To warn you about Airbnb...

[RuggeryBuggery]

Have been really genuinely surprised at how Airbnb have acted here and wanted to warn others.

Booking made for half term some time ago, all manually confirmed by the host and paid upfront.
She contacted me yesterday to explain there had been errors with the booking/pricing, was sure she had done something wrong but not sure what and had been sooo busy so didn’t notice earlier that rate was wrong for school holidays and a promotion had been wrongly applied. She was prepared to let the rate stand but wanted another £150 for the promotion. I initially said we still wanted to come and she had confirmed the booking... suggested she take it up with Airbnb.
Bit more toing and froing then I said I thought I should contact Airbnb for advice.
Next thing I get a text through from Airbnb saying it’s cancelled.
I assumed by her.
Then saw she was readvertising same dates at 33% higher price.

I queried this with Airbnb as had been let to believe hosts aren’t allowed to readvertise dates when they cancel.
Host told me it was Airbnb that cancelled and they have confirmed this!
They didn’t even call me.

I’m obviously still (trying) to follow it up with them but just wanted others to know as am really shocked they would do this and leave us high and dry. Obviously there is nothing affordable or decent left that I can see tho am still looking.

They’ve offered me a 10% coupon for the inconvenience and promised a call to help rebook somewhere... but nothing yet.

Gah didn’t mean to enable voting of course!

I'm confused, on your last thread you didn't agree to the rise in price or said you didn't, now its like you are suggesting you did and then it got cancelled anyway.

No, sorry didn’t mean to suggest that.
I hadn’t said definitely yes or no.
Had assumed advice from Airbnb would be that she couldn’t ask for more money!
But it they did indeed make a technical error with pricing then surely they should have resolved this.

They should have resolved it, but honestly going by the last thread you'd have been stupid to go even if you didn't have to pay extra. She would have been annoying, and then charged extra for stupid stuff.

She can't run her own business and has more money than sense. Not the kind of place you want to stay at.

I saw your other thread! I wouldn't have gone anyway. Too awkward

Air BnB is a very successful website that is used by millions with no problems. Not sure a warning is needed. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience but I don't think you're typical.

It’s you! I’m so glad you’re back.

I can’t believe how AirBnb and hosts are conducting themselves. Your experience and that of others like you has really put me off ever using them again.

I had a host cancel on me a few weeks before our holiday in the summer a couple of years ago. There was no explanation at all, I sent a message to say I was very unhappy as my children would be dissapointed about their holiday but got no response at all. Luckily did manage to get somewhere else but not that nice luckily only wanted for a few days. I hope that karma helps you and you find somewhere better instead.

Wow Joe awful I hope your able to leave a review, this leaves a very nasty taste op and I'd personally like to swerve such a host in future!
Awful to do this to people cancel a whole holiday for this small extra amount, she made the error, it's on her not you and she should have sucked it up.

Tell them your unhappy, karma won't get them if they are allowed to treat people like this, I wonder about complaining to a newspaper also.

We are all desperate for holidays, it's beyond cruel to cancel on people like this.

Thank you
Totally get that hosts can cancel although like others was under the impression they get penalised.
Was just surprised at the turn it took, that it wasn’t the host in this case, but air bnb themselves.

Hopefully I’m not typical! But has really put me off.

I'm actually going to drop them an email asking if I book again can they cancel on me purely due to host wanting more than money all of sudden? If so I won't be booking again

WTF??
Did someone at Airbnb make a stupid error here? Or maybe the host asked them to cancel - but they should have said no!!
I really want to know why they did this - please update us!

As a host you can cancel by saying you are uncomfortable hosting. This doesn't impact the availability or penalise the host but you can't do it frequently or you start getting charged. I appreciate you are disappointed by the same token she runs a business and if she thinks she can get more money then that's what she will do. I've had to cancel someone with little notice due to family issues - it's right that hosts are able to cancel as long as it infrequent and whilst in this case it's very off of the host I don't think that means everyone should avoid Airbnb

I should say actually in defence of the host, who I genuinely believe now is not tech savvy, as she has said a number of times, I did have a further message from her last night saying maybe Airbnb ‘tied things up too rapidly’ and she has called them and suspended new bookings for that date while we can hopefully sort it out. 🤔
So she has slightly back tracked. She feels wronged I think because she feels the pricing error was there’s. I feel she should have picked up on it and if it was a genuine error should have gone to them about that initially, not me. They should’ve covered the difference not just cancelled.
Potentially she runs the risk now of having no booking although I suspect someone might book due to high demand.

Airbnb do have form for things like this and you definatley should not be penalised for their mistake. I am surprised they have not financed their mistake as other platforms would. I am not really sure why they continue to be so successful to be honest. They are now far beyond what they set out to be and are usually just as, if not more, expensive than hotels with facilities or more professional rental set ups due to their crazy additional fees. Hope you find somewhere else OP.

Never used Airbnb, and never will after reading this thread and your earlier thread. Holidays are just too important to us to suddenly be cancelled out of the blue. Thank you for your post. I'm sorry that you have had to go through this, but just wanted to let you know that I'm thankful that you've shared your experiences.

This is why I won't use air BnB. There's been occasions where a big event is announced and because of this hosts cancel bookings already existing and then sell the dates for more money.

Booking.com is much better. Never use airbnb

@gottakeeponmovin
“As a host you can cancel by saying you are uncomfortable hosting. This doesn't impact the availability or penalise the host”
Noted. I won’t be using them either.

YANBU. I enquired if we could book a part week last moment with a host on her daily rate as mentioned in the advert. She said fine and proceeded to charge the full week rate plus £200 in service fees.

No problem if you only accept full week, but don’t pretend you’ll take part week bookings when you’re actually charging full whack.

Booked elsewhere with cottages.com and had an amazing trip with lovely hosts. And no service charge.

At this point I've read too many bad & unfortunate things about Airbnb & their hosts. Wouldn't use them TBH. We usually use Booking.com or find a decent B&B. Can get some good deals if you're prepared to be flexible.

“ As a host you can cancel by saying you are uncomfortable hosting. This doesn't impact the availability or penalise the host but you can't do it frequently or you start getting charged. I appreciate you are disappointed by the same token she runs a business and if she thinks she can get more money then that's what she will do.”

That’s an appalling way to run a business. If I did that to my clients I’d loose my business.

I read all of your last post and have decided never to book with Airbnb. It all sounds so uncertain.

Have you found somewhere else yet OP?

Yes, you are unreasonable to warn about Air BnB as a whole.

This is one host.

You need to call Air BnB direct- actually speak to someone. A lot of their customer service agents have poor English and don't understand the issue when you email them.

The host should have had those dates blocked by Air BnB you are right. The host has behaved very badly, but as I said on the other thread Air BnB will have set that discount without her knowing.

As for the service fee, this is paid to Air BnB not the host. It is very transparent on the website what this is for.