Airbnb & Ursula of Marina, Cape Town

Airbnb listed a property owned by a lady called Ursula that is situated in Marina, Cape Town. After confirming and processing all the payments to check in on 29th December - 5th Jan 2019. I then received an inbox from the owner on the following day of payment claiming that she requires her guests to stay a minimum of 3 months. Now that our reservations are canceled, we have to wait for more than 15 days to get our money back. This is causing an unnecessary delay because accommodation are becoming less by the day.

My question is, why would an owner let his/her property listed on Airbnb to accommodate people that plan to stay for a few days, wait for reservations/payments to be made before they can change their minds to cancel.

Why is Airbnb not taking the responsibility to make sure that our money is returned as quickly as possible or maybe organize an alternative accommodation on behalf of the people that they have inconvenienced.

Now I have to wait for 15 days for my money to be returned. Half a month wasted ?

More and more people write reviews about owners of properties canceling days before they are supposed to check for their holiday trips. This is not on!