Not a terrible experience – and actually I do not have anything negative to say about Airbnb itself, just this host. Two friends and I were on a road trip through Bosnia and Montenegro. Using the filters “3+ bedrooms” (not people) and “entire property”, we booked a place in Trebinje, Bosnia as a base prior to the Montenegro border crossing.
The confirmation said the property had four bedrooms and was for 16+ people. As a relatively regular Airbnb user, this isn’t unusual and the prices were not out of kilter with other “entire properties” in the town. We checked in around 6:45 PM, and were shown (by a rep, not the host) a one bedroom apartment “for 3 people” because “this is what you booked”.
Well, my confirmation said different and the rep agreed; she called the office and we were told we could have the connecting one bedroom apartment if we paid cash. Red flag alert. They told me it would cost more on Airbnb – which I knew – but felt very scammy at the time. We were the only people staying at this complex. We would’ve paid extra cleaning fees had they given us the separate bedrooms we’d booked, but they wouldn’t move at all.
Rather than give them a penny, we spent about 30-45 minutes arranging alternative accommodations. Our next host came to our rescue and left a family celebration to check us in one day earlier. She was amazing and her place was awesome.
We did get a full refund, and Airbnb called me multiple times to make sure we weren’t stranded which was impressive (if unnecessary). We never got an apology, just a rude and dismissive attitude. So I had the choice – write a negative review and get one back in return, or just leave it.
After giving them two weeks to correct their listing I went for the negative review so no one else would have the same problem. Then I got this back: “This guest is very complicated. They booked one apartment for 3 persons. When they arrived we give them option choose apartment which most suitable for them, but they wanted apartment with 3+ bedrooms or whole Villa (our Villa has 9 AP). We explained them that it is not possible, because price for theirs reservation was 35$. After check in they used apartment 2-3 hours, showered and then say that they are not satisfied and wanted bigger apartment. We could not offer them it for 35$ and we refunded them all funds. They leave our apartment after 3 hours of use and leave it messy.”
Essentially a flat-out lie from the host. However I hadn’t told them I’d taken a video before we left (decide for yourself how “messy” we left it). We never had a choice of apartment (I’ll take what I booked, please), I had complained immediately, we hadn’t used the shower, was there less than two hours and that time was spent frantically on the Internet and calling to sort out accommodation at 7:00 PM in an unfamiliar country.
I tried to link the YouTube video in my Airbnb response but Airbnb blocked it. Hopefully this can come up if anyone searches for this place in the future. At least I’m telling myself that for the satisfaction – screw this host. Not really Airbnb hell, but liars should always be called out if you have evidence to refute.
It looks like this host was just trying to get away with giving you minimal accommodations based on the number of people in your group. Maybe they had made a mistake in the original listing, but even if they did, they need to own up to it. I suspect it was some property manager that messed up, but they don’t want to lose any money over it. I hope you left a response to their review of you to expose this host.