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.
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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.

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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.

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

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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

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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]

@Nick Can you help this guest out to get an appropriate response from CS? He has been waiting 11 days for help with what seems to be a simple mutual cancellation issue.

[Nick]

Hi @Sarah977  and thank you for tagging me here. I've been off for a couple of days due to a health-related issue, but I can see @Liv was quick to jump on this and forward the case to Customer Support.

I'm hoping it won't be much longer until this is resolved. 

Something to keep in mind here is that contacting CS multiple times for the same issue only prolongs resolution times as multiple tickets are created and moved back in the queue. 

[Joe2662]

Day 16 after the initial support ticket. 4 tickets total. 3 have been closed automatically. One had 3 responses consisting of "sorry for getting back so late, actually nevermind I am still on holiday" and "plaese provide the documentation you already provided" as well as "thanks for providing the documentation again. now do it again"

Support got back yesterday and requested documentation and details that I already provided such as "why did you not accept the alteration request" (1 month -> 1 day, improvisational solution attempt from us which didn't work because it was denied from the airbnb page).

In other words the support has not read/gone through my past messages and we have yet to make any progress. I have sent the entire documentation again (4th time) in an effort to finally be done with this. 

[Joe2662]

Update:
Airbnb said they can't reach the host. No surprise after several weeks.
They then told me that they will try to - jk, they went back on holiday. I don't understand why one would reach out to a customer to tell them they will help just to immediately message them again and say it's vacation time.

Am I missing something or is this just a dickmove? Why not respond later when you actually have time?

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**Private conversation hidden

[Sarah977]

@Joe2662  Yeah, they do this all the time. Dickmove is a pretty accurate description. I think it's just a stalling tactic so they can claim they are working on your case, while they shuffle it to the bottom of the pile and send new cases some more useless, placating messages. 

Either that or CS reps are on their "rest days" more often than they actually work.

[Joe2662]

Same CS within the same ticket, my only ticket, has gone on holiday for the second time within one week. Facts.

[Joe2662]

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It seems to me that after having us wait for several weeks, CS tries exactly once to contact the now frustrated host I can no longer contact (I am in a different country even). Despite the documentation, they pocket the money. How is this treatment legal even.

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edit: I am also still unable to cancel the ongoing booking as I always get one of the errors above meaning the booking remains ongoing and blocks the accounts for both the host and me.

edit2: just the error pages:
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**[Personal information and private conversations hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

Another day. Host remains unreachable now. Not because they want to pocket the money, but simply because they have given up on Airbnb. You can tell by their profile being completely silent. Nobody gets any answers anymore.

Even the old impro attempt of canceling the booking which was changing it to 1 day remains open (which didn't work because airbnb denied it saying my account needs to be verified - which they then didn't).

support has gone back on holiday it appears. the ticket, too, remains open

**[Personal information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

Update: Airbnb got back to me.

-They sent the money to the now unresponsive host
-They deducted fees for their service. Their service was broken (1 - account got locked, couldn't change reservation 2-host account got locked, all buttons were grayed out for weeks)
-They took several weeks to get back making the solution they now request impossible. This is the equivalent of shooting and then asking questions.

The principle itself is what's bugging me. This isn't about the money anymore. Both the host and me deserve to be refunded for the shenanigans. We were both forced into this because of their service not working and their support being unresponsive for weeks. Doing things outside of Airbnb is against their own guidelines. From a legal perspective, it's in Airbnbs interest to resolve this quickly by not charging fees and refunding me too instead of simply paying the host now with a delay.

I can see why they did that. It gives them an argument to work with from a legal perspective. Airbnb makes it seem like a standard operation, but the documentation clearly shows their malfunctioning service and support misconduct.

It's either a few hundred dollars now or yet another YouTube video of how xy cost the company large sums in a lawsuit.

I am backing this as well as the tickets up since I have suspicions of this thread and the tickets suddenly dissapearing.

The diary continues.

[Joe2662]

Figure1: Airbnb charging fees regardless of what happened

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Figure2: Airbnb ignoring the documentation on their mistakes (technical issues to name one) and copy pasting the usual refund policy script despite the unique situation.

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**[Personal information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

Tried reaching the host once again. Their profile is a dead. The old change request is still open. I can't accept or cancel it (in the past/bugged) nor reach anyone else.

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No response in the still open ticket. Increasingly starting to consider a lawsuit. Financially speaking 100% not worth it, but the satisfaction would be. This treatment feels absolutely horrid. 

**[Personal information hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

Followed up on the ticket. No response again. Trying again tomorrow.

[Joe2662]

I don't know how to articulate this so the support understands that it was due to bugs on Airbnbs side + support answering only after several weeks it that everything went sour.

Cancel booking -> We tried, the button was grayed out
Contact support -> We did. And again. And again. Should I sleep on the streets for 3 weeks?
Refund -> We tried, but Airbnb kept the money. We couldn't do anything outside of this broken system
Change booking to 1 day, minimize damage -> Site bugs, alerts us with 'suspicious activity - account blocked - contact support'
Which we did, and no help for weeks.
Cancel with no refund -> tried. Again with the account-blocked error. Host can't rent place to someone else

Now I'm charged for a place I have never been to thanks and I'm even given the blame. "Reach out tot he host" I've not been in the hosts country for over 2 weeks. Of course the host doesn't want to bother yet again with a broken bugged listing. 

All of that said, no response on the reopened ticket. Day 3 since reopening, 29 total

[Joe2662]

Got a response

-sorry, I was on rest for 2 days (last answer was 7 days ago though?)
-I will forward this message (but that's exactly what the last 3 messages said?)

All in all a pretty empty message again.

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**[Private conversation hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Joe2662]

No new response. My screenshot has been removed because it allegedly showed a private conversation. It did not. It showed an official support ticket response. 

"Thank you for reaching out again about your reservation. My apologies for the delay in getting back, as I was on my rest days for the past 2 days.

I appreciate your sentiments on the outcome of your claim. I completely understand where you are coming from, and I know how important this hard-earned money is for you. Although I am unable to guarantee anything, as my final resort to assist with your request, I'll deliberate this further with my team on your request."