When I went to La Antigua de Guatemala in Guatemala, I booked an Airbnb (which is a cheap hotel) here. I never heard from the host (it was an automatic acceptance) but I was new and didn’t realize that was a bad sign.

Initially, I was going to arrive the city in the afternoon, but due to my Aeromexico flight experiencing severe delays, I was there after 7:00 PM (quite late.). I took a taxi to the location of the Airbnb, and I knocked on the door. A man opened and I told him I booked the place for a few days, showing him my receipt. He simply said, “We’re closed for the holidays,” and shut the door.

It was in the evening, I was a foreigner in a country I’d never been, where I didn’t speak the language, with my luggage. I also couldn’t contact Airbnb at the time (not that it’d make a difference), since I didn’t have a SIM or anything, being my first few hours there and being so late already.

Luckily I kept walking around and found a place for the night. I used the wifi where I was finally able to go on the Airbnb app, only to find that even to get a refund for the costs paid, I had to wait for Airbnb to contact the host. They did refund me of course, but nothing additional.