Air bnb - reliable ?

[NCTDN]

Wanting to book an apartment through air bnb. Where we’re going is very busy that weekend. DH says they will cancel on us and we’ll have nowhere to stay. I know they have Air cover but that essentially means a refund if there’s no other accommodation.
What’s your experience please ?

Ive never had air b&b cancel on us and we have used them over a dozen times to book our stays.
I reccomend reading reviews and we tend to stay in accommodation that's in the top 1%

Never been cancelled and have used them dozens of times. Read the reviews. The stories that get publicity do that because it’s so rare.

Only go with super hosts/people with plenty of positive reviews. You get heavily penalised for cancelling a booking so a properly invested Airbnb host won't do it without a very good reason.

I’ve only had one cancel.

I’d booked 2 separate stays with them.

After my first stay, in my review, I mentioned that it would be good to have a black out blind or thicker curtains on the bunk (kids) bedroom since it was East facing and very bright causing the dc to wake early.

They obviously thought this was unreasonable and cancelled my second booking!

All good to hear thank you. It’s a superhost that I’m looking at as well. Just conscious they could cancel and charge more because there’s so much demand for the dates we need.

I’ve been cancelled on twice attending events, I had booked early as I got the dates in advance of the public. I won’t use them now for that sort of booking.

I've travelled round the USA and Australia as well as in the UK, and never had a problem with Airbnbs.

I once had an airbnb cancel on me and I was given help by airbnb to stay elsewhere which was free and also given a voucher.
However that's the only time it's ever happened in ten years and I use airbnb alot.
Make sure to read reviews carefully. Also read all the house rules and details for a listing. You can run into bother when you don't notice things that are suspect about the property. But if you properly read everything through you can easily tell which places are safe bets. Places that have been on there for many years and have tonnes of 5 star reviews are highly unlikely to cancel on you.

We have booked air bnb dozens of times. The only time I got cancelled was in Edinburgh during the festival, with claims of a leak (not convinced it was true, we had booked months in advance and I suspect she got an offer of a longer/more lucrative booking). Anyway, air bnb were very helpful and we got a different place that was more expensive but air bnb covered the difference. This was a few years ago though and I’ve heard that they aren’t as helpful these days!

Airbnb is just the website connecting you to a holiday home. It's no different from book a holiday cottage through any other service. Occasionally things get cancelled due to exceptional circumstances, but I think it's just the luck of the draw with who is letting out the property. I don't think it being booked via Airbnb makes it more or less likely to happen than say through booking.com or Expedia...

If a host cancels a booking then the dates are blocked out and can't be booked again. They could book them on another site of course but as I say they get penalised for cancelling so no host does it if they can help it, certainly not for a bit extra money as you'll lose money overall by a cancellation. You lose super host status and drop down the search results, they fine you plus people are less likely to book from you as a cancellation puts a 'review' automatically from the guest saying 'the host cancelled this booking X days in advance' so anyone searching can see if they have done this before and how many times.

I’m an Airbnb host. They are very very hard on hosts and if you cancelled a guest booking without a good reason you’d most likely get booted off the platform.

Can I request more than one place with the same dates ? If they have 24 hours to reply and I’ve had to put in payment details, am I then contacted to stay there ? Don’t want to end up with more than one place booked !!

Yes if you've requested to book and they accept you could end up with two bookings at the same time if you aren't quick to cancel the other one. You should be able to send an enquiry rather than request to book, they then give you approval to complete the booking which you can do or not and you won't end up double booking.

OK thanks. So I send a message ? I’ve not heard back from the preferred option and it’s been 18 hours. I don’t want to cancel that request but not convinced I’ll hear back with a confirmation.

To be fair if they don't respond quickly that's a red flag. I would just withdraw your request to book and try the other.

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve booked one now.

Happened to a friend of mine. He'd booked accommodation on a particular date well in advance for a wedding, then a big event was announced that meant the going rate for a place in that area at that time quadrupled. Booking got cancelled, and all Air B and B would offer was a full refund for what was originally paid and I think some small voucher or other. Didn't get anywhere near what the cost of new accommodation would be.

I don't know what happened to the host because of this, maybe they did get kicked off the platform. But what did not happen was my friend being able to get the accommodation he needed at the price he'd originally paid.

After this, I wouldn't use Air B and B for anything of importance.