Worst experience in istanbul

[Idan13]

I booked a home in istanbul o searched for a home on taksim square and i found a nice place

The night before my flight i asked the host to give me the exact location and i was suprised to find out that its 50 min driving from taksim

I asked him and he said that he just wrote istanbul in the location 

I tried contact bnb but no answer no refund no home..

[Helen3]

Hello @Idan13 

Sorry this has happened.

As it says on your booking confirmation if the place is not as described , you need to contact the hosT (which you have done) . In your situation if the place is 50KM from Istanbul then you can ask Airbnb to cancel the booking and help you find somewhere else.

Call Airbnb again and wait for them to answer. Also message them on their FB and Twitter. Normally they are quite good at answering. I am not sure why you can't reach them.

They will cancel the booking, give you a 10% credit to help you find somewhere else on top and they can also help you find alternative accommodation.

It's low season in Istanbul, so hopefully quite easy to find something else.

By the way did you not receive the address when you booked? Normally it is on your booking confirmation. It sounds like it is a new host, or other guests would have complained if the listing gives false information.

[Susan17]

@Idan13 

Is there a possibility that the host misunderstood that you were requesting the exact location? Did you ask him to be a little more specific than "Istanbul", or check the location on the listing's map before booking?

Unfortunately, Airbnb does list places that are 50km (and a lot more) away from the location the guest enters in the search bar, which can cause huge confusion, and often results in the guest booking a place thats nowhere near where they assumed it to be (understandably so, as one would reasonably expect the search results to accurately reflect the location the guest has typed in) 

Consequently, the guest is upset when they realise they're far, far from where they want to be, and the host - who, also understandably, has assumed that the guest has booked their place because that is where they want to be - yet again bears the brunt of Airbnb's dysfunctional "functions" 

[Gal25]

Im his brother

The host gave us the adres after i asked him 2 times and it was 1 day before arrivel

The host told me and i quote "i only wrote istanbul in the address"

This is disgrace

After i asked him to cancell because it was hes fault he said that if hell cancel bnb well kick him from the service

To me ot sound like its not the first time hes doing this

Whats drives me crazy is that bnb havent answer me at all and im rhinking what woukd have happend of i was out of money

I realy hope that i would get my money back 

[Gordon0]

@Gal25 Did you book this direct with Airbnb? I ask as you get the address, automatically, the moment you book. Likewise, there is a location map to check the location works for you before you book.   

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Idan13 

Ok, it seems Taksim square is the main square so if your host didn't list the exact address then his location on the map will be in the city center. It is obivously done by purpose to trick the guests to book his place in the suburb.

Try to contact Airbnb through the contact form at https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us

or you can try via Twitter (Airbnbhelp) they are great.

Make sure you explain this misleading location issue and ask them to relocate you or to cancel on host's behalf.

Good luck

[Gal25]

Thank you all i finally got them yesterday and they sayd they wpuld handle this

[Susan17]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

If Airbnb sent out letters/codes to hosts by regular mail in order to verify a listing's address, as other sites do, it would solve a great deal of problems in regards to location accuracy. But on the other hand, doing so would also cause major issues for all the illegal listings on the platform, so probably not going to happen anytime soon.