You did not get shafted for following the rules. You got “shafted” for the damage.

A more accurate title would have been “Airbnb tried to collect money for alleged damages without my consent” or “AirBNB attempts to charge my account without consent for alleged damages after I denied their request to do so.”

Starting off by indicating that you were punished for following rules makes me wonder if someone can trust that your story is accurate or if you are someone who often twists and changes things to create a new version of a story that you prefer for people to believe.

Also, no one should ever attempt to automatically withdraw from someone’s account without at least their FULL knowledge of it possibly happening first, regardless of situation, in most cases. Especially don’t do it if I denied a request the first time! I want to be FULLY AWARE of any attempt to withdraw funds from my account BEFORE the attempt is made. I don’t want it to be implied that I should know it would happen because I automatically agreed to a circumstantial agreement by making reservations, etc. If I cannot be reached, that’s a different story. But, if I find out an attempt to collect money from my account will occur, I will definitely be reachable in some way, especially if I believe it is an unfair or unjust charge.