My story doesn’t have any funny part at all. Actually it’s a disappointing and shocking one. This December my family and I decided to go on vacation to Orlando for Christmas because we thought it will be nice to go to Disney World for the holidays; we were looking for places to stay and I had heard about Airbnb before. This was not the first time we traveled; we have had the chance to do it often. In any case, we decided to make a reservation through Airbnb with Glasstone Vacations, from December 17th to the 28th, but the reservation was made from November 17th to the 28th. We made a mistake and we accept that, due to the excitement and everything I didn’t realize the month said November and not December. We didn’t realize that the dates were wrong until I got an automatic message the 28th asking me about my experience. You can imagine my surprise when I got that message because my reservation was meant to be from December 17th to the 28th.
As soon as I got that message I messaged the host and told her that my reservation was meant to be in December, not November. I got no reply, then I tried to call her. I called around five times and no one answered the phone, so I decided to call Airbnb. I kept calling Airbnb for at least an hour until someone finally picked up, but I didn’t get any solution. What I was told by my case manager was that he was gonna talk to the host to help me. This is the second week already and I still don’t have any solution, but it actually gets worst. The reservation was for 11 days at a house, the price of the house is more than 2500 dollars, and among my family there is a kid (my brother) and a pregnant woman (my sister). I needed to get this fixed because we had no place to stay. I was waiting for an answer about the money but no one was giving me a solution.
I kept calling Airbnb. Their answers so far have just been “we are sorry, we will contact you soon”, “wait for an answer”, “you have to wait for your case manager”, and a bunch of other excuses. I talked to my case manager on Monday (last week) and he told me he was going to be out of the office for two days. Of course I was supposed to get an answer by Wednesday, but I called Airbnb again and he was nowhere to be found. I don’t know if anyone has had the same issues with case managers but honestly he was no help. On Thursday I got an email from him saying that he will contact my host again. It had been four days, but I was trying to be patient and fix this so I agreed. I also talked to my host from Glasstone Vacations and she said that she needed to talk to the people from Airbnb.
The thing is that I still haven’t had an answer from Airbnb and it turns out that the host sent me a message saying: “We are just going to give you the cleaning service money back because you didn’t use the house, but the rest of the money you are not getting it back.” So you are telling me that you are just gonna take more than 2500 dollars from someone just like that! Without me using the house or anything? I was trying to find a solution that will work for both parties so I proposed that my host reschedule the visit; I didn’t want my money back, I just simply didn’t wanna lose all my money. I even told Airbnb and the host that if I have to pay a fee and don’t get 100% of my money back it’s ok, but I can’t just lose more than 2500 dollars. However, my host didn’t agree to any of this. She clearly wasn’t interested in trying to help me. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been robbed face to face.
I called Airbnb again and talked to a different person. I just keep explaining my case to every single person I talk to and I am not getting any real answer or help. Glasstone Vacations is definitely a horrible company to rent from and Airbnb is not helping at all either. I already asked for a different case manager but they look like they don’t care and just want the case to go cold. Well, I am not going to give up. I need my money back and I am telling my story so people don’t fall into this situation. I will never in my entire life recommend Glasstone Vacations and Airbnb. The first one just robbed me and the second one is no help at all. Glasstone Vacations said that “they already paid the owner.” Clearly they just don’t wanna give me my money back or provide any other option. They just care about their own benefits and that means to get money from someone who didn’t even stay at the house.
wow are all these comments from Airbnb workers? Yes, it was his fault but 1 – you’re all assuming she definitely would’ve rented out the house to someone else and she did not offer to refund a $ of the booking – not even $10.
I think a little humanity would’ve gone a long way. I hope she never makes a mistake!!
That’s sad for you, but the fault is yours – not anyone else’s. That said, if the owner was a decent person, they could have just let them switch dates when the people with poor attention to detail realized their mistake. Being kind costs nothing, neither does showing mercy. Honestly, this sort of thing will come back and bite the owners in the behind.
In this case, being kind and showing mercy will cost the owners $2500.00. Had the renters cancelled their November stay the house would have been rented to someone else to the tune of $2500.00. You can’t simply expect the host to lose that money out of the kindness of their heart. That would be quite the extravagant Christmas present for someone to bestow upon strangers who are admittedly at fault.
The proper resolution for this situation is for the renters to accept responsibility for their actions and recognize their very expensive mistake. If they were “decent people” they’d apologize to the hosts for harassing them and move on. After all, personal responsibility costs nothing, neither does attention to detail. Honestly, this sort of thing will come back and bite the guests in the behind.
I think the host was completely justified in keeping all of the money except the cleaning fee. By you not notifying them of your mistake until after the end of your reservation, you’re now expecting the host to take a $2500 loss because of your mistake.
This is pretty awful for your family, but isn’t this problem caused entirely by you? Yes, anybody could have got the date wrong, but you never checked your booking afterwards? Only realised
your mistake when your booking had expired. I can see the host’s point of view. He/she could have found another renter for November and rescheduled you to December, if you had realised the problem early on. You are now trying to push the host into losing money, because of your mistake? I don’t think so.
They didn’t “rob you”. Sorry you made a mistake but you do realize that even though you didn’t stay you stopped the host from having other guests during that time. You really expect the host to be out of pocket for your error?