I booked a trip to Boston for a convention about 3 months out. Hotels in the area had convention rates that made it affordable to stay in a downtown hotel but we wanted an interesting Boston experience. Well we got one. The host cancelled as we were standing outside trying to check in. My phone pinged with the alert, the host chose to ignore my repeated phone calls and attempts to contact her. Her explanation was a single email stating that she could only accommodate one person and not two but we were renting her whole apartment that is advertised for couples or small families. So 4:30pm on a Thursday, major convention downtown and a triple header Yankees vs Red Sox weekend. All hotels booked for at least part of the 4 nights at rates 5 times the airbnb place (all convention rates no longer available), and all the replacements that airbnb could find us were at least 3 times the cost and nowhere near downtown (had to be at the convention 7 am so staying close was important to us). We had to stay in multiple places to piece together the trip and spent a ton of money. I get that hosts are human and things will happen but Airbnb has no legitimate system in place to help travelers when a host doesn’t honor their commitment. And they don’t allow you to review the host if you didn’t actually stay at their place, so their star rating and reviews mean nothing. Never rent from Phoebe Fleming at 63 Melcher st Boston MA, and probably don’t ever book a trip with airbnb that you aren’t prepared to have go totally awry!
