Here's the story:
I had a valid booking with Airbnb which I had to cancel for medical reasons. Part of the trip was paid for with Airbnb credits, so I contacted Airbnb in advance of cancelling. Airbnb support replied swiftly and explained to me that, if I provide proof of the medical issue, the credit coupon would be reissued and valid against future bookings.
And so it happened: Provided proof, trip cancelled, coupon reissued with a given expiry date. Fine.
Months later, I tried to book a trip with the new coupon, but it turned out it was invalid. Contacted support, and after some back and forth, I was told that the coupon was invalidated by Airbnb because, once I cancel, I'm not supposed to get my credits back. Duh. I politely explained to support that, as a customer, I need to be able to rely on what support tells me, and that it's totally out of line to establish a procedure, have the customer act accordingly and then change everything unilaterally later on (and behind the customer's back).
The reply was basically the polite version of "go **** yourself" (the type where people pretend they care and claim there's nothing they can do, after it's them who twisted the rules in the first place) and just added insult to injury.
What would you do it this happened to you? Just shrug it off as a non-issue? Quit using Airbnb altogether? Thanks!
