Inaccessible road - car broken down on host property - misinformed

[Nikki304]

Recently I rented a place in a beautiful spot of the world ! It mentioned 

accomodation and you read the instructions on how to get there and you believe you can use your 2WD car.

As a tourist you don’t know the area and you follow the instructions of the host and trust their judgement. 

“Our access road (2km) is steep and windy up through banana plantations. The road is an all-weather road and has both concrete and gravel surfaces and yes it is a little bumpy. It is accessible by 2wheel drive”

So we followed the road slowly and carefully but the road was very bad. Normally no one would drive up that hill with our BMW station wagon and yes something did hit the bottom of the car!  

We decided not to stay as it wasn’t safe to stay. To remote, no phone reception and or internet. Inaccessible road with my BMW station wagon.
We  booked it for two weeks and I would stay during the week alone at the Airbnb property. But driving that road again up and down every day would be fatal for any 2wheel drive car ! 

Now we got only partially our money back 50 % and have now a written off car !

 Who is reliable and can I claim anything ?

[Rowena29]

@Nikki304 

I'm not sure how you went about not staying on at the listing but it doesn't sound as though you went through airbnb customer service and raised your concerns with them. They could have cancelled the listing for you penalty free if they thought your concerns were valid. On every booking confirmation email they send you, they say something like "we're here to help contact us if there is a problem

 I can understand your grave concerns about the road and that influencing your decision not to stay.  However to say it was too remote when  you repeat the hosts description it is up a  2 km access  road through banana plantations seems to me a little unreasonable. Surely that description alone makes it pretty obvious that the listing is hardly in the centre of town.  As for no TV and no wifi  were they listed in the amenities as being there and were not? If they were not listed as present amenities, it's not reasonable to complain that they were not there.

It's important to read the listing description carefully and check for the presence of amenities that are important to you.. Especially for a long stay of 2 weeks

You can use the filter bar when you are searching to ensure you are shown properties that meet your specific needs.

I don't have any legal expertise, but I think it is VERY unlikely that you could claim damages to your car on a public ( or even private) road against either airbnb or the host.  

Overall if you really feel that the host misrepresented the listing then you have grounds to ring customer service and perhaps try to negotiate. If however you made a series of assumptions and did not really research the listing carefully enough, then I doubt that there is much you will achieve by ringing Customer service.     What were the other reviews of the property like? Did any other guest complain about how dreadful the road was?

I'm sure others will be along shortly to offer their opinions adn guidance

Regards

[Rowena29]

Bumped