The 100-year-old oak fell on the first day of the holiday. It crashed on to the terrace where James and his partner, Andrew, had been breakfasting minutes earlier, smashing the table and chairs and crushing the windscreen of their hire car.<\/p>\n
The Airbnb<\/a> cottage in Provence, France, was engulfed by the branches that broke the living room window and damaged the roof. \u201cI was sure the ceiling was going to come in,\u201d says James. \u201cIf it had\u00a0fallen minutes earlier we would have been seriously injured or killed.\u201d<\/p>\n It took a day for the host to winch the tree off the cottage and make emergency repairs, but the traumatised couple feared the property may be structurally unsound and decided to book into\u00a0a\u00a0hotel for the rest of their week\u2019s holiday.<\/p>\n Airbnb was unperturbed. \u201cWe understand this may have caused some inconvenience to you,\u201d it wrote in the first of many identical AI-generated messages before closing the unresolved case with a cheery \u201cKeep safe. Stay healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n The host was unperturbed too. \u201cAll that happened to you was that you heard a loud noise and saw a tree lying on the terrace,\u201d she said in a reply to the couple\u2019s request for a refund. \u201cYou have chosen to\u00a0remember the worry and trauma\u00a0instead of celebrating a unique memory.\u201d<\/p>\n Now the summer season has ended, the holiday horror stories are flooding in to Guardian Money.<\/p>\n If it had\u00a0fallen minutes earlier we would have been seriously injured or killed<\/p><\/blockquote>\n James, Airbnb customer<\/p>\n Unlucky travellers are reporting being locked in or out of their accommodation \u2013 if it existed or left stranded at night in strange cities if it did not. There are tales of\u00a0filthy bedrooms, unsafe equipment and illegal sublets. One factor unites these ruined holidays: they were booked via online booking platforms, which refused a refund.<\/p>\n The growth of sites such as Airbnb and Booking.com has prompted a rise in travellers putting together their own holidays. The companies pour the world\u2019s property portfolio on to a website and promise to sate wanderlust on a budget.<\/p>\n Consumer protections have not caught up with their popularity, however.<\/p>\n The 100-year-old oak that smashed into the side of the Airbnb property James and Andrew were staying in Provence.<\/p>\n Package-deal customers have legal recourse for holiday nightmares under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements<\/a>, but those who book accommodation via third-party platforms will find themselves at the mercy of their host.<\/p>\n Some platforms advertise additional protections, but your contract is with the person or company providing the accommodation.<\/p>\n