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I don’t know where you are but there are many cities where “all” apartments don’t have AC. Also they don’t all have free parking or elevators. It is, in fact, your responsibility to read all the fine print.
One of the great things but also terrible things about Airbnb is that every listing is run by its host. Unlike a chain hotel, they are not all exactly alike. There is no way Airbnb could force conformity even if they wanted to. This is where guest reviews are very important because if a listing or host is substandard, the reviews will make it clear. I bet there are even reviews that say the apartment you are in doesn’t have air conditioning.
You don’t need to search the internet, just read the damn listing and reviews of the place you rented.
A favorite topic of mine! It will. And tourism and air travel, especially internationally, will be spotlighted more and more as part of the problem. People probably will cut way back on flying in hot weather due to smoke, melting tarmacs, the chance of getting stuck in an airplane or airport for hours without AC, power failures, more violent storms and the other issues that arise from climate change.
I hope this is more of your hyperbole and that you didn’t actually take your 75 year old grandma on a trip to a hot location and rent an Airbnb with no AC.
To repeat, the only way Airbnb will know about these hosts is when guests complain, report them, and leave honest, unemotional reviews. They will be replaced by other greedy hosts because that’s how capitalism, and Airbnb, works. Your complaints here aren’t doing anything to change that. I can’t imagine a single host here, not even Chris, who would shrug at a guest in a 120 degree apartment.
No harder than it is for hosts who come here all the time and ask for help or advice about Expedia/VRBO, Bookingdotcom, and others. Remember when someone tried to leverage this forum to promote that listing company that was going to be the next big thing… rhymes with roofie or hi-fi or something?
Sometimes unless it’s just out of line from the first post we just let it go a bit. If we as hosts create an echo chamber, that’s not helping us be better hosts.
You are paying $600 for the accommodation you booked, not for failing to read the info provided. And there isn’t any “fine print” in listings. There is an amenities list which tells you what is provided and what isn’t.
Hosts don’t spend time writing up their listing info for fun or because they have nothing better to do with their time. It is the guests’ responsibility to read the info, not complain and ask for refunds after the fact.
And you always have the option to contact hosts before you book if you have any questions.
I’ve read many posts from guests over the years that I appreciated. Good to understand things from a guest’s perspective. However, those guests came across as perfectly reasonable, said they had had many great Airbnb stays with lovely hosts, they didn’t come on with a slew of insults and presumptions about all hosts being greedy and not caring about their guests. And they owned up to not reading the listing info or failing to ask questions about something that was important to them, i.e. they took responsibility for their own lack of attention.
It isn’t “abusive” not to have AC unless the host falsely advertised that they had AC.
What’s abusive is to fail to read the listing information and then demand a refund because you made an assumption rather than informed yourself, and accuse the host of being greedy and abusive.
Yes yes yes! Thankfully, we hosts who are tormented by ‘guests’ who decide that not reading the accurate descriptions we provide are somehow reasons to change our cancellation policies can be backed up by our hosting platforms. Similarly, guests who decide that ‘house rules do not apply to them’ also are not allowed to torture hosts.
Trolls, however, are not mitigated by the hosting platform, so when they show up here, we are still tormented. They complain and yet, when responded to by the helpful folx on this format, still continue, hoping that somehow they’re misinformed concepts will get traction.
I grew up in the desert where most places had AC but my particular house didn’t. But it didn’t need AC as it had an attic and lots of trees around it that absorbed the heat so the house was livable.
My complaint is that after showing up to an apartment and finding out that it isn’t habitable at all should not result in me receiving a fine.
The bottom line is heat absolutely is hazardous. If the apartment is potentially dangerous to some guests, there needs to be a warning in the listing or shutdown. Some apartments may be just fine without AC. But it was hotter in my last airbnb than it was outside. No guest can know what to expect until they get there as we have no idea what kind of material the building is made out of, where it’s located (I booked an airbnb that was rented out above a pizzeria with extremely hot ovens once with no mention of this in the listing). The person who knows the apartment best is the host.
Y’all are acting like hosts always provide accurate descriptions and you know that’s not the case. Simply not listing AC as an amenity does not effectively communicate anything about whether it’s livable or not. The units below me in my last airbnb would have been just fine without AC as they were in the shade but the unit I got was not habitable because of it’s location.
…and to the guy above me complaining about being tormented / tortured… nobody is forcing you to read this. You chose your industry and you get paid for it…
Did you contact Airbnb with substantiation of the 120F temperature?
– If so, what did the say?
– If not, why?
I am assuming that prior reviews didn’t mention that the property was unbearably hot. So, couldn’t your experience be an outlier?
If it really is/was ‘over 120F’, I would think that you could contact local authorities to say it is not habitable, again with documentation. Where is this property? What is the ambient temperature outside?
Since you seem especially knowledgable about heat, you might, when renting in the Northern Hemisphere, ask ahead of time whether an apartment is on the southern or western elevation as those would be hottest. I would think you should not rent a unit when it’s likely to be hot without AC.
I don’t think anyone would deny that if a Host KNEW that their property was routinely especially hot (e.g., above a pizzeria or on the southern/western side in an area with routinely hot summers and no AC with resulting excessive inside temperatures like >85F+), that that should be disclosed.
Still, if the Host did not make such disclosures I would think reviews would reveal the issue. Is it a new listing with few reviews?
Your posts make arguments, but you don’t relate anything you did, other than perhaps (?) ask the Host for a refund.
I want to point out to you that your tone and argumentation here is so strident/venomous that it is easily dismissed. It is the opposite of persuasive; you might want to re-think it.
You talk about what Hosts ‘know’ but you don’t know what they know, about ‘all’ apartments having AC but I doubt ‘all’ have them – your doesn’t.
You wrote (and then edited out) how you’re suffering a $600 ‘fine’ – which was just ‘spin’; it was a cancellation penalty.
I’m just saying that you are likely to be more persuasive and taken more seriously by Airbnb, a Host, anyone, if your language were more factual than laden with extreme or inaccurate language.
Hosts here, sofar as I can determine, are diligent Hosts who want to ‘up their game’ in the hospitality business. We really want to be the best we can.
Depending on where Hosts are located they might or might not have AC. It’s possible that they don’t have AC and that this has not been a problem in the past (except for maybe for ‘x’ weeks/year [often two or so in many places in U.S.) – travelers have some responsibility to know that they’re traveling in a hot time of year, especially when past guests have ‘rolled’ with it.
This year is especially hot in many places. I don’t think it’s the Host’s responsibility to waive their cancellation charges because it’s unusually hot.
I don’t believe the property you rented was over 120F inside.
Before calling me a nutcase maybe you should do some research on the rise of heat related deaths.
Just last year there were 60,000 people killed from unusual excessive heat… and that figure was just in Europe. More people are dying this year from excessive heat as its even hotter.
The apartment I received was not habitable and I don’t care if you believe me or not. You can’t deny the rise of heat related deaths.
A house’s primary function is provide shelter from the elements.
Yes, sadly, there have been thousands of heat-related deaths.
But you want to say – it seems from your ‘handle’ – that therefore AC should be mandated.
Well, you could start by renting properties with AC.
And while we’re ‘sharing’ on how the world should be, I could share my views on a carbon tax, pedestrian zones, apartment inspections and more. But I think we’d need to take that discussion on another site.
Maybe you want to get a petition together to Airbnb on mandating AC in certain areas – or, better, local jurisdiction codes on rentals. Meanwhile, many of us would be be happy with all properties being in compliance with local and existing building codes as well as Airbnb terms of service, and all guests acting in good faith, reading listings and taking personal responsibility.
a primary function of a traveler is to do research about where they are traveling… don’t travel to a place if it’s going to be too hot for you… just stay home and stop harassing hosts.
As a guest, I’d like to be able to blame the host for rain, neighborhood noise levels, the behavior of businesses in the neighborhood, and cancellations of airlines, color of the ocean water, sand quality at the beach, and everything else under the sun.
Are you saying that they violate the local building codes? Local codes for renting residential units?
If not, then take this issue to local authorities or to authorities that create the master building code from which local authorities adapt for local codes.
But don’t expect Hosts to undertake expenses not required by law or Airbnb because you think they should.
Hey, Mods, is it just me, or do I smell a troll?…