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

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

Unashamedly posting here for honest opinions, based on the main question in the title

Background is that I'm on holiday with a friend, in an apartment situated in an area where street parking's well known to be almost impossible

We were therefore extremely careful to source a place that actually had it, and checked with the owner before booking that it really was provided - only to find on arrival that it isn't, and all that's available is (non existent) street parking meaning that we hardly dare go anywhere because returning means driving around ( over 2 hours yesterday ) in the hope of finding a space

Obviously we've contacted the owner, only to be told we've "misinterpreted it" and street parking counts as being on the premises

So my question is whether or not we were BU to expect what the listing said, and if not what would anyone else do now? What we really want to do is leave the hassle behind and ask Air B&B to sort a refund based on misrepresentation, but I'd welcome thoughts before doing this

Yes it’s really hard to get a review removed!

This one didn't have any less than 5, bigknitblanket, which was a major reason for my choosing it, and interestingly when I've since looked at others, I can't find any which are less than 4 * *

However if they're removing them I now know the reason why there were no lesser reviews, nor other comments about the lack of advertised parking

Messed up bolding

You do get messages from services offering to remove bad reviews for a fee, word on host groups is theyre Airbnb employees which makes me wonder about this.

i had an awful review in which the guest just wittered on about herself. I don’t mind constructive feedback but she was just awful - she ignored me and my two year old saying good morning and I wished I’d invited her to leave earlier as she was just so awful to have around. An Airbnb AI bot would not remove it even though she didn’t even mention the listing or her experience!

This woman even criticised previous guests in her review 🤣

What did you actually say in your review OP? Did you say anything about there being no other reviews mentioning the parking?

I didn't mention the lack of any other reviews mentioning the parking issue, Summerice since it seemed fairer to comment about our own experience rather than anyone else's - I just said it was a lovely apartment but that the experience was spoiled for the reasons given

As said above, the thing that really doesn't make sense is AirB&B's comment that "The review was left in retaliation for a policy or rule being enforced" when nothing has been enforced, which is what made me wonder if the host has made something up

You do get messages from services offering to remove bad reviews for a fee, word on host groups is theyre Airbnb employees which makes me wonder about this

Dear god
I'd never heard of this, @Espresso25, but then wouldn't have done since I've not used the site before and won't be doing again
Maybe I've been lucky, but the one and only other time I've had to complain was over a Devon guesthouse where I'd stayed before but had changed to new owners, only to find they'd removed much of what was provided before but was still promised because they were using the last owners' script in the listing

That one was via booking dot com, and to their credit the listing was instantly removed and hasn't been seen on there since

As I said earlier, Air BnB don't commonly remove bad reviews, even ones that are obviously unfair. Hosts tie themselves in knots over the unfair review system.

Yes they’re very strict about reviews being honest, which is why I’m wondering whether there was anything in the review that could have broken the rules.

So am I, SummerIce, which is why I've revisited and quite genuinely can't identify anything

I did go back into the site's review rules and picked up on "guests should not write biased or inauthentic reviews as a form of retaliation against a host who enforces a policy or rule", which seems to be what they've zapped me on, but again, WHAT enforcement of a policy or rule when there was nothing to enforce and our only communication apart from arrival/leaving instructions was over the missing parking??

Even if I don't agree with something I like it to make sense, and this simply doesn't

Say what happened on Trustpilot. You can name the host there and put the location.