Fraud?

[Max1638]

Any insight would be greatly appreciated as this has become an immense stress in my current day life

I recently transferred through my job from Florida to Maryland. In doing so, I booked a 28 day stay with a host close to my job on 9/2. It was a last minute effort due to my original housing plans not coming to fruition. In doing so, I booked the stay same day using the “Instabook” feature. Paid $1000+. This was done around 12pm with the intent to check in at around 5pm. Close to the time of check in I contacted the host who informed me that the room actually  would not be available until 9/11 and that I should contact Airbnb to be refunded due to her not being able to accommodate. I submitted a ticket and proceeded to call. What came after that was a consistent runaround for 5 days, constantly being told that my case was marked “urgent” and that a case manager will be assigned. On 9/8, I called around 8:31pm and luckily was answered by a case manager who informed me he never saw my case and took it upon himself to see to it that I receive a refund. He informed me that the host had to be given 48 hours to respond before a refund could be processed. Fast forward to today (9/11), the case manager just informed me that while the 48 hours passed, he is unable to process the refund as it was flagged in the system for “risk of possible fraud” and that it was now being escalated to the Trust and Safety department. He informed me he had no way to contact them, no time frame by which I could expect to be contacted, and no reasoning as to why my reservation was marked for possible fraud. This is my 10th or 11th reservation, all of which I’ve paid for with no hiccups and only used payment methods in my name, either through paypal or debit card. Does anyone have any idea as to why this would happen? It’s been especially disappointing because since I did book using the Instabook feature, the payment was immediately taken out and sent to the host. So obviously there was

[Emiel1]

@Max1638 

"the host who informed me that the room actually would not be available until 9/11 and that I should contact Airbnb to be refunded due to her not being able to accommodate"

No: the host need to cancel the reservation and you will have a full  refund.

How simple can it be ?

[Max1638]

When I spoke to Airbnb support I mentioned this, but because I booked the reservation same day they informed me that she did not have the ability to cancel the reservation 

[Max1638]

Trust me that was the first thing I said to her as well but she informed me that the option to cancel on her end was not available 

[Sarah977]

@Max1638  Airbnb customer service is a mess these days and neither hosts nor guests are having their issues dealt with in a timely fashion. I think you are just going to have to be patient and wait for your case to be dealt with. Don't let them forget about you, because the squeakiest wheels tend to get the grease, so if you don't hear back for several days, give them another nudge. Never hurts to make a comment as to the fact that you've used Airbnbs many times in the past, but if they won't deal with your issue efficiently, you'll be using another booking platform in the future.

You seem to be an experienced and savvy guest but I would suggest that in the future, if there is a sizable chunk of money at stake, or a strict cancellation policy, or a long term policy for a long term booking, that even if a place is available to be Instant Booked, that you first use the "contact host" option and communicate with the host so you are assured that there won't be any issues before committing to a reservation.

Good luck, I hope you get a resolution soon.