Booked my two night minimum stay about 6 weeks out. Three weeks later my event in Austin was canceled due to new Covid restrictions. Decided we’d still fly into Austin and spend the night, but didn’t need the second night and had no reason to stay in Austin two nights. Contacted the host and she told me because it was a two night minimum stay my options were to cancel the whole trip, but we would be charged for one night less the cleaning fee. Or keep the trip as is and spend two nights in Austin.
I wasn’t happy with the options considering it was a Covid cancellation by the county, not my fault and I shouldn’t be charged for a night. She informed me I was a week late. Had my event been canceled four weeks out I would’ve received a full refund, but apparently three weeks wasn’t enough of a heads up and we would be charged one night if we canceled.
Instead of eating $100 and still having to pay for a place to stay our second night I reluctantly told the host to leave the trip as is. When we arrived we discovered the property was next door to a frat house. Loud music, people yelling and partying. Walked into our room to find a pile of used towels in the middle of the floor, the bed was slept in, and both trash cans were full. There were no fresh linens so we decided this was pretty disgusting, messaged the host, put the key back in the lock box, booked a hotel and left.
The next morning the host messaged me saying I must’ve been a last minute booking and it wasn’t on her cleaning lady’s schedule. I reminded her that I booked over a month ago and she offered to not charge me for one night or the cleaning fee. This was the exact same offer she gave me when I tried to cancel and that was before I walked into a dirty property. I told her I expect a full refund and I’d be contacting Airbnb if I didn’t receive it. The host told me I had to first cancel the trip before she could do anything. I did, the next morning she refunded me some of the money, better than her first offer, but not all of it. In fact it was $46 less than I paid. Pretty bad experience and I most definitely wouldn’t recommend staying here.