Airbnb will always side with the host if possible, because hosts are much more valuable to their platform than guests. I had a similar situation a couple years

Airbnb will always side with the host if possible, because hosts are much more valuable to their platform than guests. I had a similar situation a couple years ago when Santa Cruz was hit with catastrophic flooding; despite providing them with plenty of evidence that the place I was trying to visit qualified for a refund, Airbnb refused to give me one (telling me I needed to get one from the host, who was also not obliging) in clear violation of their policies. They also later deleted a negative review I left detailing said interactions with the host as "off topic." Thankfully there's always the option to do a credit card chargeback, but such experiences make it pretty clear how little these platforms actually care about their customers.