I have been travelling all over the world using Airbnb listings for almost a year. There have been times I've ended up in nice listings that ended up having really poor internet connections, but because the stays were only a couple of days long, I just let it go.
I've currently rented a place for a month and they listed WiFi as an amenity. This is a major city in Europe, and while I have stayed at other listings in this city that didn't have the fastest internet, it was useable enough and definitely NOT as slow as this one. I need internet for my work, and let's just say the internet is not even real WiFi but a mobile hotspot (MiFi) they stuck in the flat.
I didn't know this, nor was this mentioned on the listing anywhere, so I didn't think to ask because no one has ever done this from my experience.
Anyway, once I realised I can't even do much except slow Google searches (think the days of "dial up") on my laptop, I reached out to the host to ask for help about the speed. This is how I found out that the WiFi is actually a mobile hotspot (MiFi), with speeds not above 3 mpbs...that's about 1/3 of what we all get on our mobile phones on the street! I explained the issue to my host, I asked for help, and now I'm being told I obviously need internet speeds for "business" purposes, except..I can't even log onto AirBNB with the speed, without getting error messages because I can't stay connected to the internet at 2-3 mpbs per second (the lowest I've experienced in this city was 15, and that was for a month, but I made it work...but 2? 3?!!).
So, now there's talk of "other options" from the host - but the kind of options that would be coming out of my pocket. I have reached out to AirBNB and asked them to discuss this with the host and they (customer care) sounded understanding on the phone to me, but I've had the experience before with customer care where they say all the right things to me, but then turn around and email a cop-out answer instead. I don't want to wait for that surprise, so I'm asking for help/input.
Internet is my livelihood. That's how I'm able to afford staying at an entire place and paying hosts all the money for lengthy stays. But if they list WiFi, and the internet is so slow I can't even connect to AirBNB, what is a reasonable fix for this issue without me paying even more for an amenity I already paid for - which I'm not getting? I'd rather stay put at the listing, but one needs a working amenity, no?