My family of four plus two grandparents booked a whole house in Phuket, Thailand with a moderate cancellation policy, allowing for cancellation during the stay. In the master bedroom, the en-suite bathroom smelled of poor toilet drainage, and the house was generally filthy despite the advertised housekeeper. After a few nights we decided to cancel and book ourselves into a hotel. We would have acted sooner but were very jet lagged after a 24-hour flight, We gave the host a heads up and followed the moderate cancellation policy (allowing for a 50% refund for unused days).
The host was very angry and wrote a negative review saying we were the worst experience he ever had. We left the house in a cleaner state than when we had arrived with no breakages. We were highly courteous throughout the stay. After going back and forth with the case manager Airbnb decided that the review was within guidelines. I am writing to warn future guests to document everything through email and photos and if you make a complaint do it within 24 hours even if there is a moderate cancellation policy.
How on earth do you know before arriving what your faced with when you get there we had a bad experience when we arrived is there anyway to get our money beac? We went in and it was horrible we packed up left and went to a motel the host said he would do whatever we needed for us to stay there is no way we were going to stay he would of had a week or two weeks worth of work
BUT you have 24 hours after arriving to back out IF the dwelling is not clean or is not how it was advertised. To make this work you MUST immediately call airbnb and the host, like within an hour after arriving. I would definitely document with many pictures and witnesses (if possible) First call the host and give him/her a shot at making it right. If that isn’t possible or if you can’t get ahold of the, whine loudly to Airbnb. While your on hold, start uploading pics of what wasn’t advertised correctly. THat is how it is done.
The Moderate Cancellation policy, in fact all three cancellation policies m – has to do with timing BEFORE arrival. You have five days prior to check-in day to cancel only.