My host is selling the property I have booked to stay at and the host waiting until the 48 hours of 100% refund time was over before messaging me

[Ashur1]

Hi all, I just wanted to post this situation to see what other people's opinions are on the matter and what you guys suggest I should do. This is also my first experience with airbnb so I'm off to a bad start. The first stay I booked for my trip cancelled on me as he was planning on leasing out the property. That is all well and good as the payment wasn't going to go through until he approved it. I then booked a second stay. Now this stay's cancellation policy was 100% within the first 48 hours of booking and 50% from then until 7 days before the stay. The first message I received from the host was 51 hours and 23 minutes after I booked (just past the 100% period). This message stated that they could not accommodate me for the stay as they have the property up for sale and thought that they had it blocked on airbnb as they wanted to get out of airbnb. The host also finished this message by asking ME to cancel the stay. This seemed pretty unfair as it was the host's fault that the stay needed to be cancelled and I would only get 50% refund if I cancelled it. So I asked the host if they could cancel it on their end instead. The host then replied much faster this time (2.5 hours) and had changed their mind completely and they had spoken to the real estate and will accommodate me for the stay. I was nervous to accept this as I could see the property was still up for sale on realestate.com and couldn't understand how anything had changed. I messaged airbnb for help. I messaged with the airbnb bot then an Airbnb support person said they would forward it onto a team member. The support ambassador that got back to me provided me with generic advice about how to cancel my stay and seemed to have not read my message about the situation at all. I replied to this and explained the problem further (that it did not seem like a secure stay and there is nothing to stop the host selling the property before my stay in 3 months time). I did not hear back from this support person. I then sent a second message explaining that I found it unprofessional that the host waited until the first 48 hours was up before informing me that I needed to cancel the stay. I have not heard back from airbnb support still. I do not trust this host. I feel like I am being scammed. I feel like I have received no help from the Airbnb customer service people. Is there a way I can get the host or Airbnb support to cancel this stay? Is there anything to stop the host from keeping my booking for now and then cancelling if the property sells a week out from my stay? Is it fair that the host messaged me after the 48 hours were up?

[Emiel1]

@Ashur1 

If the host can not accomodate you, it is his/her fault and the host is obliged to cancel and you receive full refund. If the host can accommodate you, he should now guarantee you this, as it is not in line with the initial communication. BTW does the host has reviews ?

If you feel uncomfortable about the situation, Airbnb should mediate and cancel the reservation.

Airbnb CS is very slow responding, so try AirbnbHelp on Twitter for more constructive asistance if receiving no response in time.

[Ashur1]

Thanks for replying @Emiel1 , she did guarantee that she could accommodate me after this. The host does have a lot of very good reviews. Thanks for suggesting Twitter I got an imeditate response when I tried that. Airbnb spoke to the host and asked if she would cancel outside of her cancellation policy (the strict one) and she refused. After airbnb told me this I messaged the host to explain my concerns about the booking. Turns out, she had no idea I would incur a 50% loss if I cancelled the booking. It seems she had no idea her property bookings were set to a strict cancellation policy. I have forwarded this information to Airbnb support and she has emailed Airbnb so they can action the request. Hopefully this stay can be cancelled without either of us incuring fees.