Incorrect Airbnb Add, can't be refund because of an "effort" from the host

[Lucie237]

Hello everybody,

I'm in a special situation with Airbnb and a host and I would like your help on it, I don't know what to do and maybe someone else were already in this case:

I booked a room in a shared appartment for 24 nigths in Vancouver. But when I arrived the first day I saw it was not the room from the picture (way more little, not the king bed from the picture but double one, no tv, no mirror, not the 2 bedside lamp,...). I asked my host where those things are and he just answered he put the tv on the living room. 

Second problem, the ad announce a free parking in the street, we've got a big van and we decided to take this room because of this free parking. But it's a 4 hours zone, our host just answer that we just need to move our car every 4 hours... 

Moreover, the  appartmentwas very dirty, with a lot of hair on the bath... We decided not to stay and saw on the Airbnb website that we can be refund if the place is incorrectly describe and we decided to follow the Airbnb procedure in this case. The first thing is to speak with the host to let him the opportunity to repair. Our host wasn't there and we were exhausted, we decided to sleep one night and discuss and leave on the morning.

The discussion went wrong, our host deny everything's and didn't wanted to cancel our reservation. I ask to see the second room, his room and it was obviously the room from the pictures. So we left, sure that Airbnb will refund on that conditions.

After sending a lot of pictures and discuss with a lot of case manager,t we were very surprised they don't trust us but our host and don't see the differences of the room on the pictures ( it's obvious when you are there). They tried to find a compromise with our host and us, and the best they can do is to ask the host to put a tv on the little bed room and let us a underground parking ( that we can't use with the size of our van- that's why we filtered with free parking on the street). Useless to say we don't want to go back living with this very bad host for 23 days! 

What can we do if we are not satisfy with the Airbnb décision ? I think it's normal to be reimbursed when the place don't fit the add for so many reason .. what can I do now to see my money back ? 

[Sarah977]

@Lucie237 It sounds like you did follow all the correct procedures. I would contact Airbnb again- some case managers are better than others. It's usually pointless to try to argue with an unhelpful CS rep- it's better to just thank them for their time and call back, in the hopes that you get connected to a better one the next time. 

I would be quite firm, but polite- outline to the new case manager exactly what was portrayed inaccurately in the listing information, make it clear that the place is quite dirty, and that you would like to be rehomed to a place which fits the criteria that you thought you would be getting when you booked this place.

I will say, though, that I'm familiar with Vancouver and most areas have street parking that requires moving cars to another location some hours of the day. And unless you informed the host when you booked that you had a van, he may have assumed that your vehicle could be parked in the underground lot.

And people say that contacting Airbnb through Twitter often gets better outcomes.

[Lucie237]

Thanks for your reply, I asked via Facebook what to do when we are not satisfy with the rectify of the host as the case manager said that because our host did something to rectify, he can't refund us. I received another case manager who finally confirm us the room is different. I tried to explain that just putting a tv in a room we didn't choose don't rectify a totally wrong Airbnb Add. She's now trying to reach our host since 2 days and she will follow up after. Thanks for your help