Paying $40/night to Walk on Eggshells to my Room

Posted on March 6, 2016

Overall, I would call this an uncomfortable Airbnb experience. The host was Beverley in North Port, Florida and the room was called “It’s a large private bed and bath” Yes, it was clean, and Beverley provided 3 mini bagels plus some fruit, which was nice. The bed was super high and a bit wobbly, and the mini fridge goes off loudly for intervals in the night–but those are non-issues for a moderate/deep sleeper. However, much as I am the kind of guest who made myself scarce and basically used the room to sleep each night, I didn’t get the sense that common areas including the kitchen or living room were truly open to guests. That was one of a few unspoken rules/expectations that I encountered here, and I was walking a bit on eggshells by the end. I suggested things like the 10pm curfew could be put up front in the house rules section for everyone’s benefit. That there are children in the house REALLY changes the dynamic. I was accosted on the 2nd night by Beverley for coming home at 1am–she said her children were disrupted from their routines from asking about my whereabouts and the noise even though I tiptoed in each night. I felt bad and her children deserve to sleep, but this was something I completely didn’t anticipate. I figured if someone’s putting up her house for airbnb that they would have thought of the possibility that the guest may not follow their sleeping schedule. I didn’t pay $40/night to come home early every night on my vacation for fear of disturbing the sleep of children, and would have considered that before booking, if I knew that was an expectation.

There were other things which I won’t go into, because I don’t want to speak ill of a person who seems like an OK person, but the place just wasn’t suited for Airbnb. She did say some things that were slightly racial (I am Asian) and I talked to her about that and will give the benefit of doubt. Yes, I reached out to Beverley privately before writing this review. We talked out some things up there, but it was not an easy convo (she accused me of some things that I did not do and insinuated that her daughter had abilities to perceive when something is “wrong” with someone, and that she perceived that about me when she first saw me, which was VERY uncalled for) and there are some other things that I am leaving unsaid. I don’t think Beverly is a bad person, and I wish her well. I made one mistake which I apologized to her for, which was bringing my boyfriend in for 15 min after I had given her an estimated time frame about an hour earlier. He came later and I forgot to text her before entering the house, thinking we would just drop off the items quickly, but when we stayed a few more minutes to apply sunscreen before heading out, she had covertly entered the house and saw/heard us, and later accused me of purposely coming in the house with my bf while she went out, which was so not true. It was just a mistake on my part and I did apologize.

Conclusion: I just don’t think this was a house that was ready for prime time on Airbnb. If I could do it over, I should’ve just paid more to get a place where I could feel free to be a normal person operating on my own time and feel free walking around. I wanted to post this since it couldn’t get posted on Airbnb in time.

Read this BEFORE you pay on Airbnb!

Posted on March 5, 2016

I was looking for accommodation via Airbnb so I completed all the verification steps as requested including email verification as well as mobile phone verification, I then got the ”pay now” message, and I paid. I then was allowed to book a place and I have done so. Then AFTER I booked the place and AFTER I paid for the place, surprisingly I got a ”just one more” verification process is required, a Drivers Licence – message. I followed instructions, tried to upload a pic of my Drivers Licence but couldn’t, I tried (as per instructions on the screen) to place in front of the Web cam and again could not do so – for four (4) hours. So basically I lost my money.

I googled the review section of Airbnb and looks like losing money and time and being ”transferred” to another agent/department and other horror stories from Airbnb is common. With me it is only money gone to the garbage bin, oh and half a day attempting to upload a picture of the Driver’s Licence. I am not against the DL verification, I am against asking for it AFTER the payment is done – this is where I lost my money, if the verification request had been BEFORE the payment, I would never have paid – oh and there is nobody to talk to, nobody to contact. Smart Airbnb, tricked me into this sh@#t/ So after posting this, they suddenly got back to me with ”regarding your offline ID, our system was unable to accept it because the image you uploaded was a mirror image of the ID” Well, first of all you are missing my point, why the payment was made BEFORE completion of the verification process, payment should be the very LAST thing to do. Hasn’t your Web Master heard the term ”process flow”?? Deliberately and intentionally placing additional processes and verifications especially those that not possible to fulfill AFTER payment is done clearly indicates to me that those verification steps are there to avoid providing the services – just grab the money and run. So I was robed inside my own house in broad day light!

In regard to the process itself, well the web message was to ”place the ID in FRONT of the web cam” – and you DELIBERATELY asked me to create a mirror image – which your web ”can’t read” – in one word it’s called a ”scam”! There was NO mention or error displayed at the time stating that the problem was ”MIRROR” imaging, the only message coming up was to place the Drivers Licence in front of the Web Cam and take a shot – which I did for 4 hours continuously. SCAM SCAM SCAM!

I don’t think the Australian Government should permit this sort of Internet Scam to operate and a draft letter to key parliament members is now finished and is about to be sent – I will be requesting to outlaw Airbnb – DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH AIRBNB – THEY COULD BE FORCED TO CLOSE ANY TIME NOW!!!!!!

Filthy Airbnb room, nightmare getting any refund!

Posted on March 4, 2016

For our holidays in Mexico City we reserved two apartments from Airbnb. About $800 USD for 17 nights. The dollars are gone, but the lodging was unacceptable. Neither of our apartments was ready to use when we arrived, we had to look (and pay) for other places to stay. To put it plainly – airbnb is a disaster, don’t believe the colorful pictures, the euphemistic descriptions. Never agree to “strict” cancellation rules because if you do, you’re really trapped. After almost 24 hours of travel to reach our destination we arrived about midnight in the first apartment. The fridge and kitchen cabinets were full of left-over food packages, the wardrobes were filled with used clothes, shoes and textiles of the “host”. Hair everywhere, on kitchen and bath towels, bed linen, sofa, carpets etc… it was disgusting. We did not even open our luggage and left the apartment immediately to look for a decent hotel. Because of the bad experience, we decided to have a look at the second apartment before moving in. The place was in a quite grubby district, the forecourt was full of construction waste and the apartment was 28 steep steps upstairs (for me an awkward challenge). None of this was mentioned at all in the description. To reach airbnb help you need a lot of time (and patience) to navigate through the site, through a lot of predefined answers only to get stuck in a dead end or circles. When you finally succeed, you should not really expect answers or support from airbnb. We have to add, to be fair, that after many arguments back and forth airbnb finally agreed to refund 270 USD. Obviously airbnb does not invest any time or money investigating to check their “hosts”, nor pictures and descriptions, nor the guests reviews to confirm their validity. The risk falls entirely on you, the guest!

Airbnb Hosts cancelled because their house sold!

Posted on March 3, 2016

I organized a trip for 6 people to attend a bird festival in Northern Ohio in May. I booked a nearby house in January, then a month later in February, the hosts cancelled my reservation because their rental house had sold. As this is a very popular destination in May, there were no houses left nearby, even in February, so I was unable to take advantage of Airbnb’s offer to give me ~$50 toward another reservation in the area. I had to go to VRBO to find a house that was not only farther away, but cost about $100 more for the overall stay. I think that all of these sites should require the host to either post that their rental property is for sale or require them to honor the reservation in this kind of situation and penalize them if they don’t follow those rules. And Airbnb needs to offer something better than a ~$50 voucher if the host cancels. At the very least, the consolation “prize” should be applicable to other locations and dates, not just the original ones.

Airbnb Hell in Hawaii

Posted on March 3, 2016

A year ago I went to Hawaii, my favorite place. The flight was late and rental car was a no-show, so I was late arriving at the host location – it was between 8 and 9 pm. Half way through the stay, the host asked me to change rooms, but that required cancelling and re-booking. I had lost my credit card so the old one did not go through. I tried to reach airbnb to enter a new credit card number. The host also tried. We could not reach anyone. I offered the host cash but they refused, and then said that I had been nothing but trouble and told me to leave immediately or they would call the police! I am a 60-something, quiet, non-smoking, meditator-type. I went to a local hotel but some money was owed to me, and airbnb refused to refund it. They gave me some worthless coupons. They are worthless because the hosts of Puilani on the big island wrote a bad review of me and now I am not able to make other bookings and use the coupons. Airbnb still refuses to refund the money, or remove the host review. They have a poor business model for the travel industry. They need to have real people available real time to handle these kinds of issues. As for the hosts, they seemed to me to be burned out on hosting and unable to flow with the inevitable problems of travelers. I am very unsatisfied.

Dog (un) friendly, Lying AirBnB host!

Posted on March 1, 2016

I needed the impossible- an affordable place to stay near A1A (name of beachside town) in Florida in mid-December that was both near my parents (Alzheimer’s mother and terrified father) and dog-friendly, as I would have just finished showing all weekend at the biggest dog show in America, in Orlando. I could not believe my luck when I found this cute bungalow with an almost-oceanview, under $100 a night and sure, I could keep my dogs there, in their crates. I explicitly told my host that the dogs would be alone for several hours each day while I visited my parents (and talk about ‘those things’ with my dad), at their beachfront condo (no dogs allowed there), only a mile away. She was very nice about it, saying ‘of course, no problem.’ Totally understanding! What a relief. This was 4 whole months prior to my Florida trip and I felt quite secure knowing that this little annoying detail was taken care of in an affordable way. I had just finished spending nearly $1000 in hotel fees during the dog show at a fancy high rise hotel near the convention center, so I really needed a stress-free financial break at that point. Especially dealing with my parents at this time. They’d spent their lives alienating some of my siblings, including me, and the visit was potentially volatile. But—oh boy, my host was so COOL and relaxed and welcoming and friendly!

Every day I had coffee with her in her living room (she stayed in her other bedroom) and we talked about all kinds of things. I made sure to bring up ‘how are the dogs behaving when I’m not here?’ each day. She always replied, ‘Good! Fine! No problem.’ I told her, ‘Well, if they bark or whine, you can just pop your head in there and tell them to shut up’ and she was just like ‘No, don’t you worry about it- it’s all good.’ I just wanted to make sure she was happy and every day I was so very careful to pick up each and every dog turd from her tiny back yard. I had 3 medium sized show dogs with me, so that was something I did want to make sure was perfection. Half of her back yard was covered with very old, rotted and broken decking and of course that is where the dogs preferred to poop. I am not tiny, so walking on this decking was dangerous to me but I was very careful in my foot placement so I would not break through it and stretched (thank you, yoga!) to get every brown surprise out there.

I was there exactly 2 days and 3 nights, from late Monday night to Thursday mid-morning. Imagine my shock when I opened the email notice of my host’s review of me- and discovered that she had patiently waited to air her grievances about allowing dogs not during our morning coffee discussions, but on the public review page on AirBnB. She complained about the dog’s barking, her relationship with her next door neighbor (who has loud children! Plus I was careful each day to say hello to said neighbor), that the dog poop smell was coming into the bedroom (I have a very good nose for dog scat and no, it was not. There was no hose out there and if there was, I would have used it. It is not my fault that she has broken decking on the ground in her back yard. How do you clean poop residue from that? I did not leave much, if any, residue anyway. Dog show people are notoriously good at cleaning up after our dogs). She ended by angrily stating that she would not allow dogs anymore, as if I was one of ‘those’ dog owners. I was so mortified that I deleted my 100% perfect AirBnB profile and will never use AirBnB again. She ruined my trust of AirBnB hosts.

Moral of the story: hosts are liars. If they seem cool, believe me, they are not. You get what you pay for at fancy high rise hotels!!

Eugenio apartment Valencia

Posted on February 29, 2016

Booked a apartment in Valencia. On arrival the location was so obscure the taxi driver had no idea where it was. Up a dank smelly alley we were met by our host. Nice young guy, but it was immediately obvious that this was not someone’s home. It was a block of apartments converted to airbnb requirements. The place was extremely basic, the beds were camp beds that creaked when sat on. The bathroom was dirty. Total rip off. Left 16 hours after arrival and went to a decent hotel.

Fraudulent Airbnb Listing in Macquarie NSW Australia

Posted on February 28, 2016

The following review is about this “Beach Town House” property in Port Macquarie NSW Australia: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/4769377?s=ik7rIcBI

Firstly this is not a beach townhouse – this place is streets back from the beach and the bedroom overlooks rooftops. There are 15 steep steps upstairs so if you have any physical problems this will challenge you. The advertised site said breakfast. The advertised site says cleaning between guests, this never happened. In fact I am not sure the old sheets I slept in were clean and I certainly couldn’t touch the brown shredded towel left at the end of my bed. I was in the third room that was the junk room where family photos, old bookcases, stuffed toys etc., were as well as her winter wardrobe in the cupboard so I had no place to hang or put anything. My clothes were on the floor. The whole place, was filthy mold in bathroom/shower, pulled back beige seat cushions on outside furniture that were black with mold.

As the host didn’t live there, I wrote within 24 hours to her to let her know that I was dissatisfied and that I would like her to cancel my stay as this would ensure the 100% rebate. She rebuffed by saying I was the only person to ever complain and delayed my request. I wrote again and again and I kept getting put off such as oh the internet doesn’t work, I am working, etc., this is too hard. I told her to ring airbnb and they would walk her through it. I called airbnb and got contradicting policy procedures so I needed the host to cancel the booking. Ultimately airbnb had to call her and then she agreed to cancel. I received a text from her at 5pm on the third day of 12 telling me I was a nasty person and to leave her house immediately. Which I did.

Initially she agreed to book me into the more expensive room and I paid my money only then to be told that it was already booked privately and I could take the less expensive and she would reimburse me $100 but in fact the difference was $144.

I personally didn’t have a good experience and would never recommend this place.

Beware of Aibnb Cancellation Policies

Posted on February 26, 2016

I booked an apartment through Airbnb’s “Superhost” Luka Piscitelli and when I was forced to cancel my entire trip due to unforeseen circumstances, I gave Luka 6 weeks notice, yet he refused to refund 50% of the fee I paid (totalling $236). Despite talking to several supervisors at Airbnb, they refused to help and supported the host because I clicked on something at checkout that says I agreed to this policy (despite my not even remembering seeing that).

Airbnb Removes Negative Reviews and Host Scams Guests!

Posted on February 24, 2016

We booked through airbnb on the beginning of February in a small country house in Bolu, Turkey. We had an okay vacation; other than the lack of heat due to the broken electrical heatings and missing firewood. As we started our journey back, the host started to harass us via phone; claiming we damaged the heating devices, some tiles in a bathroom and burned her couches and carpet. She also told us that we did not clean up after ourselves. We informed her that those damages were present before we arrived, and we did not clean up after ourselves because the house was not clean to begin with and we paid a cleaning fee for that sole purpose only. She told us that the tile was broken, but was glued, and the glue came off. And asked us if we would leave our aunts house like this!? Our aunt doesn’t charge us 1200 for 3 nights we answered. THEN the nightmare began.

The host accused us of damaging the house, and demanded a payment of 1600 Turkish Liras (approximately $500 American dollars). Both parties left negative reviews on each others profiles, and the case was escalated to airbnb for resolution. We say we did not do the damage in question, and since the house was a village house with broken and burnt places everywhere, we did not feel the responsibility to take pictures of every broken or burnt thing in the house. And that there is no proof we did the damages in question. She on the other hand, presented pictures of the damages (and some ridiculous things like forgotten underwear – which she keeps bringing up; are we to pay for her lost innocence as a maiden? But this is Turkey I guess), and continued to leave bad reviews everywhere. Added some references (her friends I am guessing?) in her profile.

Today Airbnb sent us an email informing us that our negative review is to be removed because extortion! Arguing that we threatened the host to write a bad review. 1) That’s what the host says, and there is no proof of that since we did not exhort her in anyway. 2) Airbnb is probably taking her side. And they have a right to charge our credit cards( apparently with no limits) and they can do that at any time. I really believe in the responsibility of the accuser to prove the accusation; and since there is no proof that the damages were undertaken on our stay there; I still hope that the airbnb team will not force us to pay for her house renovation, but I am getting less hopeful each day.

But the immediate problem is that; OUR REVIEW WAS DELETED! If airbnb removes negative reviews on hosts, how can people make sure that the house they are staying is any good? What happens when the next guest is accused of false damage claims by this host. They will not see my review! So airbnb continues to make money, and everyone is happy? No. I will not be using airbnb from now on, whatever the solution to this damage claim. I refuse to give the right to fine me to a company. That right belongs to the judicial authorities, and they take action based on real proof; not hearsay. In this case the money is not as important as the accusations to our character; which the host’s review contains and remains in our page until this is over and we close our account for good.