alt Hacker NewsI had two hosts cancel on me (last minute, both times around Christmas) and haven't dared to use Airbnb since (it was very inconvenient to find alternate accommodation last minute, to say the least.)
I understand that there can be exceptional circumstances. However, I've stayed in more hotels by a factor of at least 25, and this has never happened once. In fact, any minor inconvenience at a hotel is usually remedied promptly, and user reviews generally feel accurate.
Airbnb wouldn't share any information about why the host was allowed to cancel (I understand there may be privacy concerns, but I'm left wondering if they simply found a better paying private offer, given it was for the holiday season and booked well in advance). In one case I found an alternative in the same building, so there was no widespread issue.
Those two are enough to put me off Airbnb forever. I just don't want the additional stress of wondering whether I'll receive a last minute cancellation, even if they're exceedingly rare.
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Yeah, the ability for hosts to cancel on a whim and the couple of cases where racist hosts canceled in the middle of the night kinda put me off trying them. I know exactly what I'm getting in a hotel.
I've only had two instances where a hotel was unable to accommodate my reservation. The first time, they booked me in an room at the nearest hotel with space, which happened to be a competitor and an upgraded room. The second time, the hotel booked me into the largest room they had available, which happened to be their Presidential suite. (I booked through my credit card's "The Edit" program.)
I've had several AirBnb hosts cancel. Airbnb provided an alternative option the first time but the second time did not. Luckily my credit card's travel insurance treated it like a hotel booking and was able to secure a reservation at a nearby hotel. And that was the last time I used AirBnB.
This has also happened to me twice. In both cases, it was when we got a good price booking well in advance for a known-busy season, and the cancellation was last minute and left us totally screwed because there were no alternative accommodations available within our budget.
In both cases, Airbnb would only offer us a refund plus maybe like 10%. They would not make any effort to rebook us at an equivalent property.
My theory is that because Airbnb does not sufficiently penalize hosts for these sort of late cancellations, hosts are incentivized to cancel cheap bookings to get a more expensive booking on another platform if prices meaningfully increase.