What does "Parking on premises" mean to you? Air B&B problem ...

This is why we stay in hotels - as they are answerable to their customers. Air BnB don’t care about customers.

have a think about the other air bnb cisutomers are taking up all the street parking and massively pissing off the locals who have to put up with this in their area.

so - stay in a hotel next time ?

This sort of thing is unacceptable. We had a similar thing with details in listings on Airbnb.

When we went to Provence in August, I was adamant we had to have aircon. This was having been to South France before and nearly dying of heat exhaustion (not exaggerating, I think it was a combination of medication, mobile home and heatwave). It's accumulated over a number of days, and I was very ill. Completely ruined the holiday.

This house said it had air-conditioning. We arrived and searched high and low, then queried it with the agent. She then said the owner was out of contact but they would get back to us the next morning.

Then proceeded a series of incomprehensible messages in French, which led me to believe I had just not found it.

Eventually I realised that she meant the stone floors were "natural" air conditioning.

I was livid. We were yet again in the South of France, no air con. It was dangerous.

Yes, to be fair, I probably shouldn't have gone at all to that part of the world at that time of year. So I'm not blaming them 100%. Still annoying though.

They’re in the wrong which they clearly know

Parking on premises means there is a private off-street area to park in. It absolutely does not mean parking on the street. In fact is the very opposite of parking in the street. You were obviously ripped off by the false description given and I would be playing hell with the booker and thinking about legal redress—a “letter before action” at least. Screenshot all the material advertising this place you can find. Obviously keep your correspondence, take photos of the reality, and prepare for battle.

I was thinking this too, I know it's normally the mn rules to post a picture with a parking thread but I don't think it'd work on this one.

This seems to be a thing in France. I always filter by parking but almost none of the results actually have free parking, it's just standard on street which is not what you want after a long journey!

I rent out my spare room on Airbnb. Free parking is restricted on my street, and can be very expensive elsewhere. I get limited visitor permits every year so I don't sell them to guests - I can't guarantee them a space close by my home.

However, I always tell people the situation BEFORE I take their booking. If your host wasn't honest with you, you should get some money back.

Time difference! They’re in USA!

Is she really claiming that a massive company like Air BnB that operates worldwide doesn't have any customer service assistants who speak French? Do they not have any presence in Canada?!

It sounds to me like she just does whatever she thinks she can get away with; then, if she's challenged or pulled up on any of it, she just relies on claiming language difficulties.

The host is in control of the refund - that’s why. You can accept it and still keep the issue open with Airbnb.

Air b and b are very slow and the person dealing with your query might not be at work yet. Or waiting to hear from your host. At least you are getting a discount - can you use that for taxis?

I wouldn’t expect to get 180 back - who would pay it? If it’s the host she would pay it now to protect her rating, and she isn’t. Air b and b definitely won’t

At worst, the host is a brazen liar; and at best, she sounds like she has a strong case of Main Character Syndrome.

Is the listing still up? Has it been recently amended to remove/clarify the claim of private parking?

Personally, whilst I would prefer a place with its own parking if possible, I would be infinitely more inclined to book a place that honestly stated 'parking is on the road outside' than one which said 'parking on the premises' which had a bad review clearly stating that this claim was false/misleading and that, after complaining about this, the customer had been asked to pay €180 for a guaranteed space some distance from the property! It would ring alarm bells in my head and make me wonder if all/any of the other details were actually true or just spun/made up to sound much better than the reality.

Reviews are the lifeblood of ventures like this. Surely most people immediately go to the bad reviews first, before they look at the good ones afterwards?!

Even if there has been a misunderstanding because of different meanings of 'on the premises' between the two languages, it can't be the first time that this difference has been encountered.

As an American-owned site, Air BnB must get millions of customers who speak and book throughout the world through the medium of English; it isn't a minority language. If there's an easily-confused term that must be used extensively, surely they would ask people listing properties to specify, to avoid such similar confusion.

Even if there were no language difference, it's still quite a vague description in both languages. If you're selling a product, why wouldn't you actually seek to give a reasonably detailed and accurate description such as 'property has its own drive to the side', 'allocated parking space for this property only' or 'parking on the street outside'? Informing people booking a property in a residential area that there's parking available somewhere in the neighbourhood isn't really that helpful, is it?!

It's like selling a cake and only deigning to tell potential customers that "it contains edible ingredients"!

I’m surprised at your host. Ratings are a big deal for hosts!

The host has come to that conclusion herself, it’s up to you as to whether or not you accept.

What?! She is expecting YOU to pay another €180 which you may or may not get back?

Why on earth is she treating this like a you problem when she's the one who caused it all? If she's so convinced that the €180 will be refunded - bearing in mind that having to park in a car park up the road is already a big downgrade over what you were promised, booked and paid for - the very, very least she could do is to pay it and (try to) claim it back herself.