I took my husband mountain bike riding in Rotorua for his birthday. We booked an apartment in downtown Rotorua. We arrived at our accommodation and the apartment was filthy.
The toilet had poo on the seat and lid, and the shower had scum all over the screen and tiles. There were dirty marks on the floor, the microwave door was filthy, the button to open the microwave had a big dirty mark, and there were dirty sheets shoved in the wardrobes.
I called the host back, showed him the issues and said this wasn’t acceptable. He tried to tell me the apartment was clean. I then showed him the poo on the toilet seat and lid. He got a wet cloth – no detergent or disinfectant – and tried to wipe the poo off. The apartment had clearly not be cleaned. He didn’t offer to clean nor have the apartment cleaned.
I took this up with Airbnb and first they rejected my refund because they deemed this as a cancellation, even though we had been in the apartment with the host. The next excuse was the host tried to rectify the situation. Finally, Airbnb advised they deemed this as low severity. Their policy clearly states the premises need to be clean and sanitary. Please see the photos which Airbnb endorsed in their guest policy.
The Airbnb Customer Service via email/phone is a joke. They have a script they go by and you might find that they do not answer direct questions or they answer with information that has nothing to do with the question. I wrote to the BBB and provided images and screenshots of the dialogue between the host and me. I showed where he contradicted himself many times and that the bathroom was riddled with mildew and there was a significant amount of hair all over the floor. I did not ask for any money, only for the host to be flagged. They responded and issued me a full refund because they felt I was right. I think maybe those type of complaints go to a different dept. But, you should also know that airbnb is not regulated- so the hosts cannot be fined by the county or city’s lodging and licensing depts. Can’t trust reviews either because some people are filthy and this is actually clean to them.
Sometimes putting it out on Twitter gets the quickest action from them
Poo on the toilet seat? Sounds like you wanted a freebie and are mad you didn’t get it
Oh, I see now that you are a troll since you have posted similar on several other articles. Let me guess, you’re a host who got a low rating and kicked off Airbnb? Talk about someone having too much free time on their hands. You’re feedback is unproductive, thus ineffective, which makes it irrelevant.
Maybe. But I don’t see a picture of a toilet seat with poo on it.