Tag Archives: abandoned by airbnb

Another Airbnb Scam: Stranded in NYC

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I booked a verified listing that was an amazing apartment near Central Park in New York City. The host contacted me with information on how to receive the keys, and asked about my stay and how he could help with suggestions. After arriving at the “place” only to find that the building had been torn down (the police said three years ago…), I was effectively stranded with nowhere to go; we had to book the only hotel we could find available for $500. When we called Airbnb, we were put on hold for over 20 minutes to finally be told they would refund the amount that we paid. When I insisted they pay for the hotel bill that night, they refused saying they would book us in another Airbnb. When I asked them how they would verify that that building was not demolished either, they had no response…

This is a complete joke of a verification process. At least drive by the building to see if it is still there before allowing scammers to post fake listings. One of the customer service agents agreed to pay a portion of the hotel bill, which I have yet to receive…

Airbnb Nightmare: Marooned in Montreal

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My family had come to Canada from various other international destinations for a highly anticipated and active family vacation. However, while we were in transit to our Airbnb lodging in Montreal from Toronto, we received a somewhat cryptic text message from our hosts stating that they were cancelling our Montreal reservation (for that day) due to some “unavoidable issues” with our lodging. My husband had to lookup our original reservation as there was no contact information for our Montreal hosts to ask for clarification. After we were “eventually” able to make contact with our hosts they continued to be exceptionally vague as to what happened that caused our reservation to be cancelled. When we asked what happens now that our reservation was null and void – thus, making my ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL FAMILY NOW HOMELESS – our hosts simply advised that we would have to “consult” the Airbnb contracts to determine if we were entitled to a refund if we “chose not to find and use another Airbnb lodging.”

We attempted to ask additional questions and for assistance in locating alternative housing, but our hosts stopped responding to our requests and Airbnb has no direct lines of communication to their corporate headquarters or any legitimate form of customer service or quality control services. We were forced to find what we honestly believe happened to be the last two very over-priced hotel rooms in Montreal that ALL of our extended and immediate family had to share as it also happened to be Canada Day. The situation certainly brought our family together, but in a most uncomfortable and precarious fashion. So, if you are thinking of utilizing Airbnb as lodging for your travels, make sure you have investigated all other options FIRST. I would advise that you especially avoid Host Kick in Montreal on Airbnb as they can cancel on you at the last minute.

Airbnb Theft in Safe Neighbourhood

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Penny wise pound foolish stay. This place is a trap! Don’t stay here if you don’t want to be robbed. At first glance, the apartment looks secure. Decent neighbourhood and location, locked access to the block only by residents, and a double lock door gave us a false sense of security. While we were out, someone broke in and stole all our valuables. We had bought high value items amounting to 7000 euros. Despite locking the door and windows, the thief broke in with no sign of forced entry. He was a true professional, or it was an inside job. Besides stealing our stuff, we also found a knife in the bathroom, left by the thieves. Thank goodness we didn’t come back during the break in.

Throughout the stay, we didn’t meet the owner (Ben). Only his assistant, Gabi, who helped with check in, and his cleaner lady. Both have keys to access the apartment. After the incident, the owner did not bother to meet us, check his apartment, nor lodge a police report with us. Talk about being unhelpful. In my conversations and texts with Ben, all he could offer was an apology whilst constantly defending his Gabi and the cleaner as innocent. In conclusion, this seemingly safe looking apartment is a tourist trap where thieves can simply walk in and out with all our belongings without leaving a trace. The apartment looks nothing like the nice photos, and the owner, although quick to respond with smooth words in good times, offers no help nor takes any responsibility when a crime takes place in his apartment. I hope no one has to go through the ordeal we had to endure. We left a thorough review of the host. It was up on his Airbnb page for a week and unfortunately I received an email from Airbnb today saying it “includes sensitive, personally identifiable information” and has been removed. Airbnb didn’t even enquire about the knife in the bathroom!

Airbnb: Unreliable, Unscrupulous Company

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Airbnb is a terrible, negligent company with awful customer service. I booked an Airbnb in Italy three months prior to my arrival. My credit card was charged and confirmation emails were received. The day of check in, I emailed my host, who said he had no record of my reservation. I called Airbnb and discovered they screwed up the billing and reservation; they never communicated to the host that I paid. They admitted it was 100% their fault. I spent four hours dealing with issues (stress, international phone calls, shoddy internet, unhelpful Airbnb hotline, seven-month pregnant wife, etc.); finally, I was forced to book an expensive hotel as a last minute alternative since everything else was booked.

Airbnb had awful customer service; their offer of compensation was severely inadequate for the additional time and costs that their screw up caused me; they still have not refunded my credit card. Do NOT use this company. If they can’t handle something as basic as this then how can you trust them?

From a Loyal Airbnb Customer to a Duped One

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This is my sad Airbnb story. A group of friends and I planned a trip to Amsterdam and Ibiza. We found the house we wanted on Airbnb; the host was a registered user with good reviews from the apartment, so apparently everything was normal. We contacted the host through the site, who responded to our request via email where we exchanged information to confirm the reservation. We went back to the property page, to proceed with the booking, and once again everything seemed normal… or the site was a perfect copy of that on Airbnb. Maybe even an original, because everything was the same: logos, fonts, layout, etc.

I proceeded with the reservation and confirmed the same details, then I got an email from airbnb@reply-booking.com (again, the same as that sent by Airbnb) to pay for the booking to a bank in the UK, HSBC BANK PLC. Unfortunately, once the payment was made, we received a new email confirming that the host had been transferred the money, and the reservation was ready and secured. The host confirmed by email that Airbnb was informed that he had been paid the booking, and told us that on the day of our arrival we should contact him to arrange delivery of the house keys.

With our start date approaching with no response from the host, we began to get suspicious that we were victims of fraud. We contacted Airbnb, who just informed us that there was no reservation for that number, and asked for our payment information and other documents; we sent everything to them. More than 48 hours have now passed and there has been no response from Airbnb, which forced me to make a complaint on their Facebook page. By a sheer miracle, this made them send me an email immediately, saying I had been defrauded. They apologized but said they can not do anything. It is amazing how a company the size of Airbnb does not help victims of these crimes, nor take responsibility for a scam that happened on their website with a registered user, using their platform to catch victims!

The first instance of fraud is accomplished on the real Airbnb website; they should take responsibility for it. I did not ask Airbnb to give me back the money I lost, but at least to improve their customer service and provide information on the host, including how he was able to defraud me. I believe it is an inside job from someone who works at Airbnb along with another person outside the company, because the initial contact is always done on the Airbnb site, where they “fish” their victims.

Airbnb Rejected my Claim and Lost a Good Host

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I hate to admit that I have been in the real estate business at least ten years longer than the customer representative with whom I dealt has been on this earth. So I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised that this person handled my damage claim like a snarky little kid. My “guest” decided that he didn’t have to do dishes during the week of his stay, and that he didn’t have to follow the House Rules, which are clearly posted next to the wifi codes (so I know they will see them). Here is one of the brilliant reasons used to turn down my damage claim: “There wasn’t a printed invoice from the housekeeper, so you must have made up the extra charge.”

She came up with this decision despite six pictures of the filth this guy left behind. I don’t know of a housekeeper or house cleaner that gives me a printed invoice. This young lady just called me a liar. I have 34 reservations totaling about $60,000 in income. I immediately removed all of my listings from this website. I refuse to reward idiots like this who ignore the evidence and make the leap that I must be the bad guy. Unfortunately for her, I’m not, and I’m also not stupid. You can find me and my properties on coastalsalesandrentals.com and vrbo.com. If you wonder why you can’t find a decent property on Airbnb, now you know! The picture above is just a taste of what Airbnb considered to be “acceptable”. Good luck with that.

Awful Experience with Airbnb in Corsica

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We had planned our trip to Corsica months in advance and decided to rent on Airbnb. Two weeks before our arrival, the host canceled our reservation and it was impossible to find anything. Airbnb’s compensation was ridiculous (only 160 euros for 5 people renting a house at 2000 euros!) which didn’t allow us to get ANYTHING else on the website (either crazy expensive or not available anymore). We tried to contact customer service multiple times in vain, and the only time we had Airbnb on the phone we got asked to do as many requests as possible. They said they would call the next day to see how our situation progressed… which they DIDN’T. Nobody has helped at all (and as stated in their website policy they do specify they will help!). We searched nonstop by ourselves for three days to find a place that we ended up having to pay 1000 euros more because of that (and had to pay with another account because we didn’t have this amount!) and surprise… the 160 euros compensation coupon didn’t EVEN work! We tried to talk to customer support again to discuss the situation and nobody replied. Eventually, they REFUSED to talk. We believe this is EXTREMELY scandalous and a breach of contract from Airbnb. We would like Airbnb to reimburse the difference that we had to pay to get a new place.

Really Bad Experience in Miami Beach

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We booked nine days in a 2-suite apartment at the W Hotel in Luxury Rentals Miami Beach through Airbnb. We paid and expected to be in a 5-star hotel in Miami Beach, a 2-room apartment costing more than $670 per day for nine days. However, they didn’t explain the real conditions. First of all, they were 30 minutes late for check in. Then the conditions were laid out: we did not have the right to have room service, dine-in service, concierge service, and bellman service to be paid on our bill at the end of our stay (we were traveling with a child and babysitter; they had to carry cash with them everywhere and everything had to be paid on the spot).

They charged us $10 for each box we received from Internet shopping. There were no hotel services available to us at all and we were not informed beforehand. We would have preferred to pay a little more if necessary to have a real vacation with service. The apartment had a problem with the air conditioning and at the time Miami was ridiculously hot. The door would not lock, and there were no washing machines. The hotel had problems as well: they picked up the wrong bags. Instead of the garbage we asked to have picked up, they took our laundry bags full of clothing. Of course they never came back and lost them. The pool and beach service was very slow and crowded; a DJ was playing loud music all the time. This was definitely not a place to spend time with family and relax.

No Keys to Enter, No Host to Call

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I contracted a flat in London. I was not that thrilled that I had to get the keys at a nearby pub but I dealt with it. When I showed up at the pub – along with a friend who was not at all comfortable with renting from Airbnb in the first place – I was told: Guess what? The keys aren’t here! They usually are here all the time, but they are not here now! I then texted AND called the host. No response. We had plans arranged a few hours later, but that was a non-factor at this point. I went to the apartment building where the flat was located and began ringing each doorbell for each flat. One young man answered, and he was so kind – he managed to track down the host and the host’s girlfriend was able to get us into the flat. So just our first day was basically ruined, but what bothered me more was that there was never any contact from the host – no “sorry about that” or anything. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get a “request for review” for that visit so I didn’t give the host a bad review (since I wasn’t asked!). It’s all water under the bridge now – it happened in October 2015 – but I just had (if you can believe it) an even worse experience, so I now decided I should report this other terrible experience. My advice: ALWAYS bring a number where you can contact Airbnb with a problem. I had the host’s number only – and was later reprimanded for not contacting Airbnb itself (even though they make it as difficult as possible to find an actual phone number to reach them!)