To think Airbnb run a terrible business by doing this?

[SmallDucks]

I wanted to book a place for me and the kids the weekend just gone.
Found a place available for the days we wanted, I couldn't book it without paying.

I had never used it before so figured this was the norm. So I paid £600.

15 minutes later I get a message from the host to say it's not available.

But my money has been taken and having spoken to someone from Airbnb I won't get my refund for 5-15 working days.

Which meant I had no money to take my kids away.

Surely this is a fucking terrible way to run things?

That’s appalling. I wasn’t aware that was how they ran. Could you tweet them?

Won't help for this time but the trick is to message the owner enquiring about the dates; this lets them preauthorise you. They need to respond quickly, within c.24hrs, so still works within a few days of a trip.

I didn't even know that was an option, I just believed it when it said it was available.

That's on the host which is their fault and they will get a strike for cancelling.
you can always part pay with Airbnb and it should have given you that option at the end instead of paying 100% outright.

Airbnb don't give a shit. They're raking it in for minimal outlay.

Nightmare. I’m sorry OP.

It's pretty much the same with all booking sites like that, I work in a hotel and if you book through a 3rd party site, we don't get the money until the day after you check in, so we wouldn't be able to refund you what we haven't got in a similar situation, and they can also be quite glitchy when 'talking' to the booking software too, they overbook us a lot more than they should, then send us an email to sort out the 'booking conflict' they've created and we're the ones who look incompetent.
But they're extremely popular and a lot of people use them so they're a bit of a necessary evil.

I'm not sure if Airbnb works the same way, but I suspect it's similar, but they don't really have a vested interest in it past their commission, if a property is made to look bad due to their screw up and the guests being let down, that doesn't really affect them so they aren't that invested in it.
But yeah, it's a shit way to do it for both sides.

Yes, its a poor business practice. They also need to standardise their extra fees, such as cleaning, and the mysterious "service charges" which get added on top and which vary hugely.

Airbnb are absolute scammers. It's insane that they make you wait so long for a refund when you booked in good faith.

I wouldn't use them again if I had kids. I take the risk when it's just me, because if it all goes tits up I can find some shit hostel room or cheap hotel, but you can really be left in the lurch for a variety of reasons.

One place I was staying long term had issues with the plumbing in the building. The toilet in the flat downstairs stopped working properly and the host thought it was acceptable to wait until the guests arrived (at 11pm!) to tell them. She had booked them into the hostel across the road, but they didn't want a hostel...they had 2 little kids and were relying on the kitchen facilities and living room! I could hear her telling them the hostel was great but obviously if they'd wanted to stay there, they would have booked it! She couldn't understand why they weren't happy because she was paying for the hostel and refunded their Airbnb cost...I had to explain to her if she'd told them the day before, they could have booked another Airbnb and not had their holiday ruined, because a family of four crammed into a bunkbeds in a noisy hostel isn't what they wanted! The poor sods were only away for a long weekend, and most of their first day was spent finding another Airbnb and moving to it.

There are just too many morons in the world to trust a setup that relies on ordinary people to be competent. At least with a hotel chain, you can escalate.

Can you not get the money back through the credit card or bank?

Absolutely dreadful.

This has happened to me twice, with food shopping. I don't live in the easiest location to find as my house isn't visible from the main road. I've had two massive food shops not deliver and then been told they can't refund me for five days.... which meant I had no food in!!

The other day my DH was charged twice for a train ticket - 7 working days for a refund. Ticket was something like £120. These companies are set up function for people who have money lying around!

Sorry about your weekend away op.

The air bnb host has probably accepted a booking on another platform and forgotten to block out the dates on air bnb. It's a disgrace that it will take so long to refund you though.

Has the refund been “processed” already? If so, hopefully the 5-15 days is the usual overly cautious timeframe and In actual fact it’ll be more like 2-3 days (which my refunds usually are). Still shitty either way but hopefully not as bad as they’re saying.

Airbnb don't give a shit. They're raking it in for minimal outlay

Yeah, their booking fees are absolutely criminal. They often grab £100+ on a single booking for basically doing fuck. Monopolise the market and then price gouge for all they’re worth. I appreciate that staying in a apartment/home can offer a different experience, but increasingly find myself swinging back to hotels/apartments through booking.com etc. Airbnb must be among the greediest most shameless companies on the planet.

as pp says, speak to your bank or card provider; they can get the money back a lot quicker (and charge the company extra for doing it).