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

Even if that reply did come from a bot, it's massively cheeky to ask if you're having trouble finding a spot; even if you were able to grab a space on public road, the whole point of booking accommodation with private parking means that you never have to find a spot, as it's always there available for you!

Not to derail, but this is reminding me of the estate agent listings of a house that we looked at, which proudly claimed that a feature of the house was that there was 'outside'.

Erm, yes, correct - in fact, that 'outside' would obviously be the size of the entire world minus that one house

My parents stayed in an AirBnB flat last year for a few weeks while they were having some work done on their house; my dad has limited mobility so they too chose a flat with a parking space (and paid a higher rate than they might have done), knowing that the street parking is limited in the area and dad can't walk far.

When they got there they discovered the designated parking space for the flat they were in was occupied by the owner's car!

I helped mum raise a complaint via AirBnb, with a photo attached of the space being occupied. We had to go through the bot first but I kept clicking 'my issue is not resolved' and messaging again until we got a proper response. They ended up refunding £10 per day of the stay, which mum was happy with on the basis that the flat was otherwise quite nice and she wanted to continue the stay rather than move anywhere.

AirBnB is American that has versions in ALL languages, so not just for English people living in England.

So the host would use the www.airbnb.fr version and set the advert up in French and then it gets advertised in the language depending on which country's site is being used to view it.

e.g. my neighbour has an airbnb (in England), they certainly don't speak a word of French, but if I view it via the airbnb.fr page, it's automatically translated into French. Theirs says "Parking gratuit sur place" which would be the equivalent of "free on site parking".

I was therefore just suggesting that perhaps this was in fact a translation issue rather than a deliberate lie and the owner has presumed that "on premises" is referring to any free parking in the local area. I've stayed in properties in Paris before where parking available meant street parking (but not permits, so anyone could park if you could find a space). A property that actually had a private parking space would have been WAY more expensive!!!!

Obviously this doesn't help your case.

If it's any consolation, at a French wedding 18 years ago, my vegetarian meal was a bacon salad. I said "excuse me, I'm vegetarian" to which they replied "it is only a little meat" (basically expecting me to pick it out!).

Good luck with your parking space plight. Could you leave the car in its parking space and take taxis for the week? And just make sure that you make it clear in your AirBnB review that the property has only street parking which is almost impossible to find a space.

Obviously not, because I'm not using French Airbnb for my listing. But the set up is the same, because it's a standard listing set up across the world. That's why you can filter by amenities for a listing absolutely anywhere and the amenity list will be the same. One of the amenities is parking on premises, and if Airbnb used an ambiguous wording on their French site I think that would have been picked up fairly quickly.

I was just having a search regarding this and found the following https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Support-with-your-bookings/Official-quot-free-parking-on-premises-quot-means-quot-free/m-p/445760

Unless they own the street, it isn’t part of their premises.

Nope parking on premises means they have a drive. Street parking ia nearby parking

Oh dear that doesn't look very promising @GloryDias

I've just had an update from AirB&B to say they're "working with your host to find a solution and will respond as soon as possible"
God knows what she's supposed to do about it, but anyway she'll now know I've contacted them so watch this space

Unfortunately, 'working to find a solution' sounds suspiciously like 'find a way to make YOU compromise or to fob you off'.

They're treating it like there's an unforeseeable issue that's arisen, rather than acknowledging that the owner gained your money through deception by promising you something that they knew they couldn't possibly deliver - but hoping to get away with it and leave you stranded once you'd arrived and didn't have much alternative but to put up with it.

Okay, update - sorry it's a late one but I've only just heard

Air B&B offered us 30% off our cost for the two nights here and 100% refund for the rest if we want to leave tonight - except it's past 10pm here so that's hardly realistic (my friend's already in bed)

As a crossover with this, the host called us personally, having arranged for us to park in the hotel up the road for 180 euros for the remaining stay.
While still insisting that "on the premises" can mean on the road so it's really our fault, she tells us that AirB&B will refund us the 180 euros to park at the hotel ... but the company themselves didn't say anything about this??

So I've messaged AirB&B to ask if this is indeed correct before visiting the hotel tomorrow ... will post again if we hear from them and it enabes us to accept this offer

What?! She is expecting YOU to pay another €180 which you may or may not get back?

Why on earth is she treating this like a you problem when she's the one who caused it all? If she's so convinced that the €180 will be refunded - bearing in mind that having to park in a car park up the road is already a big downgrade over what you were promised, booked and paid for - the very, very least she could do is to pay it and (try to) claim it back herself.

The host has come to that conclusion herself, it’s up to you as to whether or not you accept.

I’m surprised at your host. Ratings are a big deal for hosts!

Even if there has been a misunderstanding because of different meanings of 'on the premises' between the two languages, it can't be the first time that this difference has been encountered.

As an American-owned site, Air BnB must get millions of customers who speak and book throughout the world through the medium of English; it isn't a minority language. If there's an easily-confused term that must be used extensively, surely they would ask people listing properties to specify, to avoid such similar confusion.

Even if there were no language difference, it's still quite a vague description in both languages. If you're selling a product, why wouldn't you actually seek to give a reasonably detailed and accurate description such as 'property has its own drive to the side', 'allocated parking space for this property only' or 'parking on the street outside'? Informing people booking a property in a residential area that there's parking available somewhere in the neighbourhood isn't really that helpful, is it?!

It's like selling a cake and only deigning to tell potential customers that "it contains edible ingredients"!

Nothing from AirB&B overnight to confirm the 180 euros for parking would definitely be refunded so I've re-sent the same messaage asking for an urgent reply

Even if they do it's far from perfect, but at least it's something - and as for why the host's taking this approach, she genuinely believes it's our fault and insists she didn't include "parking on premises" in the listing and that "nobody else has ever had a problem" (yeaah, right ...)

TBH the whole thing's frying my brain, whih is why I wanted to check on here that IANBU. Guess all I can do now is wait for AirB&B's reply

At worst, the host is a brazen liar; and at best, she sounds like she has a strong case of Main Character Syndrome.

Is the listing still up? Has it been recently amended to remove/clarify the claim of private parking?

Personally, whilst I would prefer a place with its own parking if possible, I would be infinitely more inclined to book a place that honestly stated 'parking is on the road outside' than one which said 'parking on the premises' which had a bad review clearly stating that this claim was false/misleading and that, after complaining about this, the customer had been asked to pay €180 for a guaranteed space some distance from the property! It would ring alarm bells in my head and make me wonder if all/any of the other details were actually true or just spun/made up to sound much better than the reality.

Reviews are the lifeblood of ventures like this. Surely most people immediately go to the bad reviews first, before they look at the good ones afterwards?!

Yes the listing's still up and no it's not been changed
Last night I suggested that, if she really didn't list "parking on premises", she took it up with AirB&B to sort it out, but she says she can't do that because she doesn't have enough English (despite speaking it very well with me)

Anyway I've now sent four messages to AirB&B asking them to reply as to whether they really will refund paid parking - quite frankly I don't trust her over this - and now they're not replying

So much for what was supposed to be a much needed relaxing holiday

I wouldn’t expect to get 180 back - who would pay it? If it’s the host she would pay it now to protect her rating, and she isn’t. Air b and b definitely won’t

Yes, that's my feeling on the issue @Newgirls, but what I now don't understand is why AirB&B aren't replying to my request to clarify whether a parking refund would be made - it's 10am here and I'd have thought the service should be running

Air b and b are very slow and the person dealing with your query might not be at work yet. Or waiting to hear from your host. At least you are getting a discount - can you use that for taxis?

That's the point - I don't know if there's going to be any discount yet and we can't afford to keep racking up hundreds of euros for something that's supposed to have been provided already

As mentioned, she's suggested we park in the local hotel - only now that's not available until Monday so it involves a parking lot until then - and she tells us tthat AirB&B will refund the charges
However I no longer trust her and the company now aren't replying at all

The host is in control of the refund - that’s why. You can accept it and still keep the issue open with Airbnb.

Is she really claiming that a massive company like Air BnB that operates worldwide doesn't have any customer service assistants who speak French? Do they not have any presence in Canada?!

It sounds to me like she just does whatever she thinks she can get away with; then, if she's challenged or pulled up on any of it, she just relies on claiming language difficulties.

Quite

Anyway off out now, though my friend's staying here today - will update later if anything changes