They Booked an Airbnb Ahead of the World Cup. Can a Host Demand They Pay More?

Dear Tripped Up,

For my parents’ upcoming 70th birthdays, I booked a trip for seven family members, including me, to Southern California to see the World Cup. My father is an immigrant from Iran who has never been west of the Rockies, and we managed to get tickets to the two Iran games being played in Los Angeles. Prices in L.A. were high, but we wanted something near the ocean and found a reasonable Airbnb for the family in La Jolla, a couple of hours away from the stadium. In December we put down a 50 percent deposit for a $4,300 rental. Imagine our surprise when in April I got a message from the host letting me know that to keep the reservation, I needed to rebook with a new host and pay an additional $1,000 — an amount that would soon go up. My guess is that someone realized the World Cup was going to be in the region and tried to jack up the rates. I reached out to Airbnb, whose AirCover policy says it will find a comparable place in such situations, but it only offered a refund or a coupon worth 20 percent of the original deposit, or about $430, which doesn’t come close to filling what had by then grown to a $2,000 gap. Prices had gone way up for other properties as well. I found their customer service agents’ level of robotic adherence to a script to be maddening. Every sentence started with: “Yes, I completely understand, and do not worry.” Yet they then went on to say things that very much indicated they did not understand and that I should in fact worry. Can you help? Jason, Washington

Dear Jason,

It’s unclear what happened to the house you reserved, which seems to have changed ownership, or at least management, since you booked it. But it is crystal clear that this should not be your problem.

Airbnb’s AirCover policy states, as you note, that it will “help you rebook a similar place to stay.” Alas, the policy continues, adding a mighty hedge: Such a rebooking is “based on availability at comparable pricing.” To me, that sounds a bit like a health insurance plan that covers medical costs “unless it’s something expensive.”

When a major event is taking place in town, the pricing will almost never be comparable. I received three strikingly similar complaints from travelers about Airbnb hosts who one way or another refused to honor reservations made far in advance:

• Ross from Albuquerque reserved a four-night, $2,577 stay at a nine-bedroom Airbnb six months before the Aftershock music festival last fall in Sacramento, only to have the hosts cancel nine days before check-in.

• Lesley from Fort Worth almost had her Mardi Gras spoiled after the three-night, $2,479 Airbnb she booked for two couples in the French Quarter evaporated the day they arrived.

• Sarah from Brooklyn reserved a three-night, $1,350 Airbnb in Ann Arbor, Mich., for her son’s University of Michigan’s graduation, only to have the property owner ghost her right before the trip.

In all three cases, Airbnb offered a refund or a coupon to make up for some, but not all, of the difference. Ross and Lesley ended up spending thousands more for last-minute hotels, and Sarah found an Airbnb much farther away from campus that cost $727 more, only partly offset by a coupon for $404.