I booked a property for a 1 night stay over 2 months ago for my family visiting from England over chistmas to go down to Apollo Bay. The booking was promptly accepted and i was told the host would be in contact closer to the time.
Yesterday i recieve a message from the host saying that the rates on air bnb were not updated for the peak season prior to booking and would like to charge me almost $300 more for the booking. I spoke to Air BnB and they said i was under no obligation to accept the revised cost and by rejecting the alteration request my booking would be unaffected. I messaged the host and explained the additional cost would put this outside our price range and we would not have intially booked at this revised price, i then rejected the alteration request in the app.
I got a response from the host reiterating that it was peak season (my view is the advertised rate is down to the host/air bnb) but before i could respond they had cancelled the booking, leaving me in search for somewhere at relatively short notice for 8 people.
my question is do i have any right of reply in this situation or do i just have to take it on the chin? I have used Air BnB throughout the world and this is the first experience which has made me question using it in future.
Furthermore i noticed that the propoerty in question is now re-listed for the same dates which the host had cancelled (now for a significantly higher price) and no automated cancellation review exists on their profile, the host is also still a superhost, all of which i was lead to believe from Air BnB's policies would be penalised if they cancelled?