A reservation on Airbnb or indeed, any online booking comes with an assumption of risk. And the law of averages dictates that at some point, after several years and multiple successful bookings with lovely hosts and great stays, one is bound to eventually have an experience that is far from optimal. This was ours.
Perhaps we should have started to get suspicious when we asked for the physical address of the apartment a week before our arrival, there was no response. Or perhaps when our messages asking for a list of things to do on the island elicited one line responses. We only received the address to our apartment after we landed at the airport and had jumped in a taxi and gone to an inaccurate address on the website. Our driver was kind enough to call the host and find out the correct address. We then had to wait on the street for several minutes for an associate of our host to arrive. And that’s when the big reveal occurred.
Our apartment was located on the top floor of a two storey building. The ground floor is undergoing a total renovation and there were construction workers on and building debris everywhere. After taking a few hours to consider our options, I informed the host that evening that the photos and description represented a misrepresentation of the space and that we wanted to cut our stay short. I was clear that we would spend one night as it was late and that I wanted to be refunded for the nights where we did not stay on the property.
The host refused. She said that either I had to leave the property that night for a full refund, or get no refund at all. At 8pm at night, two children and no alternative booking. It has taken a day of back and forth with Airbnb to get a refund.
Be warned, you’re dealing with people who are more interested in collecting your money than anything else.
Thankfully we found a lovely place to move to the following day and are enjoying the rest of our holiday after a wobbly start.