The Dukes, Exclusive Hire

I booked via airbnb with the intention to stay at The Dukes around the Christmas period with my young family. As expected when using airbnb, payment was taken to confirm the booking and stated as non-refundable (but it didn't mention that it wasn't amendable). Unfortunately, the close family member that we were set to see became ill, so much so that it was not safe enough for us to visit them. I contacted The Dukes through a variety of channels (phone call and airbnb) urgently to explain our situation and to try and reschedule our stay and initially heard nothing from them. I then received little response from them. Initially they offered to reschedule our booking but when trying to organise and finalise dates, every response from them was "not available". To avoid all the continuous back and forth, I asked them to let me know of their availability as that seemed the most straightforward and obviously simpler way to go about it and I have since been ignored. If your wanting to offer hospitality to customers, having rooms/studios etc. is an obvious necessity but so is consistent and decent communication. Even if you as a business are not able to fulfil a customers request. It's safe to say The Dukes have been rubbish with regards to communication but very swift on securing payment. The only thing I can review positively is the village in which the pub is situated in, as my grandparents used to live across the road from the pub and I spent many childhood holidays in the area. Stockgrove Country Park is a little up the road and a great area to spend if you have children or lively dogs that need to burn off some energy!