I rented this Airbnb for 3 nights for my husband’s solo trip to Toronto. The purpose of the trip was to pick up household goods we had shipped from Hong Kong to Toronto, in a move from Hong Kong to the U.S. — he would drive them from Toronto to our new home in the States.
He really liked the clean and comfortable lodging, but on the third evening, he rented a 10-foot UHaul, picked up our goods and parked the UHaul in the driveway. The Airbnb posting stated: “free driveway parking on premises” but nothing about street parking. After my husband parked the UHaul and left to enjoy Toronto with an old friend, I got a text from the host asking if it was our UHaul. I replied yes, and my husband would be willing to park on the street if need be. They texted: “Unfortunately the street is 100% parking prohibited street, and the driveway has no capacity at this moment for such a huge vehicle” and “You guys, my driveway is blocked, other guests have no place to park.” I was embarrassed and texted/called my husband. He felt a lot of pressure to get back ASAP when he was catching up with the friend, 1.5 hours away. When he returned, he saw lots of space for other cars and took a photo. The host gave him a hard look. We’ve driven a 10-foot UHaul before, and it has always fit in a regular-sized parking space.
I was really apologetic when I heard from the host that we were blocking other guests, but was it not so much that there was a lack of space, but they were uncomfortable with a UHaul in the driveway? Since it was the last night, and they have a nice Airbnb in a nice neighborhood, did they think he was going to steal something?
I think it would have been better to communicate with the visitor in this case to work things out, especially as there seemed to be no real conflict of space. They were reluctant to communicate directly with my husband, even though I gave them his number, instead wanting to go through me. My husband left for the last night, did no harm, and the host still got paid for the whole trip. He said he didn't want to talk about the experience.