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

I think it’s reasonable to ask for a refund on the basis:

• You double-checked before booking and were assured parking was ‘on the premises’. To avoid confusion over translation, it would have been clearer (in hindsight) have used the term ‘off street’ or ‘private’. But it would also have been better for your host to have been clearer and said: “yes, there is free parking at the premises on the street”.

• On-street parking close to the accommodation is very difficult and the host must know this. So, if they meant ‘on the premises’ referred to on-street, they should have acknowledged/made you aware it may be difficult to find a space.

• Your friend has mobility issues, so being able to easily park at the accommodation is essential. Did you make the host aware of this when you enquired about parking?

Don’t worry about the host locking you out for asking for a refund on this basis. That shouldn’t happen and probably won’t if you remain polite and reasonable.

It doesn't amount to the same at all.

Parking within the boundary of a defined property.

Therefore, you don’t have parking on the premises.

If someone causes trouble in, let's say a pub, they may be "escorted off the premises". That means out the front door, or the gate if there's a beer garden or car park - literally to the point where the property ends and the public space begins. The street is not "the premises". Otherwise, how far does the security guard march the offender down it?

Parking on the premises clearly means at the property. In some locations, not having parking would materially impact the enjoyment of the holiday as your 2 hour journey to find one demonstrates. If the rest of the place is ok, I would look at the JustPark site to see if they have a space close by. I would book that for my holiday and then send in my bill. Depending on how angry it made me, I would then go to the small claims court to recover my costs.

Quite. They could just as equally claim that the place has a 'washing machine available on the premises', when what they really mean is that there's a white-goods shop in the town that has washing machines freely available to anybody who goes in with the money and asks to buy one!

I had this years ago. Checked specifically that there was parking.
Turned out they meant you could park for a couple of mins to get your bags out of the car. Got a parking ticket whilst putting suitcases in each bedroom.
No free parking anywhere as all the streets were resident parking.
The parking was a pay and display a 15 minute walk away that cost us a fortune for overnight parking.
Not helpful to you OP but I can sympathise.

Is an after-the-event "You misinterpreted" the same as "Oops, I mis-spoke" - used by somebody insisting that they told you the 100% truth at the time, even though they were standing there with their pants starting wildfires and half the town desperately calling 999?!

🤣

This. Complain to AirBnb with a copy of the correspondence

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...

Yes, this 👆

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.

Not looking forward to this TBH

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

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.

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

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!

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

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'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!

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

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?