Please verify your sleeping arrangements at least 2 weeks before you leave

Wow - that's really odd. One time we did lose a night at an airbnb in San Diego - she had a room and a camper and an in-law suite she was renting, and somehow double booked the room (guessing confusion with the listings, but they should be blocked out on their calendar once the stay is paid for). She notified us a week ahead, but we were already travelling...luckily, easy to find one night at a hotel, then we stayed with her for the other two...but to lose three nights!? Wow.

I typically will get in touch with the airbnb's a week before we leave home just to make sure everything is still OK and to reconfirm directions and whatnot.

Hi Nicole,

I thought it was odd also since we booked almost 5 months in advance. I really didn't want to argue the point with the host and my husband thought she got a better rental rate from the other people. She felt bad and was going to give us the apartment for 10 Euro our first night arrival and we would move the next day to another apartment. Unfortunately, we have a private tour booked for the next morning at 9am and the move would have interrupted the logistics of the day. Our tour guide Chiara already has booked times for Uffizi and Accademia. This would have messed up her tour timing and wasted our time.

I hope this helps other traveler's and it certainly is preparing me for being fluid during our vacation. I'm planning to go with flow of the wine while in Italy and remind myself we're on Italian time not US time.

Yeah and sometimes they're just plain Crooked! Once I booked a room for 2 nights at a B & B in Rome through venere.com, was shown the room, paid the total bill, including the tourist tax, left for the evening, only to find that I had No room when I returned later that night.

The manager's daughter had come to remove ALL my stuff to the manager's bedroom where I was told I had to share the bed. They had given my room to a couple from South America who were staying a whole week, claiming that the website overbooked them and there was Nothing they could do.

Of course venere.com disavowed any knowledge of the matter, accused me of making up the problem, and refused to print my review cause "it was too outrageous and nobody would believe it."

So now I always book directly with the lodging, I never use any booking website.

Hi Sandra,

Tom-foolery, that's what my husband thought also. He said seems fishy to have one night booked and missing three other nights. She also had a suggestion for another apartment the next three nights but ... fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. No thanks, a clean break is the only way to go in this situation. Even if legitimate, what kind of host would she be in an emergency situation? No trust is not a way to start into a contract.

Wise advice as it happened to me 3 times in 12 years:
-A simple mistake by the host in the dolomites when she had booked 27th of july instead of 27th of june. But she managed something for us, we were lucky.
-Last year in Piran Slovenia, my booking.com reservation was cancelled 3 weeks prior with a stupid excuse. I found out when I arrived to the other place I was able to rent that the day I was there it was unfortunatly the week-end of a big Harley Davidson Europe get together, for 3 days. So she just rent my reserved appartment for much more money and for 3 days. I wasn't too happy to say the least.
-an average hotel overbooked in Rome in 2007 and rebooked me somewhere else. I was so pissed off...

So too make sure, i just sent a reconfirmation email to my Florence appartment in a month. :-)
Thanks

Hi Claude,

Glad I could share my experience with other traveler's. Oddly, I feel I better knowing I'm not a lone in theses situations. To make matters worse, we were on our way out for the evening to celebrate our twins 21st birthday; this trip is their 21st birthday gift from us. OMG and my daughter's beta fish she brought home from college died last night too. Weirdness in the air yesterday. Hope it's not a sign. Now I'm getting nervous about this trip. I think I'm over thinking everything.

Hello twin mom,
But don't be, we are already fortunate to be able to go to these trips. So enjoy this trip with your twins, (what a great gift, my kid is turning 21 in october), and ajust and adapt if something goes wrong.
I've been to europe now a dozen times, and there's always a little something that seems to go a bit wrong eventhough I think I plan pretty well.
I got car problems 3 times(!), a few bad choices of hotels of B&bs, one in particular where We decided not to stay there but couldn't find anything before 2am(which was as bad!)
I'm not happy when it happens but I laugh about it after the fact. Gives me multiple stories to tell my family and friends. :-)
Have a fantastic holiday, i'll be in Florence just 2 weeks after you.
Claude

I love your optimism Claude! Come to think of it, we have awesome hosts in Orvieto who are letting us rent an extra half day in their apartment so we can depart late at 7:30 pm, at a reduced rate! We are very fortunate indeed to be able to travel like this and you can't judge all hosts alike.

Yeah - she probably did get a higher price from someone else...that's a bit...underhanded to not get in touch with you (just cancel the stay already!) and potentially leave you in a bad position trying to find somewhere to stay at the very last minute.

Other than the one in San Diego, we've never had any issues with airbnb's...and that one wasn't even a deal breaker (she offered to cancel the whole thing for us or give us a discount on the other two nights). Luckily, we had a car, so it made it easier to find somewhere to stay.

We even had a lovely hostess we stayed with twice in Paris - she has decided to not airbnb anymore, but was able to accommodate us one last time last month as her recently acquired roommate was not going to be home that weekend...she went above and beyond so we could stay with her again, which was super nice of her. Interestingly, she told us she was getting out of airbnb...well, for a few reasons, but she said airbnb was telling her what she should be charging for her room - because of location and whatnot, they were telling her to raise her prices, which she didn't like.

...and being nervous is understandable...we've been over 6 times and I still get nervous a few days before...well, not sure if nerves or anticipation...our first trip had a few 'disasters' that we now laugh at which didn't seem funny at the time (me having a meltdown on a train...fun times!). Well, all our trips have had something go wrong, but it's not the end of the world...just be happy you can go to Europe!

Great advice! And I'm leaving in exactly two weeks. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry this happened to you. This seems like one of the risks of dealing with someone who is not a professional hotelier. They either were not able to keep track of it, or worse did not deal with you honestly. I would hope the former. I guess the owners on Airbnb can also cancel on you, although there is supposed to be a penalty assessed if they do. I have never had a hotel mess up my booking in 16 Europe trips, but I do find the idea of Airbnb appealing. I have had hotels insist upon payment in advance upon arrival, which is a shady practice if they do not communicate it at the time of the reservation. Any time you pay before completing your stay, you lose all leverage over them to make things right should anything be unsatisfactory. I have to remind myself to warn others on TripAdvisor of these types of policies.

VS, it is my understanding that airb&b charges you at the time of booking.

Yes, Airbnb charges you when you book, but the host doesn't get the money until I believe 24 hrs after checkout, so if there are issues with your stay, they can hold the money back.

Knock on wood, this hasn't happened to me in three trips covering Rome, Sorrento, Salerno, Florence, Taormina, Paris & Lucerne, for hotels--big & small, B&B's and apartments through VRBO.

Advance reservations (usually 3-4 months ahead) with return EMail confirmations are made, followed by various communication in the interim about specific points of our stay, always cordial, not always that important. This is to develop a rapport with the point person and implicitly to verify our stay, confirming the dates of stay & price each EMail. That way anything amiss can be caught ahead of time.

Then a final confirming EMail is sent 7-10 days out with all the specifics, closing the communique with how excited we are to be staying at their property. Print everything out to be brought along.

That's what's worked for us.

Not a travel story, but years ago, I worked with a woman whose cousin was getting married. She had the same venue booked for her shower and her wedding.

After the shower, she took the hostess of the venue aside and said, "I would just like to go over a few details for my wedding."

The hostess replied that the bride's wedding was NOT booked for that site.

She had to find a new site for her wedding five weeks before it!!

Arrivederci!