Tag Archives: abandoned by airbnb

Host’s Refusal to Help Leaves us Homeless in Barcelona

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My husband and I went through a horrible experience via an Airbnb listing near Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Without any description in their listing, the host notified us in person that they actually lived 60 kilometers (37.3 miles) away from the listing upon our arrival and warned us it will be difficult for them to come on-site to resolve issues.

If we had been aware of this, I would have chosen a different option from the very beginning. Unfortunately, we accidentally locked ourselves outside without a key on the last day of our stay as we were still jet lagged and rushed to a tour site we booked in advance. To note, the door automatically locks when it’s closed so we had no chance to re-enter the property once the door was closed.

We contacted the host immediately once we found out about the situation at 4:46 PM. The host responded at the moment saying they weren’t sure if they would be able to come and help because it was too far of a drive for them to come on-site. We were asked to wait for them to find a solution so we went to a coffee shop near the listing to wait for an update.

However, we didn’t receive any responses for nearly four hours even we sent them messages requesting updates on the issue. Meanwhile, we offered them financial compensation for their time lost if they could help. After a long wait with no updates, we were not sure if the host would actually come and help. Since we had a reservation at a restaurant in the Gothic Quarter, we had to leave for dinner.

At 8:50 PM, the host finally got back to us and asked us where we were and he didn’t convey to us when he would be at the apartment. We just placed the order in the restaurant and couldn’t leave at the moment so we asked if he could meet us near the restaurant or let us know when he would be at the apartment to meet. We received no response from the host again.

We later on received a message from Airbnb support notifying us if we didn’t meet the host in 15 minutes, we would lose access to the listing for the night. It was impossible for us to make it back within the timeframe (we needed at least 30-40 minutes since we need to walk 10 minutes from the restaurant to find a taxi and it took about another 20-30 minutes to get back to the listing) so we asked the host if he could wait slightly longer.

Again, we received no message from the host but another message from Airbnb support stating the host had waited longer than 30 minutes and had to leave. We tried to explain the situation to Airbnb support personnel multiple times but she kept saying the host had warned us and tried their best to help so it was our responsibility not being able to get in. She stopped responding to us afterwards.

We didn’t receive any information directly from the host in the meantime besides a confirmation on the scheduled check out time at 8:00 the next morning. We ended up wandering in the street for two hours at midnight trying to find a hotel to stay for the night. Without passports and since most hotels were fully booked by then, we were almost left to be homeless for the night.

We are extremely frustrated at both the host and Airbnb support personnel. Airbnb’s terms and conditions state that “Before and during the Experience, Hosts should be available, or make a third-party available, in order to try, in good faith, to resolve any Guest issues.” Being unavailable for five hours and leaving the guest unaware of the situation cannot be considered as “good faith”.

As an accommodation service, what Airbnb does is to throw people onto the streets of a foreign country without passports in the middle of the night. Sorry to say but this is totally against the ideas they have been promoting over the years.

Airbnb Host Trying to Drug and Rape me

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Please be super alert. I checked into an Airbnb listing without any special indications or suspicions. The host invited me for a drink. I kindly took it and the drink tasted salty somehow. The next thing I realized, the host was putting a comforter over me… and I couldn’t remember anything in between.

I tried to jumped out of the bed, but I couldn’t; I felt quite dizzy. Therefore I said nonstop: “Please get out of my room.” The host somehow left, and I checked my underpants. They looked and felt weird. It felt like someone had cleaned them, since they smelled new, but I had been wearing them the whole day and waking around. They should have smelled sweaty but they didn’t.

Therefore I called the police straight away and they took me to the local hospital. Somehow they told me they didn’t find anything strange nor signs of sexual penetration, and they couldn’t identify any medication or drug if the host ever used one on me. The police took the host for questioning, held him for less than 48 hours, and then let him go. No charges or anything was filed since they told me there was not enough evidence to hold the Airbnb host.

I also called Airbnb. They obviously tried to deny and evade this topic. Soon I found I couldn’t access the profile page of the host, nor could I access the messages or whatever information there was about this Airbnb host. Airbnb told me the host delisted his profile and I had no right to see it. If I knew that, I would have taken screenshots.

I’m really at shock what to do. The host took a copy of my driver’s license and other family address information. Later, Airbnb told me the hosts do have the right to collect my information if it’s in accordance with local laws.

Anyway, I still couldn’t figure out what’s going on…. I’m super angry, pissed, and lost as to what to do. I tried to kill myself a few times due to this situation knowing I was raped and that but couldn’t get Airbnb to help. My consultant told me to share the information and here I am. Hope it helps.

Airbnb Automated Cancellation Problem

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I made a reservation through Airbnb for my upcoming spring break along with my friends and booked it at the start of January. The policy stated two divided payments, but when I checked back on March 11th, five days before the check-in date, it was stated that my reservation was automatically canceled.

I tried calling Airbnb and they said that the second part of my payment didn’t go through, so they tried to reach out to me through my email address. The problem here was that I’ve never received an email regarding this problem. So the first option they offered me was that they were going to contact the host of my reservation and talk with them to refund the first part of the transaction and make me re-reserve the place for the exact same date with same amount of money.

Since it was hard for me to find another place within five days and I didn’t want to lose out the money, I requested they contact the host. However, they came back to me saying that the host already was filled with another guest staying at his/her place so it was hard for the host to give me the refund.

I decided to talk with Airbnb about why their notification wasn’t delivered. They investigated the issue, but later came back to me saying that they sent out the notification. I double-checked all of my emails, but wasn’t able to find any single mail that was sent from Airbnb. I tried to ask them to compensate me for this issue because clearly, I did nothing wrong and I was the one who was going to lose out on approximately a thousand dollars without any clear reasons behind it.

It wasn’t my fault that Airbnb’s notification didn’t reach me, and so I asked them “wasn’t there another way to reach out to me to help make the second payment go through?” All they replied was that all they can offer me is a 100-dollar coupon for my next stay, and they just decided to close this case by themselves.

I was so outraged at their customer service and ended up losing 1000 dollars without doing anything wrong. Is this something normal that happens? Why isn’t Airbnb being responsible for the mistakes that they clearly made?

Our Private Home Rented Without Our Knowledge

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We were in the process of arranging to rent a portion only – no pets allowed – of our holiday house on Airbnb with the owner-operator, who had access to the house. We had not completed the necessary renovations, most importantly a locking door to separate our private area from the rental area. We left New Zealand with the plan on pause until our return. To our horror, when we returned, we learned that our entire home had been rented out repeatedly starting just after we left. Numerous adults, children and pets were in our home, free to go through all of our personal belongings. The house was infested with fleas, and hundreds of dollars of new linens and the TV decoder were missing. The manager denied everything, but did compensate us for the missing items and flea treatments. So… all this person had to do was tick a box on Airbnb saying they had permission to rent. This is outrageous. Airbnb’s reply? “Really sorry, but not our problem.” How can this be legal?

Airbnb Hosts: If you want to get paid, beware

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I am a multi-host with Airbnb and operate in Palm Cove, Queensland as a fully qualified real estate agent. I recently had two bookings, one in Palm Cove and the other in Sanur, Bali. Both payouts were due very close together. When no payment was received I checked my account only to find that somebody had hacked the Airbnb page and added their details as the default payout party. Total money lost: just under $2000, of which $1500 belongs to my clients and I have to honour.

I immediately contacted Airbnb after changing my default details and password. I was told that the Airbnb computer system was secure and that they had no idea how this could have happened. I was told my case was being referred to their Trust & Safety Team to investigate, and that I would be contacted very shortly. Well over a week later, and almost daily calls by myself to Airbnb, I have yet to get a call back from anybody, despite promise after promise to do so, and “Of course, we are so sorry this has happened.”

I have asked to speak to the Trust & Safety team to see what they are doing about my money. I was told today that the Trust & Safety Team works in the back offices and they don’t have phones. Well I kid you not, I nearly wet my pants I was laughing so much.

If that weren’t bad enough, here is stage two of Airbnb at its best. I was invited to join Airbnb’s Plus Programme where they send a party to your nominated property to inspect and do a photo shoot. This, according to Airbnb, will elevate your listing to a preferred status whereby potential guests will be convinced to book your property because you are a trusted host whose property has been inspected by their professional team.

I put forward the two properties Airbnb had chosen from my portfolio. A date was set for each property, and here are Airbnb’s requirements: schedule your home visit; choose a date and time for an Airbnb partner to visit your home in person. The visit will take 1-3 hours and includes an inspection and photoshoot. You or someone who maintains your property should be there the entire time.

You know what’s coming next, don’t you? Of course Airbnb did not turn up to either property to either prearranged time and date, and I had to pay my staff for sitting on their backsides watching TV waiting for Airbnb to turn up. So once again I have to contact Airbnb to get a credit for $236 which they charged for these two non-visits. Then again, they are oh so sorry for what has happened and will arrange a credit.

Now I know you are going to ask, did they credit you? You already know the answer. Of course not. “Please go away and stop bothering us” is the impression you get when you ring and get put on hold time after time after time. For today’s call I was on hold for 14 minutes. I am sure they were just hoping I would go away. They are like insurance companies who receive a claim, and adopt the declined declined declined response, until they realize you mean business.

Today I have reached the end of my tether. I have been told that the Trust & Safety Team does not have phones and when I requested to speak to a Public Relations Officer, I was told Airbnb does not have one. I just got the round robin treatment of “Well, we cannot do anything from here as we are a call centre.” I asked to be directed to a phone number to speak to somebody who can actually act with responsibility. “I am so sorry, we cannot give out other numbers as we are only a ‘call centre.'”

Time to go public and tell the news media. I know they just love this juicy type of story to get stuck into Airbnb.

Edinburgh Fringe Hell After Last-Minute Cancellation

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I booked a central location for myself and eight actors for the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe on October 13th, 2017. All was good until four days before the largest arts festival in the world, I got a message from Airbnb saying my reservation had been cancelled: no apology, no reason, and a mere £100 compensation to find somewhere else for nine people, four days before the festival.

I phoned the host who told me Airbnb hadn’t charged festival rates so I had to pay an extra £1,600 if I was to stay. I then phoned Airbnb who constantly read from a script, thus never giving me a clear answer. They constantly put me on hold and hung up on me on five occasions, only for me to go through the whole process again.

Three hours later, at 2:30 in the morning, I finally got a call from a case manager who told me not to worry and they would find me somewhere. They also told me to keep looking myself. Two days passed and I didn’t hear a peep from them. This was at a time when accommodation for so many at a festival for my cast number was constantly getting rarer and more expensive. I finally (and very luckily) found a place costing an extra £650 out of town, meaning I also had to pay for each cast members travel expenses.

I emailed the host saying how disgraceful they had acted and they replied immediately saying I could still have the room at the original price… too little too late. They informed me it was Airbnb who had made the cancellation with no explanation to them and to me. Throughout the Fringe Festival, on top of performing in two shows and producing and directing one, I emailed Airbnb on four occasions with no response.

After the festival I phoned once more to be told that the case manager wasn’t responding but my case is of urgency so they will find me a new case manager who will phone me in 24 to 48 hours. Still no response. I contacted Trading Standards who told me to email them saying they had clearly breached my consumer rights. I emailed Airbnb; two days later there was still no response. I phoned them and spoke to someone yesterday who said my case is ‘urgent priority’ and she will continue to pursue my case manager and let me know by the end of her eight-hour shift or today.

I still haven’t heard a thing. This spat between the host and Airbnb should not have affected me as I paid the said amount nine months in advance. They should have honoured this but instead have made me suffer both mentally and physically on top of all the other work I had going on at the festival. They ruined my experience as I could no longer afford to network and eat as I had planned due to my losses. They have also wasted a lot of my time.

We’re Heading to Where Airbnb Offers Nothing

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My relationship with Airbnb has become more and more rocky as I have observed their tactics. I have watched them drop off lower price units that bolstered supply (and thus brought average costs down) trying to justify the move on the basis of quality control. More recently I have seen them shut complaint cases after providing a poor response – with no opportunity to see if the complaint response is useful – and more recently still shut cases without even responding. Either through negligence or design, I am currently ring-fenced.
The attached is a very recent complaint that has been closed with no solution provided.  I have lost the last three property opportunities due to this.  As an account holder where ‘legal consideration’ has passed, Airbnb is contractually obliged to afford a duty of care.  So many fundamental things are failing such as automatic acceptance of bank statement uploads and the promise of a couple of transactions to hit said bank account to be subsequently identified to finalize verification. This would suggest really bad glitches in areas such as banking and security or purposeful black balling techniques.
Either way, they selected the wrong customer for such fun and games because I have OCD when it comes to seeking remedies.  I am a god with a bone when it comes to man’s search for truth and justice. The good news is that my organization has a competing app on the horizon and if my situation is not unique there is a ready made queue emerging for the new services.  Thank goodness for Airbnb Hell as a platform.  I hope this gets resolved before the “open letter to CEO” phase.

Airbnb Guest Chases Me into the Basement

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A guest decided to throw a raging party in my 90210 property on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Drugs and illegal activity with minors was going on. I contacted the police and they told me the reservation needed to be canceled immediately. Since the reservation was in progress I was unable to cancel it on my end; I had to call Airbnb.

Upon calling Airbnb, they could hear how aggressive the guest was, they could hear that there were over fifty people in a listing that was supposed to have one person, and they could hear the threats and the yelling. However, they requested that I take photographs for documentation. I let the agent on the phone know that me taking photographs of these people conducting illegal activity would not put me in a very safe position.

I locked myself in my apartment and tried to talk to the representative from there. They told me without any photographs, they were unable to help me, even though they were aware of the situation. I once again informed the agent that this would put me in a very dangerous situation.

Having no choice, I went ahead and proceeded to take photos of the party going on. The intoxicated guests were so upset with me, they chased me into a basement. I locked the door of the basement, grabbed my two children at 2:00 AM who were sleeping in bed, and let them out through a window. With nothing in my possession, I took a taxi cab to a motel and stayed the night there with my two children on a school night.

Even though Airbnb promised to compensate me for the hotel room and the taxi ride, they offered it to me in the form of travel credit which expired, because I never travel using Airbnb. My situation was the turning point situation that made Airbnb change their policy to stop requiring photographs of guests as documentation when the situation is dangerous. Bad things happen on Airbnb, and I understand that. It’s the way Airbnb continuously handles this types of situations that is extremely dangerous and upsetting.

I recently had a guest kick down my door after getting drunk. They agreed to pay for about 40% of the damage as that’s what they figured it was worth. Airbnb compensated me nothing and held me responsible for future cancellations since I didn’t have a door. I was told it was my responsibility to make sure that I had a door in working order and would be held responsible for any penalties and cancellations for not being able to host guests because I didn’t have a door.

It’s three months later, and Airbnb still refuses to to explain why they won’t compensate me. Their house guarantee is complete baloney. They’ve lost way more money with the cancellations, because I refuse to continue hosting on this platform until I’m paid back for a guest kicking down my door. There’s no reason why I should not be paid, especially if the guest is agreeing to pay for it.

I highly suggest if you have a guest who is cooperating, take money outside of the Airbnb platform against their policy. They cannot even uphold their own policies there’s no point in cooperating with them whatsoever I sincerely hope this company catches a huge class action lawsuit. I’ve had over 3000 reservations as a host with Airbnb and refused to give them any more business.

Reserved Eight Months in Advance, Host Canceled One Month out

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I booked a condo eight months before an event I attend every year. Usually I book a hotel, but I thought it might be nice to have a kitchen and an extra room for my son. I booked early because the event is very popular. Since I wanted to be within walking distance of the venue, and I wanted to have a place to leave my car, I knew that lodging with those qualities would be in high demand.

Just over a month before the event, the host canceled, as his property is not zoned for short-term use. His last message said that “Airbnb says they will help you find a new place to stay.” That “help” has so far consisted of phone support sending me other Airbnb listings that are miles from the venue, that don’t have parking, or that are five times the price of my original listing for the dates I want because, again, it is a popular event.

Here I am, a month out, all the hotels within walking distance of the venue are now booked solid, and the ones farther away are 30% more expensive than they would have been when I booked the condo. Airbnb is offering no “help”: no compensation, nothing. Lesson learned: I will leave lodging to the lodging professionals from now on. No more Airbnb, ever.

Airbnb is a Cheap Company That Won’t Reimburse

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I recently booked a stay at an Airbnb in the center of Paris for two nights. When I got to the Airbnb in the middle of the night, I was unable to get into the Airbnb because the key was missing. I later discovered that the host knowingly did not leave the key for me and said it was because the cleaning was not finished; however, oddly enough, the reservation was confirmed by both the host and Airbnb itself and I was expecting a place to stay during my time in Paris.

When I was unable to contact the host when no key was found, I contacted Airbnb, who then requested that I book a hotel for the two nights and they would refund us for the bookings as well us reimburse us for the hotels. Since it was 1:30 AM in the center of Paris during the summer, no hotels were available and I was left stranded and on the streets along with all the homeless people camping outside.

Airbnb assured me that they would try to find a hotel and at one point even told me that they found one and were processing everything, but about an hour later told me they had nothing. This forced me to go out and walk hotel to hotel in the middle of the night looking for some type of shelter. After about six hotels and begging, I was denied by the sixth and left to stand outside still on the phone trying (with no luck) to get a room from Airbnb when finally the concierge came out and made a deal with us to give us a dirty room that another person had just left, but only if I paid full in cash. This left me to run down the street to a random ATM to withdrawal 200 Euros just so that I wouldn’t be left out homeless on the streets by Airbnb.

When I was finally able to take care of this issue, Airbnb assured me that I would be reimbursed for both nights at the hotel. The case manager then went on to explain that she would be in contact with us again the next day to book us a hotel. The next morning I called Airbnb and spoke with another agent to confirm that I wouldn’t be left stranded on the streets again. I was then notified that no hotel had been booked and that the case manager would be the only one allowed to handle the case. It was unsure of whether or not she would be coming in that day. I was then told to book whatever hotel I found available and Airbnb would reimburse me when I sent the invoices.

Therefore, I went on to take care of the issue myself and was able to find a room at the Shangri La Hotel, a high end hotel, that actually had a few rooms left because of the high cost. I booked the room, checked in, and everything was fine again. Finally at about 8:30 PM, my case manager from Airbnb finally called me to confirm that everything was okay. I told her that I had found a room at the Shangri La Hotel and had checked in. She confirmed that I would be reimbursed.

After I checked out of the room, I sent her invoices for both the nights and she confirmed that Airbnb would be reimbursing me 1,713.80 Euros (the cost of the hotels for both the nights combined). She then gave me a call back after about 30 minutes and informed me that she, in fact, was not going to be able to fully reimburse me and stated that Airbnb had said that they would only reimburse me for the first night and not the second (which they did not). They then continued negotiating that they would only reimburse me 50% for the second night. When I questioned her about why this was never stated, she then went on to suddenly change that 50% and say that she would only be able to give us $200 for the second night.

After arguing with her for a while, because she had no knowledgeable answer or power, I asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred over. The supervisor then went on to tell me that they were going to reimburse me $450 for the two nights; they suddenly changed their reimbursement for the second night from 100%, to 50%, to 200 Euros, to 250 Euros just because they didn’t expect the expense of booking a hotel last minute in the center of Paris during the high season. They now refuse to reimburse me for the expense of the hotel for the second day and are using a loophole of saying that they didn’t say the word “full” for the reimbursement. Everything is recorded on the call and they had confirmed the amount of 1,713.80 Euros they were going to refund as well.