I booked a last minute apartment in Athens, Greece called “50 Shades of Grey with Acropolis View” by Minas. Upon arrival, I discovered there was a full scale renovation of an apartment above mine creating loud noise all day and into the night (I arrived at 8:00 PM and there was still noise). I immediately told my host that I would not be able to stay there, but he refused to give me a refund. I also called Airbnb but they offered no help. In addition, because I told them I would write a review about the construction to warn future guests, they told me I would not be able to write a review. So yes, they charged me (even though I stayed elsewhere that night) and they denied me the right to write an honest acurate review because this particular host is a “superhost”. Airbnb has become a shady company and I won’t be using them anymore. They care more about receiving their service charge from a stay than the guests or hosts themselves.
We had a similar experience.
Booked a house for 5 days, business travel. Only got about 3 hours sleep the second night. Cancelled and moved to another Airbnb house close by. Ended up costing us an additional $1000 (roughly). We can’t get our money back and can’t leave a review even though we stayed 2 nights and paid for 4. For us it’s back to hotels where reputation matters