I have used Airbnb a huge amount of time, and got my first (and only so far) last minute cancellation last year in January. When I say last minute cancellation, I'm kind of lying, it was actually an on-time cancellation. They cancelled right when I was supposed to check-in. (They sent me a message telling me they lost the keys, yeah sure.)

Airbnb only wanted to refund me at first, after a few back and forth and throwing the word "nightmare experience" in their face (I had just flew from France, was completely jetlagged) they finally ended up reimbursing me my hotel stay (it was a 2 or 3 nights stay IIRC).

That's why I look at booking.com first now. On Booking.com the apartments are run by professionals who don't flake out on you at the last moment. Airbnb has also brought competition to market driving down prices and often, in places like Amsterdam, much better value can be found on Booking.com these days.

I have made roughly 100 bookings through AirBnB with ZERO cancellations from the host. Funny enough my best friend booked a hotel on the Galapagos islands through booking.com and got a cancellation email while on the boat to get there....talk about other options in that situation...

I've tried to use AirBnB twice. Both times the host accepted the booking, then cancelled. The first after a day, the second the day before I was due to arrive.

Two experiences in a row like that were sufficient to make sure I never try again.

This is where the Booking.com customer service shines. They have always gone above and beyond when I've had any issues.

True. I booked a stay in Rio a couple months in advance, which was cancelled a week after booking. Hotel prices had risen by then, so Booking.com actually provided free stay at a different hotel.

I've booked a lot of stays on Airbnb too. Hosted even more. It's definitely getting worse to the point that I've moved away from using it as default.