This has now happened to me twice but I'm not sure where to raise the issue. I'm hoping you fine folks can provide some insight. I apologise if this has been raised before but I was unable to find it in my searches.
One two occasions in the last 3 months, I've booked a place to stay in two different cities using the Instant Book option. After initial confirmation on both occasions, the host sent me a cancellation notice close to the time of arrival, with a "plausible" excuse as to why the flat was unavailable. In both cases, I was given some phone numbers via which I could austensibly find alternative accomidation.
So my skeptical side comes out here. Clearly when people book an accomidation they make multiple other reservations related to their trip (flights, cars, excursions, etc) that are likely non-refundable so they will still need a place to stay. What would prevent an entity from advertising and booking an attractive option on Airbnb, cancelling it close to the time of arrival and then refering to a friend or partnered entity for an alternative. It seems that would be a fairly simple bait and switch to execute.
I wouldn't want to suspect this of individuals but it seems like Airbnb has been attracting more "profesional hosts" than the share my room sort of way it started. At least this has been my experience recently with European vacation destinations.
Any ideas about what I should do, if anything, about this? Unfortunately this makes me hesitant to rely on confirmed Airbnb bookings for future trips. You can't book a big trip abroad with the worry that your accomidation can dissapear and/or double it's cost on the way to the airport.
Cheers guys.
