Before I begin, let me say that I am staying in a very nice Airbnb right now as I just moved to Tampa. Last weekend I looked and saw a reasonable studio apartment in Tampa that was less than I am paying now for a room in a residence. I put down $1,431. Later that day I drove to the part of town where the apartment is – it is located in a ghetto with all kinds of frightening people around. I wouldn’t feel safe in that area. I cancelled the reservation the same day; it was booked more than ten days in advance. I only received $682 back. After contacting the call center and being very angry I got another $200 refund. I will not stand for Airbnb taking $549 of my money. I intend to contact the CEO of the company or maybe go on the Tampa news. I will not take this lying down.
I signed up for four days in Palm Springs. The listing said the air conditioning was set at 82 degrees, the room averaged 70-79 degrees, and that if we wanted it cooler, she would charge more. When we got there, it was 88 degrees outside, and hotter inside the room, which did not have air conditioning, only a fan that moved the air around in the room, but did not bring in cooler air. She said the temperature was supposed to drop to 84 by midnight! She told us that if we wanted arctic temperature, we would have to go somewhere else. So, after travelling all day, being hot and tired, we were told to find another place to stay!
She has refused to refund any of our money.
I contacted AirBnB, and their reply was, “Your host has mentioned in her House Rules that there is a set air system and has provided the associated information about this. We always recommend to hosts that any information they wish to give to the guests, should provide in the House Rules in order to help the guests with their reservation. In this case you were aware of that and your host did not violated our Hospitality Standard, For this reason, it is up to her decide if accept or not your request refund. ”
In other words, “Scrwe you”
I am in the same situation. After booking and receiving the address, we drove by the property which was a complete mess on the exterior, a old worn out camper parked in the front yard (which they rent to random people and didn’t disclose). We sent the host a message to request a tour of the inside to ensure it was going to work for us. We had concerns about the interior and if the pictures were current on the posting based upon what the exterior looked like. The host was rude and told us she wasn’t required to show us the interior so we cancelled based upon advice from Airbnb staff. Well we only received $1400 of the $2700 we paid! We opened a case in the Resolution Center and Airbnb said that they sent the host a message to cancel, but couldn’t make any promises on a full refund. We are livid! I intend to escalate this to the fullest, so let me know if you make any progress. I will do the same.
You must do a research about the neighbourhood before booking with any service, there are rough places in any city.
What was the cancellation policy? Airbnb don’t just take money, the hosts set up their own cancellation policy.
Dispute the payment with your credit card or Paypal, whichever way you paid. You get 60 days to file a dispute in which they have to respond to, otherwise you automatically receive a refund. It’s amazing to me how many people out here don’t seem to know their options to dispute charges for services not performed or delivered.