Tag Archives: airbnb deposit

Host Took Advantage of Airbnb and Guests

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We found a place in Boston for the Charles River Regatta. The city was extremely crowded that weekend so we took one of the few places left. Once we made contact with the host via Airbnb, he contacted us via phone to say he could save us the deposit fee but that we had to discontinue our quest for his place through Airbnb. So we did.

His place was an absolute dump. He slept on his couch and we slept in his room. He had two other guests in another bedroom and we all shared the same bathroom. There were many unsavory issues about this place: the cat sleeping on top of the coffee maker; not being allowed to use our own soap; one bar was shared by all five people.

The fact that Airbnb thought we had turned down this particular place meant that we could not leave any comment on the site to warn other people. Our host made a very pretty penny that weekend and honestly, I’m extremely hesitant to use Airbnb again.

Deposit Scam: Cancelled Within Four Minutes

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I was looking to book a place close to home for my wife and I while we had renovations done on our house. This is when I came across this host’s place. I went through the request process and paid. Just as I did, I noticed that it did not suit my needs, as it was only a room in a shared house.

I quickly cancelled (within four minutes) my request to stay. Then I received an email for the cancellation and another one for the credit. This is when I saw I was only getting back 50% of my money. I tried contacting the host to explain what I had done in error. He said: “No problem, just cancel.”

I told him that I did. He then stated that it was the cancellation policy to keep half. I called Airbnb and they said it was up to the host. This host has no morals at all. I did speak to a nice girl from Airbnb and she is trying to help me. If she is unable to help me I am out $2300 dollars. All because this host has no soul. Please avoid dealing with him.

Cleaning Deposit Requested at Check-in

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We booked an apartment near Benidorm as a base for climbing. The communication from the Ukrainian owner was minimal but we arrived successfully. On arrival, the cleaner tried to get 200 euros in cash from us as a ‘deposit’. I knew this was not part of the Airbnb rules, so I refused. This was accepted and we got on with our holiday.

We cleaned up at the end as always despite already being charged €50 to clean. I have a full set of photos to prove that we left the apartment clean and tidy as normal. I left a nice review despite this and the fact that the apartment wasn’t particularly clean when we arrived. There were a few other issues but I don’t like to be unkind in my reviews and bother hosts if all is generally fine.
The host’s review for us said: ‘they left the apartment in a terrible state’. I asked them why and the only factor to seemingly justify this, which was reported from her cleaner, as the host is in the Ukraine, was that we had left some small secure rubbish bags and that there were two small white marks on a towel.
I can’t explain these as we didn’t use bleach but could have been residue from the washing machine, but we certainly didn’t see this while in the apartment. We left the rubbish bags as we were leaving very early and it would have taken the cleaner a few minutes to take these out (all paid by myself anyway).
I don’t know whether this is a way for them trying to make a claim against me and I know I wouldn’t have got my €200 back had I given it to her. I have had excellent reviews prior to this. I would avoid this listing.

Host Taking Deposits Outside of Airbnb

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Be very careful if staying in an apartment in Copenhagen with some Airbnb hosts. One is asking people to pay her a significant deposit outside of the Airbnb website. I made the mistake of trusting her and doing this. I am aware Airbnb’s website says not to do it… my mistake and stupidity.

Since she is a Superhost, I trusted her and she told me she had done it before. I paid her $2500 since she said she has very expensive furniture. I stayed in the apartment for a month for work after staying at another Airbnb for three months in Copenhagen.

The week after I moved out, I got a series of texts from her claiming I had broken her glassware, broken the plug in the bathroom sink, and stained the walls and doors. She also accused me of having other people stay. I do not recall breaking glasses but since it was a chip maybe it happened unintentionally. I definitely did not break the plug in the sink and the marks on the walls and door could have been from blue dye from my jeans.

It’s been two months since I moved out. In that time, she has apologized for the accusations of having others there, saying she found out it was a different apartment. She did not check her facts prior and should have before laying blame on anyone. She delayed getting me quotes for the other claimed damages and now says I will not get anything back since its costing over $2500 for all these repairs.

I ended up taking the matter to Airbnb, who finally came back and said they can’t do anything since I paid her outside of the website. What shocks me is Airbnb is still allowing her to list her apartment and potentially do this to other people. She even went as far as lying to Airbnb customer support, claiming I wanted to pay her a deposit outside of the website. She then apparently retracted this once I submitted email proof of her asking me.

I have full proof of all our communications over the past two months of my attempts to get my deposit back and happy to submit that to anyone who needs it. I will not be using Airbnb again and certainly will not stay at any apartment from this host. I am very professional and was staying in Copenhagen on a four-month work assignment, so I would not be so stupid to lie about everything that happened, risking my reputation and potentially my job.

Totally Ripped Off After Stay in South Padre

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My daughter rented a condo in South Padre through Airbnb (BetterNotBite). Because she was just 18, the host requested an additional deposit (understandable given what some young people will do when unsupervised). She paid for the rental and the additional deposit through PayPal (another useless online service), also with debit from her bank account. The host claimed “that if nothing was damaged they would return the deposit”. I suggested to my daughter to take pictures with her phone upon arrival and departure of the condo, which she did.

She and her friends stayed at the condo, and enjoyed their few days on the beach and some of the tourist stuff in South Padre. The nightmare started upon returning home. The host claimed he would return the deposit through PayPal as nothing was damaged or claimed by the host as damaged. Well low and behold that when it was total flatline from the host, Airbnb and PayPal. No one will do anything to help retrieve my daughters’ deposit.

The host quit answering texts and emails, Airbnb sent back an auto-generated reply they would “look into the claim” in a certain amount of time (whenever that is), and PayPal said all they can do is let us know if the money shows up. This has sealed my daughter’s distrust in these type of online services. So many young people I know boast about all this wonderful technology as cheap, safe, and great things. Airbnb and PayPal lost a couple of customers (myself included) for a lifetime.

While we are just a few customers, I am sure they don’t care about doing anything to rectify the situation. Credit card companies at least have a live person to help customers. I am presently looking into small claims court options. We have done this before. Although it doesn’t get our money back if the host decides not to paid, if the owner ever decides to sell the condo or transfer ownership, the lien will show up on the property, and nothing will proceed without the lien being removed… so we will see.

We have printed all the text messages, and emails necessary, so we have all the evidenced to make this claim legit. It is nice knowing a few people in the legal system to help walk us through the small claims process. Airbnb is just an online conduit/meeting place for unscrupulous people, like doing business on the street with the mafia. PayPal is just an online bookie, collecting their cut and letting their customers get screwed twice (once by them and twice by with whom you’re doing business). What a total rip off.

Guest Ripped off by Host’s False Promise to Refund

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I booked accommodation advertised on AirBnb on October 19th, 2017 for our nieces and nephews attending our daughter’s wedding from February 18th to 21st, 2018. It wasn’t possible to see the exact location as Airbnb only provides a circle in which the property lie, no address.

The property was very nice and within a few minutes of our house. The full amount needed to be paid immediately and the host required a 50% non-refundable deposit. After the full payment had been taken off our credit card by Airbnb, we received the address, and realized that there were safety concerns. The property was on the other side of the railway line from us and our guests would need to use a subway to get to our house. We contacted the host immediately explaining our concerns and asking if she would consider waiving the 50% deposit. As it was immediate, she agreed in writing and we cancelled with Airbnb. Airbnb’s portion was refunded quite soon, but they said the host had to give permission for them to release her portion.

Sufficed to say, over 20 emails to the host and seven months later, we have not managed to get a penny from her. I am handing this matter over to a debt collecting firm, as I have it in writing that she agreed to pay. She has had a long term rental on the property, our dates falling in that period. Unfortunatey, this will be an expensive business, as one is only given a client custom email address by Airbnb. So there will be tracing fees involved. Feeling ripped off and sad. Make sure you have someone who is conversant with the pitfalls of Airbnb when you book.

Be Prepared to Kiss your Damage Deposit Goodbye

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Along with my husband and adult daughter, I rented a modest basement apartment from April 15-17 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada through Airbnb. This location was chosen for an Easter visit because of proximity to our son, daughter in law and grandson. I was surprised at the high damage deposit of $500 for this sparse unit but, knowing we are very careful, I decided to go ahead. During our stay the seat of a chair broke. I immediately let the host know and apologized, receiving a hostile response. Examining the chair and a matching chair, revealed dry, fragile leather that could be easily torn with fingertips. The second chair had a slit through the seat that one could see right through. We also realized that several other items in the unit were broken, precariously placed, or on the verge of breaking.

I met with the host alone, so no other family members would suffer. She demanded money, tried to shame me, pushed me and insulted our son. Once home and already stressed, I was confronted with a claim for $2,000. Several months passed with many reassurances of ‘fairness’ from Airbnb employees and promises that a manager would contact me. They took $250 from my damage deposit, even though it was clear the host was lying. Also, others should know that when I complained that her review was full of lies (a mistake, since I have no intention of ever using Airbnb again, but a matter of principle) they took it down but also took mine down. Do not believe reviews; the bad ones disappear. Now that fall is here, I have resumed my efforts to shake a responsible person out of Airbnb and to warn others. I am especially concerned for young people who rely on Airbnb. They worry that their reviews will be poor and likely hand money over to such unscrupulous hosts.

Airbnb Expected us to Pay for New Locks

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First we were excited about Airbnb. Within 30 minutes of creating an account we had our first reservation booked for over a month and a few days later we were booked out for the next three months. A few days after our first guest moved in, she changed her reservation to about two weeks and complained to Airbnb that her refund was not was she had been expecting. The reason was that she did not qualify for the monthly discount anymore. It was very clear and simple on our listing but Airbnb contacted us several times and asked us to grant her the monthly discount for the two weeks. The day when she moved out we received a phone call from a lady from Airbnb’s trust and safety department, saying that the guest was upset that she lost her key. She said Airbnb would take take of it.

We received a link in our email which had a box for the amount of the damages. If the guest would not pay within 72 hours, Airbnb “would step in”. The new lockset (two deadbolts and two knobs for the main door and the security door) was $59.40. A locksmith would have charged around $250 to rekey the four locks. After three days we received a message from Airbnb telling us to just make a copy of the key and not to change the locks because “nobody would know that the lost key was for our property” and their “mediation decision” was final.

At this point we closed our account and cancelled all the upcoming reservations. We did not feel safe anymore knowing that some unknown person was in possession of our key. It could be her boyfriend or one of the buddies of her boyfriend (who came several times to visit and who was not a verified guest). We could not believe that Airbnb expected us to pay for the new locks for which the guest is ultimately responsible. Airbnb also stated that there was no deposit on our listing, which is not true. It shows up under “settings” but it won’t print out when going to the individual reservations; we don’t have any way to prove that we set up a deposit. Airbnb seems to stand on the guests’ side and does not care about hosts. This was our first guest and our first experience with Airbnb. There wasn’t a huge amount of damage but it showed us Airbnb’s attitude.

Resolution Center Useless after Guests Destroy Home

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A guest made a reservation for himself and his girlfriend to stay at our home for one night to attend a wedding. He had positive reviews so we booked him for one night, two guests. In our house rules and in our description we are adamant that we do not allow parties or gatherings at our home and that the maximum number of guests in our home is eight. We received a call at midnight from our neighbor saying there was a huge party at our home. Cars were everywhere – all over the lawn and in the creek – and there were hundreds of people on the property. We called the police and arrived with them. There really were hundreds of people at our house. The guest was charging “admission” to attend this raging party. There were over 300 people crammed into our home.

Music, marijuana, and alcohol was present, along with who knows what else. Our furniture was all over the yard. Over an inch of liquid and mud was on our hardwood floors. There was a billowing mass of marijuana smoke and cigarettes, alcohol, and tobacco all over our furniture. The floors, counters, bathrooms, toilets, and tubs were stuffed with paper and clogged; water was everywhere. Cars were stuck all over our lawn that made huge muddy track marks and destroyed our lawn. The result of this was horrific. There was tons of damage to our home. However, we were incredibly frugal and were hoping to fix things ourselves. We found some initial contractors who would do the immediate repairs at a low cost so our initial estimate for repairs was VERY low. This was incredibly generous of us as we could have hired large companies and looked at bills that were several thousands of dollars.

We have repeatedly phoned Airbnb. No one in the imaginary “resolution center” will ever speak to us. We can only get as far as someone who will basically do nothing for us but say we have to wait for the resolution center to respond. “I’m sorry, Lisa but they do not have phones and we cannot contact them directly.” My house was destroyed and yet all I have received are insipid responses from some clerk who is clearly too important to ever call me back. It has been three weeks and now I am not even getting a response via email. I have emailed “Jenn” every day and there has been no response. I supplied photos, invoices, videos, a police report, and statements and cannot get a response from Airbnb. The people who deceived us and had a raging party for profit at our home made more money than we did and Airbnb won’t even release our security deposit to us.

The resolution center is a joke. There is no way to reach anyone at this company that has a clue and can effectively help a host when their home is destroyed. If anyone has any advice on how to help us please let us know. We cannot get any response from Airbnb. There is a clear violation here backed up by a police report so I’m not sure what the issue is aside from the fact Airbnb deceived us and that there is no protection for hosts. The damage is clear yet Airbnb stands in the way of collecting the deposit that was put in place to protect us. There is no protection for Airbnb hosts.

Airbnb Screwed us out of our Security Deposit

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We stayed in a villa in Bordeaux for seven nights in June. We had a good time and took good care of the property. However, after we returned to the United Kingdom, we were contacted by the host who claimed we had damaged the furnishings in his property. We were not aware of doing this and upon inspection of the photos, the damages looked relatively minor. We wrote back saying we didn’t think we had caused the damage and that at any rate it looked like minor damage; we needed some proof that we had caused this damage.

We were then contacted by Airbnb (a person called Sydney – we have never been able to find his surname) who told us the host was claiming that the repair costs were £600! We again responded in the same way: said we didn’t cause the damage, asked for proof of the damage and proof that the £600 was indeed the appropriate cost to fix it. Airbnb subsequently replied saying they had reviewed the evidence (not shared with us) and decided in favour of the host, awarding him £580. They then proceeded to deduct this from our account. All subsequent responses from us appealed to Airbnb asking them to be reasonable, and to provide the proof that we are asking for. They simply keep replying saying they consider the matter closed.

We have been completed ripped off here and don’t know what to do next. Can we take them to the small claims court?