Jillian and John thank you so much for your feedback. Having read your comments have given me so much insight into what happened in the past and what I could do differently in the future. There is always something good that come out of our not so pleasant experiences & so I take what seems a negative one with a grain of salt...
Gillian, thank you for sharing what the host review said about me. I believe that we all learn from each other's experience in sharing & I've learned a lot from what you wrote, thank you. Nonetheless, I felt like some of what you said came out as a little bit assuming of my character without really knowing much about what really happened. Still the constructive things you said made me rethink about the event & so I'll try to shade a little bit light...
John, thank you so much for your comments which actually caused me to check back that particular booking and reread the message string we had then with the host. I was having some challenge with the booking and had contacted the host. I told him that I wanted to book three nights from Nov 4th to Nov 6th, but Airbnb was showing me that the 4th wasn't available but the 5th&6th were. The host gave me a phone number to call directly & that they would help me book the 4th directly & I could book the other 2 nights. I honestly don't recall if I had called him, but he had asked me to try once more. So I closed all browsers & relogged into Airbnb & tried to book again. This time it worked & I booked supposedly for 3 nights. I admit that I didn't read the detail to note my check out date was on the 6th, not the 7th as I wanted. This I noticed after the fact... I heavily relied on my conversations with the host, which was assuming of me. My fault for sure.
Looking back at the message exchange string, there wasn't any reminder that my check out was that morning on Friday. Nevertheless, that is still on me. And so I went very far from the place I was staying at (I believe I left before 8 am). I was out in a bike tour deep into the woods & coastal beach areas that I missed the host's repeated phone calls. By the time I looked at my phone during one of our quick rest, it was well after 1 pm (well past the check out time). The rest is as I told you. Granted I'm at fault for missing the check out date/time, but there was NO issue at all until the moment I failed to check out on time as I should. But I do not think it's fair to paint me as "a guest rule breaker" to affect my future with prospective Airbnb hosts. Our conversation could have gone differently after I answered the phone, but the host was really angry for obvious reason.
The morning of my trip, my home of origin went into full fledged war with a northern region of the country (northern Ethiopia), which later was realized as Tigray Genocide, which is still continuing day 604 & counting. Initially I thought it would blow away by the time I got back & things would be normal. But normal has yet to come... What happened with my Airbnb experience was not big on my mind at that time that I didn't rate the host. But had I known about the review, I would have at least responded. Where do guests go to view their rating by hosts?
@John5097 prior to reading your comment, I tried to disclose my situation with a short explanation with my booking request when trying to book for Airbnb lodging for my upcoming trip to Canada in few weeks, but got rejected the same night I learned about the negative review that got me denied my attempt to book for one night stay for tonight actually. But I was fortunate to find a great couple hosts who took a chance on me & they have been wonderful every step of the way. Thank you for your insightful & helpful feed back. While what happened is unfortunate, I won't let that deter me from trying to enjoy Airbnb experience, coz it feels like home as opposed to a hotel room. Thank you both & wish you the best with your hosting.
R/
Hanna