I get a kick out of real estate listings where they mention that the property is currently being used for AirB&B rentals (we found out that one place we were temporarily interested in had a reputation of being an “AirB&B party house”).
No way I’d ever buy such a house, no matter how comprehensive the inspection.
It’s also worth adding that the fairest cancellation policy might appear to be one that’s based on whether a property or hotel room is actually re-rented to someone else. But that’s a can of worms, it adds complexity and potential for dispute, and it requires the host to make honest efforts to re-rent when he has no financial incentive to do so. So I think renters are best served by a policy with clearly stated timeframes for cancellation and refund based on average probabilities.
Today is a perfect example with all the virus panic. Lots of companies issuing ‘No non-essential business travel’ edicts even if it has nothing to do with China. If you’re a hotel that’s booked up for a trade show, you’re kinda stuck. Same thing for leisure travel. I bet there’s a lot of Las Vegas Super Bowl trips being canceled as I type this.
So, hotels can try to re rent the rooms, but that might mean having to list them on a last minute hotel deals website at a substantial discount. And, the more budget conscious traveler isn’t likely to spend as much on room service or at the hotel restaurant or bar. And, in the case of Las Vegas, that’s a lot of casino revenue gone.
Man - now you all got me worried! 
My wife and I are gonna pop our Air BnB cherries next week near Joshua Tree. Photos look great, excellent reviews. And we didn’t go anywhere NEAR the least expensive ones.
Fingers crossed!
(If this works out, I might even try one of them Uber thingies!) 
I think you’re fine with Air BNB in resort areas on the expensive side. Those are likely properties rented out on a full time basis.
The main problems with Air BNB that I’ve seen are:
In cities, being very vague about where exactly they’re located. It’s not always a safety issue. If you’re needing public transit, sometimes it’s in a bit of a transit dead zone and you’re going to spend 45 minutes each way to get to the tourist stuff you want to do over a 3 day weekend.
Air BNB is a punching bag in many cities by anti gentrification activists so it’s hard to book too far in advance especially for a special event. Local politics can change on a dime and new air BNB restrictions can happen at any time.
Finally, if the person doesn’t own the property, things can also change. My apartment building had a very weak lease back in 2016 when the Cubs made the World Series but they quickly caught on and some residents who planned to make a fortune renting out their apartments had to cancel those air BNB reservations at the last second, screwing over those people who thought they had a place in Chicago in walking distance of Wrigley. Even if an apartment building today looks the other way at Air BNB rentals, that could change on a dime with a new apartment manager or worse a new management company.
They live in the same city and were able to check it out less than 24 hours after booking. AirB&B doesn’t give you the address of the property until you book, so if an exact location was so important they could have contacted the owner to ask about it before plopping down their 2 grand. In my experience with ABB, VRBO, etc., most owners are happy to answer questions before you rent. The other complaints, frankly, sound pretty minor.
You’re probably SOL. While it might seem that you should just cancel, AirBnB has a very specific way to handle issues and if you don’t go through that process, then you’re probably not getting your money back from them directly.
You may be able to do so through your credit card company.
I’ve had mostly good (and actually some great) luck with AirBnB. But you do have to read the fine print and follow the instructions and always look at the reviews. (Do not rent from a place with no reviews. Ever. Let some other sucker be the guinea pig.)
Wow - that’s actually a baffling scenario. If I were trying to sell a place, I would not want to have to deal with making sure it was presentable to show buyers when I was also renting it out - not to mention, if it was rented and a buyer came along, I’m sure there are rules about letting a buyer in while it’s occupied.
We’ve had two AirBNB experiences that went fine, all in all. One was in a small town in Vermont, during Christmas 2018. Not long after I booked, the landlord contacted me to ask if we’d consider cancelling, as he had a chance to rent the property for 4+ months nonstop. We were cool with that - there are plenty of hotels we could have booked - but it turned out AirBNB wouldn’t let him cancel under those circumstances. We wound up using the place and it was fine. In hindsight it might have been dodgy as we were the first people to book it, but it was OK.
The other time was a small house on Ile d’Orleans last summer. All went smoothly; the landlady was even accommodating when we arrived a couple hours later than we’d hoped (she lived nearby, and had to meet us at the place).
To the OP: if the place was substantially not as described, I sure hope they do the right thing for you.
The guy has multiple properties, I believe he’s an investor. According to Zillow he just bought this one in Oct. 2019. There were no reviews for this property. Re: cancellation policy–frankly as an AirB newbie, I didn’t fully understand it. Shoot me. My life is a bit of a maelstrom at this point, my poor kitties are boarded, we’re living in suitcases, and the repairs are going to take longer than expected since (of course) new issues were found upon demolition. Just shoot me. Twice.
Anywho, we did come to an agreement and will be renting the property. But never again. Plans to redo the kitchen (the leak affected it as well - the bottem cabinets) are on hold FOREVER!
Yeah, I would never have booked an AirBNB with no reviews. Lesson learned! Reviews aren’t always super helpful but you can generally get a feel for a place and for the validity of the reviews by taking their aggregate into account.
You can also click on the cancellation policy link and it’ll show a timeline of consequences for cancelling at various points of time (e.g. when it goes from full refund to partial refund to no refund, etc. and what fees might still be owed).
We use AirBNB quite a lot for family vacations. For our family of four (and six when one of sets of parents are with us) the condos or houses are so much more convenience and cost effective than hotel rooms. The kids get their own rooms, the adults get a lot of kid-free space, the kitchen is convenient. It just works out better. We’ve typically been able to get a good feel for the locations by the description and have never been disappointed in that regard.
You can often get a feel for if the owner is someone you’d like to deal with by the quality of their writing too. What and how they emphasize something, honesty about less desirable aspects of their property, etc.
We’ve probably done this more than a dozen times now in various cities in the US and Canada and we’ve never had a bad experience. Most of them have actually been really great. We’ve had home envy on more than one occasion!
I’m sure you’re right about business travel, but we only started using AirBnB when we were over 55. The couch surfing model is not appealing, but we’ve gotten full apartments and even houses. No more stressful than a hotel, in many ways less.
I’ve rented in several cities, and while you don’t get the exact address you get a location (on the map) which is close enough so you can tell how close you are to public transportation. When I looked for places to rent for a month in NY, the location given was down to a block or so. You might need to research the neighborhood in unfamiliar cities, but this has never been a problem for me.
Was the agreement:
*I’m not renting this! *
Okay, you don’t get your money back.
[SIZE=1]I guess I’m renting this.
[/SIZE]
This post, and this article, shouldn’t get ignored. I’m not saying the OP encountered a scammer, but it sure sounds at least borderline scammy, and AirB&B enables these ultra-sleazy operatives to function.
I highly recommend reading this article, and taking its cautions to heart, for anyone considering an AirB&B rental.
This. But it ends up a disaster and now I am not sure what to do.
Other than being misrepresented as to the location, there was this:
The house was listed as an entire house. Well, sort of. The owner lived in an attached unit, where the HVAC controls AND sensor were located. We had no control and either froze (we were having a cold snap) or died of the heat.
No can opener, no dish rag, no potholders. No teaspoons. 1 kitchen towel. No bathroom washcloths. 1 spatula, 1 slotted spoon for utensils. Is that unreasonable to expect? Dirty dishes in the cabinets, like bowls with god knows what in them.
The second nite water started coming thru the kitchen floor. I think it was a laminate floor, but water seeped up as you walked thru. And there was water under the kitchen sink. I mopped it up, but we still had the seepage from the floor. That issue never went away.
So, the big issue. We moved in on Monday, got 1 key, well actually a ring of 4 different keys. We used only 1, for the security door. I asked for an extra key (just 1, to the security door) the second nite as my fellow and I had different schedules. No response. A comedy of errors ensued and I was locked out w/o my phone the 3rd day. I had to knock on a neighbor’s door and ask that they call my locksmith.
None, not one, of the locksets on the house matched-chrome, polished brass, antique brass, a variety. My guy had to drill the 1 lock to get me in, and replaced the handle, however he keyed the lock to the existing key. (My fella was had come home in the midst of all of this.) But the new handset didn’t match. But neither did any other lockset on any door of the house.
Now I am being held up for $100 to “match the lockset to the master key” whatever the fuck that means. I have explained what happened but nothing. And BTW, I ended up getting the key I had asked for 5 days later. Whoopee.
I haven’t submitted a review yet, and thought maybe I wouldn’t, just let it slide and learn from it. Aside the above, there where multiple other smallish problems, documented and photographed when possible, including cobwebs, bare wires, filthy burners etc.
So any suggestions??
What a tragic experience DGH.
Hopefully the rent was cheap. In either case, a review is in order. You owe it to future renters.
Please review and report.