Deactivated Account and Then Charged for Airbnb

I was booked in an Airbnb in Maputo in November with my then boyfriend who happens to be Mozambican. I never met the hostess but was “taken care of” by her house girl. I never saw a guard on the premises but I think there was one at night.

I stayed in a small guest house at the back of the property. My boyfriend and I had a falling out and so he was trying to reach me and rung the bell on a number of occasions (complaint #1 from the hostess). I asked the house girl if she could do some laundry and she said only if I stay one week. I did my own laundry by hand (complaint #2 by the hostess “asking for laundry when the rules were clear on the Airbnb posting”). I also asked the house girl if I could cook somewhere on the premises. She called the hostess and I was told no (complaint #3 by the hostess).

When I tried to book another Airbnb some days later I was informed that my account had been deactivated with no reason given why (I later checked the hostess review and saw the above). I was not given any chance to tell my side of the story.

I have sent more than ten requests to Airbnb for a chance to discuss the situation via their ridiculous system; it was impossible to talk to anyone on the phone and when I did all they said was that they could see I had a number of “tickets”. They were unable to deal with them as that was beyond their authority.

More recently I tried again to set up a new account. It appeared to be working so I tried to book a place in Kingston, Jamaica. As it was about to be booked I received a message saying my account had been deactivated. I then booked a non-refundable hotel in Kingston. 24 hours later I received an Airbnb confirmation welcoming me to Jamaica. I was shocked because I had already booked a room elsewhere.

I saw I was still within the time frame to cancel; I tried to cancel and was told I could not do anything as my account was deactivated. I called the host. He said he could not cancel at his end but I told him I was not coming and he could rebook the dates.

I received a message telling me to give a review for the stay that never happened. I tried to review (to say it was terrible to try and get a response) and I received a message saying someone would contact me in 24 hours. That was three days ago. Now I have a stupidly deactivated account and a charge for a three-day stay that never happened. What can I do?