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Narrated by James Marriott
✉ Our flight back from Rome was cancelled due to the air traffic control issues and the next one we were offered was four days later. We decided to extend the holiday and quickly booked an apartment via Airbnb. It was listed as new and had no reviews, but we were desperate and it looked nice. When we arrived it was filthy. I took lots of pictures and immediately contacted the host and Airbnb asking for a refund and to be moved. Neither were very helpful. Airbnb told me it would contact the host to sort it out, but they didn’t get back to me. In the end, we decided to book another place and move.
I thought it would be pretty straightforward to get a refund, but I dealt with several different support people who gave me conflicting advice and sent emails that read like stock answers. I finally managed to get a refund for one night, but I’m still £400 out of pocket. I subsequently found the listing was not actually new to the site, but a relisting of an old property. There were lots of reviews about how dirty it was, but I needed to look at the host’s profile to find these. Can you help me get my money back?Charlotte Morris
You’ve found out the hard way that you should always check the host’s profile, not just the listing. Airbnb has issued the remaining refund, given you a £100 voucher as a gesture of goodwill and warned the host about his behaviour. A spokesperson said: “We were disappointed to hear about this case, and we have reached out to the guest to issue the remaining refund in addition to the rebooking support offered. We recognise that the customer support provided did not meet our high standards and we are taking the appropriate steps to address this concern. With over 1.4 billion guest check-ins to date, isolated incidents are incredibly rare.”