions, put me on hold, asked more questions, put me on hold, and then finally said I'd get my $1,200 back. Hallelujah!

A Hotels.com spokesperson reiterated over email that "refunds are at the discretion of our hotel partners, and we are doing our best to work with them to make exceptions to policies. We’re working to find resolutions for customers as soon as we can in this unprecedented situation."

Sure, but the best type of resolution would happen fully online. Especially if the hotel was already offering refunds.

Delta: Sorry, technical issues

Before the nationwide clampdown on Monday, Delta announced it would waive fees if you rescheduled a flight, but online it was still charging me $330 to make the change. By Tuesday, the airline said it was canceling all flights to Italy. "In the event your selected flight is canceled by Delta, we will contact you with additional information," its FAQ page on the coronavirus reads. We never got an email or a call from Delta that our flight had been canceled, even though every flight to Italy had been.

When I tried to modify our flights on Delta's website Wednesday morning, the feature wasn't working. I called customer service as suggested and was told I could wait on the line for up to four hours or I could get a call back. I opted for the latter. Then I never got a call back. I tried the modify tool again in the afternoon; it was still broken.

Screenshot from Delta's website. Credit:

A Delta spokesperson blamed the malfunction on a technical issue over email. I checked again Thursday morning and was indeed able to cancel my flight with a refund through the modify feature, but if I wanted to reschedule I'd have to call.

Delta's modify flight feature on Thursday morning. Credit:

Airbnb: We got you, with conditions

If Hotels.com and Delta want to learn how this ordeal should've been handled, they should take a page from Airbnb. Airbnb has other problems, but its coronavirus response has been exemplary, at least when it comes to customers traveling to China, Italy, and South Korea. For those booked elsewhere, the company hasn't been as helpful.

I was never really worried about our two Airbnb reservations because we had a few more days before they were no longer fully refundable. But when I logged on to actually cancel the reservations, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. In a prominent spot at the top of both the reservations were notifications that I'd get a full refund due to the novel coronavirus. That was the case for any Airbnb customers staying in Italy (so long as you had 48 hours before check-in, otherwise you'd have to work it out with the host). I proceeded to cancel my reservation and moments later, I was done. I didn't need to call a soul, wait on hold, or furiously write an email. The next day, I even got a call from Airbnb informing me of their new cancellation policy.

What I saw when I clicked on one of my Airbnb bookings. Credit:

In the year 2020, we are deep into the internet age. No one should be forced to go hunt for a number, wait on hold, get the run-around, and then wait on hold again another day to cancel a trip due to a pandemic.

Booking sites have the ability to, like Airbnb, flag all the reservations impacted by coronavirus travel restrictions with an informative, calming notification. They just choose not to. Or they can't get organized enough to make it happen swiftly. And that's a shame.

After all this, there's still one more website blocking us from getting a refund: the Vatican.