I travel a lot, but mostly book through Booking.com, Agoda, Hotels, or local aggregators. Over the past 15 years, I've chosen Airbnb accommodations about 10 times for various reasons. I've always found the booking process too complicated.But what happened this time exceeded all expectations.I booked a house in Stintino, Sardinia. The owner immediately wrote to me saying I needed to sign some kind of contract. I had a similar situation with Booking. I contacted support, and they said that any requirement to sign anything outside of Booking.com is illegal.So I ignored the message here too. But after the free cancellation period had passed, the host insisted, sending me a contract stating that I was only "Obligated," and he was only "Entitled."Impressive was my surprise when Airbnb sided with the host. But what I liked most was the customer service's response: "Yes, it's against the rules, but we allow this for particularly reputable hosts."My question—"How can I know in advance that I'm booking with a "reputable" host so I can avoid them?"—remained unanswered.So, if my Airbnb bookings were previously -5%, now they'll be approaching zero.
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