We booked a place the day before my hen's (host was aware that the booking was for an event). We turned up to the property and found several issues:
- 2 additional sleepouts in front of the house in the frontyard that were not mentioned
- pool was dirty and unusable despite being listed in property amenities
- there was big furniture stacked outside the front door
- lawns and weeds were overgrown
- pantry, fridge and freezer were full of their food and drinks
I called the host and she refused to acknowledge any of these issues except the lawns. She said she may try to find someone to do the lawns the next day, but this would be too late. She did not address or offer to remedy any of the other issues.
I advised her by voicemail and text about 20mins later that we could not host my event in her property at its current state as it was not what was listed. We told her we would cancel for a refund.
I am appalled by the host and Airbnb. Given the issues, we provided airbnb with photos, call logs and texts and outlined the points in their policy the host had violated. In addition due to the host's non-response, Airbnb gave her a 48 hour deadline to respond. The host replied 96 hours later and airbnb continued despite it being past the deadline that they had set.
Our refund was denied with the reason given that we did not give the host ample time to remedy the issues. There was obviously more than one issue and the host failed to even acknowledge them so why would she fix it?? We did not have the luxury of time with our event the next day and the host was uncooperative.
Airbnb gave no further explanation and repeatedly ignore my requests for a call or explanation as to what the grounds are in their policy that warranted the refusal to refund our money. All they say is that the case is closed, its like they do not care and are biased towards the host.
Can someone shed some light on what we may have done wrong in this situation? I felt that we had handled an unfortunate situation fairly, but according to airbnb we did not and I struggle to understand their empty justifications for siding with the host.