Host canceled a confirmed booking

[Amie1091]

Please help! I booked an 8 bedroom home in Orlando for 11 nights for my entire family. The booming was accepted and confirmed, so my family booked airline tickets, and because the price of my airbnb was much lower then others, my parents were able to buy my sister, her husband  and 3 kids ( who weren't planning on coming because it was too expensive) airfare. I got a message from the host stating that the price was incorrect for those days and that airbnb had made a mistake and sent me a request to pay 2x the amount of money it originally was. I declined the offer, and told her that she needed to honor the booking, because we already booked flights and paid for her airbnb. She then told me I needed to cancel the booking, which I refused to do because I didn't want to be charged the service fee.  She then canceled our booking because I refused to pay more money. Can she do this with no penalty? My understanding was that if she canceled a booking that the dates  we had booked would be blocked out and she would no longer be able to be a super host. I have tried to co tact customer service and have no gotten any kind of response from them yet.

[Mark116]

@Amie1091   If your conversation about the fee change was on the airbnb system then there is no way the cancellation should not appear as a host cancellation with the dates blocked, however, it might necessitate that you spend some not insignificant time waiting for Airbnb CS to assist you.  The host may have told Airbnb some other reason for cancellation that allowed the dates to be open, but if there is a record of your conversation then all the host penalties should apply in this case.  I guess it depends on how vested you are in the outcome.

[Amie1091]

Our messages were all on airbnb chat.. I would like her to be held accountable for what she's done, so that she can't do this same thing to anyone else. CS sucks and is impossible to get ahold of, so I don't even know how I would go about talking to someone about it. 

[Mark116]

@Amie1091  Try sending Airbnb a written message.  You will want to be very straightforward, short sentences.  Include the reservation number.  State that the host cancelled you because of wanting a higher price, then direct them+screen shot the messages between you and the host.  That is probably the least time intensive way you can at least get a ticket open w/airbnb.

[Emilia42]

@Mark116 If the host indicated "COVID-19" as a reason it should not appear as a cancellation on the host's profile. I have a local host friend who has canceled twice in the last month (without calling Airbnb CS) and there is no cancelation notice on her profile. 

[Mark116]

@Emilia42  Yes, but this guest can prove it wasn't COVID but was because the host forgot to raise the price, he says it is all documented on the airbnb message platform, so this host should not be able to get away with it, its just as bad when hosts use fake reasons as when guests do

[Emilia42]

@Mark116 Very true but unfortunately Airbnb CS is impossible to reach right now so this host took advantage of the automatic cancellation process. For @Amie1091 's sake, I hope she gets through to them and can resolve it quickly.

[Amie1091]

She cancelled because she wanted a higher price. 

[Krista222]

This is my current situation. Host cancelled last night. Our flight to Florida leaves tonight. What can I do? I’ve called 3 times and sent numerous messages. 

[Carola161]

Yeap, joining late to the conversation but this just happened to me. 

I made a reservation 6 months prior my trip. 14 weeks after the host cancelled because I refused to paid a sum of 3 times more my initial price, stating that "there was an issue with the system". 

Airbnb only gives a compensation of 10% of the initial price paid, and so far I have not received any help on relocating. I can not afford the prices now cus all that is left is 4 times more of what I paid.

Airbnb says the host gets penalized but the penalty is only $50/$100. I told them that's nothing compared to what the host is going to make for reenlisting the place at a higher price. I was told by Airbnb that the host gets the dates blocked to prevent booking on those days but I see is available to anyone who would like to book it. 

So far what I have learn from all of this is that the customer get's little protection on this, since now the time has passed and I can not afford the prices that are left. and Airbnb gets more money out of it since the host can just post the listing again at a higher price and their cut from it is more than what they would've got with what I paid for mine.