Host never received us

[Taina9]

Hi

We had a problem with a host in Puno, Perú. I made the reservation several months before our trip and even paid our stay. I sent a message several times to the host and when we were finally arriving there, I contacted him using whatsapp. He said that his Airbnb page was closed and that he was not responsible for the situation. He said that there was no space in his hostal and that he was not going to host us. So as a consecuence we had to search for a place, payed a lot more that we had planned and our stay was already payed there. 

What can I do in this situation? I have several screenshots of the conversation and proof that we payed the stay here. What I'm actually angry about is that because airbnb made a mistake by not  informing the page was not active, we had to actually pay a lot more than necessary, and payed for a stay we never used. If the page is not active, were did that money go?

Thanks for the help

[Linda108]

Usually a host cannot deactivate a listing if there are future reservations.  The host has to cancel first.  According to your post, your reservation was not cancelled.  Since this is an error of the system, please contact Air BNB and seek a refund.  Hopefully you had your communication with the host using the Air BNB message system which they can see.  Here is a guide for contacting Air BNB.  Good luck and let us know how this works out for you.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165#M728

[Maj-Britt0]

Yes contact abb for refund AND a new place to stay !

[Sarah977]

@Taina9   In the future, if you don't receive responses to your messages to a host you have booked with, you should right away contact Airbnb and explain the situation. Airbnb will either make contact with the host for you, or if they can't, probably find you another place to stay.

It's never a good idea to just book a place and show up- always connect with your host through messaging a time or two before arriving, and if they don't get back to you soon, that could be a sign of trouble.