construction notice 24 hours before arrival

[Melissa2710]

Hi everyone,

I hope some people can help me. With 2 friends we booked an airbnb appartment for 7 nights. We just got an email (less than 24 hours before arrival) from the host that there might be construction taking place. It has 2 bedrooms with 2 (one oneperson and one for 2 people). In the email it says that construction maybe will take place, preperation for renovation later on.  If construction takes place props will be placed in the double bedroom and not will be able to be used and we will have to make use of the sleeping couch in the dining aria (not where it normaly is). If this happens she wil refund 150 euro's.

But honestly I think this is not okay. We rented the place for 7 nights and we want the place for ourselfs. But we chose this rental because we wanted to sleep on beds and not on a sleeping couch!

We don't want the rental to be canceled now because it is 13 hours before we are leaving for our flight.

Does anyone know our rights or what we could do?

[Elena4354]

Hi @Melissa2710,

Your rights are to stay in the place you booked and not have any construction work in that place.

in this situation I think the best thing you can do is contact Airbnb support as soon as possible and ask for help. They can talk to the owner and if she confirms the construction work, they can cancel your reservation and help you rebook another place in the same location. 

Kind regards.

Elena. 

[Melissa2710]

we have contacted airbnb directly but they are not doing much because the host just contacted us.

Information update: suddenly after repeatedly asking the host could give us a timeframe of 3 days wh...

Also we booked because he was a superhost.

Unfortunatly we have also looked in the area and nothing else is available in our pricerange even close to space we rented. (like more that 2/3 smaller). or hunderds more a day.

[Melissa2710]

My comment got very strange.

What i meant was:

Information update: suddenly after repeatedly asking the host could give us a timeframe of 3 days wh...

And it was no problem that you would suddenly be sleeping in the diningroom instead of a real bedroom with a real bed....

Also we booked because he was a superhost.

Unfortunatly we have also looked in the area and nothing else is available in our pricerange even close to space we rented. (like more that 2/3 smaller). or hunderds more a day.

[Melissa2710]

I hope you guys do see words. my computer cuts my lines of and puts dots.

[Paula]

Hi @Melissa2710, I am tagging @Mike-And-Jane0, @Jennipha-Lauren0 and @Elena4354 here so they receive a notification of your message. This way, we increase the chances of them getting back to us.

Quick tip: To tag someone, tap "@" and select the host's username from the dropdown menu 😊

[Jennipha-Lauren0]

The timing isn’t good, but your best bet is to ask for a full refund because the unit as it was listed is no longer available.

Sometimes, unforeseeable renovations have to be scheduled. We had a category two windstorm in a mountain town where I live, and I found myself on the roof having to do repairs. Sometimes there’s Damage from previous guests. I can see the host didn’t want to cancel your trip entirely and offered you a discount for the loss of the room. Still, if you want a space with two rooms, I would ask for a refund and try to find a place. It’s difficult when you land and have to find a place, but You sound young enough to be agile and capable of adventure. I hope you and your friends can find another place with the multiple spaces you need, or take the €150 and make a night of it 🎉 

I’m sorry, I don't have a better answer to stuff like this. But I can see the host is trying to still be available. You just have to decide whether or not that’s good enough and if it’s not good enough there’s always the option of asking for more compensation. but please keep in mind this host has tried to provide you options rather than just cancel and I hope you wouldn’t give them a bad review because of that. our business is conducted in buildings and unfortunately they have to be repaired and renovated frequently in order to keep up with the standards of hospitality. 

begin this conversation before you walk in the door cause it’s a lot easier for a host to just give you a full refund and not have to send a cleaning crew back out and you guys find a new spot then after you get there drop all your bags and rest and then ask to cancel 

despite your lodging hiccup I hope you have a good rest of your trip

jenny

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Melissa2710 This is totally unacceptable from the host. They really should not be hosting if they think they can do this. I would talk to Airbnb and ask them to get the host to confirm you will get the place as booked OR find you another place to stay per their Aircover guarantee.

Do let us know how you get on

[Helen3]

Tell the host it's not acceptable you booked on the basis of having two bedrooms and they shouldn't have arranged construction work when they had guests booked in. @Melissa2710 

Airbnb will not only cancel penalty free but will make the host pay for an alternative property if it's more expensive look at airbnb guest cover. 

[Sumon7]

I am posting here just to see my public profile. What a joke of an UI !!!

[Rebecca]

Hi @Sumon7 👋

Sorry you're having some issues with the UI. I created a little guide for you so that you can find your Community Center public profile more easily, for desktop and for mobile. 😍

On mobile:

In the top right corner, click on the 3 horizontal lines.   Then click on Community Profile

On desktop, it's very similar: 
Click the button with the 3 horizontal lines and your profile image.Click Community Profile. Et voila!

I hope this helps but if you've got any questions, please pop me a message. 😊

[Melissa2710]

Hi everyone,

@Helen3 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Elena4354 

Thanks for all the replies.

Eventually we chose not to cancel the airbnb. It was to close to leaving and there were no other places availlable. Airbnb helpdesk was no help at al (we could not get a human) and the host of the airbnb used certain words in his messages so the robot would not give us a human contact.

We tried to stay in contact with the host, but he was not really trying to see the problem for us. We argued that if construction was happening we wanted more than a 150 refund and also a part refund if the rooms were still partly availlable. He did not respond to that.

When we arrived a friend of his gave us the keys and entry to the airbnb. And as gesture she gave us a bottle of wine. (because she was the friend she could not discus stuff about the possible construction).

After words the host did text us with asking how we liked the wine, but did respond to answer the previous questions. (we did also not text back about the wine, that we do not drink).

Luckily we were in Spain and timing is not there thing and they didn't come on the thursday or friday. Eventually we got a text that they would come monday. (we would leave the next day). We removed ourselfs (and moved our stuff to the other bedroom) because we didn't want to be there. 

We did ask of him to text when they would leave.

The host eventually texted hours after we had come back for late siesta, just that no construction had happend. Nothing else in the text. Although when we came back lots of stuff in the appartment had moved (lucky our stuff in the other bedroom hadn't). But very weird.

Eventually everything came out a lot better than we had been warned, but very bad communication on the side of the host with no insight how this could affect someones vacation at short notice. Especially because he was like: You could just cancel and get your money back...

Appartment was nice (because that was the quality we always book (a bit different than the pictures because of the moved funiture)). But not the Super Host that was promised.

Host will get a review that reflects the experience so next visiter can expect bad communication.

Because i believe the host could have done a lot more to accommodate.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Melissa2710 Just stick to facts in your review and it will not be possible for the host to get it removed. The host's behaviour was terrible and he deserves whatever review you decide to give him.