I booked my room on Airbnb. the link of the host is the following:https://www.airbnb.it/users/show/29036470 The hosts Ana Y Oscar stole my money. I arrived in the room that looked 10 years older than in the picture. Anyway was ok. The problem was that the room was on a nightclub! So I could not sleep. I had to walk out the apartment at 2:30 in the morning and get another room and of course pay again. The hosts were unfriendly and pieces of sh… They didn’t give me the money back. Furthermore, given that I cancelled the second night, airbnb doesn’t allow me to write my negative review on the website. Don’t go to Ana y Oscat, they are thieves!
Author Archives: Andrea Conti
FRAUD WARNING! Airbnb site may not be secure!
On Friday, 2/19/16, I tried to make a reservation on airbnb with Valorie in Santa Clara for a room. For some reason in making the reservation, I could not use my paypal account. I closed out of airbnb to try to investigate what was going on in paypal and everything was okay. There should have been no reason why my transaction would not have gone through. On Friday, the same day, I got a text from airbnb security with a 4 digit pin code to complete the transaction. I resumed trying to make the reservations for the room, and attempted to use paypal again, without success. Getting a little bit desperate to get this reservation completed, I entered my chase credit card number and continued trying to make the reservation, but I still needed to complete more information. The website asked for permission for me to verify myself and they wanted the following: Your e-mail account, access to your e-mail contacts(!!), and a picture of your drivers license, which I took a picture of and uploaded to the airbnb website. For me, to get an airbnb reservation for $50 a night, it was not worth revealing so much personal information including a picture ID which i did submit. When it requested my facebook, link’d in, e-mail and access to my e-mail contacts, I had to log out. I then logged back in and deleted my account. I will attempt now to contact technical support on airbnb’s www/https:// website. It is not secure!
UPDATE:
Two days later, on Sunday, February 21st, I got a chase credit card fraud alert with 6 new charges amounting to more than $879.00!! It seems obvious that these events are related! I had to cancel my chase card immediately.
Be warned your information may not be secure when using the Airbnb website!!
Guests overflow bathroom with poo water
I had some really nice guests staying in my downstairs room and everything was completely fine until I went to do the post stay cleaning and found that my guests had used the toilet brush to clean up their poo and didn’t wash it. The brush holder was filled with poo liquid! I noticed earlier that they took out the bathroom mat before they left and I asked them curiously why it was there. They gave me a nervous laughter and now I know why. Not a big deal. I’m not poo phobic or anything. Just wish they told me. I’m sure it was already embarrassing for them.
First Airbnb Experience – WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!
I wanted to book a place to stay with few of our friends.
1. We booked the first place: We let all our friends know and planned everything, then the host contacted me asking for more money! I had already invited all of my friends and had sent them pics of the place so reluctantly I agreed to pay more!
2. The day after, the host told me that she would be home with her daughter (staying in the same place)!! So to clarify, I had paid twice the price of a 5star hotel to spend the weekend with her and her daughter rather than having the place alone with my friends like we thought —–> AWESOME
3. I cancelled that booking (at this point I still didn’t know that airbnb had already charged me the service fee and would not refund that)
4. I booked a new airbnb place and I sent a message to the owner and he confirmed. I paid for the booking. One hour later, he told me that I have only paid for 1 person and asked me for more money. I had paid $500 and apparently it was only for 1 person! I wanted to cancel the booking BUT I WAS ONLY GETTING BACK $50 OF THE CLEANING FEES OUT OF $500 + lots of stress as I already had invited everyone to fukkn Blue Mountains!!! What am I going to do??? I had to contact Airbnb to cancel, but there’s no number listed. After 20 minutes of searching I found a phone number —> Called >>>> 30 minutes wait … My case was sent to a “case manager”.
So after wasting 3 hours, lots of stress, and $1200 of my money ON THE AIR (still not refunded), I have absolutely nothing to show for it! I have invited all of my friends to the Blue Mountains and I’ve sent them the pics and address of the place, BUT I HAVE NO ACTUAL BOOKINGS and I wasted all this time and effort. NOW IT’S TIME TO BEG TO RECEIVE MY MONEY BACK!!
A Word of Caution to Airbnb Guests
Just as a caution, when using an airbnb property, you never know how many people “out there” have keys and access to the place where you are staying. I usually opt for the entire property, and have tended to be a fan of airbnb, but I think that is going to change. In my last two rentals, people have come in unannounced, not a pleasant experience. One person came to get the host’s mail and another had his property for sale – and didn’t inform me – and a real estate agent came unannounced and without my permission. My family and I also needed to depart early from a property because it turned out to be an unsafe neighborhood. When we requested a refund, our hosts damaged their own property and photographed it, and it was our word against theirs. I had never experienced anything like that. In fairness to airbnb they gave us a $100 credit. It just seems like there are a lot of risks associated with airbnb, in principle it should work well, but from now in I will look at alternatives. When it works well, it is a great alternative to hotels but that is not always the case.
Sexually Harassed by Host, Shameful Airbnb Response!!
I was sexually harassed and assaulted by a host I found on airbnb. After the main incident, I escaped to my room, but I couldn’t immediately leave the house because it was late at night and I had nowhere to go at that time, so I spent a terrifying night wondering if he would try to assault me again. Airbnb’s response was so confused and shambolic that the story gets quite long, I have written a blog post here to explain in full: becauseiwishtoforget.blogspot.com/2016/02/why-airbnb-is-both-unsafe-and-dishonest.html But the key points are: – Throughout the whole process Airbnb would not keep me informed of what actions they were taking, and when they did, they lied about it! Airbnb twice removed the profile, so that I thought the matter was dealt with, but then they restored it again without informing me (the second time, after they had promised in writing that it had been removed) – Because it was restored this second time without my knowledge, at least 2 other women stayed there without any warning that I had reported this man for sexual harassment! – Airbnb only deleted it eventually more than 2 months after the incident, and only then because I kept contacting them to insist they take action. This prolonged my trauma unnecessarily. – Either Airbnb has no protocol for dealing with these incidents, or their staff are wholly unaware of them. Their whole response was a mess of contradictions. I hope now that the profile has been deleted permanently, but since they promised that and lied about it before, I can’t exactly rely on it. The host’s name is Branko Kozakejevic, the flat is in Belgrade. This man more than twice my age tried to get me to drink more than I wanted and made forceful sexual advances to me while I was a guest in his house. Airbnb didn’t think this was grounds to remove him from their site.
AIRBNB HOST DOUBLES PRICE AFTER BOOKING – NO PENALTY!
My husband and I are going to be in Brazil for Christmas and New Years 2016. We found a great apartment minutes from the beach for $200/night, so I booked 2 nights for New Years eve and the day after. It took a while to get through the booking process as I had to take a photograph of both sides of my driver’s license to prove my identity, but I finally made it through the process. The reservation was accepted and my credit card was charged.
5 days later, the host sent me the following email: “Hi Chris, thank you for your reservation and your preference. I am so sorry about the price i haven’t seen the price, it is wrong. In the new years eve it will be $250 daily for 15 nights minimum or i can make for you $400 daily for this 2 nights that you want . what do you think?” So the host claims that she made a mistake in pricing, tries to double the price, or asks me to extend my day from 2 days to 15 days for a price per day 25% higher. Right, that sounds like a good deal. AirBnB’s online documentation for what to do if the host asks for more money (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/251/what-if-a-host-asks-for-more-money) says: “If a host asks you for more money than what you paid on the site and the extra charge wasn’t stated in the listing or in the message thread, contact us and we’ll contact your host directly.” So I responded politely to the host’s email: “Hi Paula, I received your message. According to AirBnB’s documentation, https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/251/what-if-a-host-asks-for-more-money, in this circumstance they recommend that I contact them directly about such a request. I have just sent AirBnB customer service an email describing your request. I expect you will be hearing from them shortly.”
I expected that AirBnB would require the host to honor the contract made for this location. I was shocked when AirBnB replied: “Hi Chris This is Luka from Airbnb again. I spoke to your host and she decided to cancel your reservation. I am really sorry about that. You can either request your full refund or having the amount you paid transferred to another host. Please check the email you received from us with the subject line: “Reservation Canceled at Luxury 2 bd steps…” I hope you will find a nice listing for the dates you need. Please contact us if you need any help. Warmest regards, Luka” Ok, the host cancelled, and I got an apology and “warmest regards”. How politely disappointing. If I rebooked at a different location, they would give me a small credit. Or I could get a full refund. Better than zero, but what happened to the greedy host that cancelled?
According to AirBnB’s documentation (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work), if a host cancels without extenuating circumstances, they suffer penalties. In particular: “Your calendar will stay blocked and you won’t be able to accept another reservation for the same dates of the canceled reservation” Furthermore, “An automated review will be posted to your listing’s profile indicating that you canceled one of your reservations. These reviews can’t be removed, but you can always write a public response to clarify why you needed to cancel.” As to “extenuating circumstances”, when you click on the link, it doesn’t offer any more information. In fact, the link takes you back to the “how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work”. Reading more of the fine print on the page, AirBnB gives hosts that allow for instant booking three (3) get-out-of-penalty chances “if they have concerns about a guest’s behavior.” This listing allowed instant booking. However it goes on to say “Calendar inaccuracy, confusion about pricing or availability, and extenuating circumstances are not covered by this policy”. If the host was confused about pricing, as her email clearly indicates, then the host should not be immune to the cancellation penalty.
However, I went on the AirBnB website for that listing and saw that the property (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9772188) was available for the dates that I had booked, been accepted and been summarily cancelled 5 days later, not for $400/night, but for $250/night. The minimum stay is still 2 days, not 15 days. Furthermore, there was no review stating that a reservation had been cancelled. Clearly the host was trying to scam me by doubling the price, or requiring me to stay for more than 2 weeks. And yet apparently there’s no penalty to the host. But the worst is that AirBnB demonstrably does not live up to their published terms of service.
What are the consequences to AirBnB for a breach of their stated terms of service?
Airbnb Refused to Refund Fees Despite Obvious Mistake!
BEWARE OF AIRBNB!!
This is a warning and a true story of what happened to me when I rented a house using the Airbnb service.
I had a project in the USA and I rented a house using Airbnb. I found a nice 2 year old 2 bed room + garage house with a reasonable price of 105€/night. I made the deal with the house owner using Airbnb from August to December, 2015. In November I found out that my project would last longer than the original move out date in December. I agreed with the house owner that I would stay at the house until January 26th, 2016. Airbnb sent me an offer stating that I could continue renting the house until January 26, 2016 at the same price of 105€/night. I accepted the offer and everything was OK. Middle of January I found out that my project would not be finished earlier than February 8th, 2016. I ask the house owner if it was possible for me to stay at the house until February 8th, 2016. The house owner said that it was OK and Airbnb sent me a new offer for the additional 13 days of renting. I was busy with my project and also very stupid and accepted the offer without checking the offer carefully. Afterwards I noticed that the rental price had risen from 105€ to 137€. It was OK for me that the rental price increased for the last 13 days, but it is not OK that the rental price ALSO increased for the PAST 165 days from August 8th 2015 to January 26th 2016 considering I had already paid! I sent a message to the house owner to see if it was possible to correct that mistake. The house owner said that Airbnb refused to correct the mistake. I called Airbnb and the guy on the phone said that according the Airbnb policy, if the customer accepts the price it cannot be corrected by airbnb anymore. The Airbnb agent asked me to contact the house owner to ask if I could get money back. Why didn’t Airbnb want to help a customer with this kind of obvious problem? Instead they asked me to directly contact to the house owner… is it because Airbnb wanted to keep their additional fees? I think so! I talked with the house owner and he agreed that I had paid $5,940 USD too much and he understood why I would like to get my money back. The house owner said that Airbnb had already taken their fee, so he could only return $4,339 USD! I made the deal with house owner and received the $4,339 USD refund for the mistake, but I still had to pay $1,601 USD extra because Airbnb would not refund their fees!
Don’t be as stupid as I was and never accept any Airbnb offer before you have read it very carefully. My personal advice is to never ever use Airbnb’s services because the company policy is not to correct an obvious mistake if it means giving up any of their booking fees! Please share this warning with all of your friends so nobody else will have the same problem I had.
Airbnb Hosts Destroying Bali for Cheap Profits
Charming Bali Home, Wifi RiceFields Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. Google it, or go through the Airbnb website to find it. The accommodation is so so, but apart from the stench of pigs, not too bad for the money. What is really terrible about this listing is the fact that the “hosts”: Jacques and Anita Goudreault are not the real hosts at all, but merely brokers (“calo”) who take advantage of local people, who are often computer illiterate and don’t speak foreign languages well. These leeches spend most of their time and efforts looking for the next hosts, latch on and suck free money for doing nothing. They claim to be Jesus and will tell you that the world is better off, thanks to them, but they have very little regard for their fellow man and certainly don’t care about the long term consequences for a rapidly choking Bali, once a paradise, but fast becoming a heavily polluted open sewer, which fails to connect to the ocean, thanks to many tons of plastic. Criticize them and you will unleash Jacques fury, a clear sign that he knows he’s in the wrong. His playboy lifestyle is heavily supported by sucking out naive and often simple, hard working Balinese. Find the accommodation yourself and deal direct with the owner(s). Jacques and Anita Goudreault “host” many listings… Find their name linked to a property, then avoid it. Or, like mentioned above: Find the property and book it direct from the owner. Both sides will be much better off! Airbnb has no control over the rotting and contributes to the new colonial mentality of some scrupulous ex-pats who couldn’t make it in their own country….. By-pass them and make a difference.
AIRBNB CLOSED ACCOUNT -CANCELLED $15000 IN RESERVATIONS
A warning to all hosts: Airbnb can and WILL close your account (including all upcoming reservations you may have pending) without warning and without explanation or compensation to you or your guests.
I have been a host on Airbnb for almost 4 years and in that time have bought some small rental units in a resort town to rent solely on Airbnb as up until now it was the best platform and generated the most bookings. A few days ago I tried to log into my account to find that it had been deactivated for no apparent reason. Shortly after, I received an email with the usual airbnb account termination paragraph stating that I had violated some term of theirs and a link to the TOA page which is 5 pages of rules long. I have only had good reviews and had hosted 300+ guests at my units, so there was no good reason I could think of why they would have done this to me. The least they can do in the situation is to offer you a reason so you can understand, and if necessary, defend your position. If that weren’t bad enough, Airbnb also went ahead and cancelled $15,000 of upcoming reservations with no warning. I had some of the booked guests frantically call and email me as Airbnb cancelling on them was screwing them out of their vacation as the town was sold out of hotels and other vacation rentals and their trip was just a few days away. I had to explain how I had nothing to do with this and express my apologies and told them to contact Airbnb and ask them to reinstate the booking. They said they tried and that Airbnb just gave them the run around and showed no sympathy for their situation, even though they (Airbnb) were the ones who caused it. We ended up working out something on the side otherwise their vacation including flights etc would have had to be cancelled. Airbnb did however let the current guests who were already in my units at the time of them closing my account stay but all of a sudden I could not communicate with the people occupying my property nor could they get in touch with me as my account was now closed. I complained to Airbnb saying by doing this it must be a violation of their own terms as denying communication to my guests and vice versa is not only dangerous but it is extremely poor customer service on their part. After 4 days I finally got a hold of the case manager assigned to my case and he apologized and said they screwed up and the situation was not handled correctly but they still were choosing to terminate my account anyway.