Host refuses to grant reasonable heating in winter

[Dev13]

My host is not heating the house, or at least my room, adequately. 

Two things: 

1) I am long-term traveller who has had over 11 succesful long-stay visits with hosts all over Europe during the Winter time (Iceland, Hungary, Czech Republic, England etc)

2) In none of my reviews have I ever complained about heat, nor have any of my hosts complained about me turning up the heat. 

Currently I am staying four weeks in Rome, Italy during January. It is cold: the locals here are wearing (real) fur coats paired with long sweaters, leggings and long sleeve shirts, mits and hats. It is around 32-37 degrees during the day, on a good day 47 degrees. At night the temp drops drastically.

The apartment I am in is not well insulated, the ceilings are high and there is no dual pane windows. 

And there is no heat. During the day the host, of course, turns off the heat, as to be expected but it is midnight on a Sunday, the host is nowhere to be found and there is zero heat in the whole house. Even on evenings when the host is here the heat is turned on so low I can place my whole hand over the radiatior without it getting warm.

Also, I am wearing multiple layers: indoors. i am wearing pants, socks (and tennis shoes, to keep the cold out of my feet), a long sleeve shirt, a wool duster AND a parka with a wool cap...to no avail. When I try to work on my laptop my fingers begin to freeze and I shake. I estimate it is probably 40-45, maybe 50 degrees in this room and the entire house. 

I brought this up to the host, just asked to turn up the heat, at least in my room and she took me over to the heater and was like 'it's maxmimum.' I'm not asking for maximum and btw, if my palm can rest on your radiator for five minutes without even a singe, it's really not maximum, is it?

Anyways, tonight all the radiators are off. The heat controll is nowhere to be found. It's midnight, I am afraid to take a bath for fear of hypothermia. 

I really feel this is unacceptable. I visited Rekyavik in February...it was snowing so hard we could barely walk outside and the host had the house heated properly and I did not complain. I visited Czech Repblic in late Fall and winter, Berlin in winter and same...so how do I really get this host to understand that leaving the house at night unproperly maintained between 7pm-10pm...the times when I come back home from sightseeing and use my room to unwind, work, read and rest, is completely unacceptable? I get turning the heat off after midnight but it's midnight now and I have been too cold to go horizontal. 

Help Airbnb! I really feel like this host is being a total gyp about heating. 

[Ute42]

.

Hi @Dev13,

I agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0, do not cancel the booking from Your side because this will result in cancellation fees. Here's what I would do:

1. Ask Your host to turn up the radiator in the second room to maximum for 8 hrs, then walk into the room and see what the temperature is. It makes no sense swapping rooms if the second room is just as cold as the one You have now.
   
   

2. Write to Your host through the airbnb messanger that You agree to move to the second room.
   
   

3. Then call airbnb and explain the situation, they should handle the case.
   
   

We must consider that the airbnb solftware which handles millions and millions of bookings every month is set up for standard booking situation. A room-swap inside a dwelling, especially if the second room isn't even listed on airbnb, is something the software may not be capable to handle. So the airbnb-reps have to come up with a hands-on solution.

If nothing works, let airbnb rehouse You to some other place in Rome. All this is not Your problem but the problem of Your host and indirectely airbnb. So don't get involved too much into all of this.

[Dev13]

Thank you for such a detailed response.

The host woke me up this morning to move me to the other room. (Granted, I slept in pretty late due to being up all night nervously researching until 3am). She was pretty insistent and though very sweet I didn't feel like I could say no (there is also a limited language barrier). 

Anyways, 1) I moved over, 2) cleaned the old room as best I could, 3) shot off a note to Airbnb BUT have not cancelled yet.

Before all of this happened I told her that if I did cancel they would be refunding me nearly $200 but she still insisted and so we completed the change just an hour ago today. She said she would call Airbnb to explain the situation. I also contact Airbnb email support since I can't seem to get through the USA line bc my phone is obviously disconnected here in the EUZone. 

A few minutes ago I heard her on the phone talking to someone about changing the room in Italian, very loudly, and because I am semi-fluent in Spanish I could hear the words for "change" and "room" being used with a live person who was talking to her. 

The rooms are virtually identical...so much so that when I was initally booking the room I wasn't sure if one was an accidental duplicate listing of the first.

Still not sure how to turn on the heat....but for now I am not cancelling the reservation until there is something definitive on the table. 

[Qte0]

That was by far the best and caring response. 

Thank you.

[John1119]

I'm experiencing 5c most morning here in Central Mexico. This building and my private room has ZERO heat! No passive sun heating the room either. Sleeping in my clothes every night! 

However... No one uses central heating here. 

The listing states "no heater " but waking up to only 12 c INSIDE this room is too cold! What's reasonable? What's illegal it anything?