I booked a home in April 2017 near Ole Miss to visit my daughter at school that October. The price was really reasonable, so upon the host accepting the reservation, I messaged him to double check that all was well. There was no response. I messaged him again in May to double check – no response. I messaged him again in June. There was no immediate response so I reported him to Airbnb. He then responded with: “Yes, it is confirmed.”
Less than a week before arrival, the host messaged me to say Airbnb made a mistake and the price should have been a lot higher; apparently I owed him more money. We argued back in forth. I said I asked several times for him to confirm the reservation to no avail, and that he had plenty of time to get this sorted out. He argued it was all Airbnb’s fault and that he wouldn’t be making any money with the lower price I was set to pay.
This went back and forth the next couple of days. I couldn’t find alternate housing at the last minute and Airbnb customer service was no help, telling me it’s for the host and I to figure out. I ended up paying an extra $325 to the host (which he said was such a bargain) as I had family depending on housing to visit my daughter.
When we arrived there were dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and hairs in the freezer. It was dirty all around. He blamed it on the cleaning crew and still wanted his $325. I’m so disappointed in this listing, the host, and most of all, that Airbnb allowed this to happen to a customer, especially when I had given the host plenty of time to confirm prior to arrival.
I didn’t feel like I had any other choice as there was no hotel or housing availablity on a popular college game weekend and I had my parents and sister with me for the weekend. After much searching, I couldn’t find any other houses to rent that were even near a similar price range, or really any at all. So yeah, the $325 may not be Airbnb’s problem, but what IS Airbnb’s problem is that they let a host treat a guest this way and demand more money and refuse to help me work something out. There is no recourse for a host that fails to communicate for months and then demands more money at the last minute. That is not okay.
You should have said no. If he canceled your reservation AirBnb would have fined him and looked after you. BUT. You say “still wanted his $325”. I assume that means you went outside of the Airbnb platform and paid him directly. That was your second mistake and now you don’t have a leg to stand on. This is not an Airbnb problem