To ask if this is a breach of contract (holiday booking)

[AudTheDeepAndCrispAndEven]

Evening MNetters, In January, we booked a week's holiday in the UK for next summer through AirBnB. We surmised that foreign travel may well be off the cards this year and managed to get a reasonable deal before everyone piled in and booked up everywhere. Today, I've received a message stating that due to Covid they are no longer able to host us and that we need to cancel for a full refund. However, they then state that the property will be available to rent through an agency, and gave us the contact details. This convinces me that they retain ownership of the property and will benefit from those bookings. Am I right to presume they have seen an opportunity to make more money with a captive audience this summer, and is there any way I can hold them to honour our booking, or even the original price through the new company.
How should I proceed? I'm thinking of initially asking them for more details as to how Covid means they can't honour our booking.

You can report it to AirBnB and they’ll stop them letting out the week again (if they try), but you can’t make them stick to the price or anything.

It happened to us a couple of weeks ago for our July booking. They were blunt enough to say “the prices have gone up, we know we can’t get more”. They backtracked quite quickly when we cancelled next years booking and they realised we were the family who have booked four cottages for the same week every year for the last five years so would still be booking it once everyone else goes back to holidays abroad. We found somewhere else instead.

we know we can* get more

Even if they don't re-let with Air BnB, there's no shortage of letting sites.

The closer they get to the actual dates, the higher the price. It's not their interest to relist right now.

Something similar happened to me OP.

I’d heard an event was going to be announced at the Excel so booked a small apartment by the venue.
A week later the event was announced and suddenly, two days after that, the owners messaged to say “sorry, it’s not available after all, have your money back”.

A week later it reappeared for over twice the price. I complained to Air BnB who gave the usual spiel but nothing was ever done. I did have the last laugh though. I checked the listing just before we left and it was still available. Their greed clearly didn’t pay off.

Ive never used Air BnB again.

I would absolutely not cancel on their behalf as you had no intention of doing so otherwise. Let them cancel the booking as it does sound like they want to get a higher price for the rental. If that goes against them then so be it.
Although it’s unfair, as long as they refund you in full then I’m not sure there’s anything else you can do.

If it’s Air n B don’t cancel let them cancel on you
They can be penalised if they cancel and they won’t be to unblock the dates on the Airn B calendar
Also don’t do anything outside of the app
So no texts or emails only use the App
As Airbnb don’t accept any disputes if it’s not done in the app

If you have any questions on Airbnb
Go to the redit sub forum for AirnB and post there
As I said if she cancel she can’t unblock the dates so no one else can book on airnb for those dates
Plus her rating will go down
If she is 5 star cancelling on you will knock her rating and she will have to pay a fee to airnb and she can’t rebook those dates on the platform
That’s why she wants you to cancel 😂

Don’t cancel yourself, it will affect the number of times you can cancel on Airbnb and get your full payment (including service charge) back. They will probably tell you this is not the case, but it is! If they want to cancel they should do so - it will affect their hosting algorithm on Airbnb, which is why they don’t want to do it. Report it to Airbnb immediately (by phone, not email).
I had this happen twice in several years with a firm letting out flats in the Quartermile development in Edinburgh for the Festival. In each case they wrongly listed their property (different properties) and I booked thinking I’d got a bargain. In each case I received an email (from the same person) saying they had made a mistake and would I cancel. I explained that they should cancel for the reasons above - they denied it and then became abusive. I reported them to Airbnb, and found somewhere nicer and cheaper.

@Wormwoodgal Have reported to AirBnB vie their messaging service. Got a bland reply along the lines of they are contacting the host for details etc. I've sent a further message suggesting they need to look at the host's other bookings and whether she has also requested them to cancel, as some people may not have twigged that the host should be cancelling.

I've seen a few people having this experience on here, OP, including someone who did as they were asked and cancelled, and then saw the place readvertised for double the price.

Stand firm; they will need to cancel you if they want to.

Don't cancel. Up to them to cancel if they want to. Stick to your guns.

We had similar but had nothing to do with covid. We were going to Florida and booked a large house through Airbnb. They cancelled it as they were no longer going to let the house vis Airbnb but rather through an agency. So they wanted us to cancel and we could rebook via the agency, which was more money. Either way, the contract via Airbnb was being cancelled and full refund. We’re not the only people who had this happen who were going to this area of Florida for a family event.

It’s not ideal but when you’re booking via agencies there’s always a possibility of the arrangement between property owner and agency changing that unfortunately impact you as consumer.

Airbnb charge a hefty amount! Daft not to at least internet search the name of a farm/cottage on there as they often have their own website and the same holiday can be around 50 quid cheaper for a weekends booking.

However since yesterday you can’t cancel penalty free for a summer booking on Air citing Covid reasons as right now summer is not going to be in lockdown. If that changes nearer the time then they’ve been very good about penalty free refunds.

Your host will get kicked off Air now for fishing their bookings. A shame as you could have saved some money.

"Of course no one would. But what can you do about it? They own the property. They can cancel you for any reason whatsoever. They don’t even have to tell the truth when giving a reason. They could say they are cancelling it because they are having renovation work done or they are selling up. How would you know?

They’ve cancelled the reservation and are refunding. Crying about it won’t change that."

@BritWifeinUSA the OP can refuse to cancel her booking like they are trying to force her to do and let them be penalised instead

@DavidsSchitt thank you! I was ignoring the rude person but appreciate you responding on my behalf.

Good for you! I phoned Airbnb as it ensured they had to do something - and I was reporting abuse as well, which they have to act on.

@Wormwoodgal I will certainly ring if the messaging doesn't get results.

We had something similar happen a few years ago. We think that they'd advertised it elsewhere and managed to let if for more money. At that stage there was little disincentive from Airbnb for hosts to cancel, even at the last minute. We'd booked travel around it, so it was a complete nightmare.

I'd make them cancel it. Very stingy of them to want you to pay extra and highly rude of them to even give you the details of the new agency. They should be honouring the original agreement. Not your fault things have changed. Ignore their request for you to cancel, let them do the work. It's their business.

Yup, sit tight. Suggest that you don't need to cAncel, and are happy to maintain the booking through air BnB as against this other agency.

If she then wants to cancel she needs to go through due process.

Sadly though I don't think you can force them into keeping their commitment legally.

Last summer I booked an airbnb for one night. It was one of the ones you pay up front rather than wait for the host to confirm.

Literally 30 seconds after I booked it I realised I'd put the wrong date in. I realise this was my fault entirely, but it was a genuine error and I tried to rectify it immediately so that no one would be out of pocket.

The host ignored all my messages and I couldn't get a refund.

I think some people are just greedy.

Have you seen this, @AudTheDeepAndCrispAndEven?

www.airbnb.com/help/article/1250/what-should-i-do-if-my-host-needs-to-cancel

@Dailyhandtowelwash That's interesting, thanks!

I let a cottage through AirBnB and I'm always amazed people don't google the name and book direct and would rather pay commission to booking.com or AirBnB - we add between 10-20% to our book direct prices.
AirBnB have changed their fee structure so a lot of people have stopped using them, it sounds like these people may have signed a contract with a new agency and want a blank slate. I think the best you can hope for is let them cancel - definitely don't do it yourself - then complain to AirBnB who may give you a voucher towards something else. Or they might just keep the booking if you won't cancel.

@RubyTuesdayBlues1, I did and it was not possible to book directly.