Stranded in Chicago with nowhere to sleep

[Jonathan1005]

Hi guys, I am facing an issue right now and may not have a place to sleep for the next week and I don’t know what to do. Airbnb has not helped in anyway. Would be great if someone can give me some guidance.

I booked an airbnb that showed its location in center of chicago (by the willis tower). After booking, I started looking at checkin information the day before and found out the actual address was much further away and completely outside of where the pin was (35min walk away from original location). The host used “Chicago, Illonois” as the address for the map, but only reveal the address in the house manual. I had paid alot of money to attend an event in downtown and planned all my activities around this airbnb.  Now the plans are ruined. I refused to checkin for this reservation because the host turned out to be doing the same misleading trick with her other listings. Her pattern of behavior has been recognized by numerous reviews on her other listings. Yet Airbnb has not stopped the host from repeating this behavior and allowed more people to be victimized. In my case, this happened with the city having been completely booked for the next week because of a major international conference (with insane prices for remaining hotels/airbnbs).

I had so much trouble getting help on the online chat (with numerous forwarding of my complaint to a different agent). I called in and got an agent to help after another transfer. The agent after offering several unacceptable proposals (making me pay for half the cost of a hotel which now cost hundreds to thousands of dollars a night. This is much more than what I paid and could afford). Finally, the agent said they can find me an alternative location and I can choose up to five. But he sent me locations that were much further from my intended location than even the problematic airbnb location.  I requested more help and has not heard from the team at all. I am stuck at the airport in Chicago and has no idea what to do and where to sleep for the next week. 

What are my rights in this situation? What am I entitled to? Can anyone help?

**[Sensitive information removed in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

[Emiel1]

@Jonathan1005 

IMO staying in the initially booked place is/was the best option, as there are no (affordable) alternatives available. What else do you expect from Airbnb, after the help already provided ?. Is the initial reservation cancelled by you or Airbnb ? If not, i would go there and make the best of it. And yes, Airbnb should correct this host.

best regards,

Emiel

[Lisa723]

@Jonathan1005 what outcome do you want? It's extremely unlikely that Airbnb will pay for anything more than your original reservation.

[Sarah977]

@Jonathan1005  I'm sorry you're in this situation, but you say many of the reviews reflected this problem. Yet you either didn't bother to read the reviews first, or you booked it in spite of them, somehow thinking the location would suddenly move? 

And it seems odd to only bother to look at the check-in info the day before you were due to check-in. Was this a last minute reservation? 

Certainly a host shouldn't misrepresent the location, but it says clearly on the map when you look at a listing that the map location is only approximate. So if it's important to a guest to be in a specific location, then it's wise for a guest to message a host before they book to ascertain if it's close to where you want to be. And many hosts have had issues with their location on the map view being inaccurate- this can be an Airbnb tech issue, not the host's doing.

You could have taken an Uber or public transportation from this listing if you didn't want to walk. It seems like you created more problems for yourself by cancelling without having alternative options, than if you had simply found a way to make the best of it. 

[Jonathan1005]

The apartment was newly listed. There was no reviews to draw from. The reviews came in after the booking in recent months and I started looking into her other properties

I have used airbnb for all my travels and NEVER ran into a case where the advertised area was COMPLETELY distant to the address. 

I did not cancel. I have been waiting for help. I refuse to checkin for this reservation. Why would you reward bad behavior? In all my bookings the location on the map is always accurate because the hidden address is accurate. In this case the hidden address was a generic term of the city, leading to its location on the center of the city.

[Sarah977]

@Jonathan1005  I see, thanks for the explanation. But if being in a specific location was really important to you, it still seems like a guest would message a host to check before committing to a booking, just like a guest who has pet allergies should always check to make sure there's not pets in the home, rather than assume just because the host didn't mention it in the listing. And it sounds like you made the booking quite awhile ago, did the host just send you the check-in info the day before or did you just not look at it until then?

You just sounded really desperate in your original post, so it seemed like your most viable option at this point is to take the booking, rather than stand on some principal about "not rewarding bad behavior" and spend the few extra bucks to use public transport or Uber. It's Chicago, I'm sure the public transport options are plentiful and relatively convenient, it's not like it's some remote location.

You can always mark her down on Accuracy when it comes time to leave a review and speak to it in the written review. And she may be willing to discount what you'll have to spend on transportation.

[Mark116]

@Jonathan1005   Since Chicago hotels and airbnbs are booked, you probably should stay at the original place, and try to get a discount from airbnb and/or the host that will cover the extra cost of a taxi/uber.  This seems like your best option.