Author Archives: Alison Odle

This is the Problem Airbnb Hosts have with Guests

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I’m putting this in guest stories so that guests actually read it. I have been a guest many places, and I’ve been a host for almost two years. I have been reading a lot of the guest “horror stories” and with very few exceptions, I think it all boils down to one thing that is not being understood. Airbnbs and short term rentals are not hotels. Say it with me now. It seems like most of the problems stem from guests expecting their stays to be just like a hotel stay without understanding why the two are so different.

Hotels have staff and employees. They have maintenance crews. A lightbulb goes out and they have a closet full of spare ones. Sheets and towels get stained… no problem, that is built into the nightly rate and we just replace them. All rooms are relatively the same, and if anything in those rooms ends up being a problem, is inefficient to clean or to use, they are replaced in every room. The cleaning strategy has a chance to be developed to where not a speck of dirt is seen, every time. Your basement at home is probably actually “cleaner” (I used to clean hotel rooms – who here likes their glasses washed out with windex because that’s how it’s done).

Anyway, I digress. Your Airbnb host is probably making a tiny profit if any at all, has a life and obligations outside of running the place you’re staying, wants guests to be happy with their stay and wants good reviews, has to deal with enormous amounts of BS to serve you, and probably is already killing themselves trying to make the place as nice as they can for you within reason.

An Airbnb stay should be like staying at a friend or relative’s house. Would you notice one speck of dirt in the corner or a stain on a mattress under the mattress pad and declare her house to be “unfit?” Would you go to your grandma’s and storm off in the middle of the night because there were a couple of ants in the kitchen or a cobweb in the corner? We simply can’t keep normal, functional homes the same way a hotel can keep their properties. You need to be a little bit flexible and a lot less OCD. I think the majority of people who complain are just people who are not comfortable staying in another person’s home. Which is fine – just don’t use Airbnb.

If I think back to all the places I’ve stayed, I can probably pick out something majorly wrong with each ones of them: crumbling tubs in New Orleans and questionable bedding, leaky faucets, an overly friendly raccoon on a private property in Miami, cockroaches in our gorgeous eco-villa in Tulum, hairs in drains, water that was too hot or too cold, hard beds… it goes on and on. Did any of this stuff actually bother us or make us have a bad time? Hell no! You notice it, accept it, then move on. You are on vacation, and you chose an Airbnb. Suck it up. Focus on the good stuff.

If you want to be super picky and miserable please stay at a hotel, hopefully one with a 24-hour concierge you can ask all your high-maintenance questions about how to use a remote for the ceiling fan at 2:00 AM (true story – I was like “um, press the buttons?”). Otherwise you are ruining this whole thing for everyone. Seriously, please stop it.

Your reviews aren’t helpful; they’re not innocent little tips for future guests. They actually make our scores go down and make Airbnb threaten to remove our listings over very minor things. They start promoting our listings less often, and therefore we end up losing business and therefore losing money and actually decreasing our chances of being able to afford to be up to your hotel standards. Please just tell us directly if there is a problem or if you have a suggestion. Thank you.

Very Disappointed in Airbnb’s Property Advertising

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Unless pictures are posted of the actual space you are staying in, don’t stay there. We paid over $1,200 for seven nights. The pillows were stained, the microwave was disgusting and the air conditioner was plugged into a cord that ran upstairs to another Airbnb. There were so many people coming and going from the home. The weather was extremely hot and the air conditioner was unplugged from upstairs; we called the host and he came the next day to plug it in upstairs.

Two of our guests left for a hotel room due to the heat. One left to go home because of the living conditions, and two left early. Airbnb said I had no grounds to stand on although they said they understood how I felt. Right up to the very end apparently the property had this to say: “Please note that the apartment is currently in the final phase of being better soundproofed and insulated. Some exposed beams and unpainted walls may be present.”

On top of it all we asked to stay until the 29th. It said they accepted the text and I made sure to recheck on it, Now they are saying that we overstayed a night and want to charge us an additional $280.

Airbnb Not What it Seems, Felt Unsafe for Kids and Dog

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I contacted Airbnb customer service, by phone, after leaving a property in British Columbia. I felt unsafe (would be staying there with my daughters ages 7 and 11) and because the place was not as presented (e.g. the air conditioning turned out to be an air sucking machine in the window, held together by styrofoam and the “wifi” tuned out to be “if I can create a hotspot”).

The host had a huge Doberman that was very angry because our small mini golden doodle was in its space. The stairs to the “3rd floor flat” were rickety, to say the least and the air unbreathable. Also of concern was that there was no way to shut a door and restrict anyone’s access to a place we’d be virtual prisoners.

One of the reasons we booked the listing was that it had a pool (under the amenities). The host and the men downstairs were all very unkempt as was the home outside and somewhat inside. This was even more disconcerting because the home was so remote, surrounded by fields and woods, and well off the main road.

I expressed to the host that I needed to leave, that I did not feel well (asthma and then anxiety based on that because of the oppressive air and the “vibe”) yet she continued to try and get us to stay. The representative from Airbnb customer service seemed very nice and understanding, but did not get back to us; we were left adrift, even after calling back asking for help in securing accommodations for the night.

What was extremely disconcerting was that the host began messaging me, telling me to come back, saying her dogs wanted to play with the girls, that the room was now cool, even after I told her we had gone hours away from her, and to please refund my money. However, she has not done so; I see it in my pending charges, online for Mastercard.

Please help me with this. We were not there more than ten minutes and used no part of the place. I am holding off on my public review but see this particular location is plagued with bad reviews (that have since been deleted, and she’s halved the price), many expressing my own sentiments. How is this place still on Airbnb? My check in was to be 5:00 PM on August 11th. I’m waiting for Airbnb to step up and help, but despite many attempts, there has been no contact yet.

Staying in this Airbnb was like a Mental Institution

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At first glance, this Airbnb seemed really nice and friendly. Then we went to stay at it, actually looked at the house, and realized it’s a mental institution. To book the room my boyfriend had to give references; while the host called them, she blocked my boyfriend from seeing her page and gave him a full refund for the stay.

She called his boss and everything checked out… maybe because we’re normal people. So why did she do this? Because he had a review of five stars, but said we were a little loud the first night, so she said that his review wasn’t stellar. First off, this lady was completely rude and unwelcoming to my boyfriend and me when we first got there. She told my boyfriend that we could come to the house earlier than the check in so we could park our car there. We had a concert to go to; my boyfriend paid for us to go to Tumble Down festival that weekend.

Anyhow, we parked our car, checked out the backyard super quick and then boom, this lady appeared… when she told my boyfriend she’d be working all day. Anyways, she left us real fast saying she had a children’s play to go to. He and I went to walk around Nurlington to wait for our friends who were showing up before we entered the festival. We went and bought these special limited edition #plumpciders that Twiddle created with another brewery, got something to eat, and went back to the house to drop the ciders off in my car so we didn’t have to walk around with them (plus the festival wouldn’t let us in with those).

This is where we met the host again… did she just drive around the block and wait for us to leave to come back to the house? Anyways, super unwelcoming again. We bought her cupcakes from a bakery in Massachusetts, she did not take them from me so I awkwardly put them on a table. She then asked us if we knew she lived there full time… we didn’t because it wasn’t in the ad that she was so crazy about us reading (my boyfriend and I both read it multiple times).

She then ridiculed us because we had asked her two questions: whether she had a fridge (wasn’t in the pictures and also wasn’t listed in the ad at the time under appliances when everything else was) and whether she had AC (wasn’t listed in the ad and she didn’t after all). After this terribly uncomfortable conversation we left and went to the festival. Our friends were there (who did walk into the house and scared the host, although we did say to call us when we got there; it was a little miscommunication).

The festival was no entry so we had to fight to get our tickets back, which we did because the box office people were very nice. We left the festival and went to the brewery right across the street to read a message from the host saying this might not be the right fit for her (meaning to stay at her house). Now, fearful we might not have a place to stay we messaged back apologizing for the miscommunications. We grabbed our friends and met up with her at the house for check in at 7:30. I knocked on the door; this scared her and she said she needed three more minutes.

Thirty minutes later she came out with wine and glasses for us to “hang out” and give us a tour of the house… when she knew we had a concert to go to. This all took about an hour if not more, extremely rude. Now the house was odd but cute at first. It was nothing like the pictures because she rearranged everything to block off certain rooms and half of a room. Whatever, we could deal with that.

That night we didn’t get to go to the concert due to rain by the time we got down there (money wasted), so we went back to the house, cracked open a beer and begin to hang out. I picked up a magnet from her fridge. The first one I touched said “paranoid”. Now, I know I may have overreacted at first, but this magnet came after I was looking at her fridge reading her lists that look like an anxiety attack; all to our own I suppose, but it freaked me out.

I went into the cabinet to grab a glass and there were also notes. Which I have pictures of, they are crazy: “fascination w/ gone (my fam) LYING…” (this one was super weird because she showed us a picture of her dead grandmother that she painted on her wall. In the picture it said something like ‘granny looking GOOD’), “unscrambled egg, sock”, “path our of adversity, after patio”, “DOUBT!!!!!”, “Not allowed to be….”, and more. However, those are the only pictures I have to show.

Then we found multiple books that were all pretty dark: “Masters of Deception”; “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, just two of the many to paint a nice picture. Now we move to the paintings. I mentioned the dead grandma one; let’s go to the upstairs one. On the ceiling wall was a beautiful one of a cat and a woman. On the one across from the bed we saw the word ‘worry” inside it. The painting was set up with 2-3 weird red gooey looking dripping blotches (maybe to resemble blood). The rest of the walls were painted white, but painted white to cover up some other paintings.

Let’s move to the best painting of them all, the downstairs living room painting. This one should be framed in the welcome lobby of that hotel from “American Horror Story – Hotel”. It would fit very well there. This painting looked very normal, but when you’re up at 12:30 AM, your friends have gone to sleep, and you’re a little buzzed from the beer you had, you begin to just stare at things, and I looked at this one. What words did I find? “Bleed out”, “boogeyman”, “dare”, “how”, “are”, “the”. They were strategically placed. It makes one think what sentences are in this painting.

Anyway, I was not feeling comfortable at all. How could anyone after the meeting with her, all these discoveries, and now an eerie feeling of just dark and extreme sadness in this hellhole? My stomach was killing me and my boyfriend’s chest was hurting. After trying to fall asleep, my body wouldn’t let me. Research how your body reacts in dangerous or uncomfortable places; it’s an instinctive reaction.

My boyfriend and I drove to the nearest Walmart parking where we found comfort; my stomach stopped hurting, as did his chest. We still could not sleep though. We waited until 4:00 AM came and drove to the Courtyard Marriott. The man working that night heard our story, saw how disheveled we looked, felt bad and booked us the last room they had because there was a cancellation.

He tried to give us the discounts he could, including the AAA one. He said check in would be at 1:00 PM. I couldn’t make it until then with no sleep and I couldn’t sleep in that damn house, so he said to call at 7:00 AM, ask for a certain lady and tell them that a room was blocked off for us by him. We drove back to the house and waited in the car until the sun rose, went inside and then at 7:00 AM we called and found that we were able to check in at 10:00 AM.

Our friends woke up at 7:30 AM and we went about our day… with no sleep. Well, our friends fell asleep upstairs without knowing about our adventure, until we showed them everything. My boyfriend and I went to the hotel room that day, slept for an hour or so, showered, met up with our friends and went to lunch. We told them they could stay with us that night; we had a two bedroom that was comfier and felt a lot safer.

That night we went to the concert, and went back to the house. Have you ever walked in somewhere and your heart started beating fast? Maybe I was a little anxious; I’m not a doctor so I don’t know what it was. We grabbed all of our things and went to the hotel room. We left that morning. You think that would be the end of the story, right?

The host texted my boyfriend asking if we had made the beds because they were so nicely made. He didn’t answer because he wanted no further contact about it. She continually texted him over and over asking about these beds… I just wanted her to wash the sheets and leave us alone.

The weekend to stay there cost us about 450ish dollars plus the $220 to stay at the hotel. Rightly so, my boyfriend wanted a refund for the second day because we didn’t stay at the house because if we wanted to have an experience like the movie 13 Ghosts we probably would have camped at Dudley Town… I guess we weren’t feeling it that weekend.

Airbnb refused our refund because we didn’t have proof that we didn’t stay. I called the hotel and the front desk lady emailed the receipt to me that we did stay there; however, my boyfriend didn’t want to peruse this anymore. You’d understand if you tried calling Airbnb; they’re awful with customer service. Check out Airbnb Hell if you’d like. They have plenty of stories on that website.

Anyhow, this begs the question, “why are you posting this then?” This lunatic decided to wait until the last day you can make a review to give us a horrible review on Airbnb, which other employees can see and help to make their decisions as to if we could stay at their house. This was very dirty on the host’s part. My boyfriend and I had decided we wouldn’t blow her spot up on the Internet, then this happened and well… we’re angry.

There you have it. I know I did a horrible job painting this picture of how uncomfortable this house was, and maybe some of you think that we were being overdramatic. Airbnb likes to use the word “subjective”. For those who know me, I’m not an overdramatic person nor am I a scaredy cat; but that house turned me into the biggest little bitch ever and I don’t think a refund for the night we did not stay there is a bad thing to ask for. Here is the link to the house.

After Confirmation, Airbnb Host asks for more than Double the Money

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On August 5th, my husband and I booked a one-month long rental for a house in Aruba, inland in the Noord area, not near the beach. The total was CAD $2161.23 for the two of us from January 31st to February 28th, 2019. A daily rate of $145 had been posted, but once I put in the 28 days, a more favorable monthly rate had popped up and we were happy with it, though a 28-day rental falls under a Long Term Cancellation Policy and the first month is nonrefundable. In our case this meant if we had to cancel we would not get any money back.

The same evening I received an email confirming our reservation and payment of $2161.23, and the full payment has since been debited from my visa account. I thought we were all set. Three days later I received a message that the host wanted to change my reservation; if I agreed to the change I would immediately be charged an additional $2908.37, for a new total of $5,069.60.

We were in shock. We thought there had been an agreement and commitment from both sides for $2161.23, but in the meanwhile the host had left a message saying that the daily rate for that period was $335 (much higher than what was advertised on the web site), but for a monthly stay it was $3,500 + the cleaning fee + a 15% service charge.

I called Airbnb. A polite representative took my information and said someone would be in touch with me soon and try to resolve the issue. Within the same day an Airbnb support staff called and explained that the host was new at this (I figured that already since there were no reviews – something I should have seen as a red flag), and obviously does not understand the Airbnb smart pricing system, though she had agreed to it. Obviously she had also agreed to automatic confirmation.

The staff member gave me the sense that Airbnb wanted to give this new host a break, let her out of her commitment, and issue us a full refund. She told me that we had the choice of either accepting the new price (more than double the original one), or agreeing to a cancellation of our contract with a full refund, and they would send us some suggestions of other listings.

While we sympathize with the predicament of the host, we don’t think this is a fair solution for all parties. Because in the meantime I looked in the area and could not find a comparable listing in terms of location, features, and pricing. I told Airbnb that we were really looking forward to renting this particular house and don’t want to rent another, but it seems Airbnb is siding with the host. They said I could email the host and tell her we want to stick to the original agreement and price. I just did that, but I don’t see the point; if the host had been okay with that price we would not have this situation now.

I will post an update once I have it. By the way, this unexpected increase in pricing is not new to us with Airbnb, except that in the past it happened when I made inquiries with hosts prior to booking. It seems that once they know you are interested in a certain time frame, they increase the price before you have a chance to book. I also discussed this issue with the support staff, but her answer was that it was then up to us to book or walk away from it. Are there no ethics in business anymore?

Cleaning Fee? Ripoff. Airbnb no Help. Broken Junky Place. Amateur Hour.

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We rented an apartment in Costa De Caparica, Portugal, for 17 days. The place was adequate, although it was clear the tenant/owner was just doing this on the side, and has not figured out whether she is subletting or just renting rooms. Overall, everything was average, but not rental quality for the money.

There were broken curtain rods that fell on you, hot water running out unless you switched on additional, a nasty kitchen, and cleaning brushes filled with mildew and grunge. The worst was broken rolling shutters that you had to have two people open and shut – just basic maintenance things.

Then, deliveries for the owner started showing up several times, and at least three different crews of workmen wanted access to the apartment for the gas and electricity maintenance. Amateur hour. It advertised a hot tub, but really it was a broken tub jet thing. As we were at the beach, we just went with it, but then, came the cleaning fee.

It was a checkout nightmare. We were told, in writing, that a cleaner would arrive to collect the keys from us when we left and clean the apartment. No one arrived. We were told to lock the keys inside, that the cleaner would come, so we did. No cleaner ever came, and the apartment stood empty for a week in the summer heat.

We left a small bag of rubbish, and the bathroom needed regular maintenance cleaning – nothing bad, just normal for a seventeen-day rental. It was never requested that we self-clean. We paid the fee. No cleaning occurred. Airbnb, in classic style, took her side. So, like so many others, we got ripped off, left a bad review, for cleaning we were told would happen.

I really hope the governments crack down on this nonsense. In no other industry can you make a contract, break it willfully, and have zero recourse. Had we known or been responsible for cleaning – topical cleaning I might add – we would have hired our own person to come do it, or done it ourselves. The place was not left poorly – just normal daily cleaning was needed.

Most Airbnbs request we don’t do our own cleaning, as they have a particular way they want things done – fair enough; I’m happy to pay. Not this woman, and I will be surprised if she doesn’t run into many more problems like this. Long-winded emails, smiling in our faces, then a knife in the back. We could have worked out many solutions, but were not allowed the option. Word to the wise: do not leave a nice review until the owner has left theirs, or leave none at all. Knife in the back, lesson learned. Airbnb is awful. Avoid this amateur.

Airbnb Farmhouse with Unexpected Extras in Store

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We were looking for an Airbnb in Portugal from July 22nd until July 30th for four persons and a dog. After a big search we found a farmhouse in Sao Bartolomeu de Messines. The pictures were looking good: nice bedrooms, a swimming pool, two bathrooms, wifi, a terrace with a mountain view, a clean house, and very comfortable.

We made the reservation, paid the amount of a little more than €1200 and prepared for our holiday there. We bought a bigger car (the dog had to come too), made a list of things we had to take from home, planned the route to drive, booked hotels to stay at night, etc. In the meanwhile our dog become sick so it was better for him to stay at home in a dog hotel.

The hotels to stay overnight while driving to the Algarve were already booked and plane tickets are highly priced in the season; we decided to drive the full 2400 km to the Algarve. When we arrived in Portugal after a three-day drive, we couldn’t find the house, even not with a description of the route by the host. We had to call her several times to explain to us how to drive there. Finally she picked us up at a local gas station.

We drove to the “farmhouse”. First of all, regarding the access road: with a big 4×4 you would easily manage this road, but with a fully loaded station wagon it was a real struggle. The road was so narrow that turning the car was a real test in survival. On one side there was a ditch and on the other side, after two meters a deep ravine. The first signs already made it seem like we were staring in an episode of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

The farmhouse had a kitchen with an oven, full with rust. Frogs were in the bathroom. Salamanders were everywhere in and near the house. Big spiders were everywhere. The swimming pool (a little bigger than a bathtub) was full of green algae. The nice wooden garden chairs we saw in the pictures were replaced by old dirty white plastic chairs and sun beds. The TV as seen on the pictures had suddenly disappeared. The wifi was bad, really bad. Mobile phones didn’t work (no contact from any transmission mast). There were spiderwebs and dirt everywhere.

We arrived there Sunday July 22nd. On Monday morning, July 23rd we were going to the beach and contacted Airbnb to complain and to ask our refund. After several contact moments with some “specialist” they approved refunding us the money we paid and agreed we would leave the farmhouse the same day. Of course we had already booked a hotel in Albufeira to continue our holiday.

Airbnb said they would pay the refund first within 2-3 working days, then it would be within 5-7 working days. This was taking too long. I wrote to Airbnb directly that Mastercard guarantees refunds within one, or a maximum of two working days. After two working days, we had the refund in our account.

That’s not all: we wrote a bad review with pictures that proved the bad shape and bad conditions of the farmhouse. Airbnb decided to not publish this bad review on their page. Questions from our side: why they didn’t do it? It would give the host a bad name. It would not be in anyone’s advantage. Unbelievable. Well, this was the first time for us with Airbnb and for sure the last time.

Airbnb House of Prostitution in Dominican Republic

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When visiting the Dominican Republic in August and seeing my husband’s family, his aunt unexpectedly passed away. We had to return to Esperanza and try to find any place to stay at the last minute. We found an Airbnb at one of only two listings in Esperanza and inquired about staying. They would not give an address but agreed to meet us and show us where.

When my husband’s cousin realized where it was, he questioned them and they admitted it was a “rent by the hour” flophouse popular with locals to drive up with prostitutes and pay as they leave. When they opened a room up to show how “clean” it was, the walls were “decorated” with obscene photos and the only channel on TV was pornography.

My mother in law in her grief, and my seven-year-old son and young daughter surely would have been uncomfortable (to say the least) just to stand in that place, much less lay their heads down on a bed with more uses than a taxi. I contacted Airbnb because my experiences have been very good and I expected them to have a sense of how serious this could have been for an unsuspecting young woman or teacher for example. Honestly in a country that has a huge sex trafficking problem (in the shadows of course) this could have been a disaster.

Was Airbnb concerned? See the pictures and that listing is still on the site at the time of this submission.

Kicked Out of Property, Airbnb Made it Right

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A day before our departure after a good four-day stay our hostess kicked us out of her house. She went in the house when we were gone to “check her plants” which I had been watering for her. She didn’t like that my wife put her carry-on bag on the leather ottoman and a duvet in another room because it was damp and musty in that room. We were on the ocean with no air conditioning. The whole house was damp and musty.

The hostess sent me a nastygram and then confronted me at the front door. She used very foul language and gestures and kicked us out with one hour to leave. She said she was going to get the police. Ridiculous…

We left in one hour and left the house in the same condition we found it. I got us a hotel room for the night and we survived. I contacted Airbnb immediately with an email message and a phone call. They handled it very well. They were very empathetic and even reimbursed us for the hotel room. They also banned this woman from using Airbnb.

They told me she was very uncooperative with their investigation. No surprise there. I was concerned that she would continue to use Airbnb and attempt to ruin someone else’s hard earned money and vacation time. I am completely satisfied with how Airbnb handled the situation and I will use them again.