AirBNB Account Suspension and retaining gift card

AndySib

My daughter tried to book a holiday cottage for her and her friends on AirBNB using a gift card we paid for via my wife's work benefits scheme.  My daughter is 17 and AirBNB allowed her to open an account, link the gift card, attempt to book the cottage, they even verified her ID before suspending her account because she is under 18 and she doe snot meet their terms and conditions for having an account.  We paid part of the deposit with a credit card that has been refunded but they will not release the gift card from the account they say she is not allowed to have. Instead they are retaining the gift card until she is 18.  AirBNB refuse to unlink the gift card from the account or transfer it to another account - Has anyone had any experience of unwinding this situation?

CKhalvashi

This sounds a reasonable policy to me.

Not sure why you chose to use a company that is known for high prices and huge fees but they are not taking the gift card, merely holding it in custody until she is 18. In general once a gift card has been redeemed it can't be used again.

Surely she read the terms and conditions and understood that she couldn't hold an account until 18 before confirming she had read them? A company I have a shareholding in (that supplies the travel trade) has a very similar policy of not being able to accept unaccompanied minors and the only exceptions I've seen in our own forward contracts has been in Poland/Romania and even then only for those leaving a specific country.