Host, James Boykin cancelled the prepaid reservation I had with him for three months just a couple weeks before my travel to a family wedding without notice or my consent. When I went to write to arrange the key for my stay, only then did I find out that he had cancelled my paid reservation. The reason James cancelled the reservation was because he found another guest who wanted to stay longer so he dishonored his commitment. As this is not a home that is lived in, but an exclusive rental property, there was no legitimate reason to cancel other than his personal greed. I warn every Airbnb customer to avoid this listing at all costs as my money was kept for four months and I was left with no place to stay. I cannot be strong enough in expressing the hardship that his cancellation has caused me in increased expense longer distance to travel to my location and the truthful experience that this awful host seriously did me wrong. The Airbnb policy is to allow such people to continue to continue to list on their site. This is a bad policy. When a host is this mercenary he should be dropped immediately. Airbnb could not find another listing in the area to rescue my situation, but they did help me find a hotel. I am thankful to them for this.
Yesterday I had a host cancel on me one week before arrival on the busiest weekend of the year in Santa Barbara (UCSB graduation). Her lame excuse was she had a “personal issue.” Try locating another property in town at any kind of a reasonable rate on short notice. Even Motel Six is charging $300.00 a night next weekend. Same thing happened to a friend who is also going up there next weekend. I suspect these so called hosts discover what a busy weekend that is and get more money for their places by advertising elsewhere. The people who planned early at a good rate are out of luck. Scammers and rip-off artists.
I had the same thing happen to me. A woman took my reservation for eight days, with six weeks notice, at Thanksgiving. Two weeks before I was to arrive, I got a phone call at midnight telling me another guest wanted to stay a month (over lapping my stay) and she couldn’t afford to turn it down. I expressed my anger and she said she actually had another apartment that she hadn’t listed yet. After our third night, we were moved to a windowless, half finished basement with no beds and exposed wiring, and no fire egress. She had the audacity to be hurt when we left the following morning. I had to pay for a hotel room, over a holiday, in a major city…I was out an extra $600.