I booked this trip in the autumn of 2021 for my husband’s birthday. Unfortunately, heavily pregnant and very sick in late December, I was not able to travel and had to cancel my flights. I asked Sophie whether I could change my check in dates a week or so before check-in as opposed to cancelling as I still really wanted to stay at the flat.
It was within the deadline for changes and I nudged her for an answer so that I had time to cancel if she said no. But she asked about dates and agreed on my suggestion, opening up the calendar so that I could change the dates to my preferred ones.
Unfortunately there was a technical glitch and my changes did not register on the system. A couple of days later I noticed check-in emails for the original dates from Airbnb and I contacted Sophie, to confirm that my dates had indeed changed.
She informed me that my new dates had not registered on the system. I was mortified as I had definitely adjusted my booking- and unsure as to why she hadn’t prompted me, knowing that I had cancelled my flights a week earlier and would definitely have no way to be able to make the booking.
Cut a long story short, technically the deadline had passed (by a day or so I believe), and despite knowing that I had cancelled my flights and tried to change my dates, this host refused to manually alter the booking citing the technicality as her reason and saying it was short notice- despite my consistent and timely communication and her full knowledge of the situation in good time.
Airbnb tried to contact her to discuss the issue but told me that they were unable to convince her to change the booking. This was very much her call and out of their hands.
So I hope that 2022 is full of the kindness, compassion and understanding that she showed a heavily pregnant, sick woman trying to organize a trip to her hometown in the middle of a pandemic. Happy new year, Sophie.