Author Archives: Mary

Airbnb Host Nightmare: Cancellation Penalty for Hosts

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A few days ago I relisted my two properties on Airbnb. I was not able to link my channel manager to Airbnb and had issues logging in to the Airbnb system. I kept requesting a password reset and never got any reset link. I contacted my channel manager and they were not helpful, saying I had to log in to Airbnb to sort the problem.

I finally logged in. To my horror, I had 14 booking received within a few days, all confirmed with dates and availability that were not correct. I had the nightmare of contacting all these people and be ashamed to say we had technical issues. To my horror, for each booking that I cancelled, I had to pay a penalty of 50 dollars. Do the math for 14 booking and see how much I had to pay Airbnb for cancelling.

I had no email confirmation for any of these bookings and no notification or any chance to accept or deny any of these bookings. Some of the guests were very helpful and some just pain and unhelpful. Airbnb technical issues turned into nightmare and Airbnb has no compassion to not change the penalty when you have a genuine problem. I had no idea about any booking or how to fix the problem. Not happy at all.

Atheist Airbnb Host Versus Religious Guest

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I was renting my studio on Airbnb since 2016 and everything had gone fine. I did host people from all over the world of all ethnicities and they all did like the place a lot… until the day I received a reservation inquiry for a four-week stay of a certain guest. As this person had very few positive reviews, I decided to check his profile on Facebook and discovered lots of disturbing posts, especially for an atheist like me.

As my studio is located in in the same house where I live with my family, I decided to decline his inquiry. However, I also wanted to politely explain why I did it. So, in summary, I told him that being an atheist I had problem with his profile and I also added that that in my views religions (all of them) were toxic inventions that were made to divide us. I ended my message with a ‘salam’, meaning “peace”.

One hour later my account was deleted. The guest felt so offended that he claimed a file for “Islamophobia”. Airbnb didn’t even bother to contact me to see what the problem was. What counts is money and only money; they don’t care if you’re comfy or not with a given reservation. I’ve included some of the disturbing posts that motivated my refusal.

Airbnb Supports Fraudulent Listings by Hosts

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I checked into my cabana and it was listed as having two beds. There was one bed in a closet. The previous tenant had busted the TV, left it up on the wall, and had no plans to replace it. The pool and hot tub were freezing. There was no hot water in the shower. The space heaters, which were the only source of heat, kicked off continuously because they were plugged into power strips.

I immediately contacted Airbnb and informed them of the fraud. They told me that I had to give the host a chance to fix it. After four days of no sign of repair, I called Airbnb back and moved out. The host would not even take their phone calls for a week. It’s now three weeks later and I have spoken to twelve caseworkers, a specialist and one manager and now the final answer is I’m not getting my refund because apparently this is all my fault. Airbnb has left me with nowhere to go. They have kept my money, ruined all of my holidays plans and caused a great deal of stress. They are criminals.

False Review and Guest’s Lies Lead to Listings Removed

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I have been the owner and host for two Airbnb properties for the past two years, garnering positive reviews and mostly problem-free until now. On October 17th, a young male guest (24-25) with positive reviews arrived. His booking was for three days. During this time he left messages about how much he liked everything about the property and extended his stay by one day.

Meanwhile, my maintenance man encountered him and after a brief interaction texted me with concern that he appeared to be on drugs or intoxicated: he acted “amped up” and paranoid. A day or two later he saw and talked with him again and confirmed the same behavior.

After the guest vacated the property my co-host entered to clean it. She found that one bedroom lampshade had been crushed, as if someone fell on it. She brought this to my and the guest’s attention and said that she would contact the Resolution Center to handle it, the standard procedure. Little did I know that my life was going to explode in all directions thanks to this $10 lampshade.

These Airbnb messages between my co-host and guest reveal why:

“I noticed that one of the lamp shades in the bedroom was broken. I talked to the owner of the property and she advised me to file a claim with Airbnb to be reimbursed for the cost of the matching lamp shades.”

“Feel free to. I’m actually filing a complaint for the peep hole I found in the shower. I’m sorry you feel that way. I discovered the peep hole on my last night of the stay. I did however report the suspicious behavior on the premises prior to that. Facts are facts. I was not intoxicated. All my reviews pre and post my stay here are stellar. You are running a dirty scam, invading others privacy. How dare you. You will not be receiving any money from me. In fact, I have taken this matter straight to Airbnb Corporate with evidence of your intrusive misuse of hosting this home. My hope is that they resolve this matter accordingly, stripping your right to host any more illegal activity, reimburse me for this invasion of my privacy, and follow through with the apology I deserve. Shame on you.”

“Peep hole, illegal activity and dirty scam” were then red flagged by the Airbnb computers. What a surprise to learn that I’m accused of this at age 71. No such things or activities are associated with me or on my properties as established by the positive comments he made after staying there four days. What I also didn’t know at that time is that my Airbnb listings had been immediately shut down so I would not have any future bookings, depriving me of these income sources.

Meanwhile an Airbnb investigator was assigned to me. In the eyes of her and Airbnb I was guilty until proven innocent. She lectured that I had broken the “trust” of Airbnb with my actions. She then gave me 72 hours to provide evidence that I didn’t have a peephole and that people were not walking around on the roof at night (the guest stated that he had heard noises like this, confirming my maintenance man’s assessment).

The roof is totally covered with solar panels; water lines and swamp coolers = dangerous tripping hazards at night. Yes, photographs were submitted as evidence. Also in question is why the guest waited two weeks before submitting a scathing and accusatory review on November 5th. I have also asked Airbnb what evidence the guest provided to support his accusations and told that this information could not be divulged to me. I doubt that he took photos of the peephole before he vacated.

The maintenance man videotaped and narrated a “tour of the bathroom walls” to prove there was no shower peephole. I then sent the videotape to Airbnb after confirming their email, Airbnb.com/help. The email was rejected with “incomplete address” every time. I was now calling Airbnb every day to speak someone who could give me additional support or updates.

I reached someone who was shocked to learn how this case had been mistreated for so many weeks (she had access to my original “ticket” and opened up another to better defend me). She commented that it was blatantly obvious that the guest was lying and fabricating stories and that I was being vilified unfairly. When asked why the video was rejected she said that videos are unacceptable because they may have a virus. Then the original agent said all forms of media are acceptable but I couldn’t send her the video. This had become a Kafka nightmare.

Every professional, honorable company provides standard protocols and procedures to follow for every type of action that may occur. Airbnb does not. At no time did Airbnb send a notification to alert and explain an impending investigation. This is a simple, professional courtesy. Airbnb never provided me with information as to what steps I would need to protect my rights during this investigation. Airbnb never provided information as to collecting specific evidence (recordings, videos, photos) or a timeline to furnish them. The investigators failed to provide this.

Airbnb never informed me that my Airbnb listings were removed and when. Airbnb has yet to inform me how I will recoup my lost booking income since my listings remain inactive. Will Airbnb ever apologize to me for all my lost current and future booking money while my investigation was underway? Will Airbnb ban this guest for eternity? All the evidence supports that I was intentionally maligned.

Living Beneath an Airbnb for Three Long Years Sucks

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We live beneath an Airbnb in our condo building. While some of the guests are actually okay, the ones that are not ruin it. After almost four years I have had enough. The owner of the condo lives in a totally different city and is never there, so they don’t have to put up with the parties, the toddlers running laps for hours on end, and who the hell knows what else is going up there.

Does anyone have any tips on how to handle this crap? I have gone up, banged on doors and told them to keep the noise down, and put notes on the outside of the door so that not only they see them, but everyone on that floor knows what’s going on. I’ve texted the owner and her reply is “call the cops.” I’ve just looked on Airbnb and she is booked up for December, so Christmas hell is just beginning.

Charged in Different Currency Leads to Airbnb Nightmare

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I have an Airbnb setup in Atlanta that was split into three payments. The first payment was on September 16th for 1570.44 USD that went through correctly and successfully. The second payment was on November 12th and it was supposed to be 1485.58 USD; instead, I was charged $1496.08 and a $44.88 international fee because Airbnb charged it in pounds. On the second payment I updated my Mastercard as the primary card on file was stolen.

When I called Airbnb, I first spoke to someone who was absolutely no help and blamed me for the issue. I called again and spoke to someone who said he would escalate it to the software team because it may have been a glitch and I would hear from someone. Nobody ever called or emailed me back. I then called a third day and spoke to someone who transferred me to his supervisor. I had to explain the entire situation all over again and she advised that she would try to process a refund in pounds back to my card and then re-charge me in USD for the correct amount.

She told me she would call me back in an hour. I told her I did not believe she would call back because nobody had returned my calls. She promised multiple times that she would call back but as I suspected, she never did. I called back a fourth time and spoke to someone who once again provided no help and advised he would “try” to get the original agent to call me back. I then called back and spoke to someone who was incredibly rude and said she couldn’t do anything besides request that a supervisor call me back.

I spoke to my bank and they are willing to dispute the charge as fraudulent after I explained what was going on. I am also in the process of filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau because I have never received horrible customer service like this before in my entire life. I will never be using Airbnb again.

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Bad Experience with Airbnb Host in Vancouver

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I made a reservation on Airbnb for a bedroom with a private bathroom and paid the full amount on November 23, 2019 to stay December 5-8, 2019. On the check-in day, December 5th, the host emailed me to change my bedroom with a private bathroom to a shared bathroom at 3:00 AM in my timezone. I didn’t check my email until a few hours before the check-in time. I never expected a change in the reservation on the check-in day.

I insisted to the host that I still wanted the bedroom with private bathroom which I reserved and had paid for since November 23rd. The host replied that he already sent me an email about the change. However, he did not clarify on compensating me for the difference between a private bathroom and a shared bathroom. The only thing he replied was that he could cancel my reservation if I wanted.

On the check-in day at 10:00 PM at night, if an Airbnb guest cancels his reservation that he made on November 23rd, where can the guest stay that late at night? Why should I deal with this host and this situation? It was a very bad experience for using Airbnb for the first time in Vancouver.

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Airbnb Host Says There is a “Washer”

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I wanted to find a place to stay in Bacolod for a week that had a washer and dryer. I used the filter to specify for a washer. The host’s listing showed up as one of the results. I contacted her and asked if they had the washer in the unit, to which she responded that they had a “laundry shop” located at the ground floor of the building. Having lived in America for twenty years, I assumed that she meant a laundromat, so I decided to book for a week.

When I arrived at Cityscape to check in, the nosy security guard begged me for two pesos to pay for photocopying my ID. I wondered why he was not given funds for operating expenses. It felt cheap. Guess what? The word “cheap” describes the rest of her offering.

Compared to my previous stay at residences that cost a few more dollars per night, this condo unit offered half the value. The building was so-so, the studio and bathroom was half the size and the balcony was less than a quarter in comparison. That previous place also had a washer in the unit. The interior of this condo was alright, nothing to talk about to folks at home. At least the wifi was better than most places.

When I pulled up the curtain next to the small dining table, the window was not clean. There was a smudge that resembled bird poop. Best to let the curtains down. Then I opened the cupboard and lo and behold, there was a Tetra Pak of cooking oil that was already opened. I was like, “I didn’t ask for cooking oil but boy this is unsanitary and oh so cheap.”

Here’s the reason I asked for a washer and dryer and was willing to pay extra: I had met a handsome young man online who lived in Bacolod while I was staying in Iloilo. He was a sweet, charming, and wanted to become intimate. We met in person and found each other attractive. I invited him over to my place and intended to list him as one of my registered guests. We had an awesome time as you would expect of mutually infatuated adults who scored big.

The next morning, I pulled off the sheets, collected all used towels, and added my worn clothes. I tidied the room and then went downstairs to the “laundry shop”. As it turned out, there were no washers nor dryers in the building. The “laundry shop” was a collecting area where they bag you dirty laundry to be washed and dried offsite. The regular rate meant that your laundry is returned after two days at night time, but by paying double you get your laundry back by the end of the day.

I was obviously pissed off. I wouldn’t have clean sheets and towels nor clothes until at least overnight. I contacted the host and complained about being mislead. She responded by being obstinate and insinuated that it was my fault that I, an American, thought there were actual washers and dryers in the building. She was not forthcoming about the true nature of this so-called “laundry shop”.

I complained to Airbnb directly and wanted them to cancel the rest of my stay and be refunded properly for being duped, but ironically the representative replied by saying that the host did nothing wrong and she was vetted. What a sham. I told the representative that she ought to consult a dictionary to know what a washer is. In fact, I should have referred her and the host to use Google Images to see what a washer actually looks like. If you checked the box that says you have a washer, you should have an actual washer in the facility, not some collection site where they couldn’t get the job done on time compared to having an actual washer in house.

Nothing was resolved and the Airbnb closed the ticket. What a laughable disappointment. I’m glad I only used Airbnb a few times. I’m deleting their app once my week is over. I vowed not to use them again. I have heard horror stories and now I have one of my own to tell.