Airbnb Mega Rant!
Let me begin by wishing all my newsletter readers a happy Leap Day!
In honor of Leap Day, I am going to go on a once every four years rant! The target of my rant shall be Airbnb. Let me tell you why.
As background, I am a total eclipse of the sun buff. I have seen two them, the first in China on July 22, 2009. The second in Oregon on August 21, 2017. Since the 2017 eclipse, I have been patiently waiting seven years for the next one, to happen on April 8, 2024. I recall how difficult it was to find anywhere to stay in the eclipse path in 2017, so I did my best to plan head for the one this April. Part of my planning included the knowledge that most hotels book out rooms one year in advance.
I worried that hotel rooms would sell like Burning Man tickets in the main sale, meaning within minutes, on April 8, 2017. Before that day, one year in advance, I had the idea to see what the policy was at Airbnb. For those who don’t know, Airbnb and its competitor VRBO are services in which people can rent and rent out their homes, usually for short stays. It makes a lot of sense to use the service if you are traveling with a big group that would require two or more hotel rooms. When I checked on March 7, 2023, for rooms in Waco TX for April 8, 2024, 13 months in advance, I was surprised to find availability and at prices they probably get for an average day. I booked a nice 3-bedroom house, which I intended to use for my family of five. The price for three nights was $540.53.
Fast forward seven months, to October 13, 2023 and I got a message that my reservation was cancelled by the host, Genetra. The host offered no apology and only that the excuse that she was no longer doing short-term rentals.
It should be noted there was an annular eclipse that passed right over Texas the next day, on October 14. Texas is the only state in the central line for both the 2023 annular and 2024 total eclipse. I very strongly expect with the hype about the annular eclipse, Genetra, the host, got a much better offer for the total eclipse the next year. Maybe it was a private deal or maybe she went to VRBO. Whatever the case, she had no compunction to break a deal and throw me out on the street.
Fortunately, and surprisingly, I was able to find a similar property in Waco the same day. A shorter two-night stay was $628.44, but I was happy to find anything in the same price range.
Fast forward four more months, to February 12, 2024 and history repeated itself. Douglas, the second host canceled on me. His explanation was that he double-booked it with VRBO and that my reservation came in six hours after the one at VRBO. Much like the first time, no apology was tendered.
I believe the part about doubling booking it, but not the part about two reservations made four months in advance being nine hours apart. I suspect with the upcoming eclipse hype he realized he could rent his house for about eight times as much at VRBO, deliberately double-booking and then throwing the lesser-paying guest, me, out on the street.
With only two months to go, rental prices were sky high on the eclipse path for what little was available. The only property available in Waco was $4950! I was furious and sent a very strongly-worded complaint to customer support at Airbnb.
Airbnb responded quickly, sympathetically and apologetically. They tried to find a similar property, but they too recognized the problem of the 8x increase in price for the same dates as I paid. After several messages back and forth, they offered me $161 in credit for any future stay withing one year to close the matter. Let the record show, the increase in cost to me for me would have been $4,322. They offered me 4% of what my expense to switch would have been. I did accept it, filing it under something is better than nothing.
When I mentioned this incident on my forum at Wizard of Vegas, somebody else mentioned this was happening in Sydney and Melbourne for the dates of Taylor Swift concerts. Here is the article: Airbnb Hosts Are Cancelling Swifties’ Bookings & Re-Listing Them For Double The Price. That article mentions that the penalty to hosts for cancelling a reservation more than 30 days in advance for other than extenuating circumstance is only 10% of the booking amount! This is true. Here is the policy directly from the Airbnb web site:
“Cancellation fees
If a Host cancels a confirmed reservation, or if the Host is found to be responsible for a cancellation under this Policy, we will impose fees subject to a minimum cancellation fee of $50 USD. The fee is based on the reservation amount and when the reservation is canceled:
- • If the reservation is canceled 48 hours or less before check-in, or after check-in, the fee is 50% of the reservation amount for the nights not stayed
- • If the reservation is canceled anytime between 48 hours and 30 days before check-in, the fee is 25% of the reservation amount
- • If the reservation is canceled more than 30 days before check-in, the fee is 10% of the reservation amount”
Source: Host cancellation policy
This explains why morally-challenged hosts are cancelling reservations when going rates increase. They get a 10% slap on the wrist fee from Airbnb, while they can go to VRBO and get many times more than the original booking. In my case, about 8x as much.
In my opinion, there are basically two types of people in this world. Those who keep their word and those who don’t. You see people put to this test in Prisoner’s Dilemma games on the TV shows Friend or Foe and Golden Balls. I have paid the price countless times, but I am in the camp of those who keep their word. Many times, I have been cheated and stolen from because of it. However, I have no regrets for which side I play for.
To the Airbnb hosts who throw their guests out in the street when they can rebook their property for more, I have a message. My message is that you reap what you sow. At least I hope that you do. I indicate the names of the hosts who threw me out in the street, Genetra and Douglas, to improve the chances of that happening.
To Airbnb that turns a blind eye to this problem, I also have a message. I hope to help make people at decision-making levels aware of this problem. I don’t think that they are, as evidenced by the flaccid 10% penalty. The penalty should be that the host should be held responsible to make things right. In situations like mine, the host should pay the difference between what the guest originally paid and what it costs on the open market to get something similar. If the host refuses, then he should be removed as a host and Airbnb itself paying the cost. There should also be a way for future guests to be warned about such worthless hosts. For example, cancelled guests like me being allowed to leave a bad review. Or a statistic to show the percentage of bookings that the host cancelled.
Thank you for listening to my rant. I hope that it does some good. Just letting me vent had some therapeutic value.