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.

Sorry to shout but DON'T CANCEL, MAKE THEM CANCEL YOU

The same happened to me with Booking.com. I found a great apartment in London a year in advance at a great price but a few weeks before the trip the owners did something similar. Said it was being renovated.

It turns out that, with Booking.com at least, the owners are liable for the difference in price if they cancel. I think my original booking had been about £250. Booking.com found a similar apartment for about £300. Booking.com refunded the difference and billed the original owners.

Update: I requested that the host cancel through the link the previous poster highlighted. The host has since cancelled. AirBnB have said they've had response to their query to the host. I've had a full refund and although I was unable to book a property in the same area (now all too expensive, or small if affordable), I have managed to book in a less touristy area elsewhere, so at least we are going somewhere! Will be interesting to see if holiday gazumping is a thing this year, or if we were just unlucky.

no response

Good result. Have had a look at the new agency website and see if the property is more expensive through it?

If the host cancels do they still have to pay commission Airbnb?

This happened to me 2 years ago with Airbnb.

I've never been cancelled by a normal agency but was by the host of a property via Airbnb.

They said there was a mistake in the listing and it had been listed too cheaply. They just cancelled the booking, not even telling me the new price in case I was able to afford it. They listed it at the 25% more expensive price and we couldn't rebook at that price but I kept checking and someone did.

We I did a lot of research and on about page 20 of Google found a listing direct with the owner. Did due diligence and managed to get it for £400 less than the original booking and WAY less than the new listed price. AND it was way more central than the other place. Really pleased we went with the second place.

I complained to Airbnb and even left a negative review but it was removed because I 'hadn't stayed there' Yep. Go figure.

Airbnb couldn't have given less of a shit. I no longer book through it.