Beware Airbnb

A WARNING TO PEOPLE USING AIRBNB RELATING TO ************ OWNERS AND THE LACK OF HELP AND FAIR COMPENSATION YOU CAN EXPECT FROM AIRBNB In January 2023 we booked 26 Rothersand Ave near Sanctuary Beach in Plettenberg Bay through Airbnb for our children and their young families, 14 people in all, from the 27th December to the 6th January 2024. We organised a full time **** and arranged for a caterer to deliver prearranged meals to the house. We were looking forward to a much anticipated family get together. We had paid in full for the booking and tried contacting the host, Rene for instructions on where to collect the key. She did not respond and on the day before leaving we contacted Airbnb to pressurise her to respond. Then as we were about to leave on the 27th December with the car and camping deepfreeze all packed the host Rene phoned us to say that the owner had accepted another booking (she wouldn’t say whether it was either directly or on another platform) and we shouldn’t come. What kind of people would stoop so low as to do that??!! Then Airbnb cancelled the booking. Our eldest son and family had already left two hours before and had house-sitters in his house so couldn’t go back; My daughter had rented out her house for the time she was away; and my youngest son had come out from Germany with his family. Airbnb’s initial message said not to worry they would find us a nicer place, and then just strung us along making sympathetic noises but doing nothing. After a day and a half of sitting on our phones and computers we eventually managed to find alternative accommodation outside Plettenberg Bay, but were all thoroughly traumatised. We also had a number of expenses related to the cancellation, as we felt it was right to pay the **** who could no longer work for us and the caterer for the lost days, and we also had to find accommodation for the families who had nowhere to go. Airbnb refunded us immediately without any interest, and exacted a R71000 penalty from the owner for Airbnb’s account, which amount was considerably more than their fee had our booking gone through. After a time consuming negotiation Airbnb said that they had no obligation to us other than to return our money and closed the case. To further exacerbate our sense of injustice Airbnb have given us a voucher for R1202 ($50) with two provisos -it had to be used by January 26th 2024! -we have to commit to a euro8000 booking within 2024!!! Unconscionable