This was the abosute worst experience I've had with an AirBnB host. So much so that my wife and I will stay away from AirBnB for a while.
We knew we had to warn others.
My wife and I booked two suites next to each other to prepare for our wedding. The location looked beautiful and convenient for getting ready for our wedding. We booked the suites months in advance and advised Susan that it was for a wedding, so we would have several people coming in, including groomsmen, bridesmaids, photographer, videographer, and hairstylist. Susan understood, said it was used for weddings all the time, and charged us for the added people and activity. We understood and paid the extra cost. Fast forward to within a week of the wedding, and we give Susan a heads up about the itinerary relating to our stay for the day before our wedding and the day of. My best man planned on staying at the suite with his pregnant wife and child. I advised Susan, and she asked me to change the guest count so that she could charge us for the added guests, which I did. The next day, my best man told me his wife and child couldn't make it anymore because she was too far along in her pregnancy to travel long distances. I advised Susan about my best man's wife and requested a decrease in the guest count (to lower the cost, for guests I would no longer have). Susan declined the change. I asked why, and she said there couldn't be any changes within a week of the stay (even though the day before, she accepted the increase in guest count). She referred to the house rules, but the house rules makes no mention of decreasing guest count within a week of the stay, and the only mention of changes within a week of the stay only applied to cancellations (which I was not doing). I kept requesting the decrease, and she kept declining. Finally, I received this message from her:
Ryan,
You have 1 or 2 choices.
1/ The reservation is kept the way it was when you booked and NO one comes to the Villa's for you or your girlfriend period INCLUDING NO PHOTOGRAPHY at My Villa's, (by the way this was a charge that i did not charge you I was being nice )
OR
2/ You leave the reservation the way it is and no refund of extra guest fee.
This is MY Home NOT YOURS and I choose if I allow extra guests or not , once paid THERE are NO changes within 7 days.
Please advise,
Thanks
Susan
After this message, I felt trapped. There was already so much stress from the wedding preparation. After that message, I felt that if I kept pushing the issue, my wife and I would lose our place for where we planned all of our preparation for our wedding. Feeling the pressure, I stepped back and accepted the abuse (and lost money).
But that's not all.
The day we checked in (in fact after we checked in), Susan demanded certificates of insurance from our videographer, photographer, and hairstylist (why not ask before the check in?). Not only that, she actually sent my wife a form for the information of our vendors, including their social security numbers and employment identification numbers. Our vendors and my wife was alarmed by this, contacted the owner and when she didn't hear back for an hour, she contacted AirBnB to get clarification. AirBnB communicates with her until she let my wife know that that information was not needed and just signing the liability form was fine. We had wonderful vendors that cooperated with the request, however all of this was highly stressful the night before our wedding.
We took our time with what we would say in thirds review. For this price, you can get a nice hotel with the same views, better service, better communication, less hostility, and way less stress (especially for a wedding).