Do not book on Airbnb if you want to be certain you have an apartment waiting for you when you arrive. We are a family of five from Europe – Finland – and we are traveling to Sydney at the end of December. We started to plan our trip a year ahead and already made all of our bookings by January. We booked our flights, then eight nights through Airbnb at a two-bedroom apartment right on Bondi Beach, then seven nights in Cairns in a hotel, and then back to Finland. Everything was booked and paid for. Two and a half months before our trip would take place, our Airbnb host informed us that our reservation for the apartment had been canceled. We were shocked.
Guess how easy it is to find an apartment with two bedrooms for five people for eight nights just before and during New Years in Sydney? I can tell you it is not easy and the prices were totally different when compared with what they would have been if we had chosen a reliable apartment or hotel in the first place. I really cannot recommend Airbnb. We were offered a small discount if we booked other accommodations through Airbnb. However, what if that host would also have cancelled the new booking? We will never find out because the risk was to0 great; therefore, we booked accommodations through booking.com. I wonder how many people have been fooled since the feedback system at Airbnb is not good for the customers. Our host was given a small notification which will be removed in a couple of months and we lost our dream apartment probably because the host wanted to get a little more money from someone else…
Ummm, Bridgette, the OP is playing the victim because the OP *is* a victim. Unless some natural disaster occurred, it’s never a surprise to someone that they will “lose possession” of their house. This host had no business offering the property in the first place.
Oh, and if you’re not willing to share all of the facts here, don’t flame the OP for not getting the facts right.
If the host wants to play hotel mogul without all of the taxes, licenses, permits, etc., then the host can take the negative reviews.
This comment is not factually correct. I am not the host but I too had my booking cancelled but I happen to know why. Due to unforeseen circumstances the host was no longer in possession of the property (I will not go into details as to why as its personal) and this is why the booking was cancelled. Unfortunately things happen and can happen with hotel bookings as well. I strongly suggest before you comment you get your facts right. Nobody is making more money by cancelling your booking. In fact money has been lost. Instead of playing a victim I suggest you do what I did and find alternate accommodation