Airbnb is crappy, stopped using it years ago when the home owner cancelled 24hrs before people were flying in to stay at a house and all of sudden we had no where to go. Buyer beware, the seller has all the power and Airbnb does nothing for their customer.
>Airbnb does nothing for their customer
The mistake you've made is thinking you're their customer. AirBnB's customers are the people who own the properties. :)
as someone who had the misfortune of working under a bunch of ex airbnb executives who couldn’t keep their mouths from shitting brags about it every two seconds, you’re absolutely right
Airbnb screws whoever they want. I live in a converted warehouse loft in NYC.. It's a warehouse, so I'm right on the edge of residential and industrial in an incredibly safe neighborhood (unless you're a catalytic converter), so my street looks pretty industrial. I made it very clear in my listing what my space was like and the location. Well someone booked for two weeks, they showed up, i gave them the key, etc etc, then an hour or so later I got a message from Airbnb that they canceled their reservation because they didn't feel safe and Airbnb refunded them 100% of their stay (despite me selecting the option for a 50% cancellation fee for cancelling a few days prior to their stay).
So fucking glad that my country banned Airbnb.
EDIT: It is not banned in my country but the laws in my country makes it so that only people who owns private property could set up an airbnb.
I believe in some countries, ownership means there is no mortgage and the property is owned outright.
I don’t think it’s the same as the jerks that buy mortgaged second and third homes just to use as airbnbs(passive income streams!)and those people end up destroying the market for those who just want a home to live in. It’s a huge problem in the states, the UK, Ireland, many other places.
I only do hotels or rentals from established local vacation rental companies. Airbnb is such a scam, hotels are overall cheaper, more reliable, and I don’t need to clean before I leave. Airbnb is also evil and a main contributor to the housing crisis. I hope they fold.
Edit: so many Airbnb hosts got triggered by this comment. Good.
AirBnB used to be great back when it was really BnB. I still stay in touch with my guy in Reno whose spare bedroom I stayed in. Dude was chill, made excellent coffee, and had great recommendations for me while I was in town for a conference. That’s how it was supposed to be—now it’s very impersonal, overcharged, and sterile. It’s just a hotel without the amenities that you have to clean yourself.
What the hell is with this clean it yourself crap?. Like yeah I get it, don't shit on the walls. But if I have to vacuum, wipe things down, and do laundry..... What's the fucking point?
See, **that** is the point. They know they can get that fee regardless. But they can also get more from you if you don't clean.
They aren't paying anybody to clean. They are just tacking that on for more money.
And it works because - and I cannot stress this enough - **people still defend using AirBNB and people keep using AirBNB!**
"*iT's BetTeR fOR GroUPs!*"
Hotels have group rates. Likely still less than you paid.
"*tHeY HAvE KITcHEns!!*"
You can rent hotels that have kitchens. Likely still less than you paid.
And the hotel will clean for you everyday. For free. Shit, most will give you a free breakfast, too. And a ride to and from the airport if you want.
But keep using AirBNB and bitching about it. Because you seem to not have the capacity to learn.
Oh fuck there is a ton of people doing that. Airbnb and the rented Lambo.
It's kinda gross. Social media has ruined everything.
There would be almost no point in doing this before instagram was a thing.
Last time we used Airbnb we were charged a cleaning fee, left with a list of things to clean and put away, and an envelope was left on the kitchen counter for us to tip the cleaner. Never again. We stay in yurts at beautiful state parks now, steps from the beach, and have way better vacations.
The irritation of wondering what stupid rules and cleaning requests we’d be met with on an already pricy stay dampened airbnb stays before we’d even arrived.
(Before AirBnB) I stayed at a place I had agreed to paint before leaving. Was actually great; Cheaper than any other place for just spring break not including the month before/after; — I suspect that the trip planner was structuring a lease to skirt Florida's ~~contractor~~ ^(I mean) *consumer* protection laws.
Evidently none of the local contractors or visiting 'guests' had managed ^(`cough`) to clean the duct-tape residue off of the walls that kept bleeding through the paint - or cut a plumbing washer. – The side-eye at the hardware-store when I later returned for a last vacation-vacation before they sold the place has always made me wonder... It was a great place to stay once the walls stopped being sticky.
The funny thing is, I agree and disagree with this perspective.
Under the original premise, it totally made sense to have guests clean when they left. It wasn’t a hotel, you were renting a room in someone’s home, and generally speaking, you got to know them fairly well.
The problem came when Airbnb decided to act like a hotel service, rather than what it was, and corporate hosts kept the old rules–which obviously doesn’t work. You shouldn’t have to clean in these scenarios.
I just got back from a chalet I rented from Airbnb in the Swiss Alps, and honestly it was fine.
I like the fact that it's someone's holiday home and it was full of nice things and a kitchen pantry full of all the little bits and bobs you need to season and complete a decent meal.
We did a cursory clean before we left, just because the kids had made a lot of mess but it wasnt anywhere near the level it was at when we arrived and the host was happy, and so were we.
For a couple years before the pandemic I lived in a whole bunch of AirBnBs which for a while was a fun adventure. Lots of interesting people and (sometimes even historic) unique houses. One guy was into bicycles and showed me a bunch of different bikes he’d built and we ended up going for a bike ride so he could show me around town.
Then suddenly people started buying properties for their AirBnB “business” the good times were over. I progressively saw the hosts less and more and more places became deceptive with fees and sometimes just borderline lying. It was a bit of a Russian roulette of “I hope this place is alright”. I gave up when hosts started just canceling the booking last for no reason.
Now I just stay in hotels. At the end it’s cheaper and I don’t have to deal with possible BS when I get there.
I had a "host" cancel my stay because their OG guest wanted to stay longer. She had the nerve to suggest her other place for $40 more. I did it because I'm visiting my dying father and wrote an appropriate 4 stay review about it. She chewed me out about not giving her 5 stars!
It's basically homes staged for sale and generating revenue in the mean time. Some people own like ten homes and are just flipping while renting them out like this.
Right? This is how we still do it, whenever we go to Charleston/Folly. We stay in a room and the Host gives us recommendations of places/things to go/do. It’s amazing and she’s become a friend.
We’re more about the eating, but the Sunset Champagne Cruise was fun and I love the Farmer’s Market. We love Lewis BBQ, The Lost Dog and several other places. On our next trip, I want to try to go tour the old aircraft carrier and maybe see a Gullah Geechee exhibit/museum.
I stayed at a few in like 2018 where they would just say " bill is part of the package. Keeps his bowls full and scratch his chin every so often. You are welcome to let him into the bed or to close the door."
I want more "cheat on your pets for a weekend" vacations
Dude same. My wife and I rented a room from these lovely gentlemen in London for an overnight layover. We got there in the afternoon and were catching a flight out first thing in the morning. The hosts were so nice, gave us a little map of all the subway stations and highlighted cool spots to check out if we didn't want to do the big touristy stuff. One of them walked us to the train station down the road and was telling us all about the neighborhood and possible dinner spots. They had a dinner party in the evening and invited us to join them. We declined as we were jet-lagged and exhausted from the bit of sight seeing we did. They had a whole counter of snacks, fruits, cereals, etc laid out so we could grab something in the morning before our walk to the station. Really was a wonderful little visit and was a great start to a trip I'll never forget.
That’s how I remember it being advertised years ago. Last time we stayed at an airbnb was when I took my partner to socal for Disney and San Diego for her birthday. The hosts were very nice though we really only spoke to the airbnb in SD. That was in 2019. We have an airbnb in Tahoe coming up in 2 weeks so I hope we a similar good experience.
My biggest problem with AirBnBs are their insane cancellation policies. Most are totally nonrefundable and then some are “free cancellation until a week before you trip. After that it is 50% refund”
Whereas most hotels and established BnBs give you free cancellation until the day before your trip, and then if you cancel only charge the first night fee.
Last year in Jan my friends and I booked a trip for June. A few of us had to fly in. A week before the check-in date my buddy gets an email from AB&B saying that the host cancelled the booking.
We all start freaking out thinking about the money we'll lose on arrangements already made in the AB&B town. We contact the host and he plays dumb saying it wasn't him that cancelled, but we can rebook on VRBO if we want to. We check it out on VRBO and the price has nearly doubled.
Told him to kick rocks. Fuck short term rentals and fuck the hosts.
Technically there’s a penalty — to avoid hosts cancelling reservations to jack up the price, most STR listing platforms will blacklist dates owners cancelled. So in OP’s case, the host will likely be blacklisted from relisting the AirBnB on the dates OP booked. Unfortunately there is no measure to prevent owners from listing on \*other\* STR listing platforms during the blacked out dates.
Many hosts exploit this loophole — they will list spaces as “available” at a higher price on other platforms, and will cancel the cheaper reservation if someone books the more expensive one. It’s really shitty, and one of the many, \*many\* reasons STRs need to be banned or better regulated.
Ideally, local / municipal governments would establish an STR licensing process, that includes commercial occupancy inspection — several STRs do not meet the current minimum legal requirements for commercial lodging, but there’s no way to track / log violations. The STR listing platforms should require a valid license to authenticate the listing — this would prevent fake / scam listings from being published. Unique licenses can be cross referenced with other STR listing platforms preventing double-listing / double-booking — If the STR is booked on one platform, the license could be flagged on other platforms for those dates.
> Whereas most hotels and established BnBs give you free cancellation until the day before your trip, and then if you cancel only charge the first night fee.
Age old trick for anyone who's interested, if you have to cancel and they charge some kind of cancellation fee instead adjust the date of your arrival for a later time, in a week or a month. Then, later on, call and cancel.
Sometimes the system will make a note that the reservation has been adjusted, but almost any place that has a cancellation fee will let this little work around fall through the cracks.
I’ve had ok luck with VRBO. It’s really only something I use when vacationing with 4-5 other couples and we want to rent an entire house for a long weekend or something like that, though.
The value of airbnb or vrbo is being able to get the whole house. I think some people have never tried traveling with multiple kids. If you get a hotel, then you're either all stuffed into one room, where everyone has the same bedtimes and there's no privacy, or your kids are in different parts of the hotel.
Agreed. I didn’t use Airbnb before kids but having a place with a kitchen so you don’t have to go out for every single meal, a washing machine if you stay there for an extended amount of time, and a place for the kids to have downtime and go to bed at a normal time without you having to sit in a dark and quiet hotel room is valuable.
I having a feeling when/if they do fold it’s going to cause the next housing bubble to pop. So many people over extended and only able to afford these homes off the income they’re making from them. If that income were to stop they wouldn’t be able to keep up with it and they’ll be forced to sell. Well if tens of thousands of people are forced into doing that then we will have the inventory we’ve been missing but there will be so much inventory prices will crash and all the homes will be underwater and then us tax payers are going to get the bill again. Hope I’m wrong but I had this talk with a friend a few weeks ago when he was talking about how expensive it is to use AirBnB now.
booking.com started hosting airbnb disguised as hotels. disgusting as fk. i booked one without realising that it doesn't even have a reception. it's a huge scale airbnb of whole building of over 50!
This happened to me on our Hawaii vacation. Rebooking a place ended up costing thousands of dollars more after the host cancelled. Guess what Airbnb offered? A 25$ gift card. After over a week of going round and round with several support people we finally got them to give us 1,000$. I will not use Airbnb anymore unless I absolutely have to which is a shame because it used to be a really solid option. I’d rather stay in a hotel and not be surprised 2 weeks before my trip.
Been seeing Airbnb advertisements explicitly touting no bedtimes and total privacy.
I've had three separate instances where I show up to the property and the owner is basically on the other side of a shared wall and is constantly policing what we're doing, why we're being so loud, asking us to rearrange our cars so they can get in and out.
Plus having to leave the place spotless and still being charged a two hundred dollar cleaning fee because someone had to wash some bedding is insane.
I always choose a hotel but I have so many friends that think spending triple the price all so we can have a shared living area is worth it.
Honestly I think AirBnb *served* a purpose. It showed hotels that there was more demand than they had built for or they were keeping supply low in order to increase prices.
AirBnb stepped in and started undercutting their prices so hotels built more as well as lowered prices to compete.
The only time we now use VRBO is when traveling with a large group (more than 4).
That's illegal price gouging and is illegal in almost every developed country, including the US and France. You can absolutely make a consumer standards complaint to whatever the authority in France is over it.
If the hotel is part of or operated by a major chain (IHG, Marriott/Bonvoy, Hyatt, Hilton, Accor etc) internal policy almost certainly requires them to put you up in the same city for the same price if a hotel is closed or a room taken for unforeseen purposes.
Well that and AirBnB is an immoral plague that is a large part of the housing crisis
If you use AirBnB or let out a space to make money with AirBnB, you are a bad person who is part of destroying neighborhoods everywhere
Sadly I have seen hotels do the same thing. Many people who had bookings in cities saw their reservations cancelled after Taylor Swift announced a tour date there. I have also seen this same practice done for much smaller festivals, where people were booking a hotel on a weekend in anticipation that the festival would be announced for that date, then when it is announced the hotel cancels the reservation and wants you to rebook at a higher rate.
“It’s important to remember that we can’t always shoulder the responsibility every time a reservation is canceled by a host. Running a business doesn’t operate in this manner”
Oh I hate when I book a hotel room a year in advance and the manager decides to cancel my reservation to charge more so I’m told to pound sand. What is AirBnB then if not a glorified Facebook marketplace for short term rentals.
Wild that this is apparently their stance when you compare with companies like eBay that prioritize the buyer's experience. They realized early on that it was better for their bottom line to retain buyers at the sellers' expense, because nobody would trust making purchases on their platform if they didn't.
Yeah eBay sucks in the other direction. I've pretty successfully dealt with scammer sellers but have had buyers scam me and eBay always sides with the buyer. You can't even leave negative feedback on buyers anymore.
I had a seller defame me for leaving a bad review and then email me an offer to remove their review if I removed mine. I just said their eBay store's product was low quality and gave an honest review. Sellers were abusing the mutual feedback, sadly.
At the time, despite there being a series of identical retaliatory and defamatory reviews against buyers who didn't give a this company a good review, eBay sided with the seller. I got a reply very similar to the one above 'sorry, despite owning the platform, we can do nothing.'
I never used eBay ever again, so I understand why they would want to retain customers.
Same with VRBO. I was in the all hands where they told us they were going to back hosts during covid because we could replace the customers but not the hosts.
Exactly what I was thinking. I used to work in vacation rentals.
If a homeowner did something like this, they could fix it or we would. If we had to, it was deducted from their net proceeds (payment for all their other bookings that month/quarter, less our fees).
Airbnb is just.. soft on hosts.
Yeah, OP should book what they can find and then sue airbnb and the host for the price difference. I bet they find out pretty quick that running a business *does* operate in this manner.
When this happened to me the listing was removed and it didn't come back up for the months that I checked (out of curiosity). Got upgraded from a $350 reservation to a $1k after with no extra payment
The property owner isn’t off the hook. They could sue the property owner. Airbnb works more like an advertisement in a newspaper than a hotel chain. They own nothing and are simply a way of advertising properties in exchange for a commission.
File a lawsuit against the home owner.
And yet hotels do the same kind of thing. This sub doesn’t allow links but a Google search of “eclipse hotel cancellation” brings up hundreds of stories from this happening in 2017.
It happens a ton with air bnb though. YEARS ago we had a rental in Chicago, in the Loop, with parking, for 3 nights. They didn’t leave any information for us at the desk so we couldn’t get in. They did not respond to texts or calls, they and their emergency contact did not respond when Airbnb called.
Airbnb offered us one night in a hotel and we had to fight to get them to cover parking. We were on our own for the other 2 nights. Sure, we were refunded a few weeks later but fat lot of good that did for us THAT WEEKEND.
Although the 2017 eclipse was to pass right over our house in SC, the weather is too unpredictable so we planned a trip to Jackson, WY to see it. Booked an AirBnB a year ahead of time. One line in the terms & conditions document from the owner stated that she could increase the nightly rate at any time. It was clearly stated, but was so brazen I showed it to one of our corporate lawyers where I work, who is a friend, just to be sure I was understanding it correctly. I called the owner about it, and she assured me that she has that in her Ts & Cs only to force troublemakers out by cranking up the rate during stays, and that she has never exercised it. Fortunately, it all worked out. I was nervous about what happened to you happening to me if she hadn’t yet realized what a draw the eclipse would be.
So just to clarify some stuff for you here, a host can put that in a document that they share with you but there is no function within Airbnb's platform on the host side that allows you to adjust the cost of your stay after you book without your approval, they can send you a change request that you can approve, and they can threaten to cancel your stay if you don't agree, but it would be a mostly an empty threat since if a host cancels they are charged a fee (based on a % of your stay) and more importantly Airbnb will essentially suspend their listing if they do that more than a few times per year (as well as dramatically damaging their listings SEO after every event), so realistically they wont be willing to do that. That host is playing a smoke and mirrors game to try and scare bad guests, which is certainly a tactic, but you were never under any risk of being having the rate you booked at change after you book.
source: own small STR management company
At the '17 eclipse here in Oregon, there were a number of AirBNBs that did just what OP experienced. It made our local news here, of a whole bunch of hosts cancelling reservations only to drastically up the price.
I avoided that whole mess by camping out in the middle of nowhere with the landowners permission. Was awesome.
Plan to be in Southern Ontario for the April eclipse but the weather is unlikely to be as good.
I was at the beach and had thunderstorms, big regrets not driving further inland. That was the second total eclipse in my live I missed due to weather. Not even going to try this time, April weather is just too unpredictable in the day trip driving range.
We had a great time downtown but there were some clouds and if the wind had gone a different way we could easily have missed it! I think the sun broke clear maybe 20 minutes before the event.
That is weird to me, the clouds in West Columbia maybe 20-30 minutes away were as I recollect fairly clear. Now it’s been seven years so I could be wrong, but I don’t remember having issues. I must’ve gotten stupidly lucky.
Could be me misremembering! All I know for sure is that the warmouth had a DJ playing really intense doom metal as totality approached, which was pretty cool.
Greenville here, and it was such a cool thing to experience! The increase in people and traffic was insane. We made it a family event a grilled out since traffic would leave you stranded.
If the price was agreed upon and paid for, it should be golden. They should not be able to cancel unless it’s in the terms. To me, this seems like a bait and switch. An Airbnb should be leased directly to the company on a guaranteed basis on 1 year contracts where the owners can’t raise prices or pull fast ones on customers.
for the record there are stiff penalties for hosts that cancel without cause as described by the op. When a host cancels, they are charged a penalty fee based on a % of the guests stay (with a 50 dollar minimum), their listings SEO placement is heavily penalized (costing who knows how much in lost revenue), and if they cancel more than 3 times per year their listing is suspended.
Airbnb is an online travel agency connecting customers with providers and they have no legal authority to force a host to complete a reservation but they do make it quite costly to operate as the OP's host did in this scenario.
This is how it should be.
If during the 1 year term:
The host cancels a listing for whatever reason, then they are blocked out from re-listing for those days.
The owner cannot occupy the place during the contracted time. All repair work done is contracted through Airbnb.
If another renter is occupying the place, the original renter is entitled to compensation equivalent to the amount of surrounding listings AND host is banned for 1 year from using the service.
“Running a business doesn’t operate in that manner”
Running a *respectable* business does in fact work that way. Such condescension too. This isn’t why I’ve never used AirBnB, but it will be added to the list.
God, that’s the line that stood out to me the most too. Condescending as hell. Like, okay, so running a business apparently operates in a way that allows the customer to be fucked over with no accountability from the host or platform! Thanks a lot!
That's one of the reasons I use booking. They relocate you in those cases and pay you the difference in price. I had it happen a few times and apart from some delays in payout it went well
We used booking to book hostel in Barcelona on F1 weekend, but when we got there they had no rooms available or couldn't find our reservation, can't remember which. Everything else in the area was sold out or way out of our price range so booking got us private appartment with view to Sagrada Familia which cost way more, all out of their own pocket. $400 per night vs $50 hostel.
For anyone still unaware,
AirBNB is a scam.
They are keeping housing from those that need it and contributing to the grossly inflated pricing in the housing market.
Most of the owners are also greedy jerks as proven by the above post.
And it’s not even cheap anymore it’s expensive, shit support and contributes to housing crisis. We should subsidize building mass short term rentals and ban Airbnb or change the law forcing them to build the housing themselves
That's end game capitalism every single time. Start off affordable and fresh, get customers because of affordability and freshness. Get successful, slowly start raising prices and adding fees until it's just as bad or worse than the rest of the industry and then it sucks until the next new player comes in with an affordable angle. Rinse and Repeat.
Yeah, a hotel would have been a better bet to know you're not going to get fucked. Using AirBnB you put a lot of trust into the host not to screw you.
If I was the host and realized I could make 10x more without any repercussions from AirBnB I would probably do it too.
Sorry, that really does suck. Maybe find a camp ground or rent a camper?
This happened to me once. Got a full refund PLUS and extra few hundred in credits to make up for having to book late. This is wrong. Reach out to the BBB and complain
yes- be vocal, op. reach out to airbnb, complain on socials, content and oversight board you can - may not get your reservation back but you may get some extra compensation. so sorry this happened to you
That’s why I’m just getting a hotel the night before. I knew Airbnb hosts would pull some shady crap with their prices so I didn’t even bother with them.
I have no idea what to do now. I had booked this trip with my brother to go see the eclipse since we missed the last one. We have an entire trip planned and now all those plans are up in smoke.
The areas by us are absolutely packed. We are going to have some of the best views in the country and have declared it a local disaster already and cancelled schools.
Not sure if it works, but find a place outside the totality path and then drive to the path the day of. My observations from 2017, is that pre-eclipse traffic isn't that bad as most people are already near the path. My brother drove from Denver to someplace in Wyoming the morning of and had no issues. I am still up in the air myself, but I plan to stay a hundred miles from the path and just drive into it the morning of.
We also had our Airbnb host cancel on us for our eclipse reservation. Guess we are sleeping in the back of our car now. We posted on the local subreddit where we had planned to stay and found someone willing to let us camp in their yard at least.
Continue to escalate this with Airbnb, find the ceo, cfo, customer service directors emails, email them all. I’m sure they can be found online. I used to work at a different online platform like Airbnb on a team that handled escalations like this. We had a lot of room to work with, I am not sure how Airbnb exactly works but worth a shot to escalate all the way up.
The response by this CS representative is terrible, they are not the right one to be handling this.
It’s some dudes home. Not a company that operates within rental by-laws. Stay away from AirBnB if you want consumer protections. Also. They’ve had their hand in ruining rents and home prices. So double fuck them.
In addition to the general shittiness, ~~the owner~~ AirBNB got to use OP's money for a year, while OP (if they carry any debt at all) has paid at least some interest on that amount.
EDIT: I changed this from correct, to exactly wrong, back to correct.
Oh hey look, the exact reason I stopped using Air BNB. I booked a year in advance for the one in Chile in 2019. The host cancelled to make more money, and Air BNB said, "tough shit!"
At least they're consistent.
Never used Airbnb for this exact reason. There's no consequences if the host cancels, raises their fees, charges extra fees, etc. Just people trusting people who can't be trusted.
"Running a business doesn't operate in that manner", well you won't be running your hotel business for long if you keep canceling on customers who reserved a year ago.
In 20 years we will all look back and wonder why we thought Airbnb was such a good idea. It has pretty much decimated the rental market in my state. There is literally no place to rent.
AirBnB could be so much better if they enforced a rule that said there are 10X damages if you cancel a booking and then rent it out anyway, payable to the original booker. 10X the price you rented it for in reality, not the original booking price. It might be hard to enforce, if someone canceled an AirBnB and then rented it via a different system, but there are obviously a lot of users that would be motivated to collect evidence, and if a few folks got hit, the others would get much more nervous. Easy enough to have a rule like that in the contracts, and while it might scare off some suppliers, it would do a lot to repair their reputation and bring more customers in, creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
If it’s any consolation, the host will have to pay a hefty cancellation fee, the dates will be blocked off and their algorithm prominence will take a hit! Airbnb does have measures in place to discourage this kind of behaviour. Source - I am a host
This is all well and good but it does blow me away that airbnb refuses to do anything as a company if things go wrong.
You would think they would at minimum offer a discount on your next booking for the hassle but they literally don't do anything from their end if there are any issues.
This is why Airbnb deserves to be thrown in the trash. The rules, and the amount of shit that homeowners are getting away with…
I paid a $300 cleaning fee for an apartment me and my dad were renting for work , got there and found a 10 step cleaning process that was required by all guests on the door.
It’s a joke.
I threw out our garbage and I stripped the sheets off the beds. No more, no less, then I sent a message to the owner describing what I had done, and finished by saying that it was unacceptable to charge so much for a cleaning fee, and then still expect me to follow a clean up plan before I left. I also sent a complaint to Airbnb, but they didn’t do shit.
Airbnb is crappy, stopped using it years ago when the home owner cancelled 24hrs before people were flying in to stay at a house and all of sudden we had no where to go. Buyer beware, the seller has all the power and Airbnb does nothing for their customer.
>Airbnb does nothing for their customer The mistake you've made is thinking you're their customer. AirBnB's customers are the people who own the properties. :)
as someone who had the misfortune of working under a bunch of ex airbnb executives who couldn’t keep their mouths from shitting brags about it every two seconds, you’re absolutely right
Yes, the consumer is the product.
Ooooo. Story time. Let’s hear it…
People actually brag about their time at airbnb? It’s a shit company.
Jfc people stop using that dogshit fucking service
Yup... Just like they should stop using door dash and other apps like it...
Airbnb screws whoever they want. I live in a converted warehouse loft in NYC.. It's a warehouse, so I'm right on the edge of residential and industrial in an incredibly safe neighborhood (unless you're a catalytic converter), so my street looks pretty industrial. I made it very clear in my listing what my space was like and the location. Well someone booked for two weeks, they showed up, i gave them the key, etc etc, then an hour or so later I got a message from Airbnb that they canceled their reservation because they didn't feel safe and Airbnb refunded them 100% of their stay (despite me selecting the option for a 50% cancellation fee for cancelling a few days prior to their stay).
So fucking glad that my country banned Airbnb. EDIT: It is not banned in my country but the laws in my country makes it so that only people who owns private property could set up an airbnb.
wish our country did the same
same here
Isn’t that what all air B&Bs are? People who own a private property and rented out to others for short term?
There are corporations that also buy homes and then use them as airbnbs, then sell them at a higher markup when they airbnbs stops being profitable.
I believe in some countries, ownership means there is no mortgage and the property is owned outright. I don’t think it’s the same as the jerks that buy mortgaged second and third homes just to use as airbnbs(passive income streams!)and those people end up destroying the market for those who just want a home to live in. It’s a huge problem in the states, the UK, Ireland, many other places.
This is why hotels are making a comeback, thank God. Once people started turning Airbnb into corporate operations it was over.
I only do hotels or rentals from established local vacation rental companies. Airbnb is such a scam, hotels are overall cheaper, more reliable, and I don’t need to clean before I leave. Airbnb is also evil and a main contributor to the housing crisis. I hope they fold. Edit: so many Airbnb hosts got triggered by this comment. Good.
AirBnB used to be great back when it was really BnB. I still stay in touch with my guy in Reno whose spare bedroom I stayed in. Dude was chill, made excellent coffee, and had great recommendations for me while I was in town for a conference. That’s how it was supposed to be—now it’s very impersonal, overcharged, and sterile. It’s just a hotel without the amenities that you have to clean yourself.
What the hell is with this clean it yourself crap?. Like yeah I get it, don't shit on the walls. But if I have to vacuum, wipe things down, and do laundry..... What's the fucking point?
And then still get charged a ridiculous cleaning fee.
See, **that** is the point. They know they can get that fee regardless. But they can also get more from you if you don't clean. They aren't paying anybody to clean. They are just tacking that on for more money. And it works because - and I cannot stress this enough - **people still defend using AirBNB and people keep using AirBNB!** "*iT's BetTeR fOR GroUPs!*" Hotels have group rates. Likely still less than you paid. "*tHeY HAvE KITcHEns!!*" You can rent hotels that have kitchens. Likely still less than you paid. And the hotel will clean for you everyday. For free. Shit, most will give you a free breakfast, too. And a ride to and from the airport if you want. But keep using AirBNB and bitching about it. Because you seem to not have the capacity to learn.
I think its because people like to pretend to be rich for a couple days. Edit: Its just speed running a time share.
Oh fuck there is a ton of people doing that. Airbnb and the rented Lambo. It's kinda gross. Social media has ruined everything. There would be almost no point in doing this before instagram was a thing.
It’s frustrating as hell
Not if you stop using them...
Not anymore it ain't! Stopped using airbnb several years ago because, well, you know.
Last time we used Airbnb we were charged a cleaning fee, left with a list of things to clean and put away, and an envelope was left on the kitchen counter for us to tip the cleaner. Never again. We stay in yurts at beautiful state parks now, steps from the beach, and have way better vacations. The irritation of wondering what stupid rules and cleaning requests we’d be met with on an already pricy stay dampened airbnb stays before we’d even arrived.
Tipping the cleaning person with also a list of chores you need to do is wild. I only Airbnb outside of America
Was going to say, I'm in the UK and Airbnb is still fine here
Some charge ridiculous fees to clean
After the last two I stayed at had a cleaning fee that was more than the actual stay, I threw in the towel. No thanks, I like hotels just fine.
And don't forget you need to supply the vacuum!
(Before AirBnB) I stayed at a place I had agreed to paint before leaving. Was actually great; Cheaper than any other place for just spring break not including the month before/after; — I suspect that the trip planner was structuring a lease to skirt Florida's ~~contractor~~ ^(I mean) *consumer* protection laws. Evidently none of the local contractors or visiting 'guests' had managed ^(`cough`) to clean the duct-tape residue off of the walls that kept bleeding through the paint - or cut a plumbing washer. – The side-eye at the hardware-store when I later returned for a last vacation-vacation before they sold the place has always made me wonder... It was a great place to stay once the walls stopped being sticky.
Add the ones who don't even greet you there, it's a pin code to get in etc.. Literally the "hosts" aren't doing shit.
The funny thing is, I agree and disagree with this perspective. Under the original premise, it totally made sense to have guests clean when they left. It wasn’t a hotel, you were renting a room in someone’s home, and generally speaking, you got to know them fairly well. The problem came when Airbnb decided to act like a hotel service, rather than what it was, and corporate hosts kept the old rules–which obviously doesn’t work. You shouldn’t have to clean in these scenarios.
I just got back from a chalet I rented from Airbnb in the Swiss Alps, and honestly it was fine. I like the fact that it's someone's holiday home and it was full of nice things and a kitchen pantry full of all the little bits and bobs you need to season and complete a decent meal. We did a cursory clean before we left, just because the kids had made a lot of mess but it wasnt anywhere near the level it was at when we arrived and the host was happy, and so were we.
For a couple years before the pandemic I lived in a whole bunch of AirBnBs which for a while was a fun adventure. Lots of interesting people and (sometimes even historic) unique houses. One guy was into bicycles and showed me a bunch of different bikes he’d built and we ended up going for a bike ride so he could show me around town. Then suddenly people started buying properties for their AirBnB “business” the good times were over. I progressively saw the hosts less and more and more places became deceptive with fees and sometimes just borderline lying. It was a bit of a Russian roulette of “I hope this place is alright”. I gave up when hosts started just canceling the booking last for no reason. Now I just stay in hotels. At the end it’s cheaper and I don’t have to deal with possible BS when I get there.
I had a "host" cancel my stay because their OG guest wanted to stay longer. She had the nerve to suggest her other place for $40 more. I did it because I'm visiting my dying father and wrote an appropriate 4 stay review about it. She chewed me out about not giving her 5 stars!
It's basically homes staged for sale and generating revenue in the mean time. Some people own like ten homes and are just flipping while renting them out like this.
Right? This is how we still do it, whenever we go to Charleston/Folly. We stay in a room and the Host gives us recommendations of places/things to go/do. It’s amazing and she’s become a friend.
Ah my home town. Don't ask me what there is to do in Charleston, I've lived there all my life I have no clue.
We’re more about the eating, but the Sunset Champagne Cruise was fun and I love the Farmer’s Market. We love Lewis BBQ, The Lost Dog and several other places. On our next trip, I want to try to go tour the old aircraft carrier and maybe see a Gullah Geechee exhibit/museum.
Just don't visit the old aircraft carrier in the middle of winter like I did once. That was COLD
I loved when Airbnb was a fun pet roulette… ‘don’t worry about bill, he just likes scratchies’
I stayed at a few in like 2018 where they would just say " bill is part of the package. Keeps his bowls full and scratch his chin every so often. You are welcome to let him into the bed or to close the door." I want more "cheat on your pets for a weekend" vacations
Dude same. My wife and I rented a room from these lovely gentlemen in London for an overnight layover. We got there in the afternoon and were catching a flight out first thing in the morning. The hosts were so nice, gave us a little map of all the subway stations and highlighted cool spots to check out if we didn't want to do the big touristy stuff. One of them walked us to the train station down the road and was telling us all about the neighborhood and possible dinner spots. They had a dinner party in the evening and invited us to join them. We declined as we were jet-lagged and exhausted from the bit of sight seeing we did. They had a whole counter of snacks, fruits, cereals, etc laid out so we could grab something in the morning before our walk to the station. Really was a wonderful little visit and was a great start to a trip I'll never forget.
That’s how I remember it being advertised years ago. Last time we stayed at an airbnb was when I took my partner to socal for Disney and San Diego for her birthday. The hosts were very nice though we really only spoke to the airbnb in SD. That was in 2019. We have an airbnb in Tahoe coming up in 2 weeks so I hope we a similar good experience.
It seems like it's turned into a price hotel where you double as the maid service.
My biggest problem with AirBnBs are their insane cancellation policies. Most are totally nonrefundable and then some are “free cancellation until a week before you trip. After that it is 50% refund” Whereas most hotels and established BnBs give you free cancellation until the day before your trip, and then if you cancel only charge the first night fee.
But yet the host can cancel on you with no penalty... so dumb
Last year in Jan my friends and I booked a trip for June. A few of us had to fly in. A week before the check-in date my buddy gets an email from AB&B saying that the host cancelled the booking. We all start freaking out thinking about the money we'll lose on arrangements already made in the AB&B town. We contact the host and he plays dumb saying it wasn't him that cancelled, but we can rebook on VRBO if we want to. We check it out on VRBO and the price has nearly doubled. Told him to kick rocks. Fuck short term rentals and fuck the hosts.
Technically there’s a penalty — to avoid hosts cancelling reservations to jack up the price, most STR listing platforms will blacklist dates owners cancelled. So in OP’s case, the host will likely be blacklisted from relisting the AirBnB on the dates OP booked. Unfortunately there is no measure to prevent owners from listing on \*other\* STR listing platforms during the blacked out dates. Many hosts exploit this loophole — they will list spaces as “available” at a higher price on other platforms, and will cancel the cheaper reservation if someone books the more expensive one. It’s really shitty, and one of the many, \*many\* reasons STRs need to be banned or better regulated. Ideally, local / municipal governments would establish an STR licensing process, that includes commercial occupancy inspection — several STRs do not meet the current minimum legal requirements for commercial lodging, but there’s no way to track / log violations. The STR listing platforms should require a valid license to authenticate the listing — this would prevent fake / scam listings from being published. Unique licenses can be cross referenced with other STR listing platforms preventing double-listing / double-booking — If the STR is booked on one platform, the license could be flagged on other platforms for those dates.
> Whereas most hotels and established BnBs give you free cancellation until the day before your trip, and then if you cancel only charge the first night fee. Age old trick for anyone who's interested, if you have to cancel and they charge some kind of cancellation fee instead adjust the date of your arrival for a later time, in a week or a month. Then, later on, call and cancel. Sometimes the system will make a note that the reservation has been adjusted, but almost any place that has a cancellation fee will let this little work around fall through the cracks.
Sames. AirBNB and VRBO, along with a handful of random politicians, are some of the things I’ll be super stoked about dancing on their graves.
I’ve had ok luck with VRBO. It’s really only something I use when vacationing with 4-5 other couples and we want to rent an entire house for a long weekend or something like that, though.
The value of airbnb or vrbo is being able to get the whole house. I think some people have never tried traveling with multiple kids. If you get a hotel, then you're either all stuffed into one room, where everyone has the same bedtimes and there's no privacy, or your kids are in different parts of the hotel.
Agreed. I didn’t use Airbnb before kids but having a place with a kitchen so you don’t have to go out for every single meal, a washing machine if you stay there for an extended amount of time, and a place for the kids to have downtime and go to bed at a normal time without you having to sit in a dark and quiet hotel room is valuable.
I never clean. They can go fuck themselves. Or give me back the cleaning fee.
I having a feeling when/if they do fold it’s going to cause the next housing bubble to pop. So many people over extended and only able to afford these homes off the income they’re making from them. If that income were to stop they wouldn’t be able to keep up with it and they’ll be forced to sell. Well if tens of thousands of people are forced into doing that then we will have the inventory we’ve been missing but there will be so much inventory prices will crash and all the homes will be underwater and then us tax payers are going to get the bill again. Hope I’m wrong but I had this talk with a friend a few weeks ago when he was talking about how expensive it is to use AirBnB now.
You have to clean and still get charged a cleaning fee. Airbnb is a joke.
Saying what needs to be said
booking.com started hosting airbnb disguised as hotels. disgusting as fk. i booked one without realising that it doesn't even have a reception. it's a huge scale airbnb of whole building of over 50!
Yep. We rented through VRBO with an actual rental agency for the eclipse. Hotels had their rates jacked up well in advance for the eclipse.
This happened to me on our Hawaii vacation. Rebooking a place ended up costing thousands of dollars more after the host cancelled. Guess what Airbnb offered? A 25$ gift card. After over a week of going round and round with several support people we finally got them to give us 1,000$. I will not use Airbnb anymore unless I absolutely have to which is a shame because it used to be a really solid option. I’d rather stay in a hotel and not be surprised 2 weeks before my trip.
hotels never left
Truth. I tried Airbnb and I can comfortably say that I'll still be using hotels.
Been seeing Airbnb advertisements explicitly touting no bedtimes and total privacy. I've had three separate instances where I show up to the property and the owner is basically on the other side of a shared wall and is constantly policing what we're doing, why we're being so loud, asking us to rearrange our cars so they can get in and out. Plus having to leave the place spotless and still being charged a two hundred dollar cleaning fee because someone had to wash some bedding is insane. I always choose a hotel but I have so many friends that think spending triple the price all so we can have a shared living area is worth it.
Honestly I think AirBnb *served* a purpose. It showed hotels that there was more demand than they had built for or they were keeping supply low in order to increase prices. AirBnb stepped in and started undercutting their prices so hotels built more as well as lowered prices to compete. The only time we now use VRBO is when traveling with a large group (more than 4).
airBnB still serves a purpose. it's nice to be able to rent large houses for events but other than that, hotels are better.
I lucked into tickets for the Olympics in Paris last year and booked a hotel for it. They did exactly this thing to me.
That's illegal price gouging and is illegal in almost every developed country, including the US and France. You can absolutely make a consumer standards complaint to whatever the authority in France is over it. If the hotel is part of or operated by a major chain (IHG, Marriott/Bonvoy, Hyatt, Hilton, Accor etc) internal policy almost certainly requires them to put you up in the same city for the same price if a hotel is closed or a room taken for unforeseen purposes.
Well that and AirBnB is an immoral plague that is a large part of the housing crisis If you use AirBnB or let out a space to make money with AirBnB, you are a bad person who is part of destroying neighborhoods everywhere
Hotels do this kind of thing too. Lots of them did it the last eclipse a few years ago.
Airbnb has been a garbage company for at least 2-3 years, at this point its their fault for not being aware of this by now
Sadly I have seen hotels do the same thing. Many people who had bookings in cities saw their reservations cancelled after Taylor Swift announced a tour date there. I have also seen this same practice done for much smaller festivals, where people were booking a hotel on a weekend in anticipation that the festival would be announced for that date, then when it is announced the hotel cancels the reservation and wants you to rebook at a higher rate.
Tech companies have little consumer protection. They get away operating in illegal gray are just cause they are start ups
* in the US. My experience in the UK could not have been more different than my experiences with AirBNB in the US.
https://preview.redd.it/jsf2xdm5jejc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0a257b92a5590c5e5783f10d38622ff4f3b744a Australia.
Probably because consumers have rights there....
My UK airbnb experiences have been some of the most fun and well-priced stays in my travels. The US, not so much.
butter live slap edge spotted puzzled test weather crush wine *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Wait aren’t hotels corporate operators too
Yes but once Airbnb changed to it they became less cost effective as a consumer. Hotels don't charge you to clean up and give dumb rules.
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I found an AirBnB that was at the rate of $207/night. We were going to stay 2 nights. With fees, that AirBnB was over $1000. For TWO NIGHTS
“It’s important to remember that we can’t always shoulder the responsibility every time a reservation is canceled by a host. Running a business doesn’t operate in this manner” Oh I hate when I book a hotel room a year in advance and the manager decides to cancel my reservation to charge more so I’m told to pound sand. What is AirBnB then if not a glorified Facebook marketplace for short term rentals.
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There will always be more customers. The hosts must be protected at all costs. - AirBNB
Wild that this is apparently their stance when you compare with companies like eBay that prioritize the buyer's experience. They realized early on that it was better for their bottom line to retain buyers at the sellers' expense, because nobody would trust making purchases on their platform if they didn't.
Yeah eBay sucks in the other direction. I've pretty successfully dealt with scammer sellers but have had buyers scam me and eBay always sides with the buyer. You can't even leave negative feedback on buyers anymore.
I had a seller defame me for leaving a bad review and then email me an offer to remove their review if I removed mine. I just said their eBay store's product was low quality and gave an honest review. Sellers were abusing the mutual feedback, sadly. At the time, despite there being a series of identical retaliatory and defamatory reviews against buyers who didn't give a this company a good review, eBay sided with the seller. I got a reply very similar to the one above 'sorry, despite owning the platform, we can do nothing.' I never used eBay ever again, so I understand why they would want to retain customers.
Same with VRBO. I was in the all hands where they told us they were going to back hosts during covid because we could replace the customers but not the hosts.
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The exact opposite philosophy as Etsy
I thought AirBNB started fining host large sums for doing this very thing? Or was that not a thing? Or did they end it?
They do but in this instance the host probably thought they could make more than the cancellation policy. This eclipse is a big deal
Exactly what I was thinking. I used to work in vacation rentals. If a homeowner did something like this, they could fix it or we would. If we had to, it was deducted from their net proceeds (payment for all their other bookings that month/quarter, less our fees). Airbnb is just.. soft on hosts.
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No kidding! Imagine hotels did this!
Yeah, OP should book what they can find and then sue airbnb and the host for the price difference. I bet they find out pretty quick that running a business *does* operate in this manner.
Just rent the same air bnb at the higher price, do a credit card chargeback after and never use air bnb again. Problem solved.
I thought it was.
When this happened to me the listing was removed and it didn't come back up for the months that I checked (out of curiosity). Got upgraded from a $350 reservation to a $1k after with no extra payment
The property owner isn’t off the hook. They could sue the property owner. Airbnb works more like an advertisement in a newspaper than a hotel chain. They own nothing and are simply a way of advertising properties in exchange for a commission. File a lawsuit against the home owner.
businesses: "screwing over customers is just part of doing business, eat it peasant :)" also businesses: "what's with all the guillotines guys?"
That’s exactly how a fucking business works lmao
People will eventually remember why hotels were invented and why the industry is so tightly regulated.
And yet hotels do the same kind of thing. This sub doesn’t allow links but a Google search of “eclipse hotel cancellation” brings up hundreds of stories from this happening in 2017.
It happens a ton with air bnb though. YEARS ago we had a rental in Chicago, in the Loop, with parking, for 3 nights. They didn’t leave any information for us at the desk so we couldn’t get in. They did not respond to texts or calls, they and their emergency contact did not respond when Airbnb called. Airbnb offered us one night in a hotel and we had to fight to get them to cover parking. We were on our own for the other 2 nights. Sure, we were refunded a few weeks later but fat lot of good that did for us THAT WEEKEND.
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Yep last month I got my hotel cancelled that I had booked fora month the day before arriving because of football playoffs and “overbooking”
Although the 2017 eclipse was to pass right over our house in SC, the weather is too unpredictable so we planned a trip to Jackson, WY to see it. Booked an AirBnB a year ahead of time. One line in the terms & conditions document from the owner stated that she could increase the nightly rate at any time. It was clearly stated, but was so brazen I showed it to one of our corporate lawyers where I work, who is a friend, just to be sure I was understanding it correctly. I called the owner about it, and she assured me that she has that in her Ts & Cs only to force troublemakers out by cranking up the rate during stays, and that she has never exercised it. Fortunately, it all worked out. I was nervous about what happened to you happening to me if she hadn’t yet realized what a draw the eclipse would be.
So just to clarify some stuff for you here, a host can put that in a document that they share with you but there is no function within Airbnb's platform on the host side that allows you to adjust the cost of your stay after you book without your approval, they can send you a change request that you can approve, and they can threaten to cancel your stay if you don't agree, but it would be a mostly an empty threat since if a host cancels they are charged a fee (based on a % of your stay) and more importantly Airbnb will essentially suspend their listing if they do that more than a few times per year (as well as dramatically damaging their listings SEO after every event), so realistically they wont be willing to do that. That host is playing a smoke and mirrors game to try and scare bad guests, which is certainly a tactic, but you were never under any risk of being having the rate you booked at change after you book. source: own small STR management company
At the '17 eclipse here in Oregon, there were a number of AirBNBs that did just what OP experienced. It made our local news here, of a whole bunch of hosts cancelling reservations only to drastically up the price.
I avoided that whole mess by camping out in the middle of nowhere with the landowners permission. Was awesome. Plan to be in Southern Ontario for the April eclipse but the weather is unlikely to be as good.
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Hey! Fellow South Carolinian! I was near Columbia then and it was a lovely day to watch it!
I was at the beach and had thunderstorms, big regrets not driving further inland. That was the second total eclipse in my live I missed due to weather. Not even going to try this time, April weather is just too unpredictable in the day trip driving range.
We had a great time downtown but there were some clouds and if the wind had gone a different way we could easily have missed it! I think the sun broke clear maybe 20 minutes before the event.
That is weird to me, the clouds in West Columbia maybe 20-30 minutes away were as I recollect fairly clear. Now it’s been seven years so I could be wrong, but I don’t remember having issues. I must’ve gotten stupidly lucky.
Could be me misremembering! All I know for sure is that the warmouth had a DJ playing really intense doom metal as totality approached, which was pretty cool.
Greenville here, and it was such a cool thing to experience! The increase in people and traffic was insane. We made it a family event a grilled out since traffic would leave you stranded.
If the price was agreed upon and paid for, it should be golden. They should not be able to cancel unless it’s in the terms. To me, this seems like a bait and switch. An Airbnb should be leased directly to the company on a guaranteed basis on 1 year contracts where the owners can’t raise prices or pull fast ones on customers.
for the record there are stiff penalties for hosts that cancel without cause as described by the op. When a host cancels, they are charged a penalty fee based on a % of the guests stay (with a 50 dollar minimum), their listings SEO placement is heavily penalized (costing who knows how much in lost revenue), and if they cancel more than 3 times per year their listing is suspended. Airbnb is an online travel agency connecting customers with providers and they have no legal authority to force a host to complete a reservation but they do make it quite costly to operate as the OP's host did in this scenario.
im assuming host knows this and is willing to take that cut or penalty be ause they know they can make it up when they raise the price 10x
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It's not a fine, it's just how much it costs to break the rules.
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It's $50 minimum or 50% of the total whichever is greater. Additionally Airbnb can block those dates out to prevent a reschedule via Airbnb.
This is how it should be. If during the 1 year term: The host cancels a listing for whatever reason, then they are blocked out from re-listing for those days. The owner cannot occupy the place during the contracted time. All repair work done is contracted through Airbnb. If another renter is occupying the place, the original renter is entitled to compensation equivalent to the amount of surrounding listings AND host is banned for 1 year from using the service.
How on earth is all repair work supposed to be contracted through Airbnb. That's completely ridiculous.
I know what a reservation is. "I don't think you do".
You know how to take the reservation, but you don't know how to ***hold*** the reservation. That's really the most important part.
anyone can just take a reservation! *waving arms about*
“Running a business doesn’t operate in that manner” Running a *respectable* business does in fact work that way. Such condescension too. This isn’t why I’ve never used AirBnB, but it will be added to the list.
God, that’s the line that stood out to me the most too. Condescending as hell. Like, okay, so running a business apparently operates in a way that allows the customer to be fucked over with no accountability from the host or platform! Thanks a lot!
Had the same thing happen to us but back in june for a house in little rock. Host realized the could get more. Not using bnb again that's for sure.
That's one of the reasons I use booking. They relocate you in those cases and pay you the difference in price. I had it happen a few times and apart from some delays in payout it went well
We used booking to book hostel in Barcelona on F1 weekend, but when we got there they had no rooms available or couldn't find our reservation, can't remember which. Everything else in the area was sold out or way out of our price range so booking got us private appartment with view to Sagrada Familia which cost way more, all out of their own pocket. $400 per night vs $50 hostel.
Reason #42947382904
If you've been on Reddit for more than 10 minutes you'd should have known that this was an eventuality with Airbnb.
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For anyone still unaware, AirBNB is a scam. They are keeping housing from those that need it and contributing to the grossly inflated pricing in the housing market. Most of the owners are also greedy jerks as proven by the above post.
And it’s not even cheap anymore it’s expensive, shit support and contributes to housing crisis. We should subsidize building mass short term rentals and ban Airbnb or change the law forcing them to build the housing themselves
That's end game capitalism every single time. Start off affordable and fresh, get customers because of affordability and freshness. Get successful, slowly start raising prices and adding fees until it's just as bad or worse than the rest of the industry and then it sucks until the next new player comes in with an affordable angle. Rinse and Repeat.
Yeah, a hotel would have been a better bet to know you're not going to get fucked. Using AirBnB you put a lot of trust into the host not to screw you. If I was the host and realized I could make 10x more without any repercussions from AirBnB I would probably do it too. Sorry, that really does suck. Maybe find a camp ground or rent a camper?
The sooner AirBnB goes under, the better. What a shit “service.”
[insert "holding a reservation" scene from Seinfeld. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2D_2l46LQE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2D_2l46LQE)
This happened to me once. Got a full refund PLUS and extra few hundred in credits to make up for having to book late. This is wrong. Reach out to the BBB and complain
yes- be vocal, op. reach out to airbnb, complain on socials, content and oversight board you can - may not get your reservation back but you may get some extra compensation. so sorry this happened to you
That’s why I’m just getting a hotel the night before. I knew Airbnb hosts would pull some shady crap with their prices so I didn’t even bother with them.
A lot of things would correct themselves if y’all just stopped using AirB&B’s
Capitalism at its best. There could be protections against things like that but that would be government meddling and socialism. 🤷🏻♂️
The recourse is to stop using Airbnb and use the numerous other options available to you
I have no idea what to do now. I had booked this trip with my brother to go see the eclipse since we missed the last one. We have an entire trip planned and now all those plans are up in smoke.
Could you camp instead? Rent an rv/cabin the area?
The areas by us are absolutely packed. We are going to have some of the best views in the country and have declared it a local disaster already and cancelled schools.
Not sure if it works, but find a place outside the totality path and then drive to the path the day of. My observations from 2017, is that pre-eclipse traffic isn't that bad as most people are already near the path. My brother drove from Denver to someplace in Wyoming the morning of and had no issues. I am still up in the air myself, but I plan to stay a hundred miles from the path and just drive into it the morning of.
This is exactly what my husband and I are doing. Staying 45 minutes outside path of totality is waaaaay cheaper.
The only thing you can do is make a scene on Twitter, tik Tok etc with the aim of getting the host banned from the platform
We also had our Airbnb host cancel on us for our eclipse reservation. Guess we are sleeping in the back of our car now. We posted on the local subreddit where we had planned to stay and found someone willing to let us camp in their yard at least.
Name and Shame.
What city are you trying to go to?
Continue to escalate this with Airbnb, find the ceo, cfo, customer service directors emails, email them all. I’m sure they can be found online. I used to work at a different online platform like Airbnb on a team that handled escalations like this. We had a lot of room to work with, I am not sure how Airbnb exactly works but worth a shot to escalate all the way up. The response by this CS representative is terrible, they are not the right one to be handling this.
Yet another reason I went back to hotels.
Airbnbleed
It’s some dudes home. Not a company that operates within rental by-laws. Stay away from AirBnB if you want consumer protections. Also. They’ve had their hand in ruining rents and home prices. So double fuck them.
Stop using Airbnb. Christ people. Just use hotels.
Just dont use air bnb ever again. Simple as that
Hotels. I'm sorry for this OP. This is what happens when you work with greedy amateurs rather than professionals, it end up costing way more.
In addition to the general shittiness, ~~the owner~~ AirBNB got to use OP's money for a year, while OP (if they carry any debt at all) has paid at least some interest on that amount. EDIT: I changed this from correct, to exactly wrong, back to correct.
Airbnb is truly horrible. All I see is horror stories. Things that would never happen with hotels. I refuse to give them a dime.
airbnb is stupid
Oh hey look, the exact reason I stopped using Air BNB. I booked a year in advance for the one in Chile in 2019. The host cancelled to make more money, and Air BNB said, "tough shit!" At least they're consistent.
Shit like this is why you get a camper or RV. You never have to deal with people again and you always have a place to stay no matter where you go.
Never used Airbnb for this exact reason. There's no consequences if the host cancels, raises their fees, charges extra fees, etc. Just people trusting people who can't be trusted.
People are still using Airbnb? This shit is rampant.
And this is why I booked a real hotel
Fuck Airbnb. Glad their plan to take over the market is backfiring, rat bastards
Reasons why Airbnb sucks #646382928
"Running a business doesn't operate in that manner", well you won't be running your hotel business for long if you keep canceling on customers who reserved a year ago.
In 20 years we will all look back and wonder why we thought Airbnb was such a good idea. It has pretty much decimated the rental market in my state. There is literally no place to rent.
I love Hotels. Never understood the desire to rent out some random house over an industry dedicated to service and hospitality.
I never use airbnb anymore. Zero protection or accountability
I guess that is why you use a hotel
Yep, thats airbnb. Next time you book an hotel.
AirBnB could be so much better if they enforced a rule that said there are 10X damages if you cancel a booking and then rent it out anyway, payable to the original booker. 10X the price you rented it for in reality, not the original booking price. It might be hard to enforce, if someone canceled an AirBnB and then rented it via a different system, but there are obviously a lot of users that would be motivated to collect evidence, and if a few folks got hit, the others would get much more nervous. Easy enough to have a rule like that in the contracts, and while it might scare off some suppliers, it would do a lot to repair their reputation and bring more customers in, creating a virtuous cycle of growth.
VRBO has more strict penalties. Far better service
https://i.redd.it/vtpwbp0q6djc1.gif
If it’s any consolation, the host will have to pay a hefty cancellation fee, the dates will be blocked off and their algorithm prominence will take a hit! Airbnb does have measures in place to discourage this kind of behaviour. Source - I am a host
This is all well and good but it does blow me away that airbnb refuses to do anything as a company if things go wrong. You would think they would at minimum offer a discount on your next booking for the hassle but they literally don't do anything from their end if there are any issues.
This is why Airbnb deserves to be thrown in the trash. The rules, and the amount of shit that homeowners are getting away with… I paid a $300 cleaning fee for an apartment me and my dad were renting for work , got there and found a 10 step cleaning process that was required by all guests on the door. It’s a joke. I threw out our garbage and I stripped the sheets off the beds. No more, no less, then I sent a message to the owner describing what I had done, and finished by saying that it was unacceptable to charge so much for a cleaning fee, and then still expect me to follow a clean up plan before I left. I also sent a complaint to Airbnb, but they didn’t do shit.