Airbnb can't assist with refund no listing of negative review. No airbnb for me henceforth.
We are a family of five with kids aged 14, 9 and 6. We booked for place in Knysna a place hosted by a guy called Ashley. His listing states "Stunning 3 bedroom Villa above the Knysna lagoon". The cost is over R4000 per night. We booked 2 nights. The hots sent a message via the app to direct us where to get the key and who to contact should the need arise as the host had travelled. We arrived in Knysna late afternoon to find a place that is very dusty, no fresh line, sheets that were washed that day placed over the beds to dry and left there, used washing rag on one bed, used soap on one bedroom coffee table. We contacted the person refereed to immediately, she apologised to say that was her fault she was supposed to prepare the place for guests. We were stranded with no accommodation, we had to find alternative accommodation, which we could only get in PE some 260km away. We had to drive through the night with kids to the next town after a long drive to get there. We notified Ashley via messages and via the contact he gave us that we would need our money back and we are cancelling. We then  cancelled on the Airbnb app, which then indicated no refund policy however we can request full refund from the host. We did the request for full refund from the host via the app. The app then indicates that airbnb will wait 72hours before they get involved if the is no agreement between us and the host. I then followed up with airbnb 72 hours later, they said i should have notified them within 24hours, now they have already paid the host and the host is refusing to refund. I wrote a negative review about the apartment, my review is not showing on the listing of this property. So airbnb basically cannot assist you very much with refunds, they are not even listing my review to help other travellers. Bad service from airbnb and the host. That apartment should not be on airbnb in its current status. The view is great though.