Wasted a Week Moving from Airbnb to Airbnb

I want to follow up regarding our cancelled booking. I want to explain that a 10% credit is completely insufficient for the problems this cancellation caused. We had been traveling all day in a rental car with a four-year-old child and a car full of our life’s belongings – to be precise, over 170 kgs of luggage including a bicycle in a box. I can send a picture of the loaded car if you like?

We had booked into the apartment because it was on the ground floor and near the center. We arrived on time – exactly. After being given so many warnings by the host about being on time exactly and furthermore warning us about providing time for the cleaners (how this could impact us is a complete mystery to me, as guests pay for cleaning). You of course can review all the messages between us.

Anyway we arrived, found it difficult to park, and then called the host as there was no one there at the time agreed upon, 4:30 PM. The host did not answer his phone and a helper answered, telling us the check in time was 5:00 PM not 4:30 PM. They were wrong and then we spent almost an hour waiting in the sun getting conflicting messages from the host via the platform and the helper on the phone number provided. Our daughter was beat and tired and needed to use the bathroom. We did too.

After over an hour we were told the apartment was being cancelled. Finding a new place with a flat mobile battery on the side of the road, in the sun, after driving all day was a nightmare to say the least. We eventually did find a place. It wasn’t ideal, so we booked only for four nights. A two-story place with a four-year-old on a busy street is not what we wanted.

We arrived around 8:00 PM, 3.5 hours after being ready to check in. We could not return our rental car as planned as we were too tired and the rental agency would have been closed by the time we unpacked all the stuff from the car. We didn’t get to have dinner until 9:30 PM, which for all of us was unacceptable, especially for a four year old, and of course we wasted a day as we have to return car today and all of us are too tired to do anything.

In addition, we have to pay Airbnb’s service and cleaning fees twice for organizing one week’s accommodation, as this place is not suitable for the whole week. We also will have to hire another vehicle or moving taxi as we will have to move all the stuff to another accommodation. We will also waste another day moving all our stuff to another location.

This cancellation has ruined our arrival and at least a few days involved in rebooking and moving, which in turn has ruined the week we had planned as now we will not be able to achieve what we had carefully planned to achieve. Not to mention the stress involved for everyone which is a major health concern and one that Airbnb as a provider is responsible for.

For a $30 billion company to offer us a 10% return is pathetic in any sense. The hotel chains that Airbnb competes with would offer a full credit and more. As Airbnb has claimed, it is extremely rare that they could cover all the costs, as it would be such a small expenditure for such a large company for an incident that hardly ever happens. If such incidents of ruining holidays are common then I would think their business model is flawed. Could you let me know ASAP what Airbnb can do to rectify this disaster.