ESSENWOOD HOUSE DURBAN TAKING PEOPLE FOR A RIDE

On the 28 November 2019 my partner (Stephen Baladzi) made a booking via bookings. Com to Essenwood for the 6-7 December 2019.As we had a trip to Pietermaritzburg but decided to spend the night at Durban. Booking was confirmed and the property debited the full amount R518,40. After a day or two they called to say they are fully booked and that we will get a refund within 5 working days. It's been 15 days now since we booked and still haven't received our money. On Monday the 9th of December we called and they said its not their fault but that of bookings.com and we should enquire with them, we still did that knowing very well that bookings.com does not handle payment of any property.

How does a property take customers money without checking first if they are fully booked or not?