This my rule for any charge I make. A printed receipt. Always.
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Agree about the receipt. There have been a few instances where it was needed to either question a charge or for a rebate program (like rakuten, which sometimes asks for it). Just they other day I (a) discovered we had “prepaid” (don’t recall selecting that, but ok, and (b) the manager saw us waiting and waiting for our car at the valet stand for 25 minutes (while the valets were standing around) and we had requested the car on the valet app even before we came down to get it, that she offered to remove the $32 charge for the car park and offered us bottles of water. Of course she didn’t remove the charge. I have her name and we called the hotel today (after getting a request to review the hotel) and the person who answered said he wasn’t surprised about the valet and also noted tht the charge had not been removed as promised. He said he would credit it. We shall see.
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I just left a three sentence review of a hotel where I stayed recently - generally positive but noted (as had others on tripadvisor) that it was tricky to find. They responded with a wall of boilerplate text about how convenient the place is and how people just love all the attractions in the area. Methinks they doth protest too much.
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Interestingly, my travel companion also left a review on a different website and got the identical wall of text with a sentence added addressing her concern. AI? Or just lazy?
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Just back from Wales and Croatia. I used four Booking.com and one airbnb booking that wasn’t available on Booking.com. Guess which one was the worst by far? The airbnb, which had staged photos of an extremely expensive splurge place, in which all appeared luxurious and pristine and was definitely not. It had fantastic views, but the rest was meh. Lesson learned. Airbnb days are over.
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Thanks for that feedback. I’ve been leery of using Booking.com in Europe, so it’s good to read it worked out well for you.
In 2024 it did seem that in London (pricey market) airbnb/vrbo has a bad reputation for booking falling through for “maintenance” reasons, with speculation that really the owner found a better offer. I was considering Apartment-hotels as a safer alternative (same again last year returning) ended up at a Premier Inn. But dang, for family it’s hard to get a hotel room with more than one bed. Would have liked an airbnb option.
It was a while back…When I rented an airbnb in London, the owner didn’t say the flat was in the basement. He had 2 similar apartments in the same building, so he used pictures from those 2 apartments (bright and airy) for the basement apartment. D2 and I quickly checked out and moved into a hotel. It took a lot of discussions with AmEx to get a refund, but I ultimately did.
In the last few years we have been renting condo/apartment managed by a hotel with all the same services in Europe. Marriott owns a lot of such units. We were tired of having to clean up an airbnb before we leave, and having to do a lot of housework. It just doesn’t seem like a vacation.
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I was able to get my money back from Amex because I saved the original posting (pictures) and then I took pictures of the unit. They looked nothing alike. Airbnb was not helpful at all.
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We have been doing the same with renting apartments through hotels. We just did it for a wedding in Colorado and it was awesome. We’ve also done it in Spain and Iceland. Would recommend!
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Ugh - so frustrating! I’ve sworn off Airbnb for specific things that have irritated me as well as many stories like yours. The only time I would need to use it is when it’s my turn to plan our college girls’ weekend (there are 12 of us and we want to stay together) and in that case, I’ve had luck with renting direct from local companies or the actual owners. Otherwise, I am a hotel girl.
Hope the rest of your trip was fantastic!
In August we did a Rhine River cruise. We had two nights before the trip in Lucerne Switzerland. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Palace. It was part of the package. This place had the best service I have ever had at a hotel.
They wrapped all our charging cord using velcro straps making it look tidy. They left my wife a book mark for her book and a cleaning cloth for her iPad. It wasn’t the biggest room I have ever stayed in (that would be in LV) but the service was top-notch.
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Try VRBO instead, which tends to have better clientele and is widely used in Europe. Booking.com lists villa, home, and apartment rentals. Not sure if people realize that. We were a group of six so we only stayed in min. 3 bed places. No hotels on this trip.
As an example of why I found this particular Airbnb to be lacking, it had rotting windows that were hard to open, dirty walls, stained (badly stained sofas), with the kicker that we had to take out our own trash downs four flights, along with suitcases. This place cost about 900E per night. Sorry, they can take out the trash for that kind of money. The trash bit was not included in the general description. It was in Split, with possibly the literal best view in town, so I guess they can charge what they like, but I expected top quality for that price.
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I’ve only rented from Airbnb in the US. I’ve read that it is harder some places because of occupancy restrictions for STR.
Most have been great. We had one place that wasn’t but I expected it since it was an older cottage in a very desirable location. It was fine, it felt very nostalgic lol!
The last place I rented, I reached out privately to the ownership. It had snowed, it was a Sunday. The sidewalk did not get cleared and was a sheet of ice. I still gave them a good rating as the unit was great.
They never rated me back, which I was hoping they would since I have very little in terms of ratings. Or reached out to me at all.
We are renting a place for our family Christmas gathering. It’s nice to have a larger place for everyone plus the dog. Something you can’t really find with a hotel.
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I’m over having to take trash out, strip beds and load/unload dishwashers, especially when I am also paying a cleaning fee. Not part of my vacation plans.
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We have family who own two vacation rentals. They are both managed by vacation rental companies. Different ones since they are in different cities but both list the rentals on their own websites and on VRBO and Arbnb. In our case the homes have a “name”. You can do a bit of internet searching and often find the same listing with a direct booking site.
We have used Bookings in Europe and in the Pacific. Sometimes smaller lodgings don’t do direct booking.
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Hotel rooms are way more convenient and a known quantity so we always go that way if it’s just me and H and perhaps 1 kid if we can get a suite. But when it’s more than 3 people, getting an AirBnB or VRBO is often way cheaper than booking 2 hotel rooms. It’s also nice to have a kitchen and living room to hang out together. Timeshares are great for that reason as they often have full kitchens, a living area, and multiple bedrooms. So the benefits of renting a house thru VRBO/AirBnB with the known quantity of what you are getting (like with a hotel).
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We did what you mentioned on a really nice property in Sonoma and saved somewhere between $800 and $1,000 by doing so. If there’s a company mentioned, you can usually call the company and get a price cheaper than VRBO or whatever also.
We have rented a lake house the last four summers. We first booked through VRBO but now book direct. This summer we saved $1200.00 by booking direct.
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I noticed while looking for a hotel near Columbia U, that some hotels now list on airbnb…apparently that’s going to be a more common crossover category. There’s at least one way it’s to our advantage: you can get Delta miles for airbnb (even though you can’t get hotel points), I mean in addition to whatever credit card points for paying for either option.
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I’ve too noticed hotels on airbnb. NYC for sure but maybe also in Europe(?)
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