Neither guest nor host can cancel

[Joe2662]

I'm a guest. I rented a place. The place was not a fit and the host agreed to simply cancel and refund.
I was next to her as she tried to cancel it. The button was grayed out for her. If I cancel, there is no refund.
The host never received the money from Airbnb, but it was deducted from my bank account.
**

I wrote support figuring it takes a while and rented something without Airbnb.
Since the host wanted to rent the room out to someone else, we tried to improvise by changing the date to 1 day. Another error.

**

I opened the support ticket again, still not having received any response, and added the pictures. Upon that, the case was suddenly closed.

I opened a new ticket in good faith. I figured perhaps the many pictures were an issue, so this time I used linked uploads on the Airbnb site itself.

**

I got an automatic "we'll get in touch soon" response. Days passed.

**

I opened another ticket. We were unable to change the dates or cancel in a refundable way. The money is still neither with the host nor me, but with Airbnb. I added the prior transcripts to the new ticket. Instead of chat messages (no response) and phone (no response/dead rings) I would try email this time

**

I then came across this rather hard-to-find subpage via a random Reddit comment and figured I'd relay my story here. The headaches and effort put into this are already more costly than the rent, but I'm afraid of something similar happening again in the future and hoped I'd learn how to quickly deal with issues like this for future Airbnb use.

**[Personal information and private conversations hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Sarah977]

@Joe2662  Nice example of how to string together 5 placating sentences that say absolutely nothing,  a practice Airbnb excels at.

[Joe2662]

New message by airbnb. They have decided to 'honor' the initial request to alter the date from 30 to 1 days, the improvised cancel attempt. Despite all of this happening because of technical issues from their side, they still charge a 20% fee and the host lost a whole month's rent since their booking was blocked. That host has now quit Airbnb. I will do my utmost to avoid airbnb. 

Was it worth it Airbnb?


"

You are most welcome! Having carefully discussed with my team the details of your request, we've reached a decision to honor the alteration request that was initially sent by your host.

A refund of has been sent. It should take within 5-15 business days to reflect on your account, depending on your bank's processing time.

You can find more about this at:

airbnb.com/help/article/1967

I appreciate the time that you have taken to work with me on the issue! In the event that you have questions or concerns in the future, know that we are always here to help. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us at airbnb.com/help/contact_us.

Have a lovely evening, and take care"

I don't say this lightly, but this was the worst customer support experience I've had and I've had to deal with electronic arts.

The only adequate adjective I was able to think of is "abysmal"

[Joe2662]

New Airbnb message, quite the lie again.

**

After all, I sent them this picture.

The phone screen of the host with a grayed out cancel button. What else could this possibly mean? 

**Private conversation hidden

[Joe2662]

This person serious?

**

**[Image removed - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

Image showed airbnb chat of the screenshot you can see in the post above and a support agent right below asking for a screenshot. Basically I show A and he/she asks for A which is ofcourse nonsense.

Ticket currently not progressing. I get the usual nonsensical please-hold-the-line and I-am-on-a-2-day-holiday type of answers

[Joe2662]

New  'answer' from airbnb. Nonsensical at best. Highly confusing.

Thank you for reaching out to us. This is <name> (omitted for the forum) from Airbnb's Resolution Speacialist (funny spot for a typo) team and I hope that this message finds you well.

I am already working with your concern and rest assured that I will be reaching back to you within (another interesting choice of words) as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding

Thank you for reaching out to Airbnb Community Support Team, we are here for you whenever you need us at: www.airbnb.com/help

I hope you and your family are safe. Take care!

Best Regards,
<name>

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It seems that we are slowly descending into madness