Beware Captains Reach cottage, St. Francis, Eastern Cape

I booked and was charged in full for the rental of a holiday house located in St. Francis, Eastern Cape in December 2017 for 8 days n December 2018. The house is, called Captains Reach, and is advertised on several holiday rental sites. After booking in December 2017 I contacted the responsible person, Alison, who represents the owners, to introduce myself . Alison took 1 month to reply to me by message, despite a telephone call to her in between, only to tell me the price I had paid, and the length of stay, were wrong. I informed her that the owner had allowed an instant book, and Airbnb had accepted the booking, and charged me in full, 1 year ahead of time, based on the terms dictated by the owner. Alison asked me to pay a higher amount per day. To avoid bad feelings, I offered, as a gesture of goodwill to increase my daily price. Alison said she would check with the owner. My booking remained confirmed. I heard nothing back from Alison until late Saturday evening, 17 November 2017, when Alison abruptly cancelled the booking. This is approximately 1 month before my holiday rental begins and almost 11 months, after booking and paying in full for the house rental. I attempted to contact Alison asking her why she cancelled last minute, costing a lot of out of pocket expense to me, to which she rep**** that the owner has withdrawn the property. No other explanation. It appears in favour of a higher rent. This sounds like an owner using Airbnb as a means to auction his holiday home to the highest bidder, with no regard to the personal cost to the people involved. Airbnb do not have very effective cancelation penalties for this type of abuse, which I think should be draconian to discourage both owners and tenants canceling last minute as this is negative to the industry. I beg Airbnb to penalize such owners (and tenants) who abuse the system. And I advise to be aware of Captains Reach cottage I St. Francis, as from my personal experience the owner cannot be trusted to honour an agreement. .