So annoyed with Airbnb

firbyfred

We have been having an ongoing message dispute with Airbnb for the last few months, this was my last attempt I started before the weekend, this is what I sent them regarding a cancelled booking because of coronavirus.

Email from Airbnb 8th May 2020

“a travel credit for £153.59 will be waiting for you, we look forward to helping you find a perfect place”

So booked to go to Malta September 2021, and had to cancel due to an illness, Airbnb kept the £153.59 credit again

Booked Chania within days (September 2021) for June 2022, but weren’t allowed to use the £153.59 because it was booked for 2022.

Within weeks Airbnb extended the time to December 2022 to use up the credit.

So why can’t we use it for the balance due next month?

They are just not budging on this, but  just can't get them to see sense and use it to help towards paying off the the balance at the end of this month.

really annoyed about this but don't know what other course of action we can take

Alan_Bowen

On the face of it, the credit was lost when you cancelled due to illness, that would be an insurance claim and no obvious reason why Airbnb would have any further liability unless there is more to the story than appears here.

firbyfred

On that particular booking we were entitled to a full refund which we got minus the credit which they kept as a credit.
What's annoying is we booked our new reservation September 21 for June 22, but because it was into 2022 they wouldn't let us use the credit,
they then extended the use of the credit until December 2022 a few weeks later , but now they won't let us use the credit to help pay off the balance, which I find totally unfair.

eskbanker

What are the terms of the credit, i.e. to what extent is it stated where and how it can be used, in terms of booking date, travel dates, deposit versus balance, etc?  In other words, what's their reason for preventing its use now?

nyermen

I'd guess they're saying it has to be selected at time of booking, and since that didn't happen, they're being difficult (despite that OP couldn't use it at the time, before they changed their terms).

It sounds like its an unfortunate quirk of the credit being eligible after you were told it wasn't, and in general, the credit should be honoured (if the cancellation of that trip was correct).  May be a case of chasing them via social media and someone may be able to override the "computer says no" bit.

firbyfred

nyermen said:

I'd guess they're saying it has to be selected at time of booking, and since that didn't happen, they're being difficult (despite that OP couldn't use it at the time, before they changed their terms).

It sounds like its an unfortunate quirk of the credit being eligible after you were told it wasn't, and in general, the credit should be honoured (if the cancellation of that trip was correct).  May be a case of chasing them via social media and someone may be able to override the "computer says no" bit.

They did agree with me when I said could I cancel the booking and rebook it to get the credit. But as the owner doesn't appear to have the best english i don't want to do that. 
I have tried through Twitter but you just get the same automated scripted phrases from them