Airbnb: A fan legally constitutes an air conditioner (opens in new tab)

Personally, I dislike hotels. I don't like carpets or elevators or garish faux-marble baths. I don't like being in the middle of a city next to tourist traps or some busy downtown. I don't like being on the 23th floor, shut away from nature. I don't like staying in a place that is just a bedroom and this weird tiny desk that has a big TV on it so it's not usable for anything. I find most hotels clinical, synthetic and alienating. There are exceptions, of course; there are some great boutique hotels out there. But they are far apart and usually out of my price range.

When booking a trip, I choose Airbnb because I can pick a place that was made for living in. You know, the way you do at home. Multiple rooms, a kitchen, maybe some outdoor space, all in a practical location. Airbnb also allows me to pick features I could never get at a hotel, such as a private pool or private parking. And it allows me to scale it up and rent a whole place for a family or group of friends.

People make the mistake of thinking that Airbnb is about competing with hotels by offering lower prices on the same service and that somehow the lower price is because "it's just someone's home", but it really isn't the same service at all. If a hotel could offer what I could get with Airbnb, I'd be all over it.

a) is not necessarily cheaper and in many cities like berlin can actually be more expensive, especially regarding the top class flats

b) is more a matter of personal taste in my experience, as renting a vacation apartment tends to be a more diverse and self reliant experience than booking a hotel room

However, when I am working, I ALWAYS book a hotel. I just want a place to work and sleep, etc. AirBnB's are less predictable, and when you are on the road and only in the room for the night and up early - no sense is even dealing with the various check in / out procedures etc. And yes, there are some hosts who don't get it, but most do.

Sure if you're booking an unknown, new, cheapo listing you could get anything. But large amounts of the high rating offerings are essentially hotels without a reception desk nowadays.

AirBnB had changed drastically in that regard.

My experiences with Airbnb are 90% bad and it keeps getting worse. Also, hotels are usually cheaper, esoeyif you stay 4 or less days

> Host suggested leaving doors open and having a fan

> redirect air from bedroom to living area. Looks like

> guests were looking to work while on a trip, so wanted and

> expected A/C throughout.

To be fair to the host, it's not their fault that the app didn't have the ability to track which rooms did or didn't have air conditioning. On hearing their problem the host also offered a reasonable solution to help them work in their apartment (something the apartment is not supposed to be used for).

> I can see both sides. On the one hand it did have A/C just

> not central A/C. On the other hand it was (they claim

> 100F) and we’re trying to “work from home.”

It wasn't the host's fault that they wanted to work in the apartment, neither was it their fault it was so hot. I've stayed in many places all over the world and half the time you're lucky if the AC works at all.

> It’s kinda borderline. What would judge Judy decide? Split

> the diff?

It would probably go through remediation, but if it went further it would just get kicked out. The most questionable part is their cancellation policy, not the AC description.

I think it's reasonable to expect AirBnB hosts, like any seller, to try to bend the truth or hide inconveniences in their listing, and it's up to you, the buyer, to exercise caution, read reviews, or ask the host.

That said, if hotels try that kind of BS, I complain until they refund me or upgrade my room, which has worked 10/10 times. This is one area where hotels have a clear advantage over AirBnB.

But was the listing for the whole house, or a bedroom?

""" I'm OP's roommate and I was involved in this. We booked the place on short notice and came to see it the same day. It was advertised as a "penthouse" but in reality it was simply the top floor of a pretty decrepit ~50+ yo building, with bars on every window, and a filthy "pool". This is the view from the "penthouse".

Contrary to what Airbnb says in the screenshot, there was no "A/C" of any kind in the bathrooms (no, not even fans). The only A/C units were in the bedrooms, and they were small, sized for bedrooms. The host showed up and said that if we let the A/C in the bedrooms run for 20 minutes with the doors open and the fan strategically placed, the living room and kitchen would be "cold like a fridge".

We let it run for 30 minutes and were still sweating after that. Told him we couldn't stay because we work from home and the heat was just unbearable in the daytime during this hot season.

What pissed me off:

The host refused to refund us anything (which is why we reached out to Airbnb). Airbnb refunded ~USD 300, so the host took USD 480 from us for essentially visiting the place for 30 minutes. That's a $1000/hour occupation... pretty lucrative. Yes, we wasted their time, and an opportunity for someone else to book it, so I'd be totally fine with paying the nightly rate (USD 60) for even two nights. But not for over a week. It's just not fair by any stretch of the imagination. (Note that it's the week before Mexico's Independence Day, and the host bragged that the place will get occupied very soon if we don't book. Also, we booked same-day, and left same-day. How Airbnb considers that is inconveniencing the host USD 480, baffles me.)

Airbnb's rude, STFU, response:

This is the last that can be said on the subject.

This seems to be part of the training they give to support agents, because I saw the same phrasing in the famous How I Got Banned for Life from AirBnB post:

we consider this matter closed and will no longer reply to any inquiries regarding your account

The fact that Airbnb doesn't have anything more nuanced than "Yes A/C", "No A/C". How about "partial A/C"? How hard is it to implement that, Airbnb? It's one thing to have central A/C or heating, and a very different thing to have a heater in one room or a fan in another. """

Before that stay (I'm the OP's roommate), we stayed at another apartment that had 0.5Mbps Internet instead of the claimed 10Mbps, no hot water, no computer desks when there were desks in the photos, no trash cans - for the first 3 to 5 days until all these issues got fixed through us bugging the building's management. All Airbnb was willing to refund was 10% of the nightly cost, times some number of nights, which amounted to USD 57. That was for a $2100/mo apartment.

You are going to sue AirBnB over this?

As someone who has worked in customer service, and observed customer service workers at my company, it seems completely reasonable, especially when dealing with entitled people like the OP and his roommate (from other comments).