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

This is why I stopped using Air BnB - because the owner can review you too. They can't see your review first, but it means that guests are less likely to complain if something is wrong, because they don't want to be reviewed badly.

We had this exact scenario at an air bnb, all 5 star reviews, no mention of the misleading parking. I was with a v forthright friend who had no qualms in leaving a poor review. That opened the floodgates for following reviews to agree that the parking (not on premises as advertised) was misleading. So I guess if nothing is resolved for you now, you can at least pay it forward by leaving an honest review!

You have 14 days after checkout to write a review . Once both guest and Host have written reviews for each other, both reviews will be published simultaneously so neither party can see beforehand what the other has written. If after 14 days only either the guest or host has reviewed the one review will be published. A guest or host can try and get Airbnb to remove a review if they feel it’s untrue/unfair.

From memory (I haven’t used Airbnb for years), the host has to approve the guest reviews, although can’t edit them. Perhaps the owner has not allowed any reviews through which mentioned the misrepresented parking situation?

This.

I’ve also stayed in AirBnBs where the owner has been upfront that parking is on street only however there is a a free public car park a few minutes walk away.

For me parking on the premises means off street parking not parking on the road.
I agree you should complain.

Which bit do you need a visual aid for - car or street ?

I seriously doubt the host would do such a thing, she still wants to keep her 5 star review I presume. Will anyone book it in the future if she locks a customer out? Most likely she'll offer some sort of discount to quell your displeasure. I would cancel the current booking and move to another more suitable accommodation as it clearly doesn't suit you and your friend. If you have a look through the airbnb site, you might find some last minute discounted units that will work better for you.

But normally, you would realise why a question was being asked and give more than a Yes/No answer, if you had nothing to hide.

Even if, in your language, 'on the premises' does mean somewhere in the wider area around the property, it would be natural to respond accordingly and give a more helpful reply:

Is there parking available on the premises?
Yes, there is lots of free parking on the street outside and in neighbouring streets.
OR
Yes, there's a private drive at the side belonging to the house with room for one medium-sized car.

Most adults who aren't deliberately trying to be cagey will give a little more helpful detail when asked a question like that.

It's the equivalent of somebody asking if you're at home for them to collect something - most people would say "I'm in for the next half-hour, but I need to go out at 3"; you wouldn't just say "Yes, I'm at home" and then leave them to waste their time when they turn up 35 minutes later and find nobody in.

The ‘unexpectedly broken’ (of the heat pump) was only announced on day 2. On arrival the hot tub which we were assured would be up and ready to use was still in a box in a shed. Took two days of nagging to get them to assemble it and then to discover that parts didn’t work. It’s a (pretty expensive these days) paid service, not a favour from a friend and I think if you offer a service then you should check everything is as promised and working prior to your customers arrival.

anyway hotels for me.

If they said it was "unexpectedly broken" then I can't see how they could have foreseen that - things do break down, and nothing can be guaranteed to be operating in a specific week. Had you asked to be informed and refunded if it broke down prior to your arrival?

I can't believe 1% of voters think you're being unreasonable.

"Parking on premises" definitely means on the grounds of the property in question to an English speaker, but I can't fathom why so many people are so completely convinced that a French speaker must have known this, however good their English appeared to be, and therefore must be lying.

It doesn't really matter in terms of getting a refund from Air BnB of course; misleading is misleading, intenational or otherwise.

I was interested to see this as only last night I was looking at details of holiday lets in my former home town. (Not Air BnB)Two of them indicated they had parking, which I knew from local knowledge was impossible (one down an alley and the other adjoining a path through the grave yard). There is a public car park two or three minutes walk away from both, but that has to be paid for. I felt this was misleading.

Parking on premises means there is allocated parking space somewhere. My DD lives in a flat with an underground car park - that’s the sort of thing I would have been expecting. If it’s street parking with a permit, it should say so: if it’s a matter of driving round until you find a space, that is NOT in any way, shape or form, “parking on premises”. I’d be complaining vociferously, OP.

I'd only think of street parking as "premises" if there was a dedicated parking spot in front of the house.

Even then it wouldn't really be!

OP, how annoying and deliberately misleading.

This is why I loathe Airbnb, we recently contacted an owner well in advance of our visit to check that the hot tub advertised would be operational - it was was abroad, but my cousin who is from the same country and a native speaker did all the emails in the owners language. We were assured that it would be, it wasn’t, was then ‘unexpectedly broken’ and basically wasn’t there the whole trip, despite that being the reason we chose the property. The owner claimed ‘translation problems’ despite the emails being in his language!

I would complain to Airbnb asap and cite your friends mobility problems clearly.

I am not quite sure why posting where you are is a major issue OP - this is mumsnet not the CIA

I'm.wondering if there's a translation issue here?
If someone (AI?) translated the description from the original in French it may be a simple but unlucky mistranslation?

Still needs correcting though!

Leave a review to warn other’s. I would want money off OP

Host is French. I totally guarantee the OP will get the disinterested shrug and a comment about language/cultural differences. She must absolutely take it up with airbnb.

Not looking forward to this TBH

You’ve done nothing wrong, complain confidently and assertively!

I use Airbnb a lot and always choose a property with either parking on premises or it may state off street parking. If I arrived and it wasn’t the case then I would request some form of refund and if that didn’t materialise I would go through Airbnb for wrongful advertising.

Yes, this 👆

I expect it might very well be a translation matter. AirBnB uses a translation service, so the owner might have had their response translated and...

Premise is translated in French as local (or locaux if plural), but of course, local also means local, as in in the vicinity.

An example where translation can be very misleading...