Had this same experience - my girlfriend and I booked an AirBNB for New Years roughly 5 years ago. I spent considerably more than a hotel on the AirBNB for a luxury highrise condo. We show up, host is MIA. Of course trying to book anything on New Years in NYC is like pulling teeth. I had been using AirBNB for years before I realized that my only hotel experience had been cheap Holiday Inns and I had bought into the marketing that Airbnbs were universally better in my early 20s. When it works its great, when it doesn't, the stress alone makes the whole thing not worth it. I haven't used Airbnb since.