Our host isn't replying at all and I'm panicking

[Rose454]

Three months ago, I reserved a room for this August in Barcelona that looked wonderful. It has two dozen reviews and 100% of them gave the place perfect 5 stars. Every comment was praising the host and the apartment, so I reserved the room right away without contacting the host first.

After sending my reservation, I immediately sent a message to the host. I think within an hour our reservation was accepted by the host and our booking status is now "confirmed". I was thrilled. I didn't even notice that my message and questions were ignored by the host. But I thought that since they confirmed my booking, I guess it's alright.

Last week, I sent another message asking the same questions about the meet-up and about the keys. No reply. I figured maybe language is a barrier? (Even though AirBnB has a translate option using Google). So I sent another message a couple days ago that I translated into Spanish. No reply.

This is when I began to feel worried. I checked her listing again and began to notice some guests did say that communication is a problem, but the place was okay. On the listing, it says the hosts' response rate is just 40% and it said they reply after a few days or more.

Oh no. Our trip will be in a few days time.

What should I do now? At what point do you think I should ask AirBnB for help?

Thank you for reading thus far, and I hope you can help us.

[Inna22]

@Rose454 I would start by giving the host a call

[Rose454]

Oof, we live in different continents so that would incur a huge phone bill. I was hoping I can resort to doing something online first or something.

But you're right. Maybe I'll send her an email using the email address in our confirmed booking page. Then I'll give it another 24-hours and if there's still nothing, I'll resort to using her phone number.

If there's no answer, do you think I should take it up directly to AirBnB? What's a logical course of action for a case like this?

[Alice595]

@Rose454  Definitely contact Airbnb support if there are only a couple of days left before checkin.

Some hosts don’t reply until two days before checkin date. I had this experience before as a guest. 

[Rose454]

@Alice595Thank you. I have resorted to asking for AirBnB's help via their Twitter because I heard they're more responsive there.

We're okay if the host doesn't reply immediately. As long as we have instructions, we're okay. But the problem is they haven't replied at all, not even once. And there are no instructions, just an address of the entire building, check-in time, and house rules on the listing. I don't even know what floor or room they're in.

I hope AirBnB replies, at least.

[Sarah977]

@Rose454  Most definitely contact Airbnb. You say you didn't contact the host before booking. That means you Instant Booked, which means the host did not confirm your reservation, it just gets confirmed automatically because you Instant Booked. 

Personally I can't imagine Instant Booking a place 3 months in advance, and not paying attention to the fact that the host didn't respond to you until you are 2 days away from check-in. I hope this booking works out for you, and in the future, I'd suggest you communicate with hosts long before your arrival date so you are aware of any red flags.

[Rose454]

@Sarah977 Thank you. Hmm, I don't think the listing is Instant Booked. The place doesn't have that icon. Especially since the confirmation came in an hour or so after we sent our message. It wasn't instant. We took it as a sign that they intentionally approved it and knows about our messages and booking request.

We've been too lax. We used AirBnB before and sometimes when a message isn't really urgent, we as a guest don't reply immediately. (Like if it's just small talk, well wishes, rhetoric questions, etc.) So we understand if the host felt the same about our message months ago. The problem is that the info we asked for recently is important yet they still don't respond.

I already contacted AirBnB but I am still trying to get a hold of the host. I want to be fair and still give them a chance. The reviews paint them as a wonderful host with perfect scores. But this is a lesson learned for sure.

[Sarah977]

@Rose454  I think most good hosts would answer a guest's message- like the one you sent months ago. In fact, most of the hosts who participate in this forum always send a greeting message to a guest when they book, thanking them for booking, letting them know when they will be sending check-in info, etc. Since you say all the reviews are great except the last one, I wonder if the host has someone else managing for them now who's falling down on the job.

Whatever you do, don't just cancel the reservation yourself- you'll lose a significant amount of $, if not all of it. If there's still been no word from the host when you make contact with Airbnb, and they can't contact the host either, ask them to rehouse you or at least make sure all of the money you paid will be reimbursed. 

I assumed you iIBed becasue you said you didn't contact the host when you booked- but sending a booking request IS contacting the host. All of my guests also send a message with their booking request.

[Rose454]

@Sarah977 Again, thank you for telling me about that. We were about to cancel because we just want this over with. I think we're still legible for the Full Refund because the Cancellation Policy of the listing is only Moderate. We still have a few days left before the deadline. If a Guest cancels a Confirmed Booking, do we get a bad reputation on our record or something?

Anyway, we've decided to just not do anything with the Booking. We'll leave it as "Confirmed/Accepted" and just go there to the apartment. We do know the address, so i just hope they'll be there. If not, we'll call AirBnB and hope they don't leave us homeless.

By the way, AirBnB responded to our Twitter direct message. They said a Case Manager will be "in touch" through here at the AirBnB website. That was yesterday. Do they usually take hours or days to reply?

[Sarah977]

@Rose454  Yes, their response time can sometimes be abyssmal. They definitely won't be winning any customer service awards.

Okay, good luck on this, hope it all works out fine and you have a lovely holiday. I figured since you said the booking was for only a few days away, that you'd miss the refund time if the host was still unresponsive and you decided to cancel.

[Rose454]

@Sarah977 Actually, we haven't fully paid yet. Our booking is to be paid in two payments and the first was done when the booking was confirmed, I think. The second and final payment will be this weekend(?) I'm not sure.

Anyway, I checked the policy again and it said we can still be refunded in full if we cancel now.

It surely is tempting. AirBnB Support hasn't replied to us at all too (their Twitter page is nice and timely though, but they said they can't help us). So now I'm conflicted. We would need to dish out an additional $100 or more just to book a room with our schedule, but at least we'll have peace of mind before we board the plane.

What a predicament.

[Susan17]

@Rose454 

If you cancel now, you'll still be charged Airbnb service fees, which are only refundable within 48hrs of the booking being made (up to 3 times per year). 

You need to call  Customer Service asap and request they do a CBA (Cancellation by Admin) on this booking, and not a CBG (Cancellation by Guest). Also, in addition to your full refund incl. service fees, ask for the 10% of original booking cost, that you're also entitled to from the discretionary fund that exists to compensate displaced guests for the inconvenience of having to seek out alternative accommodation, at short notice. The 10% top-up used to be applied automatically in cases such as yours, but it appears that many CX agents are now only applying it when requested by the guest. 

It's difficult for us to assess the authenticity of a profile/listing - or advise on the likelihood of the booking being safe - without actually seeing the profile itself. It does seem somewhat incongruous that a host would have two dozen 5 star reviews, yet only a 40% "within a few days" response rate. That in itself would raise a red flag or two, and suggest that caution may be advisable. Would you like to share the link to the listing so we can advise on whether or not it seems legit, @Rose454 ? 

[Rose454]

Hello @Susan17 and thank you, we held out as long as we could. Good thing, too! We almost cancelled had it not been for a very nice man who handled our case. Phew. The AirBnB Support Center truly is swamped with cases I think.

Instead of messaging us first or replying, we were just surprised when we just got a notification that our booking got cancelled. I thought it was our host, finally making her presence known. But apparently a Case Manager has finally taken action. We then got a message from him saying that our host didn't respond to his calls for 24 hours.

We got a full refund as you guys mentioned, plus AirBnB gave us more than 20% of our original booking cost as compensation. We hurriedly searched for a new host and chatted a lovely couple and made sure of details before booking. All's well that ends well!

Here's our missing host's property by the way: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/26590973

[Sarah977]

@Rose454  So glad you got it sorted. You were lucky to find some good hosts with a suitable place on such short notice. I was hoping you'd let us know how it turned out, thanks. 

I hope they delist that host before someone else goes through this.

[Rose454]

@Sarah977  At the end of this thread I posted as much details as I can about what has transpired. I even added pictures!