In my 6 years of using Airbnb and having stayed at 13 different places, I’ve never had a negative experience with a host. Sad to say, our experience with Rita was quite negative and added undue stress on our trip to Italy. Here were the issues:
1) She cancelled our booking last minute when we let her know that we’d be arriving after 10:15pm due to travel delays. She wrote, “Please do not come we contacted air bnb, you have to find another accommodation, I inform you that you don't behave like that, people are working you have changed 3 your arrival time (untrue - changed it once when we understood our itinerary better and the second time because of travel delays), please contact air bnb thanks.” It was 7:30pm and we were suddenly left with no accommodations. It’s unreasonable for a host to not allow for travel delays - things outside of your control. She did not try to find a way to work with us.
2) After she cancelled on us, she claimed to Airbnb that her check-in window was noon to 8pm. Thankfully, we had the confirmation email that showed the window was “anytime after 12pm.”
3) Before our trip, she offered a transport service to the airport for €35 one way, stating, “the normal taxis cost a lot more.” Once in Rome, we learned of a €7 bus to the airport. Seemed well-known to the locals. Not a good feeling.