I made a booking with Airbnb in December 2018 and ...

I made a booking with Airbnb in December 2018 and paid half the amount in advance. I was later contacted by the agent for the host and told that he required the apartment for two days of my booking and they would move me during the stay to an alternative apartment. This was not acceptable as I consider the host inconveniencing the customer in this way, bad business practice. I then asked for a discount due to the trouble and made an offer. The agent failed to confirm the dates or provide a discount acceptance. After contacting Airbnb, a number of times with no resolution or confirmation; I cancelled the booking. Airbnb tried to take a service fee from the payment which included cleaning, even though we had cancelled well in advance due to their poor business practice, which we considered a breach of contract. We later found out that the Airbnb policy was to give a discount and the agent withheld this. We threatened to sue and finally received a full refund. I would not use this organization again and other reviews I have read paint a very poor picture with both customers and hosts complaining. You do not make money in business by acting in this way and they fell short of acceptable business standards in this matter. Hosts who think that they can treat customers any way they want to, may occur and if Airbnb does not properly intervene then these sorts of problems will continue, with it sure to impact on their business. I therefore do not recommend using this organization, customer service is still in its infancy as seen from this experience.