How to stop Paypal overriding my contract terms

[RosemaryLouise]

How do I formulate a response to an appeal after Paypal has said I must reimburse a payment even though the payment was a non-refundable deposit.?

I do not understand the Paypal system. 

I have a holiday property and it is booked for 24-28th May in France.  The current lockdown period ends on 15th April.  
The customer has said I haven't provided the service and has requested a refund of their deposit payment.  
I can provide the service I'm contracted to undertake. But I haven't YET. It's not yet 24th May.

The customer has refused to pay the 2nd, final amount due 60 days prior to arrival because their flight to France has been cancelled.  The customer insists I waive the non-refundable deposit and refund it.  

A copy of the contract has been provided to Paypal. 
Force Majeure doesn't apply because FM only applies to the lockdown period.

My property is listed with Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Booking.com and in every case these companies are not changing the property owner's terms and conditions Unless the holiday is within the lockdown period. 

Why would paypal override my legal, agreed terms and conditions that the customer knows is non-refundable?
How do I formulate my appeal to the Paypal decision or add documents etc so that Paypal do not override my legal, agreed terms and conditions?

[sharpiemarker]

@RosemaryLouise 

You either refund the buyer or the buyer's financial institution could, via a chargeback and that could cost you a chargeback handling fee on top of amount disputed. All PayPal is doing, is avoiding that for you. 

Either that, or the initial decision is handled by computer and you must reach out to customer service to have them review the matter but during these times, response will take longer than usual so patience, perseverance, sufficient information and polite communication is needed.

1. Log on.
2. Click HELP at the top menu.
3. Scroll down and click CONTACT US.
4. Scroll down to click MESSAGE US.

Or contact via social media:

Facebook (US): https://www.facebook.com/PayPal/

Facebook (Worldwide): https://www.facebook.com/paypal

Twitter (US): @AskPayPal 

Seems this buyer wants their money back because they can't foresee staying at your place in the future due to the virus situation (this thing has changed life plans for a great deal of people) and buyer will do all they can to get money back if they lost the PayPal dispute.

[RosemaryLouise]

Thanks, I've no intention of reimbursing they asked me to waive the deposit and now they've gone behind my back. 

Do I just post a very short version of my post here on Facebook or twitter to get a reply, I've never done that before?

I think the decision was made by a computer, it was decided within 24hrs of me sending in my escalation.  

I'm very disappointed in Paypal, I have a valid contract and I don't understand why Paypal would override it.