Superbowl AirBnB Saga
Georgina is amazing. She single-handedly saved my trip to Superbowl LVI.
TL;DR: simple 1-bed apt with all the basics you need. 2-min walk to beach. Host will look after you brilliantly.
Accommodation
This is a lovely 1-Bed apartment on the ground floor behind Georgina’s house. It’s about 90-sec walk to Venice beach. Georgina provides copious beach towels, a welcome pack out of this world and leaves you alone to get on with your stay. Bed in bedroom is comfortable. Sofa bed in lounge is comfortable. Small kitchenette has everything basic you need (kettle, bottle opener, toaster, bottle opener, microwave, bottle opener etc). Bathroom has bath & shower (with incomprehensible controls), Hollywood lighting round the mirror & hairdryer. There’s a TV (never turned it on) and some reading books (can’t read).
Story
AirBnB are either incompetent or ineffective.
1/ First booking (Christina) made 10 months before Superbowl had to be changed when NFL moved date. Host wouldn’t refund $1500 ‘deposit’ despite having nearly a year to resell. On investigating her she listed two different apartments with *identical* pictures. On complaint, Airbnb sided with host and saw nothing unusual or wrong about this.
2/ Second booking (Dennis) made in different apartment for correct SB dates 9 months before game. 1 month before game I reached out to host to finalise arrangements - no answer. 1 week before, reach out again - no answer. 3 days before, tried calling the phone number on the app - line disconnected. Contact Airbnb- initially very helpful and cancelled scammer’s booking. However I’m now only a few days before SB and don’t have somewhere to stay & pricing are going sky high.
3/ Third booking (Georgina). Reached out to her in desperation as now only 36 hours until I fly. Within 1/2 hour she replied that dates were fine and here was cost. This was approx $1500 more than previous booking which failed due to Airbnb’s lack of due diligence. Airbnb offered me an insulting 10% discount for their error which was eventually upped to 30% then their final offer of 50% - F O R T H E I R M I S T A K E
lesson learned; never use Airbnb again.
But to be clear, Georgina was amazing. If must use Airbnb, book with her!