The Airbnb support team is not responding.

[Sarah3087]

A guest who canceled my reservation told me that Airbnb did not cancel the reservation and asked me for a full refund, so I refunded it.

However, his payment amount did not come to me. It turns out that Airbnb paid him the full refund.

However, he does not return to me. I have asked the support team for this issue, so it does not respond at all.

[Christine615]

The same thing happened to me. I’m a host so I spotted the problem early, reported it, and Airbnb said they took down the listing. But they didn’t. They blocked me from seeing it but my friend could see it and new guests were complaining about the same bait and switch.

Demand a supervisor. AirCover is supposed to put you in a better space and/or refund your money when the listing isn’t what you booked. 😞

[Christine615]

Scam? Never EVER pay a guest directly. So many guests are scamming the system. If it were legit the guest could have called their credit card fir a refund if Airbnb was slow. But hosts don’t send money to guests. That’s a recipe for disaster.

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Sarah3087 

No! Don't ever refund a guest directly. You have no idea if Airbnb is going to refund them also. Always issue refunds or alterations via the Airbnb system.

Yesterday, I offered to refund a guest if she shortened her stay. She was having issues with something (that no one else is) and getting very stressed about it and I could just see this escalating. So, I said that if she wanted to find somewhere else to stay, I would be happy to refund the rest of her stay. I told her I would send an alteration, but she would not receive the monthly discount.

She wasn't happy about that. She said that I should refund her directly an exact percentage of what she had paid and do it asap. 

I explained that isn't how the Airbnb payments work, she would not get her fees back that way as Airbnb take them, not me, etc. etc. Luckily, she listened and all was fine.

But, had I refunded her from my own bank account, who is to say she wouldn't have gotten a refund from Airbnb too. In my experience, once Airbnb refunds a guest, whether that was the correct decision or not, it's not easy to get your money back.