I had made a booking at the beginning of August 19th for a room in Amsterdam. Four days before we were to leave for Amsterdam my dad died so we could not go. The long and short of it was we were charged for the booking. I informed the host and Airbnb my father had died and they appeared very sympathetic. The host immediately agreed to give our money back but never did. Airbnb asked for the obituary, which we sent, but nothing happened.
We received about six messages from Airbnb saying they had tried to call but they hadn’t. The email with a reply button had a no-reply email address. No one had ever tried to call. Then I received a message stating they had no details of the trip, so I sent them. The follow up was to send me back into the circle of death of emails stating they had tried to ring, etc. I only managed to find a contact email address through Airbnb Hell. I have seen some cynical things in my time but this one beats all. Very dodgy crowd – be warned.
Be persistent, try, try again. You sound as if you have a valid case. Ask for a manager, and don’t hang up until you get your refund.