Walked from airbnb
 

Hi all, longtime ft lurker here coming out of the shadows.:cool:

Anyone ever get walked from an Airbnb? I guess my question is, there really is no recourse, is there? Or at least I was made to feel like there was none...I am curious what others have experienced...

Arrived last night for a long weekend with my DH, 7pm, after flying and driving to Airbnb (in US)...only to find host showing around her, um, other? guests (they had rented via an competitor site). In the moment there was really no recourse...airbnb and host tried their best to find a replacement Airbnb (but in a limited rental area over holiday weekend I wasn't holding my breath). After waiting a couple hours and calls with Airbnb, was offered $150 reimbursement for my first night's hotel due to inconvenience (whatever hotel that would be when 9pm came around and I realized I was sol, and certainly no hotel here is near that cost), was ultimately told I can find another Airbnb in area or could just be refunded everything, essentially, or I could get the full amount as credit plus a small additional (10%) credit for future use.

I know the host felt horrible, truly, and certainly this was an accident, but as a traveler who plans such things 5 months in advance so I won't have to deal with last minute issues like this...well...I was cranky. Fortunately found a great inn for a couple nights so I feel like the romantic getaway was saved and I'm fine, first world problems, but I'm just trying to gauge what I need to do if this happens again....did I have any other option?

This sucks, and I'm glad you were able to salvage the trip, but I am a bit confused on how it happened that the host didn't realize ahead of time that she had double-booked the space. First of all, Airbnb sends hosts emails about a week before every stay reminding them of the reservation, and secondly, weren't you in contact with the host about check-in shortly before your arrival? Did you have zero communication between booking 5 months in advance and showing up at the door?

IME, not really.

I've had AirBnB issues over the past couple years with service recovery ranging from poor to mediocre but never spectacular. The company claims to just be a booking service, not a lodging provider, so there are no real rules about such things. It is part of the risk we take with such bookings.

Believe me, I was confused, too. I had messaged the host prior to the stay, saying I would be arriving at x time, she had responded back confirming and inquiring if I needed anything additional upon arrival (no, just a bed, Thanks), etc. However, upon my arrival, she was showing around someone else who she claimed she thought was me, as we have similar names (that's the excuse, though we do clearly have different names, appearances)...the host says she closed down using a competitor booking service long ago, but apparently not all that long ago if the other guests were still able to book. I mean, I don't know why the host turned us away if she is trying to keep her Airbnb reviews all positive and she didn't really care about the now shut down competitor option, but that's just my strategically oriented perspective I guess.

I guess the lesson learned is to perhaps be even more proactive prior to the stay and firmly confirm thorough details a couple weeks out...

Thanks, at least for confirming I'm not crazy:rolleyes:
At least now I am on the alert from here on out.

You don't get to leave the negative review because your booking was canceled. Been there, done that. :mad:

The only recourse is to book with "superhost," they will cancal on you for the fear of losing their superhost status. They tend to view booking with the long view and tend to not be as short sighted. Sadly that's the best advice for using airbnb.

Yes, as sbm12 says, you did the right thing and, I think, got as good an outcome as you're going to get out of a situation like that. Airbnb has been very good for me (as a host and a guest) but it is definitely not perfect. And my advice is the same as justaagirl's: only book with Superhosts. Even one cancellation will cost Superhosts their status, so they are very unlikely to cancel on you.

That is true and it's infuriating. I will say though that a cancellation by a host is noted on the list of reviews--it will say "this reservation was cancelled by the host." So if you look through all of the reviews for a property and see any of those, you know who you're dealing with.

Good advice about the superhost aspect, although I just double checked and this Airbnb host happens to be a superhost, so....I guess I simply cannot expect perfection all the time. ;)

Ugh. Well, she won't be one as of Oct. 1, when Airbnb does its quarterly recalculation of the Superhost stats. Did she actually cancel the rental or somehow manage to weasel out of doing it (e.g. asked you to cancel from your side instead)? If it's the latter, I would urge you to contact Airbnb customer service and make sure they count the cancellation toward her stats. It really irks me (I am a Superhost myself) when unscrupulous/incompetent hosts do this sort of thing.

I have seen so many suspects from Airbnb and still am using Airbnb. I have not found any issue with that company everything is fine.