We had a frustrating experience with Airbnb in Edinburgh - we booked a stay in Edinburgh with a host two months before our trip, only to have the host cancel the booking 6 days before the stay started. We scrambled to find another place to stay, reached out to friends for advice, and we booked this Airbnb, but our friend got back to us offering a place to stay 12 hours after we booked this place. It was only 12 hours since we made the booking, and we asked the hosts of this Airbnb to let us cancel for a refund, but they had a strict cancellation policy. Even though we explained the situation, and the chaos that we had been dealing with given the original host cancelling our stay last minute, the hosts refused to let us cancel for a refund, only for a possible partial refund if we cancelled and IF someone else booked (which possibly could end up in a situation where we had no place to stay and no refund, so we passed on this as it was a bad deal). As a host myself, I have given flexibility to guests at my discretion even if they had passed the cancellation policy by a few days, so our group was disappointed that we were not given the same consideration and understanding, despite explaining the travel nightmare we had been experiencing. My group and I spent hours on the phone with Airbnb support and the hosts discussing the situation a few days before the trip which made it very stressful. The circumstances of this Airbnb experience definitely put a dent in our travel preparations and our trip in Edinburgh.