We recently had an extremely frustrating experience as a Host and I'd love to know if anyone thinks we have grounds to challenge the decision made my Airbnb.
Basically we had a guest book a 1 week stay in our flat in London. Their very first message to us said 'Do you have any animals?'. I said 'yes, we have a cat but it will be elsewhere during your stay and the flat will be deep cleaned professionally''. She decided to go ahead with the booking. When she arrived at the property she claimed to have an allergic reaction and asked me to refund her. I refused so she went to Airbnb and said that we hadn't mentioned in the description that we had a cat (which is true). Airbnb sided with her and awarded her a 100% refund. We had absolutely no idea that we were obliged to mention a pet in the description. It certainly never prompted us to do so at any point. The maddening thing here is that she had 100% of the information upfront, regardless of the fact it wasn't mentioned in the description so she and Airbnb have screwed us on a stupid technicality.
The funds generated from this were extremely important to us and we worked tirelessly to prepare an immaculate flat for her stay, so we feel especially hard done by. I've tried challenging the decision with customer service but they are having none of it so far. If anyone has any advice as to other routes then I would be most grateful to hear them. Thanks!
