Air BnB question

[ginislife]

not sure if I’m being U or not so asking here before I go to them. Booked an Air BnB in London for Tuesday/Wednesday night this week as we were at an exhibition at the Excel. The apartment we booked looked beautiful - floor to ceiling windows with a view of the river, 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms and walking distance to Excel. When we got to London and were looking up the directions I’d been sent a message to say there was no hot water where we’d booked (boiler issue that couldn’t be quickly fixed) so we’d been booked into one of their other properties. It was ground floor, no view, 1 bathroom - and as it turned out no hot water on the first morning as it hadn’t been turned on (involved switching off the main fuse board and back on again as it turned out, which wasn’t obvious as the fuseboard was hidden) and it was 5.5 miles from Excel. Oh and the TV didn’t work very well - we had to spend ages tuning it in.

Would you suck it up or ask for a partial refund ? Or give a 3 or 4 star review rather than 5 ? At the end of the day they didn’t leave us bedless but we were so disappointed we didn’t get our fancy apartment close to where we were going and it was a bit of a trek.

first world problem I know.

As said it's pretty rare for something to go wrong so people shouldn't be extreme and refuse to use Airbnbs ever again or put others off doing it, it just means future travellers and hosts miss out for something that the vast majority of hosts by far don't do! As said read the traveller reviews to spot any past issues.

A quick update for any one interested. I’ve had a message back from Air BnB to say there’s been no response back from the property manager so they’re offering me a 30% refund which I’m happy with. I’ll get £145 back.

Glad you got something back and you're happy with it. Shocking response from Airbnb though, you should've got a full refund especially if the Property Manager didn't respond. Thanks for the heads up, let that be a warning to us all!

30 pct back seems fair.. Limehouse is a better area than excel tbh!! ( I know it’s less convenient for your event thought)

Great news, but you are very kind. I would have been complaining to AirBnB straight away, asking them to find me something more suitable/

Clearly you didn't get the lodging you were expecting and paid for - so they breached their part of the deal. You could have rejected their "alternative" right there and then and gotten a full refund - but understandably that's tricky late in the day with no where else to stay! A similar thing happened to my sister when she went to Dublin for a trip - they arrived to find the place they'd booked was utterly unfit for purpose, and curiously the owner immediately offered them something else...My sister rejected that offer (over great howls of outrage from the host) and got somewhere else to stay. AirBnB were helpful with a refund, and because my sister also had some travel insurance via her credit card she was able to get some money back too for having to arrange alternative accommodation at late notice.

It's worth double checking whether your credit card/normal holiday insurance covers AirBnB snafus within the country you live in - sometimes people forget to claim because they assume it's only for out-of-country mishaps. It can mean the difference between being able to get your money back, or getting some compensation for "cancellation" (which is what happened here through no fault of your own). It would have meant, for example, that you could have booked a nice last minute hotel and not had to worry about the difference in cost, which is super important for somewhere like London where last minute can = pricey (though it can also = awesome deal - have a search about next time or even call some hotels and see what deal they will offer you - don't tell them you are desperate of course lol! Just say you are pondering a last minute trip into the city and looking for a good deal to make it worth while going - I've done that in the past and gotten some awesome last minute hotel deals from it if you're talking to the right person on the front desk.

Sorry you had to go through all this bother - what a disappointment it must have been when you'd put all the effort into finding a cool place to stay only to have it all changed about for something much less nice that you wouldn't normally have chosen - and of course now you're having to waste your time sorting it out. I'd start by demanding a refund and saying you'll be writing a suitably rubbish review/asking AirBnB to review the situation if you don't get one. Then take it from there if they say no. Remember, if you booked with a debit/credit card you also have that option (chargeback or fraud claim for example - you certainly didn't get what you paid for) if you get no help from AirBnB.

Eh - that sounds rubbish. 30% back for a far less nice place to the one you booked isn't nearly enough. But if you're happy with it then so be it.

A further update: Air BnB are refunding me the 30% discount but the property manager has now left me a review. If I want to see what she’s said then I need to leave a review !!

It’s a no brainer, leave a factual and bad review.

Just because you’ve had a partial refund doesn’t mean you should be silenced.