Author Archives: Jacqueline

Discrimination at Airbnb in the South of France

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Eight years ago I rented a studio in Montpellier, France for one month. I prepaid and arrived at the studio at the arranged time. I was told to return the next day. Remember that I had already paid. I stayed one day before the owner asked me to leave.

Why? Who knows?

I am an African American college professor who was planning to write for a month. Last year I rented another studio in Marseille for a month via Airbnb. The owner met me and let me in with no problem. There was an internet issue that was resolved by me purchasing my own service. Suddenly the owner wanted to come by with her boyfriend. She seemed to be uncomfortable. The boyfriend kept talking to me about Africa. I am African American. They asked me to leave although I paid for one month and had been there six days.

I was frustrated as I was at the end of the semester and super busy. I left because I don’t want to stay where I was not wanted. Airbnb kept more than 50% of my money even though I stayed for one week and paid for four. I will never use Airbnb again and the company clearly condones racism. I wanted all of my money refunded as I had to go to a hotel. I still want my money. Never again will I use Airbnb. I tell my friends and everyone I know not to use them. As a U.S. citizen, there is no way in hell that I would rent an Airbnb in the U.S. Never.

Living Next to an Illegal Airbnb in NOLA

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I live next to an illegal short-term rental Airbnb. In New Orleans you cannot have an Airbnb in a residential neighborhood unless the owner lives on the property permanently. Yet the city of New Orleans does not enforce these laws. Therefore there are many, many illegal Airbnb’s in our residential neighborhoods. I live next to one of these “party houses”. The owner lives in New York and has never lived on the property. He lost his short-term rental permit in 2019, and I have been trying to get the property closed ever since.

The pictures of the property are fake, and the reviews are fake. Attached is a real review of the property which the owner has taken down. When I contacted Airbnb they told me to speak to the owner. He has been very nasty to me. His guests throw beer cans at my house next door, broke my fence trying to climb over it to get a ball, and they have loud parties into the early morning hours.

When a real customer is disgusted with the property and does not want to stay because it is not clean, nor meets any of the description, he does not give them their money back. He has thrown guests out because he has others checking in. He has seven listings on Airbnb when there are only two properties. I live next to one and the other is in the French Quarter, which is totally illegal.

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Dirty, Disgusting Airbnb Makes Guests Second-Guess Stay

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What can I say? Something that should have been a lovely experience turned into a rather unpleasant one. We had seen an Airbnb listing and loved the photos of the fantastic views which persuaded us to book this cottage.
Upon arrival, there was the owner’s car parked on a small driveway so we were unable to park two cars on it and had to leave one of them outside in a narrow lane.

The cottage was unlocked so we were able to walk inside. We then entered and decided to have a look around.
The first thing we spotted was the unclean cooker. The door was covered in fat stains. When we opened the door and looked inside the cooker, this was even worse; it was caked in grime. The baking trays were also filthy. We cannot imagine the last time that this had been cleaned and we proceeded to clean it ourselves so that it would be okay to cook in.

There were cobwebs everywhere: on the walls, furniture and plants. A mountain of rubbish behind the sofa. Stained sheets on both beds which looked like nobody had bothered to change from the previous customers. A stack of bricks on one corner of one of the beds to replace a broken leg. A tea towel hanging on the cooker door which was black with dirt. The owner’s clothes left in the wardrobes and drawers with nowhere to hang our own clothes. Dirty dishes in the sink that had been left there. A filthy toaster. A filthy microwave. Outside in the outhouse there was the washing machine and fridge freezer, plastered in dirt.

We then called customer service at Airbnb to report the property. The girl on the end of the phone said we could stay in a hotel for the night if we wanted to leave and then find us another property the next day and that we would be contacted within two hours with an update. Two hours passed without a call (time now 10:30 PM) so we messaged customer service to be told that another member of the team would be in contact soon.

We heard nothing, so we had to stay at the property overnight. My partner didn’t sleep at all and at 5:15 AM I once again contacted customer services when we eventually were told we could have a full refund. That night we booked a hotel which we had to pay for out of our own money as it would take a few more days for the refund to appear in our account.

This whole episode has been a nightmare from beginning to end. Properties in this condition should not be allowed to feature on the Airbnb listings. The host’s excuse that there must have been a mix up with her cleaner just doesn’t cut it for us. This property had not been cleaned in months and we have the photos to prove it.

It has left us feeling disgusted and very angry, as this should have been a great experience spending time away, only for it to be ruined with state of the property and lack of contact from Airbnb. We will definitely think twice before booking again.

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Airbnb Website Misleading Regarding VAT Charges

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I made a booking for a week at a hotel in London via Airbnb. All seemed fine, until arriving at the property I was asked to pay an extra charge for VAT — a government tax. I’m really happy to pay my bills, but not happy when I thought the tariff I paid directly to Airbnb included taxes.

I thought this for two reasons. Firstly, their booking website said that the quoted amount was “including additional fees and taxes” and secondly, the Airbnb invoice said “VAT is charged at the time of payment.” Of course, I paid them, thinking my payment was all inclusive.

I’ve had at least four exchanges with the help centre. No one answered my question why their website and tax invoice were inaccurate, and basically fobbing me off. After the fourth exchange my customer manager “closed the case.” Not good enough.

Any suggestions how I can take this higher up? At best, if they fix their website so that other people don’t get caught, it’s a start. The hotel also said that this happens all the time with Airbnb clients.

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Bait and Switch at Airbnb in New Orleans

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We arrived at our Airbnb after being moved due to an AC failure at the original place we booked. We booked it six months in advance and notified the host of the change the day before arrival. The new place at motor works is nice, but has some issues that management could have resolved and didn’t.

The refrigerator never worked and it was 100 degrees everyday; the door handle on the entrance door was falling off — that was finally fixed; the glass was falling off of the upstairs tub and that was fixed; the downstairs shower leaks into the bedroom closet and the water runs under the bed. There was no hand soap in the downstairs bathrooms, so we bought our own; there were very few paper towels and no hand towels. The beds were comfortable and the AC worked well, so I gave it one star.

A working refrigerator in 100-degree weather is a must and a maintenance man that says he will be back and actually shows up again when the door handle is practically falling off would be nice as well. We paid $200/night for the place we originally were going to stay, then they moved us to a place $200/night less with a refrigerator that didn’t work and they never replaced it like they said they would.

Airbnb removed the above review as it violated their community guidelines. I was told the host disputed the relevance of my posting the distance to a homeless camp… seems like that’s something people would want to know. As of right now we were offered a $517 refund. The difference in house pricing was $1,000 alone.

One of the Worst Things that can Happen when Traveling

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Some travel bans are temporarily lifted, so I thought it would be the right time to take a chance and travel abroad. Normally I am a bit wary about using Airbnb, but since the date I was looking for was precisely during Easter, prices were pretty high as well as limited availability. So, I thought why not give this a shot? Although at the time, there really weren’t many options for these days.

I saw one that looked reasonable and I took it. What I immediately noticed that this person was already fully booked for three months and he had recently registered. I didn’t get a direct message right away, which was already a bad sign: usually hosts send a welcoming message or a thanks. As the days passed I noticed that the host rarely said anything. He was evasive, concise and slow.

Then after a week I started to worry, if this guy was fully booked then why does he only have a few reviews? The given address was also difficult to find in Google Maps and he refused to provide step by step directions. The numbers were oddly numbered and a jumbled mess. You would assume 58 comes after 57, but not in this area. Then I arrived at the exact time at the exact door, but the neighbourhood seemed very out of place and the antithesis of something that resembles U.K. architecture, reminding me more of a commie block in the former Soviet Union. It was full of Slavic immigrants and the place looked so poor that the price I paid was probably way more than the weekly rent, I am not exaggerating.

I checked the address, but it didn’t have a name tag, a buzzer and it looked more like a shed than an apartment. When no one answered the door, not only did I realize I’ve been had, but I didn’t want to stay here even if it was a real listing. I know Edinburgh quite well, only you have to keep in mind it was Easter Sunday and most hotels had no availability. Hotels that had any availability were not in the position to quote any rates they wanted. Even one that I am a regular guest with told me they were full, on which they offered me to go around to one a few streets back that had only one left for $180, saying “you want it or not?”

This is a common trick they will always play, because you are desperate and will make quick decisions. So what was left to do than to stay in the Edinburgh streets, with all your luggage, all the shops shut and without any tap water? Sit and wait as the hours pass slowly…. Happy Easter.

Fortunately it was a very great trip in Scotland with splendid stays at several great hotels — only this particular Airbnb booking was a hiccup. When I finally returned home, I found it strange that the host never emailed me. He never tried to call me either, nor were there any new messages in the chat box. No “where were you”s, or “were you alright”s.

When I asked for a refund he immediately responded and blamed me for everything. He apparently left work early and spent fuel to drive home to answer the door. Which to me, gives it all away because at first he refused to say anything, but now that I am far away at home he can after all respond within ten minutes and very detailed? Typical.

This also may seem like I went to the wrong address, but I can assure you that I’ve asked around several times where it was, and people said “Oh, that is over there.” There can be only one, and it was the address he claimed it was. It doesn’t matter if I get my money back from Airbnb or by credit card chargeback; what is important to me is that you can get scammed at any time. It will not be safe even if you look before you leap. Hosts can always claim that you didn’t show up and provide a fake address, that way they can always get away with it and Airbnb will probably side with them.

Who is going to compensate me for the lonely night in the streets without a toilet and water? Needless to say I won’t do this ever again. Have you ever heard of a hotel canceling your reservation for no reason? Have you ever heard of any hotel not opening the doors or not existing at all when you arrive?

Fraudulent Charges without Record of Receipt

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Recently I was charged $2,800 by Airbnb: $1,800 for a booking and then two “mysterious” charges of $499 each which were not linked with a booking on their platform and for which I did not receive a record of receipt or any record of the charges on their platform whatsoever. Airbnb has thus far refused to provide a record or receipt of these charges. I received a refund for the charges, but was not provided any information on their basis or cause of the charges, and the charges were somehow linked with a mysterious login from California into my account. It would have been impossible to make these charges through an external login and so it must be assumed that these charges, two charges of $499 each, were made internally without cause through their payment processor.

Airbnb also erases records of logins from the consumer-facing portal once it is discovered that the login is fraudulent, thus erasing your ability to log the history of such. So I have no ability to show that the charges were associated with a separate login to my account, but I could honestly just provide this other information as well as the arbitrary nature of the booking (a booking for December made in May, seven months out). I’m considering suing Airbnb for breach of fiduciary duty.

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Host and Airbnb Failed to Resolve a Nightmare

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My family and I were traveling to New York for my graduation from NYU. We arrived to the Airbnb around midnight and found the room unlocked and dirty. The sheets on the beds looked slept in. They were stained with white and there was a white powder on the table as well (my six-year-old nephew was joining me the next morning and god knows what would’ve happened if he tried to taste it) The floor was unswept. There were hair balls everywhere and counters were not clean. The bathroom had been used with used towels hanging. It was entirely unacceptable.

We were tired from flying coast to coast and did not expect to arrive to a mess. I tried to contact the doorman then they told me to speak to the host. I asked the host for a solution. She offered new (not washed) sheets that we would put on the beds ourselves. I asked for a refund and she essentially said we had no choice but to stay there because places nearby were booked. I reached out to Airbnb who had me take photos and explain what had happened.

After investigating, the Airbnb support representative told me that the host told him that I had other guests that left the room in that condition when I had literally just arrived. I was appalled. My family and I immediately tried to find places to no avail. I spoke with the Airbnb representative a few times and was ready to leave but my family and I had nowhere to go and we slept on the fitted sheets of the bed. That night I was promised a refund of the nights I would not be spending there and compensation on a hotel I ended up booking.

The next day came and the Airbnb representative told me I could only get a refund for the rest of the nights and no compensation for the hotel I ended up booking, which cost me over two times more than for what I booked the Airbnb. They also tried to force my hand in authorizing a solution by saying I had 30 minutes to an hour to accept a partial refund. I tried to escalate the issue to a supervisor for which they told me I would have to wait a business day.

Airbnb hasn’t tried to assist and compensate for an experience that was unforeseen and unplanned. I came to celebrate an achievement with my family and did not expect to have to worry for my family and my safety. This entire experience cost my family sleep and plans I had with them. Two days later I am still waiting for a resolution.

Beware of Sonder Properties on Airbnb

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More than a month ago I booked accommodations for my wife and her cousin in San Diego at a property owned by a group called Sonder (seems they own a lot of properties on AirBnb). About a month before the stay, I changed from my originally booked location called ‘The Baker’ to one called ‘The Leo’. This change was confirmed by Airbnb. The second property had room for two and a kitchen.

As the check-in date approached, I was concerned as I had not received an email with building and room codes. I contacted the host through Airbnb’s message center. They said the emails were going to an email other than my account email (but would not specify which: red flag #1), so they resent them. I noticed right away that the message referred to ‘The Baker’ property, not the revised property.

I contacted them again. The first agent ended the call as soon as I explained the situation (red flag #2). I called back and was told that no, the information was correct, and that although it said ‘The Baker’ on the message, the address and entry codes were for ‘The Leo’. I even messaged again and asked them to confirm again because my wife and her cousin were arriving at 11:30 PM and I did not want them to have nowhere to go.

Turns out that they outright lied. The property was still ‘The Baker’ and ‘The Leo’ was not even available as it was being renovated (red flag #3). Of course after over seven hours on the phone trying to figure this out, it is not even possible to find a room at a similar rate in San Diego on such short notice.
Sonder won’t even respond to my comment to which they lied outright.

Airbnb is working on a ‘solution’, but their solution is: no refund (the host won’t agree) and Airbnb protects them. The host will provide a substitute — yes, one that has horrible reviews and is located directly above a loud bar (property called ‘The Marin’) — but don’t worry, they will provide ear plugs and a white noise generator so you can sort of sleep. I am cancelling my Airbnb account as of today.