Good advice, but I don't have to do any of this when I stay at hotels. I really like the core idea of AirBNB, but between their crappy hosts and the damage they do to neighborhoods, I won't deal with them anymore.

I had a similar experience. Airbnb still has not refunded me, and the negative review is still online.

I doubt I will get a refund. But I will certainly never use airbnb again.

Go through your credit card - you can generally get a chargeback if the vendor has been unresponsive.

airbnb could ban you from the platform potentially

Since they said they'll never use airbnb again, that's probably not a concern.