I was a novice Airbnb user and did not understand that the onus was on me to cancel a reservation that I wanted to change. My traveling companion had to cancel her trip with me to Hawaii due to an unplanned chemo-treatment and my Airbnb host in Honolulu was not willing to change my reservation. I incorrectly presumed that she would cancel the reservation when she refused to alter it. Her communication skills were not great and I feel she mislead me about Airbnb’s policies on cancellation. Bottom-line – I paid for three nights in Honolulu that I did not get and Airbnb will not let me review the host in terms of her communication skills. She also promised a partial refund which was never sent. Needless to say, she is not very honest and future Airbnb users who fall for her very high rating may regret that they chose her. Airbnb deserves credit for refunding to me their commission; but the trust system does not work well if they do not allow me to leave a review on my experience with her. Filtering out low ratings makes everyone look “way above average.” Suggest Airbnb allow all cancelled guests who end up paying for the accommodation to review the host on the host’s communication skills.
Sounds like you booked in a high demand area with a host who has a strict cancellation policy. When the host could not accommodate the change you requested (most likely because it was already booked or it was inconvenient for the host) you failed to cancel, and expected everything to be done for you. I am sorry, but you have to take a little more responsibility here . . .