Booked months in advance but only got a reply to my requests about the check in procedure 1 day before arrival. I was told everything was okay and they were looking forward hosting us.
When we woke up early to catch our flight, it turned out that only a couple of hours after that message, they cancelled our booking because of a “calendar syncing issue at Airbnb”. They promised that we’d be upgraded though.
Once we arrived in London, we got a call from a very kind guy telling us not to worry. When we met him, he was surprised that we weren’t travelling with our children (seen on our Airbnb account I guess...) but with my wife’s parents (I wrote that in my email when I confirmed the booking) and we didn’t got the upgrade because “we had a very good deal and the upgrade was more expensive and they didn’t want to charge us extra”.
Strange thing: we now were told that the apartment we originally booked had a plumbing issue because “there had been a party and there was a leakage in the lower apartment and it took at least one more day to fix that problem”.......So much for the ‘calendar syncing issue’ they blamed Airbnb for.
It all felt as if they never blocked the apartment after we booked it and if they can rent it out for a higher price, they just do!
In the end they arranged an apartment for us that was nice, clean and not to far from the place we originally booked. It was smaller though, could only host 3 people (the fourth of our group slept on a stretcher) and it was in the back of the property so there was no view. It was a downgrade, not the promised upgrade.
Two days before we left I saw all the last cancellation reviews from the last 5-6 weeks and I started worrying. I wrote a message to Airbnb. Also the day after when we received the cancellation. Airbnb never responded, until 4 days after our booking.....I expected more from them, given the high booking costs the charge you and the early payment you have to do immediately by booking!
We had a great time in London and the apartment was okay, but still we wonder what would’ve happened if they didn’t think we were travelling with our 2 little children.....