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vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

> I don't know how Airbnb works, but my hunch is that an "instant booking" just means you get instant confirmation that you have, in fact, successfully reserved a room for a given set of nights

It also means that I am instantaneously liable for the cancellation charges. If the host doesn't respond after the instant booking (as happened in this case) I forfeit all the money. There is something wrong in this business case and AirBnB should look in to it.

I have already talked about the other issues in my post.

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

I agree. What I did to my family was risky by booking via AirBnB for such a short notice accommodation.. that is the whole point of the article...

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

Yes, but with the reservation only 24 hours old, I was hoping to get some sort of communication from the host by the time I was in the city.

BTW, as I have mentioned in the article, I was already in Italy and going from Rome to Padua.

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

The AirBnB service made a bad situation worse by insisting that I pay for cancellation when I had no choice but to cancel as the host wasn't there!

Again, it shows that AirBnB is risky thing to do when travelling with kids, in a foreign country... but I repeat myself.

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

I am. And that is why, I will not be using AirBnB to make the same mistake. :) That is the crux of my article.

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

Mother, not mother in law :).

The host wasn't delayed. I had no idea what the host was doing.

vikramgoyalon One simple but powerful reason to avoid using AirBnB: It is very risky

Hi everyone..

I am the author of that post and just wanted to clarify a few things.

First, the intention of the post was twofold: Blow off a little steam at the anger I was feeling and second, to highlight the risk someone is likely to face in a similar situation.

I have already admitted that this was risky, and therefore, not a great idea to do. In a similar situation, a better deal would have been to book a hotel rather than go through AirBnB. And that is the crux of my article. AirBnB is risky in a similar situation (travelling with family, travelling overseas etc.)

Next, the major issue and the failures were AirBnB's on multiple fronts:

1. Sending me the address wrong. I am not sure how this happened, but either the host deliberately provided the wrong address to AirBnB or something went wrong in the AirBnB's system.

2. Their support insisted that I wait for 5 hours or more for the host to be at the address. Otherwise they would charge me for the cancellation. Again, note that the address that they wanted me to go to was the wrong address (and no one knew at that point that that was the wrong address).

3. Asking me to follow up on the email rather than try and sort the situation over the phone.

Regards, Vikram

I will individually reply to the comments if there is something specific that needs addressing.