Airbnb double booking - what is fair?

[holidaydoublebooked]

This was a few weeks ago. Back in the spring we'd booked an Airbnb for three nights in July. On the day we were due to stay, as we driving there, I got a very apologetic message from owner saying the accommodation was unavailable for the first night due to it being double booked by booking.com. She offered us alternative accommodation on her property free of charge for the first night which we had no choice but to accept that late on, then we could have the more luxurious place we'd originally booked for the next two nights. We were on our way back to England after a stay in the north of Scotland, still 200 miles from home, and everywhere else in the area was booked solid.

The alternative accommodation was somewhat basic, damp and grimy: sort of a converted cowshed with no cooker, no WiFi, no garden, no coffee maker - none of the facilities we'd normally look for in a booking - but it had a (not very nice) bed for the night. The front door didn't shut properly and the owner's dog kept wandering in and hassling our dog even though we'd warned the owner our dog didn't like other dogs. The two of them got into an altercation as we were letting our dog out of the car and DH had to pull them apart.

The next morning we noticed our dog was limping - most likely from all the walking we'd been doing all week rather than from the fight with other dog - so we made the decision to cancel and head back home instead of waiting around to stay two nights in the accommodation we had originally booked. We cancelled through Airbnb and got £100 back for the final night, 24 hours as allowed on the terms.

What I would like to know: is it fair to still expect a refund for the first night in the cowshed on top of the £100 we already got for cancelling? We paid £400 in total, so owner still has £300 from us, as well as payment from the other family who'd in booked through booking.com. I messaged owner to remind her about the refund of £100 for first night but have heard nothing back. DH thinks we should just cut our losses and leave it but I think it would be fair if we pay £200 and owner gets to keep the other £200.

I'd be happy to accept I'm being unfair seeing as we cancelled. OTOH I'm pissed off we paid £300 and got one night in a shitty old cowshed.

She has great reviews and is a superhost so I'm baffled. Maybe I'm being unfair?

Btw, she said they'd had that problem with booking.com overriding her calendar of blocked days in the past so they'd decided to withdraw their listing from there. However. I looked a couple of days ago and it's still listed on there.

You don’t k own if she is lying about Booking.com or not.

I would push for a refund for £200 as that is more than fair of you.

I’d be wanting the whole lot back. That’s disgraceful.

I think I would be pushing for all my money back - you didn't get the first night's accomodation, so you shouldn't have to pay for that, and you only couldn't use the rest because her dog injured yours (or at the very least because you couldn't shut the door).

@Gladioli23

I think I would be pushing for all my money back - you didn't get the first night's accomodation, so you shouldn't have to pay for that, and you only couldn't use the rest because her dog injured yours (or at the very least because you couldn't shut the door).

This.

I’d definitely want the full amount back. You are being unreasonably generous to the host.

Yes my first thought was to go straight for a full refund but I was trying to do what's fair seeing as we also cancelled last minute. I don't understand how they got so many rave reviews, the cottage itself must be amazing.

Go for a full refund.

Definitely full refund. Why on earth would you pay £300 or any money for a grimy un-secure accommodation with no facilities.

You were given no notice to make alternative arrangements and wouldn’t have stayed at the second place had you been told ahead of time the place you booked was not available.

Go for a full refund.

Credit card chargeback or small claims court threat.

There is software called a "channel manager" for holiday lets. It is a master calendar that makes sure places cannot be double booked. It costs about £150 per year. Anyone letting on multiple platforms should have this or needs to be lightening fast to block out bookings on all other platforms once a booking is made. I don't see how booking.com could override a blocked period - why would they as clearly the property would not be available. Double booking is the owner's responsibility. They have failed in that.

The host is taking the piss. They are running a business, approach this like any claim against a business. Check the terms and conditions of your booking and go through formal channels to see if any refund is due. No idea if accepting the alternative accommodation means you voided the right to a refund but I would definitely be checking.

As an aside, I'm surprised that you can get a refund with just 24 hours notice, that's a bit shit for owners but I guess that's the risk they take.

I don't think Booking.com made a mistake;I think either the week before was a private let or the holiday makers prior to your booking wanted an extra night and booked through the owner who might have charged a premium.

I'd say you need to contact Booking.com and explain what she did.

The owner definitely made an error. I use booking.com. they are lying ( anyway not your concern, as to how it happened)I would push for a full refund.

I don't see how booking.com could override a blocked period - why would they as clearly the property would not be available. Double booking is the owner's responsibility. They have failed in that

Absolutely right.

Former booking.com and Airbnb host here and what’s happened is that they’ve messed up their calendars. They’ve either just forgotten to book out the first night of your stay on the other channel, or they’ve taken an overlapping booking just after your booking, and didn’t have time to block the dates out on the other calendar. They might have left letting you know till the last minute because they could offer you the first night in the more basic accommodation (and if they let you know at the last minute you’d have no choice but to agree.)

As a dog owner I’m APPALLED that they didn’t have their own pets shut in where they couldn’t hassle yours.

I’d be complaining vociferously and asking for a full refund. As a host, I would have offered it to you without being asked knowing that the double booking problem was of my making.

It's a bit ironic that on a thread complaining about booking dot com there are about 10 clickable links to their site

Is that happened that you booked via the airbnb website but it wasn't taken off the booking dot com portal? How does that process work? Who you need to pursue for some kind of recompense depends on who the error occured

From what other posters have said I don't think booking.com were at fault here, sounds like the owner messed up somewhere. I'll give the owner another couple of days to get in touch then if I still haven't heard I'll pursue it through Airbnb.
I don't know if all Airbnb lettings allow holiday makers to cancel at short notice. We cancelled the last day via the official page. Is that an option the owner can choose?

Yes OP as a host you can choose different terms in terms of cancellation rights etc.

@Daisydoesnt

I don't see how booking.com could override a blocked period - why would they as clearly the property would not be available. Double booking is the owner's responsibility. They have failed in that

Absolutely right.

Former booking.com and Airbnb host here and what’s happened is that they’ve messed up their calendars. They’ve either just forgotten to book out the first night of your stay on the other channel, or they’ve taken an overlapping booking just after your booking, and didn’t have time to block the dates out on the other calendar. They might have left letting you know till the last minute because they could offer you the first night in the more basic accommodation (and if they let you know at the last minute you’d have no choice but to agree.)

As a dog owner I’m APPALLED that they didn’t have their own pets shut in where they couldn’t hassle yours.

I’d be complaining vociferously and asking for a full refund. As a host, I would have offered it to you without being asked knowing that the double booking problem was of my making.

You sound like a great host. I'm always careful to research holiday bookings, check reviews etc, and every Airbnb booking I've made in the past has been great, so it was disappointing to say the least. I was not impressed that their dog was allowed to wander round without supervision.

Full refund.

Thanks, good to know I'm not being unreasonable. I'll give it til Monday. If the host hasn't even the courtesy to reply or refund the first night as agreed I'll chase up for full refund I think.

I would request a full refund too. You didn't get any of the break you paid for due to the double booking. If you'd been in the accommodation you booked, the incident with your dog wouldn't have happened.

OP, put the fact that you've been refunded the £100 for the third night out of your mind - that was according to the T&Cs of your booking, so is right and proper.

If I understand you correctly you paid c£135 per night for the accommodation you choose/ booked yourself (£400/s?) Have you checked on AirBnb / Booking.com for how much she charges for the grimy accommodation?? I bet it's a lot less.

At the very least she should refund in full you that first night; I'd have had the cash to give you there and then when you checked in, along with a bottle of wine for the inconvenience of you having to move in the morning.

Plus a massive grovelling apology for the wandering dog along with promises that it would never happen again.

So whilst you've got back the cost of the third night, what you haven't been compensated for is the accommodation that you booked not being available, the alternative not being of similar quality and not being secure (the dog wandering in, door not shutting) and your pet being attacked on arrival. AT THE VERY LEAST you should be refunded one further night, but personally I would have refunded you the whole lot and made a note to self to manage bookings better and control pet!!

Hi daisydoesnt, thanks for your reply. Good to hear things from the perspective of a host. That's about what I would have expected from a decent Airbnb host. It's weird, her messages before we arrived were very friendly and apologetic but she barely said two words to us when she came over to see us. Maybe because I was too distracted trying to shoo away another guest's dog that was sniffing around us when we arrived? I did tell her then that our dog is reactive around other dogs so I was too busy concentrating on keeping them apart for much chat. We were frazzled after a long drive on a hot day with lots of delays and detours because of road closures so it's likely I wasn't at my chirpiest either, to be fair.

There was no apology, no bottle of wine, not even a pint of milk in the fridge. I don't think the accommodation we were given is let out, it's more for use by outdoor instructors or similar as far as I could gather. It was really grotty inside: a mishmash of pans and crockery which looked like they'd been there since the 80s and the bare minimum facilities. No tv or WiFi, no oven, a tiny cheap leather sofa, poky plastic shower cubicle and walls lined with some sort of MDF/chipboard stuff. Fag butts all over the yard outside by the picnic table. Definitely not somewhere you'd choose for a holiday. It's been three days since I messaged the host to remind her of her promise not to charge for that night, but still no reply and no refund. I'm not impressed at having to chase this up a month later, and my message being ignored when we were so accommodating at the time. I am inclined to ask for the whole lot to be refunded rather than just the payment for the first night.
What are the next steps? If I chase this up with Airbnb are they likely to refund the remaining £300 seeing as I initially requested £100 refund from the host? It says on their form that their decision is final.