We all know how air does the cancellations- deciding who gets the money- host or guest. Well. This article makes me wonder. If there was an EC and host had to cancel- and prove the EC which I’m sure happened… the host doesn’t get the money. Seems the guest barely got it too. Think the guest though that the host had it when all along air did?? Never even considered this as an option…
I suppose, like a few others on here, that when possible choosing a Superhost (when travelling) it reduces the possibilities of anything going awry. That said, even before the Superhost category was introduced we still never had an issue with hosts cancelling in all of our travels, and Wimdu was the same.
Given that there were just under 160m overnight stays in Airbnbs across the US and Europe last year, there will always be issues and it’s always the problem stays that make the press. Makes for good headlines but in reality the vast majority of reservations pass without incident.
The way I read it is that the guest was annoyed that he only got $92 additional credit, his original payment was transferred to the new booking.
JF
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Wasnt so much about this particular guest but the idea in general… are there times when a host doesnt get their payout but the guest still fights to get their money back? Does Air ever just keep the money?
There seem to be so many things wrong with that article. I don’t know if I’m reading this correctly:
followed by five weeks at a condo rented through Airbnb. For the latter part of the trip, Jackel booked a two-bedroom condo with air conditioning, Wi-Fi, laundry and access to a pool and gym for around $1,300.
All those facilities for $1,300? For five weeks? That can’t be right surely? But even if it was that price for just one week, with two bedrooms it presumably sleeps four so that would equate to $46 per person per night.
Even the ‘victim’ said that the price seemed too good to be true. It reminds me of a saying I’ve often used:
If everything seems to be coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
The second example is much the same thing - when a cancellation occurred, the poor guest couldn’t find anything in the same price bracket either. Not surprising really when people go for the cheapest listing.
What is travel insurance for, after all?
That’s how I read it too.
I don’t really care one way or the other 
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I’m with @jaquo. There is a bit of “buyer beware” in any transaction, particularly online. It is too bad there are careless and indifferent hosts, though, that wait a long time to cancel when they make a mistake like this.
I’m sure hotels have cancelled on people, too (overbooked, problems, etc.) and that doesn’t end up as a news story.
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Definitely. It just doesn’t have what it takes to get online attention. When a writer (well, my method anyway) is talking to a client about a job, they discuss buzzwords to include in the article that might attract attention.
Airbnb has been the biggest, most used one for several years. Stick ‘Airbnb’ into an article and you’ve got an audience. Make it a ‘horror story’ and you’ve increased the audience tenfold. More, probably.
Many years ago, my dad stayed in a London hotel, quite a posh one. There was a fire scare or a bomb scare or something and the guests spent most of the night in their pajamas on the street outside. Did they get a refund? No. Was it in the news? No.
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Absolutely with the buyer beware. Again- just the thought that maybe sometimes Air keeps the money. Probably gets blamed on the hosts etc.
Another thing that’s misleading about the article is ‘hidden’ in a much smaller font in a photograph caption. The article tells us that a survey showed what are the top problems people have found when using Airbnb. But in this small font, it says:
… analyzed more than 1,000 Airbnb horror stories to determine what’s most likely to go wrong when booking with the online home-sharing platform.
Note that a) 1,000 is hardly a great sample when, as @JohnF says, there are millions of stays per annum and b) the blogger analysed ‘horror stories’ and do we really believe they are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
The problem with a horror story is that guest will may never use Airbnb again and will tell their friends, etc.
I have a friend who lives in New Zealand who tried to use Airbnb while living in China, to book a room in Berlin. She insists that Airbnb wanted her to sign up for facebook to verify her identity and wouldn’t accept other online evidence such as her webpage for the university where she worked. Now she’s coming to the US and I tried again to get her to book an Airbnb. Nope. In addition to her personal dislike of the company she also dislikes Airbnb’s role in the housing crisis in NZ.
Airbnb is still very new. Eventually the novelty of digging up dirt on Airbnb will wear off.
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Not the least is that it completely one-sided. Consider this quote:
“If I was to cancel on my host, I’m out that money, I accept those responsibilities.”
This statement completely ignores the Flexible cancellation policy where if the guest cancels 3 days before the reservation (as the host did in this story), the guest would get a full refund and the host bears a high risk of income loss.
He then follows with “Hosts cancelling on me — Airbnb and that host should be responsible for that.”
Here, the guest is feeling entitled. By responsible, he doesn’t mean that Airbnb should refund his money, he means that Airbnb should put him in a listing that he feels is equivalent for the same price as his original reservation. I wonder if he would’ve demanded the same if the circumstances had been a little different. E.g. a natural disaster had damaged the original host’s’ home.
Still, the other story about the bachelorette party does show how hosts can be bad actors. That management company manipulated Airbnb’s system to get around the penalties and calendar blocking. Airbnb should’ve suspended the listing for violation of their terms.
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