Tag Archives: airbnb bad host

Four People Kicked out of Airbnb: Unacceptable Service

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Where should I start? First, the listing stated the apartment had four bedrooms; it actually had three bedrooms and a couch in the living room. The pictures were not very accurate; the apartment was a lot older looking than what I expected. Those are just the minor issues. The major problems came into play when the host started accusing my guest and I of smoking and drinking on the premises. I explained to him that no one in my group smokes. Our host had the handyman on the premises spying on us. I just thought it was some weird old man walking around fixing things but no, my host told us someone complained about too much luggage being brought into the apartment. Then he would call all hours of the morning to threaten to cancel my stay if I have more than three guests in the house at once.

Once I asked the host if there was anything we could work out for the fourth person. He told me to get another Airbnb or hotel. So after spending money booking through Airbnb I booked an extra hotel room for one extra guest. He still called me the next day telling me my trip has been cancelled and if I don’t pack up he will call the cops. He also kept reminding me how small of an Airbnb I rented and how he wasn’t going to waste time explaining things over and over. I told him to call the authorities so they could hear my side of this story but of course that was all a bluff.

After exchanging texts and our choice of words over the phone, I simply packed up our belongings and finished our trip in a hotel. I am currently asking for a refund and I won’t stop until my case is further looked into. I don’t want to pull the race card but I really couldn’t think of any other reason he treated us this way. I travel a lot and I have used Airbnb before and we have never experienced anything like this. When all this was happening I was looking over the cancellation policy and it highly favors the host.

I will never stand for this treatment, not when I spent my hard-earned money. I will take every step I need to until something is done because this is unacceptable. I have contacted the Airbnb corporate office because nothing can be handled through the website; all they do is email and send you their terms. I promise I couldn’t make all this up if I wanted to. I am a very easy going young man but I will not be taken advantage of. I hope this review is seen by the right people. I have attached receipts and a confirmation showing I booked another hotel to avoid any further issues for the next two night. My trip was from April 27-30, but I only stayed one night at my Airbnb before I was kicked out. I will not stop until I am refunded.

Negative Review of Crazy Host Deleted by Airbnb

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This was truly the most negative Airbnb experience we ever had. I say this as someone who has hosted 300+ people and stayed in about ten Airbnb’s over the past six years. We stayed here for 2.5 months but we should have left earlier; we failed to notice early warning signs of bad hosting and I wish we read his other negative reviews better. We were hoping things would improve, but they only became worse.

To give you an idea: three weeks without a toilet (needed to flush using a bucket), broken air conditioner, every day there was new cat pee on the balcony, which prevented us from opening the door (we got tired after cleaning each day), lightbulbs spontaneously burning and incorrectly installed lights (made by the host) that caused electrical problems and electric shocks from the washing machine (a fire hazard), many rusty nails sticking out of the hardwood floor that ruined all of our socks (and hurt our feet), description says “A/C” but there’s only air conditioning in the bedrooms, a check-out fee (an early check-in fee is understandable, but a check-out fee during the daytime?), and lying about heating in the apartment – we had to wear winter jackets when autumn had just started.

The wifi didn’t work on my phone and the host said: “It’s working on my phone; nobody has ever had wifi issues in my apartments.” We read in at least five reviews that his other places had wifi issues too. The windows leaked when it rained, and there was a nightclub that was open until 7:00 AM and was very loud (I specifically asked the host about this; he just lied about it). The worst thing, however, was both hosts. In early messages they were friendly, but this changed as soon as they received payment – their tone soon became sarcastic and at times even offensive.

The very first day the 25+ year old air conditioner broke down, it was 90+ degrees out. The host refused to repair it. In the end they even wanted us to pay for repairing the flush of the 35-year-old toilet by saying we broke it. According to reviews of other guests and according to the plumber the toilet has been having problems months before we arrived. They knew about this but still tried to charge us.

We tried to solve some of the problems with the host and Nina at first. They were never helpful (at best) and at times even rude (at worst). Looking at how badly they dealt with the air conditioner, the nightclub, and the toilet and wifi issues we noticed we couldn’t expect much from them, so we stopped asking. Later the host said, “Why you didn’t ask me?” Well, we did notify them several times, but they just chose to ignore us.

The review above was deleted by Airbnb, because we mentioned other reviews. Why don’t they then remove that one sentence? Does this happen often? I wonder how many negative reviews Airbnb deletes on a yearly basis based on this. After the review was live for a very short time, the host even sent me this: “How can you be so repulsive? The lowest kind of human behavior… when did I not answer your problems? We constantly attended to your requests! You need to go to a hotel, not an apartment.”

This only confirms how crazy he was. While they never ever attended to the issues, this message comes on top of everything that happened. I need to say again that I was very understanding and even kind during our conversations, being a former host myself, but this host was completely uncooperative. We read some negative reviews about this host but wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt; as a former host I know how unreasonable guests can be. I now wish we didn’t. The least Airbnb can do is publish our review and warn future guests.

Airbnb Host Left us on the Side of the Road at Midnight

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We stayed at The Art Shack in Salt Ash, Australia between April 28-30. Our main purpose of this stay was accommodation for the Groovin the Moo festival. On arrival, the state of the house was disgusting, with the kitchen bench scattered with old food and surrounded by flies. On Saturday night we returned from the festival on a bus at 11:30 PM. We informed our host, Deborah, that we would be home around 12:00 AM, and also informed her when we had gotten on the bus. She had told us that she had not locked away her German Shepard guard dog and it would be unsafe to enter the property without her being there. At 10:30 PM she told us in a text that she was out to dinner and she would be home around 12:00 AM, so we patiently waited in the Caltex service station across the road because it was nine degrees and we had casual day wear clothing on.

At 11:45 PM we called Deborah and informed her we were across the road at the service station waiting, as the dog was patrolling the yard and there was no way past him. At 11:55 PM she texted us and said she was “coming” and would be there in thirty minutes. At midnight, the service station shut down and the employee told us we had to leave, so we went back outside into the cold and tried to huddle up on the side of Nelsons Road, a 90-kph zone. At this point we were exhausted, afraid and freezing. By 12:45 AM there was no sign of Deborah, so we called her again. We asked where they were because we were afraid and cold. She told us they hadn’t left yet, as the guy she was seeing was playing the pokies and drunk and she was afraid to ask him to go.

She told one of our friends to put the phone on speaker and hold it up to the dog, but the dog went berserk and tried to bite us through the gate. At this point she told us she would be asking him to leave or leaving herself right now to let us in, and she would call us back in a couple of minutes. Nine minutes later we hadn’t heard back, so I called again. She told me that she was definitely on her way home, however she needed to stop for petrol, but she was coming as quick as she could. While talking to her, I could hear the man she was with talking about how stupid we were for not being able to get past the dog. At 1:06 AM she called us and told us that her house mate was at home the whole time, and that she could get the dog away for us and we could go through the front door, and the call ended. Five minutes later we saw her housemate Kathy open the front door, she came out and started leading the dog inside, taking him around to the back room. She then came and gave us the all clear to come inside, and had a giggle about what had happened.

Once we were finally in our room and in bed, I was so cold that I was having trouble breathing. We heard Deborah and the guy come home at around 1:25 AM. We could overhear him with a raised voice continuing on about the situation, and Deborah tying to calm him down. We felt incredibly uncomfortable and unsafe going to sleep. Before we slept we received a message from Deborah saying “So sorry, sleep in till late AM.”

We ended up leaving as soon as we woke up and started our eight-hour drive home completely sleep deprived. While on the way home we took a closer look at the reviews and saw this is not the first time this has happened. A  couple had been kicked out by a drunk host at 12:00 AM onto the side of the road and left with nowhere to go. The fact that Airbnb allows people to host in an environment such as this, let alone with a vicious dog on site, is insane. I’m glad that we are older and it wasn’t a family with young children as I don’t know how they would have held up in the cold.

Abusive Hosts: Forced out of Home, Police Involved

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I’m posting this because the hosts removed the original room listing, and created a new account with a new title. This house is located in Geneva, Switzerland. I think it’s important for anyone renting this place to know what the hosts are really like, and reviews on Airbnb are the cornerstone of the website. Here is my review that was approved by Airbnb on the original listing:

I am a quiet and clean person, and have a professional career. I liked that this place had a good location, with an eight-minute walk from the house to a main tram (tram 12). The grocery store was also across the street from the tram stop. However, if you don’t mind that there are many “house rules” imposed on you suddenly and without prior agreement such as:

  • You do not get a private bathroom as indicated in the posting. You will share the bathroom with two people, the host couple. If their 25-year-old son returns to the house with his girlfriend, they will also share the bathroom. And sometimes the mother of the host will live in the house and also share the bathroom with you.
  • Your room is part of their storage room. The entire closet wall, three of the four drawers of the cabinet, and one of the two drawers in the table are used by the host family
  • As part of their “house rules”, you cannot take a shower after 10:00 PM
  • You will not be allowed to use the washroom when they have a party on Saturday. However, the only day they allow you to do your laundry is on Saturday.
  • The host family refuses to give you your room key, while the remaining family members of the house have door keys on each of their rooms. They can also freely enter your room without your permission.
  • You need to be prepared that the washroom lock can be opened anytime at the discretion of the host.

My original rental agreement was from October 2016 to March 2017. However, the host family gave me a short one-day notice to terminate the Airbnb rental agreement for not following their “house rules”, which were imposed suddenly. I even had to call the police for help, in order to stop the host family from abusing my right to close my bedroom door for the remainder of the night. When the police came, I was forced to move all my belongings to a basement room, that is dark, damp, and dusty, and which was currently occupied by one of their sons. The host only gave me half an hour to remove all my belongings from the house the next day. I was forced to live in a hostel for the next two nights, until I was able to find my next accommodation. I was so frustrated that I paid such a large amount of money, but was unable to receive the amenities that I was told I would be given. If you don’t mind these minor examples listed, out of many more examples, this is a good place for you to stay.

Physically Attacked by Host, Still Waiting for Airbnb Response

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After complaining to my host that the swimming pool, described as “private” in the listing, was being used by their grown children and their friends (five kids between the age of 10 and 20 throwing a ball back-and-forth in a ten-meter  long pool is not exactly my definition of “private”), our host screamed at us to “get the f*** out of there” and ended up hitting my husband in the throat. We had to call the cops to be able to get out of there as the owner was blocking our car.

Airbnb’s reaction? I’m still waiting. It’s been three weeks. I had paid in advance for three nights, and spent only one there. I think it’s fair to ask to be reimbursed considering that we were forcibly kicked out, but apparently Airbnb considers it a sound business practice for hosts to pocket money in advance and then kick people out. Their lack of a reaction suggests so at least. In contrast: our host asked us for money, but did not have any grounds to do so. This complain was managed within days. So… what’s more important to Airbnb, people’s safety or money?

Toronto Host Gives us Runaround for Six Hours

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We asked for an early check in and our host said it would be fine at least three days before check in. As we were driving she asked for an estimate as to what time we’d arrive because her previous guests asked for a late check out. We arrived about an hour before check in to drop our luggage and leave. That’s when we heard a key enter the lock to the outer door and a man walked in, said “sorry,” and disappeared. We were scared as he opened the door with a key and then was gone when we went out to ask him who he was. So we immediately left and called Airbnb to say we were uncomfortable and wanted to leave with our money back. They said they had to speak with the host and figure out the whole story. At that point we had been driving around for about an hour in another country with all of our stuff in the car, having nowhere to go. They called back saying they were having trouble getting in touch with her and that we should try to go grab something to eat. As we’re eating (now about two hours after the incident) the customer service representative called saying that it was “probably” just the cleaning guy and that we shouldn’t worry and to just go back to the place. No one could tell us definitively that it was a cleaning guy, but it probably was. For all we knew it could’ve been the previous guest who still had a copy of the key and could come in at any time during our three-day stay.

After being hung up on twice and being on hold for about two hours they also said they couldn’t give us a refund; only the host could. We tried to get in touch with her and she said to “go ahead and cancel” to which I replied: “Will we get our money back?” She didn’t reply for another five hours. Airbnb refused to help us, saying they needed to protect their host and they couldn’t take her money as it couldn’t be proven we were in any immediate danger. No one cared that we were not safe and felt uncomfortable and had to barricade the door with the couch just to feel safe; they had to protect their host. To top it all off, after we returned home the host sent an email requesting money saying we checked in early and wasted her time because she was on the phone with Airbnb for 39 minutes. She wasted the entire first day of our vacation and she wants to be compensated. Absolutely the worst customer service I have ever dealt with.

Psycho Airbnb Host Threatens Guest, Demands Cash

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Unfortunately, my experience at Liz’s place has to be added to the list of Airbnb horror stories. First of all, her profile photo was fake, and not a picture of her. That should have been my first warning sign when I checked in. I arrived at her apartment to find it in a state of disrepair. The doorknob to my bedroom was missing; she said a previous Airbnb guest had broken it (scary sign number two). The linens and bed were soiled, and had not been washed from a previous guest’s use. The bedroom was covered with dust. When I tried to shower my first evening in the apartment, the loose glass shower door fell to the floor, nearly shattering and injuring me. Because of the broken shower, I was unable to bathe or shower for the duration of my stay. During the course of my stay, Liz began asking me for cash for various things in her apartment she said were broken (that were already broken when I arrived). One night, she arrived at the apartment drunk at about 2:00 AM, waking me and behaving in a threatening and scary manner. I promptly checked into a hotel the next morning. On top of this, every review I have attempted to write about this experience has been deleted entirely and censored by Airbnb, so that other guests cannot be warned.

Lying, Rude Airbnb Host in East London

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Back in February 2017 I booked Dora’s Airbnb in East London close to an area where I would be meeting friends for a farewell meal and drinks, as I now live in South Korea. A friend and I had decided to stay at an Airbnb to avoid a long and draining journey home. However my friend, who has never used Airbnb, was a bit reluctant. I assured her that I had had several good experiences and it would be fine. After finding Dora’s room online and reading numerous good reviews, I booked one night with her.

She was very nice and explained that she would be able to rent the room. However, ‘a friend’ would be staying in her room so she would be on the sofa that evening. I said this should be fine and when the weekend came, I dropped my stuff at her apartment and proceeded with my farewell evening. Once my friend and I returned to the apartment we got ready for bed incredibly quietly and went to get a glass of water from the kitchen for the night. However, after politely knocking on the door before entering, we heard Dora approach the living room/kitchen door and shout ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING I TOLD YOU I WAS ASLEEP!’

I said I had needed a glass of water as none had been provided in the room (which was advertised). I calmly and quietly got my glass and returned to my room. At this point I felt really uncomfortable having been shouted at like a naughty child for asking for water. My friend also felt uncomfortable and decided we should calmly speak to her before deciding whether to leave early. When we spoke to her, we explained this was an irrational way to act and asked for an apology as we no longer felt welcome. She insisted she did not need to apologise and said if we wanted we leave we should (at 1:00 in the morning).

Deciding to not be treated like this, we left and contacted Airbnb immediately who gave me a full apology and refund. They said they would speak to the host and she would not be able to leave a review as we did not stay the night. A few weeks later, having moved countries, I noticed a horrible review had been posted on my wall from the host, completely twisting the story around to make her look like the victim. I immediately got in contact with Airbnb as she had also said they had given her a full refund for the issue and asked for an explanation of how she had been able to leave a review against me and been able to contact me. They offered very little in the way of an explanation and merely took the review down. We subsequently found out that the ‘friend’ staying in her room that weekend was another guest; she had lied and double booked her home (the guest left a review on the website the day after).

I’m disgusted that hosts feel they have the right to bully people, treat them so badly after taking their money, and are allowed to get away with it. If you are looking for a place to stay in London for a night out I strongly recommend a hotel.

Airbnb House Filled with Potheads, Constant Sleepovers

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Our host did not indicate how many people were living in his house (four people, including him). When we arrived the house was freezing because their idea of comfortable is to sit in the home with jeans and jackets on. Then we thought that the house didn’t have a heater; it did, but they would only turn it on for two hours at night. There was no hot water, just warm water the same temperature as cold water where we come from. The sitting room had nothing, the TV didn’t work, and there was no light. They sat on the couches with their shoes on. Every night they had friends over who would smoke with them and crash on the living room sofa. Every other night they had parties until 3:00 AM and a bunch of people would come and all smoke together, play, and sing music loudly. They would not leave and all of them would sleep in the living room.

The only time we sat with them was the first day, to get to know them. Only one person spoke English. He told us right away that he was going to marry another one of the roommates because she offered him money; he is Italian and she can legally stay in Spain. It was terrible knowing this because our room didn’t have a lock or safe. For safety we had to lock all our valuables in our luggage every day and night. Everybody living in the house was a drug user and the smell of marijuana permeated the whole house everyday. The living room table was filled with marijuana and cigarette ash, as if the house were a drug den.

All their kitchen equipment was in bad condition so we bought our own. They did not have a water boiler so we bought that as well. One day I came to make tea and couldn’t find my mug; they were smoking and using my mug as an ashtray. They showed no remorse and I had to clean it. They did not provide any cabinets in which we could put our supplies and furthermore used our food on more than three occasions even though we told them it was ours. They blamed us for not putting our food in our section of the fridge; mind you these products were not supposed to be in the fridge.

They also kept the cats’ litter box in the small kitchen. At times the litter box wouldn’t be cleaned for two days and the whole kitchen would smell horrible. Furthermore they did not wash their dishes for days and filled the washing area with their dishes; this was why we couldn’t wash our dishes.

Once they could have killed us as well. We came back to the smell of gas and burning everywhere and saw that the pan was on the gas and it had not been turned off. It was possible it had been left like that for more than an hour; smoke was everywhere. We did not speak to anybody throughout our stay and were outside every day. We spent half the day outside trying to avoid their horrible house for the fifteen unfortunate days we had to spend there. Nestor and his roommates are true definition of potheads who have no responsibility or concern about what they do or how they treat their guests. We did not want to write a review, as we thought it was best to just forget about it, but they showed no respect, forcing us to write the truth.

Slander is Acceptable to Airbnb Regardless of the Facts

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My wife and I stayed at this Airbnb in Barcelona with a host who has had rave reviews. My review was also quite positive as we had no complaints. Upon posting my review, I saw what our host, Gloria, had written. Her comments were slanderous fabrications with no basis in fact. What happened is that we left the room early in the day. While we were gone Gloria, without our permission, let a “worker” in the room to do some “repairs.” After the worker had left she smelled smoke. That evening, upon our return, we were confronted by Gloria and accused of smoking in the room. Neither my wife nor I smoke and we were not about to take up smoking at seventy years old. We assured Gloria that we had not smoked and the accusation was false. It was pointed out to her that the fact that there was no smell of smoke before we left for the day or in the evening should be a clue as to who smoked in the room, i.e. the worker. I thought that was the end of it.

When I read her review I was livid as she persisted with the slander and a whole lot of other accusations. Filing a complaint with Airbnb, I was advised by a representative that there was nothing to be done, because a review is a review. My response to Gloria’s review was taken down. The reason was that I shared what Gloria had told us, in great detail, upon arrival in her place. She claimed to be one of twenty-five people in the world with a rare kind of brain tumor. Believing her, I had given her the benefit of a doubt and in my response indicated that Gloria’s rant may be mitigated by the fact that she has brain tumors. Apparently Airbnb decided that a comment on the host’s health condition violated their policy, even though the host herself had gone through excruciating detail telling us her medical history. Confidentiality did not seem to be a concern with her. My protest, a matter of honor, has been ignored. The host’s falsehoods stand while my response has been taken down. Needless to say we will not be staying at Airbnb properties again. My trust in them has been badly shaken as it is clear that some hosts are, in my opinion, less than stable.