Airbnb has a backend computer problem

[Mark4691]

My wife and I originally booked an airbnb for the weekend of May 12-14, which turned out to be Mother's Day weekend so we attempted to change our reservation to May 19-21.

I got a message from Airbnb about this and replied "confirm" or "confirmed" but apparently that wasn't enough to get the backend system updated and the next message I got was "check in for your upcoming travel May 12-14!"

The hosts then said the property wasn't available 19-21 and they would only refund about 1/4 of our payment.

I booked another property and paid for that one, and again the backend system was slow as 2 hours later I got a message saying I hadn't confirmed that appointment ... I replied that I thought I had and "what else do I need to do?" And then this host finally got her update from the backend system.

Clearly there's a problem ... all I want is something easy: a full refund. Thanks.

[Paula]

Hello @Mark4691,

I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through this situation right now. 

I just wanted to let you know that even though we are not part of the AirBnb Customer Service team, I've gone ahead and forwarded your issue to the team that can help. Hopefully they will be able to get back to you quickly.

Paula

[Pat271]

@Mark4691 @Paula 

Just to let you know you’re not alone - I have also noticed what seems to be a communications issue between different parts of the backend platform. In my case, it has to do with payouts…I got a message in email saying that my payout had been released and will show up in my bank account by a certain date, but online it said it’s still pending, and the date has come and gone. I then called Airbnb, and they told me the payout will instead get there tomorrow.

This is the first time in 5 years this has happened to me, so I think there’s is definitely some kind of recent regression in the Airbnb backend code.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mark4691 So you made a contract and now wish to renege on it. Was the original booking not clear in its cancellation policy? I wonder how long your original booking was in place before you decided you didn't want it anymore.

[Nur785 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark, while there might be backend computer issues, I don't believe this was one of those instances. 

When you want to modify a reservation, it's actually a request that goes out to your host. So you may have made the changes to your booking and click "confirm" to send the REQUEST to the host. At which time, your host probably declined as the unit was not available for the dates you requested. In this case, your reservation stays unchanged. So this is not really a computer issue. 

Most of the time guests don't realize that changes to reservations are subject to cancellation policies. Your host cannot cancel other people's booking to accommodate your changes.