Well, this is some way similar to the experience I had when renting through AirBNB in Rio de Janeiro during carnival. We were 4 people and booked a place with two bedrooms which said it accommodates 4 people. Sounds right.<p>When we showed up at the place, there were just 3 beds - a double bed in one room and a single bed in another.<p>Mind you, this being carnival season and stuff, we were paying a handsome amount for our rental. However, when we got in touch with the host (he lives in the US with his wife, a care taker opened the house for us..) he refused to acknowledge the issue. He said: "There's a couch in the living room, one of you can sleep there - that way the house accommodates 4 people".<p>So we got in touch with AirBNB support who said they would find us another place. Of course they couldn't - everything is sold out during carnival. So, they finally decided to refund the "AirBNB fee" to us (about USD 54) so that we could use it to buy an inflatable mattress to put on the floor.<p>I asked them why they couldn't give us a full refund considering this was absolutely unacceptable as they should take responsibility for incorrect listings that lead to situations like this. (for what it's worth, Expedia, etc. have a far higher standard of customer service when it comes to stuff like this) They replied saying that the host had already been paid out - as if that's our problem.. =/<p>Anyway, we had no choice but to stay so we did indeed buy an inflatable mattress... AirBNB's customer support however was pretty terrible and the host was a complete asshole to us.
hey everyone, I have looked into this and a few things are going on here.<p>(1) Turns out there was a bug in our system where a guest was actually allowed to double-book this host's listing, so this was our fault. The host did not cancel, we double-booked. We are fixing this bug now, and I haven't heard of any other guests being affected by this.<p>(2) I just want to note this is a statistically rare event (though by reading comments some of you have experienced this), which is why we probably haven't spent enough time trying to solve this, but we should.<p>(3) I agree with the author that our cancelation policy is not adequately balanced on both sides of the transaction. Our team has actually been developing a better system for some time, and we should have a more balance policy soon - unfortunate this happened though. Right now, when a host cancels a booking, there is an automated review left on their listing saying this happened, a penalization in their search rankings, and if they chronically cancel, they are removed from our platform; but I agree we could do more here. The changes we are making will hopefully lower the frequency of these instances occurring going forward. Open to feedback here, and if a host has canceled on you I would love to get your feedback on how we handled it.<p>(4) In the event that a host does cancel, I think we can do more to provide protection and peace of mind to the guest for their trip. We have a Guarantee for hosts, so we are looking at what an equivalent version would be for guests. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
> <i>"I can’t even leave feedback... as we never got to stay there."</i><p>I think this is a bigger deal than the cancellation -- the fact that, on a site that's all about reputation, there's no reputation hit for a host canceling someone's rental. Airbnb should create a feedback system that allows feedback to be given for various steps of the process, not just the stay itself.
If you think this is bad, wait until you see what regular hotels can do to you during busy season.<p>Most hotel chains have a "frequent guest" program. One little-known feature of those programs is that people with the highest status can "bump" other guests from the hotel when the hotel is full with about 24 hours advance notice. Now, usually they'll give you a free night or two in exchange for that happening to you, but it doesn't help you that night.<p>Regardless, this is a hazard of traveling anywhere and relying on someone else for a place to stay. It is by no means unique to Airbnb, and hotels do it all the time (and often with much less notice.)
Airbnb should have a public % number for hosts for both acceptance rate for "open" dates on their calendar and for cancellations.<p>I was traveling the world for the last 9 months and we fairly quickly stopped using AirBnB in favor of Booking.com and Agoda (which had hotels, guesthouses, and even hostels if you're so inclined).<p>Host behavior was the problem. We'd contact a place that supposedly had an opening. Nope. Contact another. Nope. Contact a third. Yes, but they work until 10pm so we need to go find them for a key. AirBnb was an amazing experience when it worked, but time-intensive and frustrating for most transactions.
One thing that I cannot find on AirBNB is how to post a review and attach photos to it. Is it possible? On several occasions the apartments were not even remotely the same as in the photographs. (For example, on photos they look spacious and clean, in real life they are not.)<p>Amazon customers can upload their photos of the stuff they bought. This functionality is really something we need.<p>I think that AirBNB by doing things like this gives the hosts too much power (which in turn they abuse).
Funny, this mirrors my first Airbnb experience from a year and a half ago: <a href="https://bgentry.io/blog/2012/07/18/my-first-airbnb-experience" rel="nofollow">https://bgentry.io/blog/2012/07/18/my-first-airbnb-experienc...</a><p>Sad to hear that the experience hasn't gotten any better when a host cancels on you, especially when it's at the last minute.<p>I wonder if the issues with hosts' calendars not being up-to-date are still as big of an issue. Airbnb hosts are incentivized to <i>not</i> update their calendars because it gives them an avenue to direct you to their other properties.
My attempt to book an apartment with AirBNB in Helsinki for Slush.org last year ended up in 3 cancelations (people got better offers) and us staying in a hotel.
No word from AirBNB support.<p>I am sadly not going to use AirBNB agin to big events.
In October I had a host cancel on me with in 7 days of arrival. The host did not want to cancel through the AirBnB system because of fees I presume, instead they western union'ed me a refund....but it took several days for us to work out the logistics on the transfer. It worked out because I was able to book another (better) apartment, albeit for a higher fee, and I received the refund before I left for the trip. Handling situations where the host does not cancel through the system did not seem intuitive and resulted in me searching for a phone number to contact AirBnb and make them aware of the situation in case the host was scamming.<p>I'll be traveling internationally for a couple of weeks in the fall and using AirBnb for much of that trip. Deep down I have a feeling that at least one of the rentals will have a choppy transaction. Until they tighten up on holding hosts accountable and make the transfer of the key more uniform and streamline there will always be a degree of uncertainty.
Yes, I have had this same exact experience and worse. One host started insulting my girlfriend and kept suggesting I cancel if I didn't like the place. Total bull. I lost the whole payment and STILL couldn't leave review.
any party in almost any such setting, including hotels, could cancel two months in advance without fees. I really don't know what the big deal is.
Last time we used Airbnb was for an apartment in Copenhagen. We found out when we arrived that instead of the "Whole apartment" as it was listed, we would be in one room and sharing the rest of the place with the owner and her daughter. Airbnb didn't do anything to help us; we just stuck with it and vowed to be more careful next time.
I can't tell; did this guy lose 50% of his $1200 or not?<p>If he did and AirBnB is just keeping it, shame on them. That's gross incompetence and people should rightly boycott.<p>If he didn't, he should fix the article to show that in fact AirBnB isn't grossly incompetent.
Its inconvenient but not THAT bad as you didn't loose the money.<p>I had a worse experience with Airbnb, they simply cancelled my reservation and closed my account a few days before my travel and refused to give a valid reason.<p><a href="http://nidalalhariri.com/post/55999109847/how-airbnb-closed-my-account-and-refused-to-give-a" rel="nofollow">http://nidalalhariri.com/post/55999109847/how-airbnb-closed-...</a>
This was my experience about a year ago in Ft Lauderdale, FL. In my case, it meant doubling the expense to get a hotel since by the time they cancelled, most hotels were already booked.<p>I'd say AirBNB is to be avoided for anything remotely critical (conference, wedding, etc.) If it's just a leisure trip with friends, it might be OK.
I understand the sentiment, there should be some way to flag the listing on AirBNB or penalize the renter, but lets be fair to the renter and leave their address out of the post. I'm sure everyone is breaking leases and condo regulations to give out a discount to us.