I've used Airbnb for years, usually at least once or twice. My reviews as a guest are great, and despite hearing horror stories, I've never had an issue.

Kind of on a whim today, I did a search for properties in Banff. This would be for essentially 6 adults (me, BF, and our 4 boys, 14-20) over the Christmas holidays. Because of this, we need at least 4 beds and two bathrooms. Banff doesn't have a lot of condo options (most are in Canmore), but I thought I happened to find a unicorn - exactly what we needed, on our exact dates, for $738/night (not including taxes and fees). BF was all in. Booking was one where you have to "request".

Host came back and said he denied the request because the property is not available. He also said he has other properties in Canmore, but the link he shared was for properties hosted under a different profile (Chris and Tanya vs just Chris). When I told him we preferred Banff and needed 4 beds and two bathrooms, he offered us another property that was $1000+ per night (not including taxes and fees). I said that was more than we wanted to pay and we would keep looking.

This was several hours ago. The original property I requested is still showing as available on our dates for the original price.

Has anyone had this happen before? I am not inclined to book any properties with this host because I think he is being dishonest/baiting and switching.

Seems like it though.

The 2024 version of the Sunday car ads bait-and-switch.

I once had a fraudulent experience.. airbnb made it whole dollar wise but it was a major inconvenience. Be careful and verify

I don't want to derail this thread, but has anyone else experienced a large increase in issues with Airbnb over the last year or so? I have been using Airbnb frequently for about a decade.....usually about once a month (more in the summer). I typically had very few issues, just the occasional problem with a lock or hot water. Everything was always solved quickly.

However, in the last year I have had 5 different occasions where a host cancelled within 48 hours of my reservation. In some cases, pressuring me to accept another property or to cancel myself so that it doesn't fall back on them. Airbnb can be very stubborn and provided minimal support without a lot of arguing and time spent on the the phone. It feels like there isn't much accountability on the host end.

I think this nonsense would stop if the hosts were responsible for paying for a new property for the renter in the same neighborhood, with similar amenities.

Can you leave a review for a booking you didn't stay at?

I understand the reasoning to not allow it, but someone who has a listing then pulls this and leaves it up definitely deserves to have those bad reviews.

As do people who you actually do book with and they confirm just to cancel a week before.

htxag09 said:

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Can you leave a review for a booking you didn't stay at?

I understand the reasoning to not allow it, but someone who has a listing then pulls this and leaves it up definitely deserves to have those bad reviews.

As do people who you actually do book with and they confirm just to cancel a week before.

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I don't think you can. And from what I read, hosts are allowed to not keep their calendar up to date and refuse reservations on a case by case basis.

I was hoping someone who hosts their own Airbnb would comment here and explain this to me. Basically, it allows hosts to pick and choose who they want to rent to. Seems like this doesn't jive with the no-discrimination policy, but they set the standards so ~shrug~.

We put our home on airbnb, but it was several years ago, like 6+ years ago.

I mean you can definitely pick and choose who to rent to, we wouldn't have done it otherwise, but have to acknowledge it can't be because of race, etc. Some of this may have changed with the climate the last few years, so who knows.

But, yeah, people would request to stay at our place and we'd review their account, reviews, reasons, etc before accepting.

Did you tell people the dates weren't available, or did you just say no? The only other thing I can think, is maybe the property isn't available for all the dates we needed. But I really don't have time to go back and forth with people who don't keep their calendar updated.

If the alternate property he offered hadn't been $1000+ instead of $700, I would have been less annoyed. But that made me suspicious.

TXTransplant said:

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Did you tell people the dates weren't available, or did you just say no? The only other thing I can think, is maybe the property isn't available for all the dates we needed. But I really don't have time to go back and forth with people who don't keep their calendar updated.

If the alternate property he offered hadn't been $1000+ instead of $700, I would have been less annoyed. But that made me suspicious.

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Honestly can't remember. Want to say we'd decline and say the house isn't available for parties, etc. The only ones we declined were like bachelorette parties, etc.

Most our renters were small business in town for a conference. Families visiting relatives. And had a few ex pats. One of which actually rented our house for about 2 months just using it as a home base traveling around the country to see family while on leave.

TXCityAggie said:

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I don't want to derail this thread, but has anyone else experienced a large increase in issues with Airbnb over the last year or so? I have been using Airbnb frequently for about a decade.....usually about once a month (more in the summer). I typically had very few issues, just the occasional problem with a lock or hot water. Everything was always solved quickly.

However, in the last year I have had 5 different occasions where a host cancelled within 48 hours of my reservation. In some cases, pressuring me to accept another property or to cancel myself so that it doesn't fall back on them. Airbnb can be very stubborn and provided minimal support without a lot of arguing and time spent on the the phone. It feels like there isn't much accountability on the host end.

I think this nonsense would stop if the hosts were responsible for paying for a new property for the renter in the same neighborhood, with similar amenities.

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My daughter had a similar experience with Airbnb a couple of years ago for a family ski trip. Owner cancelled on them with only a few days notice. They were able to scramble and find something else, but Airbnb wasn't much help and their attitude was "the owner can cancel on a rental whenever they want to with essentially no repercussions". Buyer beware!

At the end of the day, AirBnB's are still privately owned properties. I can think of explanations that are all over the map, both fraudulent and legit.

However, it seems to me that there is a decent chance that someone is posting a unit that they do not own as a means to get referrals, as you suspect.

If I were you, I'd report the listing to AirBnB and avoid that host.

EclipseAg said:

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If you're going to a vacation spot, always check VRBO. They have a lot fewer shady operators.

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I'd have to see your data on this. I think the vast majority of times, properties are cross listed on both sites.