I booked a five-month reservation with a Superhost through Airbnb. After 24 days, I cancelled the reservation for multiple reasons: the dirty TP in the bathroom; my food being eaten; and when the host said one of his employees had been exposed to someone with the virus.
The host said there was a 30-day cancellation penalty, which would be about $1100. Airbnb says that the amount of the remainder of four months’ time cut in half is how their system calculated the cancellation, for roughly a $3200 cancelation penalty.
I messaged the host who said, and I quote, “Again: you are not responsible for any cancellation fee. If they try to pay it, we will refuse it.”
After two months of trying to get Airbnb to respond to my calls the host is now saying they are charging a cancellation fee. This comes down to the host directly lying to me and to Airbnb. Airbnb refuses to even read what the host says or respond to me.
Thankfully I have had legal advice that said to save all messages and if Airbnb tries to do anything, I am completely covered. Airbnb says the original case manager is no longer with the company, and a new one is assigned but still not responding.
I have reached out over a dozen times over the past two months and still am being ignored. A representative the other day said that when a case is opened it could not be closed without a resolution. The helpbot closed my case the other day, after two months of being open and no resolution.
Not a good place to stay and Airbnb is hiding reviews on them so they can remain a Superhost.
I have a very similar story as yours. I am a travel nurse in New York City and someone attempted to break one time while I was at work. I contacted Airbnb to let them know I no longer felt safe and asked for options to try to solve this problem. They responded by stating that my safety was their priority and they could not longer support this reservation. The Airbnb rep stated they he would help me find another reservation, gave me a credit for the paid nights that I would not stay there, and reassured me that I would not be responsible for any more charges. Two weeks later I was charged $5,300 for the remaining reservation. I have talked to multiple Airbnb reps but for two months they have always given me the same answer , ” Mr Garcia, you dispute has been escalated to the specialized team and they will reach out to you.”