Six months before our arrival we rented the one bedroom corner apartment. We were so excited about it. We arrived on the midnight ferry exhausted after a long day of travel. During the 25 minute drive to the apartment from the port (the last half on a bumpy, dusty gravel road) we discussed how much we were looking forward to waking up to our Santorini sea view. George texted that the light was on above the door and the key was in the door so we were able to check in easily. The first thing my husband asked me when we stepped in was "where is the bedroom?" It appears that our corner unit was given to another party with no notice to us. We'd been downgraded to a studio in the middle of the building with no word from our host. When I texted him at 1:30 am he did respond, saying it was a mistake he'd fix in the morning. What???? How is this a mistake? We rented six months ago. If you double booked why didn't you notify us?
So we got ready for bed and realized the second bed in the studio didn't even have bedding. The toilet ran after being flushed and my husband had to keep getting up to get it to stop (a shake of the float didn't correct the problem). After not much sleep we texted George at 8 a.m. to ask if our corner unit was going to be made available for our stay. He responded that someone was on the way to discuss the situation with us and would arrive at 9. And he didn't say a word about us having already paid for the one bedroom that was most certainly more expensive than the studio we were in and whether he planned to refund the difference.
That was the last straw for me. So I got on Airbnb to arrange for another apartment (during high season, same day, sky high prices and very limited availability as compared to me having booked the one bedroom back in March.)
When George's representative arrived she showed my husband a lovely ground level two bedroom unit that had been available when we'd arrived the night before. If we weren't going to receive what we'd booked, and weren't going to be notified of the double booking in the first place, I ask you this: why didn't we get an upgrade to the two bedroom instead of a downgrade to the studio? The woman told us that they didn't understand why we wanted to leave and not accept the two bedroom. She didn't understand that hearing of this solution AFTER the heartbreak of our arrival and the horrible night in in the studio actually made learning of the two bedroom WORSE!! And George's ALL CAPS message to me about my request to get a refund confirmed our decision to leave. I do appreciate the refund without a fight. However, we've been traveling the Balkans full time for 10 months and have been staying exclusively at Airbnb properties. And we've never had a bait and switch situation until now.
Because I booked six months in advance I find it completely unacceptable to walk into a much anticipated rental in the middle of the night and find you've been downgraded. There were several places that good customer service could have solved this situation. For example, any time up until the day of our trip we could have been notified of the double booking and offered choices OR on the day of our arrival we could have been informed of the problem and been offered the 2 bedroom or studio as choices. But not saying a word and letting us discover the situation (and possibly hoping we'd not notice?) is unacceptable.
BTW after I read this review to my husband to see if he felt it was accurate since I've not ever left a scathing review, he said "that's a very gentle description of the experience in my opinion."