I would like to say that we had a wonderful time while staying at Mauricio’s apartment. Unfortunately, I cannot say this as we never got to stay in Mauricio’s apartment.
We knew we would be in Geneva in July way back in February, and so we chose our accommodation well in advance with location and price in mind. Mauricio had some excellent reviews, the place looked gorgeous, it was in a perfect location for us and the price was very reasonable. We therefore booked the apartment on the spot and looked forward to our time in Geneva.
We had a change to our trip, and decided to spend a few days in Montreaux before coming to Geneva. This clashed with our stay in Geneva, and so I contacted Mauricio 4 days before our planned check-in to see if we could check one day late with no change to the financial arrangement. I also offered to be at the apartment on the agreed date if the one-day late check in was not suitable. To his credit, Mauricio agreed to let us check in one day later.
About 4 hours before we were due to check in, we got a message from Airbnb stating that the apartment reservation was cancelled. After some frantic messaging, we found out Mauricio’s planned contact to allow us access to the apartment cancelled that morning, and so he cancelled our reservation. He contacted Airbnb, who emailed us with alternate bookings. However, none were in a great location. While we could have accepted the location downgrade, none had the option to book on the spot. This meant we were up the proverbial creek with no paddle with having to wait for 24 hours for a response, with no guarantee that we could stay, and the prospect of what to do in a foreign city with no accommodation for at least one night.
In desperation, we ultimately found accommodation through an alternate booking site. While we ended paying more than twice what we originally budgeted, we were lucky as many of the bookings were asking for thousands of dollars for just one night, and we were in Geneva for 3 nights.
The whole experience has left a sour taste in our mouths. The fact that you can show up in a foreign city and have your accommodation cancelled at such short notice is frightening. Mauricio did apologise for the ‘inconvenience’, but an apology does not get you out of the disaster we were facing.
Airbnb has refunded our payment for Mauricio’s apartment and offered us a $AU200 voucher, valid for 12 months, which we can put towards our next Airbnb booking. At this stage, I don’t think I will be taking up this offer after the horror we experienced in Geneva.