So having persisted for over two month in trying to get this resolved I submitted an Airbnb complaint. I received a very rude reply accusing me of not being cooperative in resolved the issue and closing down my support case. This is despite my continued polite pursual of this case for the entire two months, being passed from agent to agent and continually ignored when they could not solve the problem.
I have completely lost faith in Airbnb now. This used to be a good company but customer service has become rude and unhelpful and I am left with an unresolved problem that cost me thousands of pounds, countless wasted hours, and potentially now the loss of a profile with hundreds and hundreds of positive reviews.