I've got a family trip planned to London (from Australia) so decided to give Airbnb a go.
Basically we made a reservation and everything was fine up until Friday when the booking just came through as cancelled. The Host then contacted me a day later through Airbnb inbox saying that there was some technical issue and Airbnb cancelled all his bookings and he was liaising with Airbnb and the listing would be back up this week and was still ours if we wanted it. So I thought great - we'll keep it and informed him the same via Airbnb inbox.
Thought it was a bit strange but as it's our first experience didn't dwell on it too much and thought I'd wait to see what happens this week. Last night I got an email from Airbnb with the subject Trust and Safety, basically explaining someone had tried to contact me via personal email, facebook etc and that their account had been shutdown and I should cease communications with them.
Now I'm assuming it's the Host of this property they are referring to but they didn't provide any details. The Host still has an active Airbnb account. Furthermore, I've not had any contact with anyone re Airbnb outside of the Airbnb inbox/site/app. I hadn't been on Facebook for 2 years but logged in to check and didn't have any messages. I replied to the Airbnb mail but as the address was automated@airbnb.com I doubt I'll get a response.
Our money has been refunded and we can ignore this host and move on but as the property was in the location we want I thought I'd ask advice before totally shutting the door.
Cheers.
Kirk.
PS: here's the email I got from the Host -
Dear Kirk, I am Arthur, the owner of the property. You may have received a cancellation notice from Airbnb. My sincere apologies for that. There were some technical issues with the listing and Airbnb automatically canceled it and all bookings. I have spoken to Aibnb today and the listing will be back up early next week. If you bear with us we are still happy to host you on the same terms. I will send you the offer as soon as the listing is live again. Be assured we are not accepting any other booking for your dates. Apologies for inconvenience again. Kind regards, Arthur
