Thrown out of Cuban Apartment Based on Fake Rule

Posted on December 23, 2017

I had made a reservation through Airbnb for an apartment for two months in La Habana, Cuba. The apartment conditions in the Airbnb listing are: “No se admiten mascotas; No se admiten fiestas o eventos; La hora de llegada es a partir de las 15:00” (Pets are not allowed; No parties or events are allowed; Arrival time is from 3:00 PM). When moving in to the apartment, the host took my name and the person’s name who was helping me with the luggage. We agreed on the weekly cleaning fee and they left.

Three weeks later, in another context, I mentioned that another person had been in the apartment. They start making lots of noise that I could not invite any person inside without calling the hosts and informing them of the visitor’s ID number. The next day they started threatening that I should move out immediately. I reminded them that by Airbnb rules I have already paid for one full month which could not be cancelled. The address had also been registered with immigration, so they could not just throw me out.

They insisted that Cuban law allows them to do that and as a foreigner I just didn’t know their laws. I insisted they must do this through Airbnb and could not just throw me out on the street. They said they could and were not even obliged to return any money to me. If I would get any money back (from a 61-day reservation when they threw me out after 21 days) it would be for Airbnb to decide and that the agency was responsible for finding any other place for me to stay; as owners of the apartment, they had the right to throw me out any moment they wanted.

There was no phone number to contact Airbnb, nor a possibility of doing so online. I was in Cuba. At 19:30 in the evening (it was dark outside), they started insisting that I must go. The host (female) was there with her husband, and there is also a third person who took their side. As a lone woman, I had no means to physically oppose them. They said I must go and they had organised a room next door that costs double the price of the one I was staying; apparently I had to go there.

I insisted I could not start packing and moving in the dark; they should allow me at least to stay the night until next day. They didn’t allow it. It was dark outside, and I was alone against three people. They made me quickly pack a suitcase of essentials and carry that and my computer and monitor with me to the room they forced me to take.

The next day I tried to get in contact with Airbnb, but the internet connection in the park for mobile phones was so bad that I could not find a page nor phone number to contact Airbnb from Cuba when I was in trouble. The form page submission was interrupted when trying to access it through a mobile connection. The host called and said that if I wanted to get the rest of my things, I must go to the apartment to pack them. It took me several hoursto pack all my things (I came for a long stay). At least I finally got to pack and take the dinner I had prepared for myself and had not been allowed to eat on the previous day.

It got dark again, so I went back to the room to try to sleep. The following day I found a space with a computer and internet. With a proper browser and Google I found an Airbnb page where I could request help. There was no phone number to call inside Cuba. The host had not even changed the dates of the accommodation; it looked like I was still on the trip, staying in their apartment, and the payment for the second month was due in four days.

I sent a help request through the Airbnb form, describing the situation and requesting that Airbnb find me a place to stay at least until the end of the paid period and compensates the price of the room I have been forcefully put in by the host. Now I am waiting for their answer; it should come in 24 hours according to the information they give. I found this website about Airbnbhell and decided to share my story with you, so that I am not the only one to follow and see how Airbnb reacts, and if they allow the host to remain on their site. Or at least require them to make visible the invisible rule they enforce so strickly that feel entitled to throw people out based on that.

Account Disabled, Money Withheld from Long Time Host

Posted on July 23, 2017

Before I give my story regarding Airbnb, I want to state here that I am looking for other hosts that have similar stories, in hope of starting a class action lawsuit against Airbnb. Attorneys will only take a case against Airbnb if there is the potential of a large payout, and this can be accomplished only with a class action lawsuit.

I own a house in Havana and have had an Airbnb account for a bit over a year. I started hosting last year in December. From December 2016 to April 2017, I earned about 15,000€ and was really happy. I was booked out the entire time and got consistently good reviews; guests were happy to stay with me. I even got referrals from friends and family from guests who stayed.

Then, all of a sudden, on May 4th, 2017, I got a frantic message from a guest who was travelling in South America stating that I had cancelled his reservation. I had no idea what he was talking about, as I had not cancelled his reservation. In Cuba, aside from email, there is not much of any internet, so I went to an internet hotspot to check my Airbnb account. Upon attempting to log in, I was greeted with a message that my account had been temporarily disabled and to please write account.inquiry@airbnb.com. The only response I received was that they received my email and would respond to me shortly.

The following week I travelled to Germany and decided to call Airbnb customer service. Although very friendly, they weren’t able to handle my concern because some “other” department was handling it. Upon asking what other department, I was told that they could not tell me that. I then called a few more times the following two weeks, and always received the same response. In the month that followed, I called every single day during my breakfast to check on the case and was always told that another department would respond.

After about two months of no responses, I wrote a certified letter to the CEO of Airbnb in San Francisco. Needless to say, I also did not receive a response. Almost three months later, I received the following email:

We apologize for the unusual amount of time it took for us to reply to your inquiry and wish to offer you support in the event that you are still having any troubles. At this time, your issue should be resolved – please take a moment to log into your account and ensure everything is correct. Once you login, you may be prompted to complete additional verifications on your account. If you still need assistance, please visit us at https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us.

Best regards, Airbnb

No explanation of any kind, Airbnb owes me several hundred Euros in payouts that they haven’t paid due to the account having been disabled. I immediately wrote Airbnb customer service to demand the funds. Within 24 hours, Airbnb responded that the matter had been transferred to another department. I called, only to be told that the same department that took almost three months to respond to the disabled account issue now will decide over the fate of my money. Sorry, but that’s not the way to treat people, that’s not the way to do business, and that’s not the way to treat the people that earn money for you.

I have lost tons of money because of this. There have been no guest for three months. All the while I have to pay for taxes, cleaning personnel, and security. There have to be dozens or even hundreds of other hosts out there that have similar stories. And while it is nice and fine to vent here on Airbnb Hell I think that Airbnb needs to reap the consequences of their (maybe even illegal) actions.

Airbnb Hosts in Cuba Can’t be Trusted

Posted on December 8, 2016

First, the place was advertised as “Casa Jesus & Maria” and it looks and operates as a hostel (a bad one). I booked the place about three weeks in advance for two days and had been in contact with the host almost every week. The last message was exchanged only two days prior to our arrival and, at that moment, we were told that the room we were supposed to stay had been under construction for over a month. We arrived in Cuba at around 11:30 at night (the host was informed about this a week earlier) and were greeted by Jesus and Maria. We were promptly informed that they did not have a room for us. Maria ushered us in and, as if to prove her point, showed us a room with a scaffold inside and no furniture and claimed that the only reason why the room was not ready was due to heavy rain.

My friend and I were puzzled since it clearly looked like the room had been under construction for a while and they probably rented the room to us without it being ready. Worst of all, they probably knew very well that it was not going to be ready more than a day before our arrival and never told us about it. Maria informed us that she had arranged for us to stay somewhere else and that she was going to call the person to come pick us up. It was after midnight and we were stranded at some stranger’s place in Havana, without any local currency, and thinking that these people are really trying to screw us. Maria spent over 40 minutes on the phone, trying to find us another place since her arrangements did not follow through. They barely looked us in the eye while we were there and did not speak to us at all.

Finally, someone knocked at the door and we were escorted to another place by Ana. Ana’s place was definitely not in good shape and it was completely different from what we had signed up for. We were taken upstairs through these very narrow steps (our carry-ons barely fit) and shown an area with a queen bed and a bathroom without a door. The room was as big as the bed, the bathroom had no hot water, and the shared bathroom downstairs did not have a toilet seat. After we finally got ready to go to bed, about 2:30 AM, the bed broke. We had to move the mattress by ourselves since Ana was nowhere to be found. I had an asthma attack because the mattress was extremely dusty.

We woke up the next day and went back to our first host to try to give them a second chance; they had told us that they would have another room ready. Of course the room was not ready and we finally lost our cool. I told Maria that what they were doing to us was not fair and I wanted my money back. I did not raise my voice and spoke to her calmly. Maria got extremely upset and told me that if I wanted my money back I had to deal with Airbnb. We took off and, unfortunately, spent almost the whole day trying to find another place to stay. I speak fluent Spanish and all I could think of when all this was going on was: what if we did not speak the language? We would be even more desperate.

I called Airbnb and spoke with Kendra in customer service. She said that I was going to get a refund and that the incident was going to be “investigated”, that the host was going to be told to “honor the ads.” I was really expecting a little bit more of sympathy from Airbnb since this experience basically destroyed our vacation; we had only planned to stay in Havana for two days. I understand that Airbnb has little control over how hosts act but I was truly expecting more concern from the operator. I do not want anybody to go through what we have been through, especially if they do not speak the language. Now the host is threatening me with Airbnb messages. Needless to say, I had to dispute the charges with my credit card. I closed my account and will never use this service again.