I also was asked, after I pressed ‘pay and proceed’ to take a for photo for verification. I was confused as I’d only recently used Airbnb the other week for an Airbnb experience without this step.
I did the photo but it responded with a message saying something like it was ‘parsed’. No idea what the pop up meant. So then I start to google about ID verification and I notice people are talking about government ID and I think to myself ‘whoops, I’ve stupidly taken a photo of my face, they want government ID page photographed not my face silly ’. So then I go into my settings (and this is where I made a mistake and need customer service to help), I pressed delete photo ID (I thought I was deleting the photo of my face that I had just taken). I needed to delete so that I could send a photo of my passport instead. It did warn me that my booking would be deleted and I didn’t think that I was going to lose any money or lose the booking – I just needed to add the government Id (which was probably there in the first place before I deleted it ?).
After adding, within minutes I begin to see what is happening. I get a cancelled message and also another message saying I will get 17 pounds refund (not 400 pounds). I’m like, what? So I contact the host (perfect storm- totally uninterested or concerned. Just said sorry. Nothing I can do. (?). So then I contact Airbnb through live chat. I explain everything and ask them to confirm the booking and not cancel it. They come back with ‘ the host is refusing to accept a refund’ I reply saying (repeatedly) ‘I’m not looking for a refund, I just want this room confirmed. After all I have paid for it’
Then – nothing.
I have now lost over 400 Uk Sterling. I’m now thinking of changing my flight to return home and cancel the rest of my trip. What a disaster. My last chance is tomorrow using one of the phone numbers that people are putting on google as a chance to speak to a real person. This situation is something a customer service adviser should be able to easily see and stop the refund process. I’m still in shock.