Tag Archives: Airbnb last minute cancellation

Beware Airbnb’s Cancellations and Currency Conversions

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I used Airbnb a few years ago for accommodation in New Zealand and it couldn’t have been better – easy to book and great accommodation. The second time I used Airbnb was to book accommodation in Perth last Christmas. I booked months in advance, but the booking was cancelled by the host a few weeks before the trip because he suddenly “wasn’t going to be around.” In other words, best of luck to the customer – go sort it out yourself.

The third time I booked accommodation in Melbourne for July and was stung by Airbnb’s trick of charging in USD (same as many others by the look of it on a “com.au” website. It’s not unreasonable to expect to pay in AUD unless it’s as clear as dog’s balls that you’re not. I requested a refund. The host was okay with it but Airbnb was going to keep over $200 for their so-called service fee. I agreed with the host to shorten my stay to reduce the pain.

A couple of weeks later, my booking was cancelled by the host as they’d decided to “no longer offer short stays.” I wasn’t even informed that it was cancelled; I saw a refund appear in my bank account and had to ask what was going on before they confirmed that it had been cancelled. Classy on every level. This has been the worst online accommodation booking experience ever.

The system used by Airbnb is shakier than my mum’s 12-year-old dog trying to go to the toilet after she’d got to those burritos she shouldn’t have had. The biggest shame is that their website is really good and easy to use. My suggestion is if you find a place you like on Airbnb, see if you can book it via a different booking agent (e.g. one with some principles) as many of these places are also listed on other sites.

To summarize, here are some analogies for you: if Airbnb was buying your Secret Santa gift, you’d get a voucher for a store somewhere in a foreign country that you’d be unable to use, and it would be expired already. If Airbnb was your girlfriend, she’d walk up to you wearing lingerie, tell you to wait in the bedroom for her, then leave you waiting there whilst she went and married someone else. If Airbnb was a rock band they’d be Nickelback.

Last Minute Cancellation, No Response From Airbnb

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Our first ever Airbnb booking was cancelled this morning, two days before we were due to land in London. Airbnb sent a text message saying they had emailed us with an offer of 10% off an alternative booking. No such email arrived. I called them; they said a Case Manager would call me to assist. I called back again two hours later and there was no Case Manager to speak to. I was told a refund could take more than two weeks.

When I made this booking, had I cancelled it even an hour after having made it, I would have been charged 50% of the fee I paid but there is no meaningful compensation for the host having cancelled at the last minute. I have now had to book a hotel in London, costing a lot more, and Airbnb cannot even be bothered speaking to me about what is literally a breach of contract. I have other bookings with Airbnb for this trip throughout Europe and now don’t know whether we will even have accommodation when we get there. This is thoroughly unprofessional, skewed in the hosts’ favour and I will never, ever use Airbnb again.

Last Minute Cancellation by Host in the High Season

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I booked an apartment in Brussels for a seafood expo in April 2018 more than two months in advance knowing that it was high season and all. The host was very responsive at first after we paid through Airbnb, telling us to inform him of the arrival details as soon as possible. Two weeks into the stay, I contacted the host advising him of the arrival details and asked for check in information. I have used Airbnb only in the US – never for Europe – and this time I did not get a prompt reply. I sent again another message and there was still no reply. I tried to call the host and there was no answer. I contacted the host on Whatsapp and after a few days he answered saying that he would give me the information on Sunday, the day I will be flying into Europe from Asia. My stay was for that Tuesday, please bear in mind.

Sunday came and no information from the host. I sent him a message on Whatsapp again; the message was read but there was no reply. On Sunday close to midnight when I was transiting, a message from Airbnb came in saying my host had cancelled. I panicked; it was the busiest season in Brussels and I had no place to stay. I tried calling the host. He did not answer, but just replied: “Sorry, I’m busy!”

I scrambled to find a hotel room at the last minute but the prices were exorbitant or they were full. We ended up paying for a small one-star hotel for five times the price. It was a nightmare for us and for sure we would never recommend Airbnb to anybody. We tried to contact the help center through email and for no replies whatsoever. The conclusion is that we have been lucky with Airbnb all this time and if you ever get into a problem with your booking, well, good luck.

Canceled my booking while I was on my way

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I would not book with this host or Airbnb ever again. She canceled on us five hours before our planned check in. I reserved her apartment eight months in advance. She had even confirmed with me three days prior to the cancellation. I got the text message canceling our reservations on my way to the airport. I was baffled; I thought this must be a mistake.

I called her and she said there was “damage” to the apartment. Airbnb did credit my account and gave me a larger credit than the original price but other than that their customer service was a total fail. I called them three times and spoke to three different representatives; I was disconnected twice. The representative who finally did help me told me to open the app or the website and use the credit to find a replacement myself.

This would have been okay even 24 hours in advance but I was basically at the airport now for a 45-minute flight. The customer service representative asked me for the URL of the other apartments I was looking at. I was using the app; there are no URLs in the app. I told her the name of the listing and she put me on hold for 13 minutes. In the meanwhile, another friend of mine coming on the trip called and booked two rooms in a hotel.

The woman I got on the phone was trying to help me but it was clear that the customer service representatives are not trained in troubleshooting a cancellation on the day of. I was very lucky that we were able to get a place to stay on such short notice. It was high travel season for the city. Most of the accommodations on Airbnb that were available were too small or huge and expensive which the $80 bonus credit was not going to cover.

I really wanted to like Airbnb, but the experience made me appreciate commercial hotel chains. I do not plan on using the app again unless I have a backup place to stay. It’s been four days and I am still waiting for my refund. Even though this cancellation was the fault of Airbnb and they couldn’t adequately address the issue, I still have to wait up to 15 days for my refund.

Stranded for my Bridal Shower and Birthday Celebration

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Today would’ve been the first time I’ve ever used Airbnb. Instead, my birthday celebration and bridal shower were ruined. The last minute cancellation by my host could’ve been handled a lot better by the Airbnb Account manager. They had no integrity and should be banned. They canceled my Instant Book reservation after telling me they were double booked because of spring break and then I found that the same property that left eight women traveling from six parts of the US stranded reposted on the Airbnb website at least five additional times under different descriptions and different names.

After discovering this with several Airbnb staff, this host was charged a $100 penalty while I missed my flight waiting on the promise of help by Airbnb’s customer service team. The olive branch given by Airbnb was expediting my refund which I won’t revive for at least three to five business days and $350 to cover my airline ticket. Honestly that’s not enough to make up for ruining one of the most precious moments I will have in my life, the celebration of my marriage. This will now be the memory I will tell about the bridal shower I never had. I’ll make sure to add the costs of lost plane tickets for my bridesmaids and those who made there flight to the story.

Due to me waiting for a promised call at 9:00 AM EST that never took place I was not able to inform them of the lack of resolution by Airbnb so they would not get on their flight. By the time I finally received a call from a supervisor to provide an update on if additional funds had been approved to secure lodging it was past 12:00 PM, three hours past the time they promised to call me. It took my third time requesting a call back to actually speak to someone and by that time I’d missed my flight.

I am in the process of receiving my funds back (which would happen anyway since the host cancelled) with an additional credit of $350 after I finally got in touch with someone in customer service 3 1/2 hours past the promised time (after requesting a call back via the site). That does not make up for the ineffectiveness of Airbnb to resolve my issue, nor the airfare my guests lost, nor the costs incurred for the guests who made their flights and had to pay for another to return because Airbnb could not step up and assist someone who is a first time user with their platform.

Eight women who made plans to celebrate my life event since November 2017 were displaced and I’m still waiting on my phone call from the account rep in California as promised by Airbnb. Help me understand how I should feel as a first time customer using Airbnb?

Loyal Host Jaded: The Horror Stories are True

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My family and I are staying in Dublin on St. Patrick’s Day and my host just cancelled my reservation. We leave for Ireland in twelve days – do you really expect that I can find reasonable accommodations less than two weeks out? I had been researching neighborhoods and looking at places months in advance.

I am honestly trying to be understanding about this situation because I am an Airbnb host as well as a traveler. I do get that stuff comes up and I definitely know the risks that come with hosting. Airbnb needs to have an insurance policy in place so that you can put people in a decent hotel accommodations when something like this happens. I am so angry with Airbnb that I would have absolutely booked an overpriced hotel just so I have the guarantee that I have a place to stay.

Unfortunately, I am planning this trip for my family. It is their first time out of the country and they cannot afford thousands of dollars for a hotel simply for two nights in Dublin — I had to persuade them to go on this trip in the first place. I had no choice but to book another Airbnb, but I really believe it should be comped for their mistake.

They gave me 100 dollars for my trouble. We just spent $1138.68 for two beds for two nights. It is a much smaller place, a shitty layout and only has one bathroom. It is a farther walk from where we will be spending our time and does not have an in-unit washer and dryer (which was a request from my mother). I am so disappointed in Airbnb. I’ve heard horror stories before, but I guess you just don’t know how it feels until you experience it yourself.

Dream Paris Vacation Turned into Airbnb Nightmare

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My family and I (including our infant son) took a trip in September 2017 to Paris using money we’d been saving for a vacation for over two years. While we were in Paris, we experienced a taste of the terrible experiences that Airbnb has to offer, and a taste was more than enough.

Our first reservation was with a listing that had 42 four- and five-star reviews and was hosted by a French lady. We arrived in Paris around 10:30 AM after traveling almost 24 fours with a tiny baby. The host knew when we would arrive, had our flight details, and told us to call her when we landed. We called her three times with no answer. We went to get a taxi. She finally called us back, said something in French, and hung up on us.

A few minutes later her associate called us back and told us she was busy and to call when we were ten minutes away from the apartment. We called three times from the cab when we were ten minutes away. There was no answer; we left messages. The cab driver dropped us off. We waited ten minutes in the cold with our luggage and the baby before her associate called us back. She finally came after we’d been waiting fifteen minutes in front of her building in the rain.

Once we finally got in to the listing, absolutely everything was covered in mold and the fumes from it gave us instant headaches. This wasn’t safe for our baby so we weren’t going to stay there. We contacted the host via the Airbnb platform and called customer service. Airbnb had trouble verifying my account because their site hadn’t correctly synced my new email address that I changed via Facebook (I signed up for the service originally via Facebook and had never given an email directly to Airbnb).

We quickly found their apartment was full of bugs. Once the customer service representative finally explained a way to verify the email (after twenty minutes of talking) we were successfully verified. He said he would email me so I could reply with the picture evidence of the mold. It took me thirty seconds to find the mold in every room of the apartment. It was on all the curtains, and there was thick black mold in the blinds in the bathroom, water damage in the kitchen, and mold on the bedroom wall. There was no way I was going to spend any time in the apartment with my baby.

Airbnb said they would email us within five minutes. We waited but didn’t receive an email. I called back after ten minutes as we were taking all our suitcases out of the apartment. The representative explained he hadn’t emailed us yet because he was busy on another call, but would email us within five minutes so we could send him the mold pictures. We never received that email, and didn’t get help finding a new place to stay after that first moldy one. My husband, ten-month-old baby and I were sitting with eight suitcases and bags on the street of Paris, shivering in the rain, and trying to figure out where we could go next. We felt stranded, unsafe, extremely unsupported, and very concerned.

We left a review of this listing but it has yet to be posted. It makes me really not trust Airbnb. If I was looking at this place to rent I would really want to know that someone had problems with mold there. It seems like Airbnb censors reviews.

In our study (which I’ll get to) we also found many other reports of censored reviews including some a horrible case that involved sexual assault; Airbnb allegedly told the women that this had nothing to do with the property so it was not part of their policy to allow the review. We were stupid enough to take our chances with Airbnb again, thinking the first experience must have been a fluke.

The next experience was worse: after climbing six flights of stairs with all our bags twice, we got scammed by a shady host with multiple listings for the same property who canceled our reservation in order to force us to pay in cash off the platform. The property was extremely dingy and crappy with a broken bed and broken shower. We felt very trapped. The host managed to convince us to give him a cash deposit for that night and we had to agree since we had no other choice and no place to go.

We contacted Airbnb again and they told us we should leave the scam listing and go to a different Airbnb. They recommended we move to another nearby listing hosted by the same scammer. How bad could their customer service be if they’re recommending we move to another apartment in the same building by the same scam artis?

After a small amount of looking, we found that this host has multiple accounts with different names and the same listing photos over and over. To top it all off, my husband’s credit card information was stolen when he logged in to the wifi at this Airbnb listing after booking a hotel in order for us to escape the scammer. Because it was extremely unrealistic to find another available, clean Airbnb listing that late at night (and how could we trust an Airbnb listing again after the last two were dangerous and nothing like their pictures?), we were out of luck again. That night we were forced to stay in this scam place and got not a wink of sleep due to the broken bed, loud drunken neighbors, and our poor son crying in discomfort.

The next day we ended up having to fork out huge amounts of extra money and all of our 200,000 airline miles (equivalent to $3,000) to pay for a last-minute hotel in a safe neighborhood. In the space of a few days we experienced Airbnb scams, last-minute host cancellations, hosts not showing up, dangerous conditions at a listing, extremely poor customer service, broken promises made by Airbnb (they still haven’t given us our full refund, and it’s six months later), tech failures of the site and app, and failures of Airbnb’s policies to protect its guests all in one trip.

When my husband and I got home we had to ask: is Airbnb safe? This led us to do an in-depth (self-funded) research study (with the help of a PhD in user research) surrounding Airbnb and the experiences shared by over 1,000 other guests. We learned that 3% to 7% of stays go wrong (which means millions of people have problems) and that their customer service is absolutely terrible.

Most importantly, we found that Airbnb allows anyone to be a host, including convicted felons. Even after being “permanently banned,” hosts can just go ahead and create a new account under a different name. It only takes ten minutes and it’s completely unregulated, as there’s nothing in place to verify hosts’ identities – no ID requirement, and they don’t even have to use real names.

If you would like to read our article and our published study, you can find it on our website here. We also have a video exposing the scammer who got us and we have documented four different Airbnb accounts of his which were created within six weeks, all using the same listing photos. In this video we also show examples in London and New York of multiple accounts listing the same property. It took us less than ten minutes to find just these few examples, which leads us to believe that Airbnb is full of such scams.

Airbnb Host Spying On Guests With Audiovisual Equipment?

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When I made our reservation with Airbnb, I took advantage of their “Pay Less Up Front” program. I paid for only half the reservation at booking, and about two weeks later, I paid the rest. Who would know this would come back to bite me in the end? Let me back up a bit.

My group and I planned to meet at the airport for our flights to Atlanta at 11:00 AM Friday morning. Our flight was from about 1:00-3:00 PM and we were scheduled to check into the house we rented at 5:00 PM that day. At exactly 11:13 PM on the Thursday night before the trip, I received a heart-stopping message from my host:

“Dear Kayla, I am hoping you will get this. Airbnb Customer Service is getting in touch with you, as well. I am having huge septic tank issues and there is sewage in the house. I am not allowed to safely have anyone stay at this home. I have tried to let you know much earlier but Airbnb’s website would not let me cancel or notify you. I had to call Airbnb to cancel and they are now trying to notify you. I am so sorry for the inconvenience to your trip! Thank you for your kind understanding!”

Let me just put this out there: I had been in constant contact with the host, letting her know our arrival and departure times, and just discussing other little things related to the booking. I was just baffled as to how it was that she was unable to contact me until 11:13 PM the night before I was scheduled to stay with her. I thought it best that I not respond to her, as I know my words would not have been kind or understanding.

Instead, I immediately contacted Airbnb who had not even called me yet. The representative had no clue what I was talking about. The reservation was active and there were no notes on the account stating that it should be cancelled. She had to hang up with me and call the host to verify. Meanwhile, she told me to look for other listings and reach out to the hosts of the ones I like to see if they could take me at the last minute. Another blank stare moment.

Once Airbnb spoke to the host, she called me back and asked me if there were any listings that I saw that I liked. I explained to her that since I was looking to book something on what was now the same date I was expecting to arrive, that the prices were much more expensive than what I had paid. The only listing I found with a host that was willing to take my party at such short notice was $400 more expensive than what I had paid. Airbnb only gave me a $200 coupon, leaving me to come up with $200 more than what I had paid, all for something that was not my fault.

What the representative said next is what really blew my mind. I was informed that because I paid for the booking in two installments, instead of them transferring the money I’d already paid onto the new reservation, they had to charge me for the new one and I had to wait for the refund for the cancelled one. After escalating to a supervisor, I was told that the funds would be released to my bank in 1-2 hours and all I had to do was call the bank so they could make it available to me.

While speaking with my bank I learned that was hogwash and poppycock, told to pacify me and get me off the phone. Meanwhile, my account was severely overdrawn and I still had a flight to catch in the morning. To make matters worse, I only got an automated confirmation of a refund about the first half of my payment, which finally posted to my account on Tuesday. I never received an automated confirmation about the second refund. When I inquired via chat about the second portion of the refund, I was told the funds were never received.

Like I said, when I booked the reservation, I paid half upfront. I received several confirmation and reminder emails that the second half would be charged on Thursday, December 18th. Airbnb charged my account for the second payment on Wednesday December 17th, and sent me a confirmation email dated for Thursday, December 18th, thanking me for my payment.

What the heck is going on at Airbnb? Why are they charging folks earlier than they should, and sending confirmations for a later date? The first representative I spoke to that Wednesday night, when I called in irate about being prematurely charged, processed a refund for that payment. I escalated to a supervisor because I did not want to be charged again on the correct date while waiting for a refund, since that would mean double the amount would be taken from my account. The supervisor then cancelled the refund, kept the money and compensated me for my overdraft fees.

Fast forward to 2:00 AM last Friday, the day of my trip, when I was going back and forth with Airbnb. After reading the message that the second payment was never received, I demanded the supervisor I had been speaking with call me back. She called me back and told me the last message was an error; they did receive the second payment and they did process the refund. She typed an email to me confirming the two refunds and their respective amounts. A week later, I have not received the second refund. If they were both processed at the same time, shouldn’t they be in my account by now?

The madness does not stop there. The new host that I booked with was freaking me out from the beginning. She asked me the purpose of my trip, and constantly drilled that she lives in a conservative neighborhood and that her home is not a “party house”. I understood that – no one wants to have problems with their neighbors. However, the first red flag came when she asked me how my guests and I know each other. I let her know we’re coworkers and classmates, but I could not understand what that had to do with anything.

The second red flag came when she called me before we checked in. She let me know that once I got to the house, I would hold my license up to the camera at the doorbell, she’d verify my identity and give me a code to put in the keypad and gain access to the house. No problem. The issue is that she said the latch on her door “sticks”. She said we’d have to hold the latch tightly and push really hard on the door to get in. Every time we went to go inside the house, it literally felt like we were breaking in. I’m so glad we had two strong guys with us, because if not, I doubt us ladies would have been able to get in.

The third issue arose when we returned to the house Saturday night at about 2:00 AM and attempted to turn on the downstairs heater. It was 27 degrees outside. We are South Floridians who are not used to the cold, so we were beyond shocked when we tried to turn the heater on and discovered that the thermostat was now asking for a PIN number. I felt bad about contacting the host at such an hour, but heat in such conditions is like a basic human right. It couldn’t wait.

I practically found myself in an argument with this woman. The most unsettling part about this text exchange was the realization that she was eavesdropping on me and my guests. Notice her comment to me about her power bill. I never mentioned anything to her about it, but one of my guests had just said the reason she blocked us from adjusting the temperature was because she did not want to have to pay a high power bill. It was so scary that she turned around and mentioned it. She claims she was just clarifying, but who clarifies something like that without a question being asked?

We learned that the system she used to identify me at the door and remotely adjust the thermostat is called NEST and it provides clear audio and visual surveillance. I’m still creeped out by this. To make matters worse, the house smelled dank and musty when we first got there. We had to spray everything down with Febreeze. The host only gave us one set of towels each for the weekend. Imagine being a person that is used to changing towels daily, and having to use the same towel all weekend.

She claimed she had a cleaning crew but the house was horribly dusty. There was broken glass on the floor in one of the bedrooms and dog hair everywhere. The pots, pans and dish sponges were filthy. We had to buy dish detergent and new sponges so we could properly clean the dishes and cook our breakfast. I did my very best to overlook this situation, but Airbnb nearly ruined my birthday that I had spent months planning.

I cannot believe that a company that is supposedly the standard in home rentals is so careless and irresponsible with its guests and with who they allow to host. I’ve since learned that Airbnb does not even do background checks on its hosts. What if the lady that hosted us is some kind of sick voyeur and records or watches the people that she rents her home to all the time? I will never, ever, deal with Airbnb again.

Stranded With Young Children At Night In London

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I booked a three-bedroom flat in Limehouse Basin on Airbnb about two months in advance of the stay. We were taking the three children to London as their Christmas present to visit Hamleys and do some sightseeing. We were in the taxi on our way to the flat when host suddenly cancelled the booking without warning, claiming the place had been ‘trashed’ by the previous guests. Amazingly this was only discovered at 4:00 in the afternoon. Airbnb did nothing whatsoever to help; they left me on hold for 15 minutes with a fast draining battery and wouldn’t answer messages or ring me back. You can imagine how we felt being stranded in central London, with three children under ten and the best Airbnb could do was offer an extra £30 and a link to the app. Be very very wary booking with Airbnb – their support and help has been non existent. I also discovered I couldn’t leave a review for the host (she has ten properties listed on Airbnb) to warn others.

Bait and Switch at San Diego Corporate Lodging

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I reserved a penthouse in San Diego two months ahead of my visit. I arrived early in the day last Friday and went to eyeball the property at the address in the email. I felt odd as the view from the posting could not have been from the same address. There was no pool or spa and I felt like bad things were about to happen to my weekend. My host sent to me an address nearby.

About an hour before checking in, the host cancelled and I was offered another Airbnb and a 10% credit if I chose one of the offered locations. None had a view like the penthouse did. I went to the address the host provided to find out they had a very strict policy against Airbnb in the building. They only lease to corporate clients and when I showed them the pictures they confirmed it was their building.

They were pissed. I had been baited with the pictures and the view. They tried to switch me to another lesser property claiming maintenance issues. What a load of garbage. All the people I spoke to at Airbnb were the same, amateurs acting like they knew what they were doing. My trust level left me and I went to a hotel never to use Airbnb again. These bait and switch artists should be arrested for fraud.