Author Archives: Alfred

Airbnb and its Hosts’ Unfair Business Practices

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I was looking for an Airbnb place for me and my son in the vicinity of Woodstock, New Hampshire, for Feb. 8-15, 2022. Because of my age and the circumstances due to COVID-19, I needed a private bathroom and two rooms.

I used a map displayed on my computer, as provided by Airbnb. I picked this property because it appeared very close to Woodstock and met my requirements. I booked it and paid a full fee of $910. As soon as my booking was confirmed I received an address of the property and it became clear that it was a mistake. The property was in Vermont, a one-hour drive from Woodstock. The mistake was caused by the scale of the map, in which the property appeared close to Woodstock, and I did not realize that.

Within less than 15 minutes I cancelled my booking and requested a refund from the host. I explained in my request that I made a mistake. The property was off the market for less than 15 minutes and was advertised as available immediately after my cancellation.

The host responded that he could not issue the refund. He did not explain why. He referred me to the Airbnb management. I explained my situation to them and requested a refund from the host again. He responded that he would answer in an hour, as required by Airbnb. He did not. He was holding my money, while at the same time he was advertising his inn on the Airbnb website.

I felt trapped. Obviously, I could not look for a different place since I paid the booking fee. The next day the Airbnb representative began negotiating with the host to obtain a refund. At some point during the next day around late afternoon or evening the Airbnb representative informed me that the host refused to issue the refund and that Airbnb could not overrule his rejection.

The host made money off my mistake and was listing his property as available for booking.
I understand that when someone books a property in advance and then cancels shortly before the planned arrival the property owner may legitimately face a loss of potential customers, but my case was totally different. I cancelled my booking within minutes of receiving an address of the property, and then it was back on the market.

The host kept me hostage and engaged in unfair business practices under the protection of Airbnb. Sometime late in the evening I received a message from Airbnb that the host agreed to a 50% refund. Considering the cost of this booking I could not absorb such a loss. This was totally unethical. The Airbnb representative agreed with my grievances, but appeared to refuse to overrule the host’s response.

My only option to which the host agreed was to rebook. I was stuck with this place. I drove an extra two hours every day during my five days staying there to reach my preplanned destinations.

Two days later the host sent me a message that if I would like to cancel for a second time, he would issue a full refund. And again, a day later he offered a full refund if I cancel again.
Everyone knows that when the number of days before the planned arrival gets smaller, the availability of places to stay declines rapidly. Every day, every hour counts. By the time the host decided to offer me a refund. I couldn’t find anything close to Woodstock that met my requirements.

Airbnb’s refusal to overrule the host’s response and his lack of timely responsiveness during the Airbnb negotiations, which continued for two days, inflicted great emotional harm and stress on me. I felt trapped. During my stay, I accrued additional financial cost, loss of time and unnecessary two hours driving daily to my destinations in New Hampshire.

Also, during our stay in his property, we suffered from vertigo, teary and itchy eyes due to the presence of enormous amounts of various laundry, house and personal cleaning volatile chemicals as well as air purifiers, and even charcoal starter above the kitchen stove. It was impossible to relax on the sofas due to the constant sneezing. And the TV was losing connection all the time.

I wrote this review to be publicly displayed on the Airbnb website, for the benefit of potential tourists. This information needs to be available to protect the travelers from the unfair practices of Airbnb and their host.

Unfortunately, Airbnb prevented me from publishing this review under the pretext that it violated their rules. I wrote the address and host’s name in my initial version of this document. While writing my review I found that the host’s name and address of this property are in full view on Facebook.

Thus, the privacy restrictions invoked in this case by Airbnb were used simply to prevent publication of my critical review and to protect their host and the company from publishing the inconvenient truth. The fact that this information is openly available on Facebook implies that I could not have violated the privacy rule of Airbnb.

Please note that I agreed to remove anything that Airbnb finds objectionable in order to resubmit my review. Airbnb refused.

Airbnb Cancelled My Nonrefundable $1,600 Booking

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My family and I booked an apartment in Bangkok for two weeks. I paid with my boyfriend’s credit card and checked in around midnight after I got the key from the owner. I checked everything in the apartment and found that the air conditioning in my bedroom was not working.

I reported this to the host who said he would fix it for me tomorrow. The next day my family and I left the apartment around 9:00 AM and came back again at 7:00 PM. The air conditioning in my bedroom was still not working. I contacted the host again and he told me he couldn’t fix it in one day because he had to change some motor or something.

Then I called Airbnb support. They recommended I find another place or hotel. The host agreed to refund me fully and Airbnb said I would get a refund in a few days. Ten minutes after Airbnb cancelled my booking I received an email saying I was no longer allowed to use the platform anymore due to fraud. I really didn’t understand what happened but thought I could just use Agoda or Booking.com.

It’s been a week and I still have not received any refund from Airbnb. I contacted support and they said my booking was still active and Airbnb would not refund any money. They said they had already paid the host and I had to contact him.

After contacting the host, he said he had received the payout but Airbnb told they would take the money from his next booking. He forwarded that email to me. If he gave me cash, I would still be missing roughly $200. Now I have no idea what should I do.

Guest Turns up Drunk Having Nervous Breakdown

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I was hosting my third guest. I live alone on 38 acres and have internet but no phone. The lady sounded fine on paper; I gave her very clear directions and my mobile number and she acknowledged she had received them.

I came back two hours later and the lady was extremely drunk in her car. She drank an entire box of wine cooler and appeared to be going through some kind of mental breakdown. Rather than going to her cabin down the hill, she had got a ladder and climbed my fence and ripped off my doorknob, trying to crack open my door, breaking the plywood. She swore at me and told me she had paid to stay in my house.

I told her she had to leave the property as I could not risk her damaging my property further. I assured her I would refund her. It’s a kind of yoga retreat and there is a “no drugs or alcohol” policy. There is a gas stove in the cabin and we are surrounded by world heritage forest — it’s too dangerous to have a drunk or unstable person around.

She became irate and said she was too drunk to drive away and that her dog was lost (we ask people to keep their dogs on leash at all times). I could see she was in crisis so I offered her a cup of tea and to drive her down the road to a free campground with a sleeping bag I would donate… more abuse followed.

I saw that this woman had a knife in her car. I no longer felt safe. The woman refused my help and refused to leave. I was left with no option but to call the police, which I have never done in my life. I went to my neighbour’s and called the police who took 40 minutes to arrive. They were very understanding and did not escalate the situation.

The woman suddenly became very agreeable, although it was clear she was still very drunk. They escorted her to town to sleep it off in her car and they took her keys for the night. I did not press charges as clearly her life was falling apart from her bad decisions.

Now I feel unsafe in my own home, have to change my gate code and buy a new front door. The help Airbnb has offered? A bot with whom I can register my complaint and a threat to my record if I cancel bookings.

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Can’t Get Airbnb Supervisor or Anyone to Call Me Back

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I am a Superhost with Airbnb. I had a guest cancel a reservation on me the day before her arrival, by saying she had COVID. I called to see how to proceed from an Airbnb representative. I was told the guest needed to provide medical certification or proof that she indeed had tested positive in order to receive a full refund.

The representative then reached out to the guest and “supposedly” received this proof. He then called me back and told me he had received the required proof. I asked what kind of proof and he told me a certificate showing the proof, although it was in Chinese. I was leery and questioned this “proof”, as he had informed me a certificate with the date and her name along with the positive results was required and he had received such. I then reached out to the guest and asked her to forward to me what she sent to Airbnb, which she did.

I was shocked as she sent a picture of a COVID home kit box, certificate that apparently came in the box (in Chinese) and picture of the actual test: no names, no dates, no medical certification or doctor’s note or proof it was her test result. What she sent was a joke and would not be accepted by any company in the U.S. requiring such. I then reached out to Airbnb again and asked for a supervisor.

I finally received a message from Airbnb three days later saying “I have reviewed their case, we can confirm that the guest submitted valid documentation that verifies that the guest qualify under this policy. ”

I replied and said I was still waiting on a phone call. They then called me that same day. After explaining that I knew exactly what the guest provided as far as “valid documentation” as she had provided the same documentation to me also, and that the guest did not provide valid documentation. Airbnb then went on to tell me that actually no documentation is required and that a person can just say they have COVID and get a full refund and thus the host is basically screwed.

I then told her that two other representatives had said otherwise (and every other representative since has also said) that valid documentation was indeed required. She was supposed to look into it more and get back with me. I sent numerous messages after she did not get back to me: six, to be exact. After she did not get back to me, I called in again and was told the case was closed. It was never resolved. I asked for another supervisor to then call me.

I have called in several times since and have asked for a supervisor to call me back. Each time I am told one would call me back. To date, over a week later, I have still not received a call back from any supervisor. I have spent so much of my time and effort on the phone trying to resolve this or trying to get someone to look into this and call me back. There should be accountability for these employees.

So beware, apparently a person can just call in one day before their check-in and cancel by saying they have COVID and get a full refund. No proof required. No help from Airbnb for its hosts.

Host Said I Booked a Listing that Does Not Accept Reservations

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I sent a notification of a dispute and an attempt in good faith to negotiate an informal resolution. The dispute involved my confirmed reservation for an Airbnb listing in Clearwater, Florida. My confirmed reservation was for Dec. 11 to Dec. 18, 2021. This story shows that Airbnb has fake listings on their site, does bait and switch with listings, and allows host to cancel at the last minute if they can get more money elsewhere or from a different guest.

On Sept. 28, my husband’s sister called us to say she was driving to Clearwater to spend a couple months on vacation. We had not seen her in over four years and were really excited. After talking it over, my husband and I decided to drive from Baton Rouge to Florida and spend a week on vacation at an Airbnb to spend time with his sister. I spend several days going through the Airbnb listings and finally found the perfect one. I knew I would not find any listings the week for Christmas so we decided to celebrate the week before.

It was a whole house, would take the dogs, had a fenced yard, was on one of the canals, had a heated pool and included a pontoon boat you could take to the beaches. It was also only a few minutes away from where my husband’s sister was staying. I wrote Airbnb about the issue that the listing asked people to book on the Sandbar Vacation Rentals website instead of with Airbnb. I did not do that, but instead booked from the Airbnb site where I had originally found the listing.

As you can see my reservation was confirmed right away. Half the payment was made and we started to prepare for our vacation. I had not had a vacation in years and had been saving up my vacation days for a trip to Europe after COVID died down, but decided to use some of my days for this trip to visit with my sister-in-law. I applied to my employer to take the days and before I left for vacation, as required by my employer, I entered the vacation days into my timesheet. As far as I know once you do that they cannot be recovered.

I baked Christmas cookies, made fudge, and ordered some wonderful lamb tenderloins for our Christmas dinner. We planned an outing to the aquarium, a pontoon boat ride to look at Christmas decorations and even ordered our first meal from Casa Tina. We also planned a drive to Orlando to pick up a dog I was going to rescue. I got regular emails from Airbnb confirming my reservation, notifying me that the second half of my payment was due, and then received. I assumed the host also received these notices from Airbnb.

We loaded up the car and proceeded to drive eight hours to Tallahassee. At 2:00 PM on Friday, Dec. 10, I texted the host to let them know we would arrive and check into the house at 4:00 PM the next day (Dec. 11). The host asked me to confirm my name, saying he did not have the cell number on file. I texted my name and reservation confirmation code back to him.

He replied, “I’m sorry, but you booked a listing that does not accept reservations. We do not have a reservation for you.”

I texted back the confirmation number and that I had paid in full. The host confirmed I was talking to them and said they did not have my money, suggesting we call Airbnb. I got sent to a “customer ambassador” that would help me with my issue. He was nice enough but did not speak great English and seemed to not understand the situation. He said he would call the host and get back to me. He seemed to be reading from a script and was very concerned that I have the Airbnb cancellation policy, even thought I was not the one cancelling.

After he talked with the host, he called me back and essentially said they did not have a reservation for me but gave me no other explanation of how this happened. He admitted that Airbnb had a fully paid active reservation for me on an active listing but did indicate why the host was not going to honor the reservation. He said I would get a full refund but that it would take 5-15 days. I asked if it could just be applied to a new listing as we would need a place to stay. He said that was not possible as they just didn’t do that. I said we still needed a place to stay and could he find us comparable accommodations. He said he would work on it and call me back. I never heard from him again.

When we got to our hotel in Tallahassee, I immediately got on my computer and looked for a place to stay. My sister-in-law also started looking. Even the host sent some suggestions, but Airbnb never did. None of the listings that the host sent worked as they would not take two large dogs and were also not even in Clearwater. Everything, even nice hotels, that would take two large dogs and were close to my sister-in-law’s house was booked, since it was only a week before Christmas.

They next day we had to decide to drive on to Clearwater with no place to stay or to return home. My husband, bless his heart, felt like Airbnb would find a new house for us to stay in and wanted to drive on. I did not share his opinion since they had never called us back. With a grumpy husband, a grumpier wife, and two large dogs lacking exercise I said we were driving home.

Everyone was angry and depressed. He broke out in hives, his sister cried, and I tweeted my displeasure. My tweets got responses from Airbnb saying they would follow up. It’s been five days and the only real follow-up I got was to say I would get a refund: no help finding another place to stay, no apologies, except they were sorry for the “inconvenience”. Every message I got sounded like it was a canned AI responding to me with no mention of my situation.

My vacation was ruined, my vacation days stolen, and I am depressed and have started on medication. I submitted my mileage, my hotel bill, and the value of my lost vacation days to Airbnb, asking to be compensated. I got back another stupid canned message saying they couldn’t issue a refund as per their policies.

Airbnb Shut off Bookings over Local Registration Error

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When my city registration expired, my account was unregistered for one month while I worked on getting my registration renewed. Now I have the new registration, but Airbnb blocked the account from accepting new bookings, and won’t allow me to update the registration because the “local government has denied your registration.”

I contacted Airbnb four times to get this resolved. They always say, “regular support cannot handle this, it needs to be handled by a special team. I will forward this to them.” Then they close the support ticket. Here’s the furthest I got:

“My department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive issues and written documentation of our communication is required. We closed this message thread, and we will answer your request by email. I hope you can understand the need for this caution.”

It’s been two weeks with no reply. I’m a host of three years with 450 reviews and bookings of $60,000 last year, so Airbnb probably makes $15,000 per year with their cut while I do all the work. This is the service and support I get. Screw you Airbnb.

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Dominican Republic Property Not as Advertised for Anniversary

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Here’s my first and last experience with Airbnb. My wife, a friend and I rented a condo in April 2021 after reading positive reviews. This was to be a long-term stay for January, February, and March in Juan Dolio, the Dominican Republic.

Our friend arrived on Jan. 1. He called me after arrival and said the place was a dump but he was somewhat vague even saying he was not in the right condo unit. I was now worried. At that moment our hosts showed up; I could hear them in the background laughing. The following day I called my friend and asked what happened. He said he was still in the same unit and it was still a dump. I was still in Canada but flying out later that afternoon with my wife.

I called the host and told her my concerns and said I was thinking of canceling our flights. She assured me everything was fine and if there were any problems they would be rectified. On this assurance we decided to go. We told the host we would not be arriving at the condo till after midnight. She said this would be no problem as the reception is open 24 hours and they would register us and she would leave a key with them.

We arrived as said after midnight, registered and asked for the key. No key was left. We went up to the 12th floor and proceeded to try and wake our friend which took some time. By now exhausted from the travel, we decided to go to bed and face things afresh in the morning. The bedding and pillows smelt musty.

We awoke in the morning, and our fears were confirmed. It was a dump: filthy walls, cobwebs, cupboards falling off the hinges, rusted out washer and dryer, broken dishwasher not attached to the cupboard, all three showers broken, filthy stained couches, soiled mattress with what looked like urine and blood stains, patio furniture covered with blankets to hide the stains. This place was just plain worn out. It slept up to ten people and we believed it was a Party Palace where it was rented and trashed. We paid $4,300 CDN for the month of January expecting a luxury rental condo, not this dump.

We asked our next door neighbours to come take a look and they agreed it was disgusting and a health hazard. I am not a toxicologist but there appeared to be mold on the walls and furniture. It was definitely not COVID compliant. Our neighbours took us next door to have a look at their place; it was night and day in comparison.

I called the host to complain. She sent up the maintenance guy. I refused him entry and told her it was unfixable and she needed to come over. She said she would be there later then late afternoon cancelled, saying she would come the next day. I didn’t know it then but I was being played. If she came the next day the 24 hours to report to Airbnb would have expired.

The following day she showed up. I showed her the pictures on my iPad and she said it would be fixed. I told her it was beyond fixing , and she said she would move us. This was on Jan. 4. It was left this way on the understanding we would be moved to be notified later.

That day we went to the beach to try and relax. The beach area and surrounding grounds were amazing and beautiful, just what we anticipated. We returned to the condo around 3:30 PM to be met with a crew of six and the host in the condo without our permission. Two painters, two maintenance guys, two cleaners and the host were replacing showers and the washer and dryer, painting, cleaning, taking away part of the couch in all this chaos, and more the next day.

While it was good they acted quickly we were on vacation; nobody needs to go through this nonsense. They also painted over these black mouldy walls I still believe were a health hazard. The stained mattress was still in place, and there was a broken dishwasher and cupboards.

We got in touch with Airbnb. I spoke with 11 agents getting absolutely nowhere. We had sleepless nights from a bar directly below our tower that blasted music until 3:30 AM. Dogs were barking, chickens crowing, and cars racing and backfiring loud exhaust. After being passed on from agent to agent and specifically asking them the question over and over with no response and being told over and over “my shift is about to end, I will pass this on to the next available agent.”

We had our couch returned after being gone for 11 days. Each time we asked about the couch we were told by the host it was still drying after being cleaned — it was 30 degrees C. This was on Jan. 15, an unforgettable day in our lives. We decided on that day, we would stay until Jan. 31 having paid $4,300 Cdn and move on to new accommodation, thereby terminating our rental agreement due to no contact with the host or Airbnb to rectify our disgusting rental unit.

At first the host was okay with this, then she went ballistic with over 50 threatening texts telling us we were to vacate the premises by 11:00 AM the following day giving us 20 hours to pack and find other accommodation, she said cleaners would be at the condo at 11:00 AM and it had already been rented out the same day.

I contacted Airbnb with numerous emails telling them we were being evicted and this was an emergency situation. We needed help, and nobody replied. This day was to be unforgettable as our host also knew this as I had told her and she had recommended a nice restaurant for us to celebrate our “50th Golden
Wedding Anniversary.” I was fuming; I am in my early 70s and my wife will soon be 80. To evict an elderly couple with 20 hours’ notice to find other accommodation in the Dominican Republic on the weekend is reprehensible. Needless to say, our anniversary was ruined.

On the good side, I was able to secure accommodation through a local realtor team who really came through and found us a nice two bedroom. It was the same location in a different tower. Had we dealt with this exceptionally good team, we probably would have stayed but we returned back to Canada on Jan. 22. Airbnb rewarded our host with $4,300 and gave us a $24 refund.

That is why l will never use Airbnb again. I now tell all my friends and acquaintances to be beware. Thanks for reading.

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Airbnb Hosts Get Guest Arrested After Misunderstanding

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On Jan. 11, I moved out of my apartment and chose to stay in an Airbnb for two weeks with my three-year-old son until getting a different place. I paid $1,136 for Jan. 11-25. The first four days my son and I were there, 6-7 different men came in and out of the unit fixing and replacing things. The first Friday, our fourth day, the host asked if someone could come over the weekend to fix yet something else. I did not answer this text message as I did not want to be rude and say no.

I just did not want anyone there for the weekend as we had had no peace. On the first and second days there, they locked up the piano that was advertised with the place. This happened while my son and I walked to lunch a block away. On the fifth day, nobody entered, nobody texted, and nobody called. The next day at 10:30-11:00 I heard a knock as I was in the shower. I left the door open to the bathroom because of my three year old.

I was taken aback and yelled “I am in the shower you will have to come back!”

Approximately 2-3 minutes later, I was exiting the shower and I heard “beep beep beep beep waaaahhhhhh!” There he was, standing in the doorway looking at me in the nude, in shock, unable to cover myself. I recognized him as the same man who fixed the shower, and put the lock on the piano. He left very quickly, leaving the door unlocked.

I instantly texted the host saying I had enough, that I was going to Airbnb about the privacy violations. She fed me a sob story about how I would be messing with the income for her family of six and I dropped it and let it go. The next day, her husband along with herself came over to fix the drip under the sink and spray for bugs because that water had brought cockroaches according to the feces left behind.

We began to talk about my personal life and I advised them that I moved out of my townhouse because my ex father in law had just brutally assaulted me there. I proceeded to tell them I recently received an email from the efile system stating I had a warrant for breaking a NOCO. I continued to tell them that I am not a fugitive on the run, that I in fact wrote the judge an emergency statement asking for permission to turn myself in so that I could find a suitable sitter, being I am the sole provider for my son. He agreed.

Less than 24 hours later, I was arrested at the Airbnb while the host had someone video tape the entire incident, take pictures of my guests, and called me in on behalf of the warrant. Upon being released from jail the following morning, I powered my phone on to read a text message sent by the host two hours after my arrest saying they packed up all of my belongings and removed them. I had nowhere to go, and none of my child’s belongings, nor mine.

She has since posted a review on my profile for Airbnb which will prevent me from renting further, including false accusations such as “she has a very concerning record.” When in fact, Airbnb conducts background checks, I sent her my government issued ID before checking in, and I’ve only ever been in trouble for driving with a suspended license.

Her husband just now brought me my belongings, $100s in spoiled food, and ruined toys. Airbnb has turned a blind eye to all of this. Furthermore, the host’s husband offered me permanent residency via their church and exclaimed they only want what’s best for my son and I.

What was deemed an emergency situation two weeks ago has still gone unheard and unnoticed. I have begun contacting legal representatives as a week ago I requested a new case manager and mine is still emailing asking the same questions as on day one.

New Year’s Eve Trip Almost Ruined by Greedy Host

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I rented a house in Las Vegas for New Years and my husband’s 30th birthday as a party of seven people from Boston. I rented this house for $1,200 in May.

Right before Christmas, at 3:00 AM, I got a notification from Airbnb that my host cancelled. I asked the host why he cancelled and his reason was he was selling his house. I looked up his house and couldn’t find it; my friend looked it up and it was still there. I assumed he cancelled because he knew he could get more money for the house since houses around his are now going for more than $3,000 a month before NYE.

I messaged Airbnb Help who offered to give us $200. I could not find any houses able to accommodate our party for that amount of money. I try to explain to Airbnb that we are now out of our flight, event tickets, reservation deposits, etc. They pretty much told me to screw off. Thankfully we have family out that way we could stay with. I fought this issue right up until the trip and they didn’t care at all. If we didn’t have family out there we wouldn’t have been out thousands.