SUSAN R.

DO NOT USE AIRBNB. THEY HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THE OWNERS WHO POST ON THE SITE. In August 2014, I booked a home in Parkland, Florida for 14 members of my family to stay for 4 nights over Thanksgiving weekend. My family was flying in from all over the U, S. This was my first experience with Airbnb. I paid $3392 to Airbnb in August, the full price of the rental of a 7 bedroom, 5 bath home. Last week, I received an e-mail that the owner of the house, Gary, has CANCELLED MY RESERVATION. Airbnb was very sorry. No reason was given for the cancellation. If I had cancelled at anytime, I would have lost 50% of my money. Gary, the owner, was able to walk away. The house is no longer posted on Airbnb, although it is on VRBO.

As a result of the cancellation, Airbnb gave me three links to other homes as possible replacements. Two were in Miami which were geographically undesirable. The third was a "mansion" listed at a price $1,000 per night. When I wrote to the owner to see if the home was available over Thanksgiving, "Richard" said that it was but that the price was now $8,000 for the 4 days. Because someone else showed interest in the house, he was reducing the price to over $6,000 since that was what he had quoted them. ($2,000 more than what was listed). Supervisor, Elena G., offered me money from her "discretionary " account to make up the difference, thus encouraging hosts to gouge their prices.

Airbnb has no control over hosts who can cancel at any time. Additionally, hosts can freely charge what they want regardless of what is posted in the listing, Airbnb allows this to happen. I was not able to find a house for 14 people in time for Thanksgiving. We are all staying at hotels and have not figured out where to have our Thanksgiving dinner at this time. A supervisor at Airbnb did give me a voucher for $500 for my troubles after I asked for some compensation. I was also promised my refund of the $3392 which Airbnb had since early Sept.