AIBU to let you all know that Airbnb hosts have shit happen sometime?

[Jujujuile]

Two guests booked in from tomorrow for the weekend and my boiler’s gone wrong! The engineer has just told me it’s dead. Thankfully I have the funds to pay for a new one, but I have to wait for it to be installed.

With the paperwork / receipt to prove this has happened, telling airbnb is no problem. I’ve also called the person who booked to say sorry, and understandably she was very angry.

Airbnb hosts have a bad reputation for this, but I just wanted to put my side of it.

But you get 'the other side ' in hotels too! I have been hotels where, despite taking my booking and money their system of overbooking means no room at the inn if you get there last.

On business, you can't help arriving at 9pm sometimes, as you have been at work all day. I have had this in Marriot. Novotel and Holiday Inn.

mummymeister
Airbnb are not just an advertising agency. Part of the service they offer is to insure hosts against bad guests, I.e if they trash the place and to offer up alternative accommodation for a guest in situations like the one described. They take a fee for this service.

It's no different for any landlord. AirBnB or any rental property e.g. holiday cottage/villa etc.

The boiler went on my BTL the day before new tenant due to arrive. It was quite old and due to be replaced but it decided to go at exactly the wrong time.
It was regularly serviced and maintained but just went pop with no repair possible.

Shit happens.

Poor OP is renting out her spare room and people are acting like she is responsible for the fall of Rome! Air B&B have policies and systems in place to sort this out as seamlessly as possible for guests and this is what OP is using since she clearly takes her hosting seriously.
Out of interest OP are you in a very touristy area? Would be good to rent out my spare room and make a bit of extra cash on the side but i'm not sure anyone would want to come here!

Oliversmumsarmy, sounds great. Seems to be some snobbery about Airbnb on here that I can't say I have ever encountered in real life.

I have been using them for a number of years and recommended them to my siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, work colleagues and neighbours. Quite a few of them have not also used them and all have been more than happy. My nieces and nephews say they will never go back to staying in an hotel.

LeftRightCentre, but things can go wrong in hotels too. Have you not seen the couple of posts on here from people who have had problems with hotels?

Also unless you can afford a top class hotel with a suite, which we certainly can't, you are never going to get the comfortable, relaxed experience we do with Airbnb.

Everyone I have stayed in has been cheaper than Travelodge, Premier Inn or any other reasonably priced hotels. Only real fleapit hotels or B&B's have been cheaper and then not by much.

I have stayed in a penthouse apartment in Canary Wharf, a gorgeous 4 bed cottage in Yorkshire, a large 2 bed bungalow in Essex, a lovely apartment in Stockholm just to mention a few and all for far less than a soul less Travelodge would cost

No that’s down to airbnb to do that.

They don't though - if a host cancels last minute then Airbnb gives a voucher for 10% of the cost of the original booking to be used on an alternative booking. But that's all they do - the guest has to find and book somewhere else and being last minute it's often going to cost them a lot more than 10% extra to find an alternative. And if the alternative is a hotel, then obviously the Airbnb voucher is worthless.
If the alternative is on Airbnb then Airbnb get more than the value of the voucher back anyway, so either way they don't lose anything.

As for guests cancelling last minute - they still have to pay the service fee to Airbnb so Airbnb gets paid regardless - they just don't get the 3% (?) that hosts pay. While I am sure it an issue/inconvenience for hosts when this happens, they do have the option of having a stricter cancellation policy rather than choosing the most flexible one. If you offer flexible cancellation, you can hardly be surprised if occasionally someone does take that option and cancel - it still costs them some money too though (unless they do it within I think 24 or 48 hours of booking if the hosts offers free cancellation).

Also you cannot expect the guest to just accept that "shit happens" when you have to cancel last minute if you are not prepared to accept that "shit happens" for guests too - a last minute emergency or unavoidable change of plans can happen to a host or a guest. But the host is the one running a business and providing the service. I think most guests accept that hosts (especially those renting a room in their own home) have lives, work etc outside of Airbnb and that it may not be their sole source of income, so yes something can happen which results in a last minute cancellation - but hosts have to accept that this works both ways and guests may also have a valid reason for having to cancel last minute due to a change of circumstances.

Of course its not your fault. Anything can happen. That said though I don't blame her for being peeved at the situation however not at you.

Loveka, you shouldn't take bookings so close together that you can't sort out problems in between!

If you're going to take money from people, you need to be professional. If you're letting rooms, you can't keep ancient boilers running until they collapse, you need to replace them before there is a strong likelihood that they will break at any time.

Everyone I have stayed in has been cheaper than Travelodge, Premier Inn or any other reasonably priced hotels. Only real fleapit hotels or B&B's have been cheaper and then not by much.

Can you give me some example prices for your stays mydog?

A lot of airbnb guests don’t take out holiday insurance, which would cover them if things go wrong. Then they complain if they can’t get their money back.

FWIW airbnb will overide a host cancellation policy and refund if the guest can prove extenuating circumstances. These include bereveament and illness, but proof must be supplied. Both these events would be covered by travel insurance.

I’ve had one person try to get her money back because she missed her flight. I said no and Airbnb backed me up.

Of course you take bookings close together, don't be utterly ridiculous!

In the summer, most holiday rentals run, for example,Saturday to Saturday for a week minimum. That is industry wide.

I can't speculate for some bastard dripping hair dye on my £600 carpet. Accuse me of being unprofessional because I can't easily sort that out? Give me a break!

You sound like a nightmare guest, hope you don't book my house!

If your boiler was due to be replaced, theunsure, then you should have replaced it before your news tenants arrived.
Why did you allow them to move into a place where the boiler could go at any moment, and then shrug and say “shit happens” when it did?
Sounds like you were giving shit a helping hand.

It isn't your fault but I can understand why the booker is fed up. I wouldn't use this system for holidays it is just too unreliable with poor customer support.

Surely a hotel or a b&b can have any of the same issues? Boiler issue, fire, flood etc.

If it was me, i would be annoyed, but it's no one's fault. If you had double booked or cancelled on the day it's different, but she still has time to arrange alternative accommodation (albeit a pain in the arse)

Butterymuffin, the penthouse in Canary Wharf cost around £65 a night (can't remember exactly as it was over a year ago), the apartment in Stockholm was £78 a night, the bungalow in Essex was £48 a night.

The Stockholm apartment was the dearest we have stayed in but Sweden is much more expensive than the UK.

I do all the looking and booking and I really do scrutinise the listing, the reviews and the photos. I have never been disappointed because I know what to expect.

I know in a lot of places the cheapest hotel (Travelodge etc) is around £70 a night on average. I always aim for around £60 a night for an Airbnb although most of them have been cheaper. That is for the whole place too not just a room.

We are hoping to go to Brussels for the Christmas market. The cheapest I can find an hotel without having to share a bathroom is £106. There are plenty of Airbnb apartments (whole place) starting at about £35 a night. I am looking at one for £75 a night which looks lovely

Supercali, of course a hotel or B&B can have boiler breakdowns, flood, fire etc but the people that look down on Airbnb don't want to admit that

Ah but hotels do usually try and find alternative accommodation for guests. I used to be a hotel receptionist and we did have the occasional issue where we had to book people elsewhere. If we couldn’t find an alternative it was seen as a MAJOR fuck up. It almost happened once, but we did find somewhere in the end.

Not saying the op should do the same btw, just explaining why I would have slightly more faith in a hotel.

Ah but hotels do usually try and find alternative accommodation for guests.

It’s very unusual to be able to cancel once you’ve booked your room though. Not if you don’t want to pay eye watering prices.

I think this is where I have an issue.
People want the lower price (oftenhalf of what your wouod pay a hotel), the flexibility to cancel close to the day. And that the same time they want the perfection of the service, alternative accommodation etc etc.

Well sorry but that sort if service has a price! If you want something that will more or less always go smoothly etc etc then you also need to be happy to pay the price to go with it.

It’s a but like booking a flight on a budget airline and then moaning because the service isn’t as good, there is no snack or drink provided or a first class seat.

Often you get what you are paying for. You can’t grumble after paying for a room as cheaply as possible.

It isn’t unusual to have fully cancellable rooms in hotels, UNLESS you book through a third party. Our standard cancellation policy was 4pm the day of arrival. I also worked for years booking travel in a corporate setting. Standard cancellation policy was Day if arrival (sometimes 12, sometimes 2pm etc etc). Very unusual not to be able to cancel ime. But I believe third party booking sites have a different policy to hotels.

Day of arrival*

This happened to me once as a guest. The host gave me the option if a full refund or a part refund and no hit water. I took a full refund and booked something similar. Zero hard feelings and I definitely wasn't angry.

I think initially Air BnB did the cancellation like this because it was all in peoples houses, and was to cover 'shit happens'.

A lot of Air BnB properties are whole houses, just holiday rentals that you would see on any self catering website. We use Air B and B because it is very slightly cheaper, and allows us to only rent for 12 weeks a year.

Any self catering property can have something that goes wrong and can't be rectified immediatly.

Depending on the circumstances, they do sometimes find alternatives for people. We were an alternative property this very week, and Air BnB found it for the guests and booked it for them too.

Some interesting replies on here. Lots of keyboard warriors that don’t know the first thing about Airbnb.