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

Unfortunately, 'working to find a solution' sounds suspiciously like 'find a way to make YOU compromise or to fob you off'.

They're treating it like there's an unforeseeable issue that's arisen, rather than acknowledging that the owner gained your money through deception by promising you something that they knew they couldn't possibly deliver - but hoping to get away with it and leave you stranded once you'd arrived and didn't have much alternative but to put up with it.

Nope parking on premises means they have a drive. Street parking ia nearby parking

Unless they own the street, it isn’t part of their premises.

I was just having a search regarding this and found the following https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Support-with-your-bookings/Official-quot-free-parking-on-premises-quot-means-quot-free/m-p/445760

Obviously not, because I'm not using French Airbnb for my listing. But the set up is the same, because it's a standard listing set up across the world. That's why you can filter by amenities for a listing absolutely anywhere and the amenity list will be the same. One of the amenities is parking on premises, and if Airbnb used an ambiguous wording on their French site I think that would have been picked up fairly quickly.

AirBnB is American that has versions in ALL languages, so not just for English people living in England.

So the host would use the www.airbnb.fr version and set the advert up in French and then it gets advertised in the language depending on which country's site is being used to view it.

e.g. my neighbour has an airbnb (in England), they certainly don't speak a word of French, but if I view it via the airbnb.fr page, it's automatically translated into French. Theirs says "Parking gratuit sur place" which would be the equivalent of "free on site parking".

I was therefore just suggesting that perhaps this was in fact a translation issue rather than a deliberate lie and the owner has presumed that "on premises" is referring to any free parking in the local area. I've stayed in properties in Paris before where parking available meant street parking (but not permits, so anyone could park if you could find a space). A property that actually had a private parking space would have been WAY more expensive!!!!

Obviously this doesn't help your case.

If it's any consolation, at a French wedding 18 years ago, my vegetarian meal was a bacon salad. I said "excuse me, I'm vegetarian" to which they replied "it is only a little meat" (basically expecting me to pick it out!).

Good luck with your parking space plight. Could you leave the car in its parking space and take taxis for the week? And just make sure that you make it clear in your AirBnB review that the property has only street parking which is almost impossible to find a space.

My parents stayed in an AirBnB flat last year for a few weeks while they were having some work done on their house; my dad has limited mobility so they too chose a flat with a parking space (and paid a higher rate than they might have done), knowing that the street parking is limited in the area and dad can't walk far.

When they got there they discovered the designated parking space for the flat they were in was occupied by the owner's car!

I helped mum raise a complaint via AirBnb, with a photo attached of the space being occupied. We had to go through the bot first but I kept clicking 'my issue is not resolved' and messaging again until we got a proper response. They ended up refunding £10 per day of the stay, which mum was happy with on the basis that the flat was otherwise quite nice and she wanted to continue the stay rather than move anywhere.

Not to derail, but this is reminding me of the estate agent listings of a house that we looked at, which proudly claimed that a feature of the house was that there was 'outside'.

Erm, yes, correct - in fact, that 'outside' would obviously be the size of the entire world minus that one house

Even if that reply did come from a bot, it's massively cheeky to ask if you're having trouble finding a spot; even if you were able to grab a space on public road, the whole point of booking accommodation with private parking means that you never have to find a spot, as it's always there available for you!

If you go out can you drop your friend back and then park on your own? Just so you don’t ruin your remaining days. What a pain.

Do you have a screenshot of the French set-up page?

This might be the case but when you set up a listing you have to click options and if you click parking on premises it will be clear in French what it means.

Just because they write perfect English, doesn't mean you don't get mis-interpretation!

My French ex spoke and wrote "perfect" English. There are so many "faux friends" in the English/French language. We had many mix ups with translated words that sound similar but are not.

e.g. the English word "premises" would be translated as "locale", which can also then be translated back as "local".

So the phrase "parking on premises" could therefore potentially be meaning "local" parking and NOT a misrepresentation.

Was the advert written in English, or written in French and translated?

Airbnb use AI bots to respond so it takes some effort to have a sensible discussion with someone who actually engages.

No this is not the case. Reviews get posted without the host seeing them.

The host can't see the review unless they leave a review of the guest or wait 2 weeks, whatever comes first.
Most host reviews of me are just 'tidy, no issues' or something like that. They don't see your review first.

Absolutely get in touch with Air BnB about this and say you booked it on the basis of the parking. They have lied and you should not be paying for somewhere that's not what you booked.
We booked a terrible Air BnB which claimed to have a kitchen diner - when in fact there was a tiny kitchenette in the living room, with no table or chairs. We got a full refund for misrepresentation. Air BnB hate that.

Report it to AirBNB

Thanks for clarifying @Jungfraujoch@Espresso25I couldn’t recall as it’s been years since I used it.

Sorry if I caused any confusion!

No they don’t review them.

Hi. We had a similar problem with our Airbnb abroad last year. We travelled to a country known for its good weather and rented a property which advertised air conditioning. We were very careful with this and clarified with the owners. Reviews were excellent. When we arrived after a very long journey, the house was a furnace. Floor to ceiling windows giving a green house effect. The air conditioning was a tiny unit in a corridor off the main living area. Hopeless. We were devastated as we were meant to stay for a fortnight. Airbnb ended up being very good and we did get a refund and asked for the description to be changed. Owner didn’t see the problem though.

op I feel for you as you put work into ensuring the place had parking.