We rented our beautiful condo for 30 days through Airbnb and at the end of the rental our condo smelled so badly with a rotten pungent odor that we had to spend over three times as much to clean and deodorize the upholstery, curtains, mattresses and pillows. Airbnb was absolutely useless in the resolution and determined that we could not prove that the odor wasn’t there before the renters arrived. Even though we could produce a written affidavit from the cleaning service we use and proof of the cleaning regiment and the many good comments on VRBO and Airbnb about the cleanliness of our property and the condition we keep it. It doesn’t matter, they just did not care. It is quite obvious that they only care about their fee and they are not there to support hosts. I wish I would have done more research before using this unfair operation. We will stick to VRBO from now on and once our last renter is gone from Airbnb will no longer use them and warn everyone we can to avoid them.
Author Archives: Jack and Karen
Foreign Guest from Hell -Host almost lost apartment
I live over seas and rent out my property in the states. I needed to rent it out quick before I left the country this time around and someone responded to my ad that I had placed for a sublet. Long story short, I said let’s do it through airBNB since you are a foreign national and won’t be able to do a back ground check here with my Landlord. She wasn’t able to pay the amount airBNB wanted to charge with all fees and such so I thought it would be ok to have her pay me monthly instead of through airBNB. This guest ended up getting me nearly evicted from my apartment. She literally called 5 times a day to complain about little things, and then I get emails from the maintenance man that the guest slammed the door and yelled at him. Come to find out it’s someone else babysitting her child who speaks no English. I get an email after the guest had been there a month about how she needed to leave….the cops had been called out to my specific apartment 5 times and there were over 20 noise complaints and safety violations from her on my apartment. When I called airBNB to have her kicked out they got her out and then terminated my account because they said I violated the terms of service. What a great way to help someone out with the guest from hell. I make one mistake trying to help out a supposed nice woman and her child and you permanently ban me from the site. AirBNB is an awful company and the customer relations team is even worse. They won’t talk to you but send you emails at their convenience and won’t reply to your questions in those emails.
Securty deposit means NOTHING + Resolution Center Lies
I had an issue with the heaters/wall in my flat during a guest’s Airbnb booking…
On jan 15, i received a message from Lily : Add file 1 Then i sent everything, the before/after photos, invoice, the phone numbers of the previous Airbnb customers just before the arrival of guest who made the trouble with the heaters. On January 25, i received this message : Lily is out of the office so I (Aidan) will be your case manager moving forward. He told me that my invoice is not accepted even if it’s was same work needed to be done by the company because when i bought the apartment the heaters was not fixed correctly on the wall. Anyway, i understood the point as the invoice was dated two months earlier. Normally, Aidan should have told me to send an estimates as mentioned before in Lyli’s message and Airbnb terms. It was the only missing piece to proceed the checking of the case… What’s coming next is Aidan responsibility and lies. In few words, he told me to pay for the work myself then send the invoice and proof of the payment of the company. All of this before the case manager’s decision! Securty deposit means NOTHING then ? This is unbelievable, if i did the work myself it means all apartment owners using Airbnb doesn’t have any protection from the deposit. Can you imagine ? If something happen in the apartment, the owner should pay for everything himself (and of course resolve it in less than 72 hours!). Only after that action the case manager examined the case and decide what to do with the deposit. This is totally crazy… Add files 2 and 3 and 4.
On jan 26, Aidan clearly refused the estimate that i was waiting for. It was the only missing piece, remember this is important.
On feb 3 I decided to send an email in French (via https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us) about our discussion with Aiden that i found really weird as he did not accept the estimates.
On feb 4, I got a call from a french representative (Oceane B). I told her about the invoice/payment receipt before the case decision. She confirmed me that i don’t need to pay anything before Airbnb leave his decision and she is totally right and following the terms. Then she said she wasn’t sure if she could accept my new estimate because it was already few days after Aidan last message with his 72H thing. Then she asked to another person in the office, probably a case manager… someone responsible for sure. I was waiting for few minutes on the line. She finally got the answer to me : “That’s ok We’ll wait for your estimate, please send it as soon as possible”. I also receive a email as proof : Add this file : https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2mw4dxf74m9g2q/Screenshot2016-02-0521.54.38.png?dl=0 “N’hésitez pas à nous envoyer le devis dès que vous le recevez.” = “Feel free to send us an estimate as soon as you receive it”. So i was finally relaxed, my case will finally be examined, i just need to send the estimate as soon as i receive it from the company. Add this file : https://www.dropbox.com/s/73w5h007v0z3r1t/Photo05-02-2016135401.png?dl=0 Later on, Aidan told me that he and Oceane are in the same office in Berlin, and he spoke to Oceane in person regarding my phone call.
On feb 5 (the day after), I received : Add file 5 I was shocked, Even more shocked as i get notified the day before by email that Airbnb will wait for the estimates. Wait a minute, did you remember he refused the new estimate i was waiting for on jan 26 ? Now he says i didn’t follow up providing any receipts or estimates. With the issue in my apartment, i have now another issue coming from the guy at the Resolution Center. – Asking the owner to pay for the work before Airbnb deposit decision is totally forbidden, i can complain not only in courts but also in the media and blog by sharing the previous proofs. – Not accepting the estimates and later saying i didn’t follow the terms is a lie. – No apologies. Please spread the news around you.
Even Airbnb SUPERHOSTS are treated like tools!
Over the past 2 years of hosting. We’ve had our share of horror stories. Each time, Airbnb ONLY cares about their service fees. As long as they can keep that, they let the guests do whatever they want and will even cancel a guest with a full refund when the guest had no proof that anything was wrong. We hosted over 500 people in our units and are Superhosts, but Airbnb will take the word of guests with no reviews over ours. If there are any damages, good luck getting your deposit back! Oh, and your commitment rate goes down when THEY cancel a guest for no good reason, so you have to call and email them over the next few weeks to get them to fix it and hopefully keep your Superhost stats.
This is only 1 example of how they treat you as just a money-making tool, they have no regard for honesty or integrity: Recently, the guests asked for a refund AFTER their stay, claiming that they had only stayed there for a portion of the time, since their plans changed. They have no way of proving this and the situation really is not our responsibility. We told them no, and afterwards they apparently called Airbnb and they received a 50% refund just like that. We don’t know what they told Airbnb, but Airbnb didn’t even bother to contact us before making a decision. Oh, and the guest was still allowed to write a review after this ordeal! Because we denied the refund in the first place, they decided to get back at us and slander us with a bunch of false claims in the review. I called Airbnb and told them that there clearly was no indication of our unit being in bad condition and that it was apparent the only time things got ugly was after we denied the refund. Airbnb said they value people’s opinions and that the great thing about this community is that the reviews are not censored. I just really wanted to spill all kinds of profanities when I heard that. The thing is, I had called them before responding to the guests asking for Airbnb’s advice. I said that I was worried about bad reviews so I feel pressured to give in to demands. The rep ASSURED me that Airbnb will not allow unfair reviews. That if there is reason to believe the bad review was only because we denied the refund and if the message thread had no indication of any problems stated in the review, they would remove it. Low and behold, now that the guest actually went out to write a false review, they did NOTHING. I would understand if the guest wrote they were angry because they wanted a discount, but they wrote things like the place was dirty and in a bad location and did not look like the photos and gave 1 star reviews! How can this be true when we have over 500 reviews and 5 stars on all units?! Also, the guest had told us they were having a great time all throughout the stay!! Still Airbnb did not help.
Similar situations have happened more than a handful of times now. Where Airbnb would give us lip service when we asked for advice and assure we will get reviews removed if ____ and ___ happened or we will get our deposit back if _____ and ____ happened. When shit actually goes down, they do absolutely NOTHING for us. What is the point of us paying these service fees when no services are provided when we need them! I understand if they claim this is just an advertising fee for us to expose our units, however, then why do they CONTROL all the payments and deposits. Those people who actually got their host guarantee/damage deposits on social media or the news are just their publicity ploys! They will only help when they know that it could damage their reputation, I’ve never heard of any fellow host friends who was able to get any compensation. Many have similar stories to mine. In sum: THEY ARE ALL TALK AND NO WALK. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT GETTING THEIR SERVICE FEES. THEY OUTRIGHT LIE TO THEIR HOSTS. THEY HIDE BEHIND THE PRETENSE OF A SHARING ECONOMY WHEN THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN BLOOD SUCKING CORPORATIONS WHO EXPLOIT OTHERS FOR PROFIT. When will something better come along so that we honest hosts, who are just trying to make some side money, can actually choose to host for a company that actually provides the services that they advertise?!
Airbnb Stole My Money After I Had to Evict Tenants
We had to evict tenants that were destroying my home by calling the police. Airbnb penalized me and tried to withhold rental income off my next transaction. This is called a right of offset. I checked all of my documents and nowhere was this discussed. I cancelled my account and would never do business again with this unethical and illegal company.
Guest attacked by Host, Airbnb does nothing!
I sensed something strange when I arrived. The hostess was a middle aged Italian woman called Floriana. She seemed nice at first, but immediately told me she has a cat that is very unfriendly and attacks people, so I need to shut the door wherever I go. Also, her son is staying there. None of these were mentioned in the airbnb description. Though I felt strange, I thought I could live with that. So I continued to smile brightly to her and tried to be nice to her. At the first breakfast the following morning, she came into the kitchen, saw I was having coffee and tea in the same time. She told me I cannot have tea or coffee anytime after breakfast. Because only breakfast is included. Then she screamed at the little bit of water I just spilled on the table, not knowing how to work the kettle. She screamed to me with a very loud voice,”ah!!! Look at this! What you have done! You have to clean everything you use, ok?!” So I said I’m sorry, cleaned everything immediately. She then said “You are not allowed to be in the kitchen after 10:30am, because I have to cook for my son. You can only stay in the kitchen from 8am-10:30am, you understand?” Even though none of this was mentioned at the listing, and I would have never booked the stay if there were such restrictions, as a long term practitioner of Byron Katie’s Love and Peace belief and the philosophy of Taoism, I said to myself, it was all just me, in my own head, that I am projecting this. She is a nice person and I don’t need to pick a fight with her to ruin my stay. And so, I didn’t have more tea or coffee after breakfast, and didn’t set my foot into the kitchen after 10:30 am for the rest of my stay there.
Then on the day of my departure, my flight was at 3:30pm and I planned to leave the apt. at 1:30pm. Since she asked me about my arrival time, but never the departure time, I assumed it was quite flexible. I walked out of the apt. around 11:30, sitting at a cafe quite far from the apt. I texted her just to inform her and ask her if it’s OK that I check out at 1:30pm? She said “no, the check out time is at 11.” I wrote back, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see that earlier and normally, all the hosts on airbnb have asked me before I leave to arrange the departure.” She wrote, “It’s written on the side of your bed. How could you have not seen it? You need to come back and get your luggage.” I said, “OK, I’m sorry I didn’t see it. I’ll need 20 minutes to come back and pack my luggage. Or…I’ve already packed my luggage, you can take it out of my room and leave it in the living room. Please let me know what you prefer to do.” She wrote back. “I will move your luggage.”
When I went back, she immediately fired at me, screaming at me hysterically. Calling me blind, I don’t have eyes, i don’t say thank you, (which is really not true. I feel I’ve said the most thank you and I’m sorry in my life in these three days, also a few of them recorded on my sms exchanges with her.) She called me a bad person, and many ugly names, and did not seem to want to stop after more than 10 minutes of screaming at me. Meanwhile, her grownup son was at the apt., which added more to my fear. At first, I was stunned by the violence and anger coming from this woman, then I thought about an earlier news on NYTimes about an Airbnb user raped by his host. I realised how helpless I was in that situation. Being in a foreign country without speaking the language. Even if she doesn’t physically attack me, though it felt she could any moment, she could have called the police and accused me of some crime. And I would have no way to defend myself in a place most people didn’t speak English at all. Being a 5’3 tall, rather petite Asian-American woman, I never felt unsafe traveling the world. It is what my professional and life requires, and I was proud I didn’t have problems with it. But this time, for the first time, I was seriously scared. The best I could do was to take some short videos of her screaming at me. I think every time I raised my phone, she saw it and would quiet down a bit, walk away. You can view one of the videos here https://www.facebook.com/jenny.q.chai/posts/573688777541. As soon as I put down my phone, she would come back and scream at me again. This went on for a few times for another while. At some point, I told her I have to use the bathroom before going on the long ride to the airport. She said “no, this is not your time anymore. You cannot use my bathroom.” I said, “I can’t even use your bathroom? I really need to go!” She then screamed to me with this abusive attitude, “say ‘thank you!’” I was too afraid that time, thought the best way would be to comply to her craziness. So I said “thank you.” She seemed to be pleased a little, so I used the bathroom. As soon as I came out of the bathroom, she started firing at me again. At a certain point she went into the kitchen, I thought I saw her coming out from there grabbing something in her hands. I grabbed my things and ran out of her apt.as fast as I could I got on a cab and was still worried that she could call the police to accuse me or harm me somehow. I called the Emergency help line of Airbnb on the cab. Broke down to tears as I was describing the situation to them. I told the representative I was so traumatised. The person was very nice. Said he will wait for me to upload my videos, meanwhile, he’ll cut the contact from that host, because for me, to hear or receive anything more from this person would add more to the trauma. Even though I appreciated the empathy I received from Airbnb, I now feel, what can they really do if terrible things happened to me in that apartment in Bari, Italy? If I were in U.S. or even China, where I speak the language, I could have called the police immediately. I would also like to take legal action to the abusiveness this person demonstrated on me. But in a foreign country, without speaking the language, and Airbnb being the official party, who operates all the way on the east coast in the U.S. while real trauma was happening to me, what could they have done?
Now Airbnb does nothing after even receiving the video.
Hosts were scam artists and AirBnB did nothing to help!
I hosted my boyfriend’s birthday at an AirBnB cabin in a ski town in California. As all 15 of my guests were driving several hours up to the cabin we were contacted and told that our booked cabin was flooded. Airbnb helped us find another cabin large enough to hold all 15 guests, however the new cabin cost additional $600. There was also a huge increase in cleaning fees. We had a lot of trouble with parking our cars since we were told we could park four cars and there was no parking due to a snow-covered driveway which the host had not cleared of snow. In the end, we went home frustrated but we were not too upset about the overall experience. However, several days later after I wrote a review recording that there was nowhere to park at the cabin, the host accused us of breaking a rod iron stove grate. They told us it would be $245 to replace it. I let my case manager through Airbnb know that we did not break the grate. But because I did not have pictures of the grate, Airbnb charged me the money through my deposit. After this happened I went through the reviews on yelp about the cabins rental company and discovered 10 other accusations from other guests that the same rental company scammed them out of their entire deposit. When I tried to share this information repeatedly with Airbnb I was never given any reconsideration of my situation. In the end they told me there was absolutely nothing that could be done and that the reviews on yelp had nothing to do with my case. I have rented homes all over the world but I will not go through AirBnB again. They really didn’t care at all that there was obviously a trend where this hosting company took advantage of guests.
Another Bad Airbnb Experience… 2 for 2
After confirming my reservation for a house in New Jersey through Airbnb, the host said she “Is not current on updating her website”, and double booked the home she rents. Airbnb took the $560.00 from my Amex after the host canceled my reservation. I had to dispute it with Amex because Airbnb takes five days to refund money they should never have received in the first place. This is my second time dealing with Airbnb and my last. The first was just as bad. They are dishonest and impossible to contact. Stay away from this company! If you have a problem, report them to the BBB, Consumer Affairs, and the FCC….I am.
Aibnb Guest Robbed -Had to Flee Town with Police Escort
Over the last couple of years I have been a satisfied user of Airbnb with an exceptional rating. On a recent trip to a supposedly sleepy fishing village I was robbed within 30 minutes of arriving at the the house by a window left open by the hosts cleaners. When the police arrived, they basically told us “Welcome to Paternoster”, I found this quite bizarre as it’s meant to be a very quaint town where South African’s can escape the crime ridden cities of which they live and work. After contacting the host he was completely disinterested and a refund was not possible as per his terms and conditions, this meant I was stuck in a house that was invaded by criminals. A few days later some more locals tried to rob us on the beach (with knives) and we defended ourselves, this resulted in calling the police to protect us while the house was surrounded by at least 30 locals (some of which where armed) throwing rocks at us. The police had to provide an armed escort to escape this town alive. After filing a report with the police, they informed me that this is an area notorious with robbing the tourists and even the landlords are sometimes involved. The police in the last year have given up all hope of resolving the crime in the area due to the increase of drugs and “maffia” presence. At first I didn’t believe it and thought I was the only one until I read such articles as listed below: http://goo.gl/AbrI68 http://goo.gl/EoLWtg https://goo.gl/eT6L43 http://goo.gl/vmwhVd After this ordeal I contacted Airbnb for two reasons, firstly to get the ad removed to protect future travelers from the dangers of this area and secondly to request some kind of insurance. Airbnb is refusing to assist unless I provide receipts for lost goods and told me that I should research the area. Maybe I’m naive or should Airbnb offer equal protection to their customers as they do to their hosts?