Host and AirBnB refusing to fulfill cancellation for falsely advertised property

[Kyle958]

Wow, this just takes the cake.

Just booked a property for a stay in Mosman Sydney, the host automatically accepts the booking and takes my $20k deposit.

Then the host tells me the house isnt available. Then she tells me that some of the rooms could be available but not all. I decline as we need all the bedrooms that were advertised.

Then the host tells me to cancel the booking, for which I would incur a $9k cancelation charge (within 24hrs of booking) but as per the booking page, AirBnB say the host should cancel. The host now refuses to cancel (even after they said they would) because theyre going to get charged $4.5k for cancelling.

So now Im left in limbo, with no credit limit left to make another booking and AirBnB refusing to help process the cancellation and return my deposit. Now some offshore service team is calling me and trying to convince me to go ahead with the partial booking for which Im completely uncomfortable with given the experience.

This was actually the third house we tried to book this week where the exact same thing happened. This false advertising issue with AirBnB, the auto collecting of deposits and inability to get refunds when the host doesnt have their product available for sale when they said it was, is beyond unprofessional and highly deceptive. Losing faith and trust in the company completely.

Basically means you cannot trust the availability of any property on AirBnB in Australia, nor that AirBnB will help you to get your money back when the host is at fault.

Time to submit a report to the ACCC as I think legal action is the only way these guys will change their behaviour.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kyle958 Hopefully a moderator like @Quincy or @Paula will ask Airbnb to have another look at this. It is ridiculous behaviour like this from the host (and Airbnb with its reaction) that devalues all the proper hosts out there. Hopefully someone else in your party has credit available on their card to make a separate booking. Just get an absolute definitive statement from the host that they cannot make the property as advertised available so you will get your money back eventually.

[Rebecca]

Hey @Mike-And-Jane0 & @Kyle958 :👋

I'm not Quincy or Paula, but I can definitely escalate this for you. Thank you for bringing it to our attention and I'm so sorry that you're experiencing this Kyle. 

I'll pop you a direct message with a little more information.