Unreliable and disonest
On February 16 2020 I was in Arequipa, Peru'. I was in a nice hostel but, in the evening, I could not shower because there was no hot water, so I decided to try to find another place for the next morning and looked up on Airbnb.
I was pretty new in Airbnb, but I had rented a room a couple of times before and it had been ok.
It was 21.00, so I tried one place, and my request was rejected, then I tried another one and the reservation was accepted and paid. Later, at around 23.00, before going to bed, I checked my emails and found out that my reservation had been cancelled by the host and I had no place to go the following morning.
I was quite shocked because, according to Airbnb policy, hosts cannot cancel reservations within 24 hours of check-in and, if they do, there are sanctions, including having to pay 100$.
Moreover, this is a clear violation of the principle of Contract Law. What the host did, ad Airbnb allowed to happen, was a breach of contract.
In fact, Airbnb allowed the host to cancel without any sanction and without giving any explanation to me. Cancellations are only allowed for Force Majeur cases, but clearly there wasn't any (no biblical floods, no earthquake...), and the room was still open for reservation.
Airbnb refunded me, of course without paying me back my Credit Card fee (I have a UK CC), and offered me a very generous compensation of 5$.
I told this to a few Peruvian friends of mine and they explained me that corruption in Peru' is rampant and this was just one example, so I am not sure that the same would happen with an Airbnb in another country.