Tag Archives: airbnb host lied

Classic Bait and Switch in Districts of Algiers

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First time Airbnb user back in August 2019. l booked three bedrooms apartment in chic location of Algiers called Hydra. We were four people: myself, my husband and my two kids.

We were surprised as the first thing we did was to call the number listed with the apartment when we booked it; the phone number was not working. We went to find the address provided to us; the address doesn’t exist. We parked and tried to ask people there.

We were told that this address doesn’t exist and they had heard that there is a guy who meets people here as renting them the apartment but it turns out that he takes them somewhere else. Effectively that’s what happened to us, after a stressful afternoon trying to find the location and that phone number of the host was not working.

My husband checked his email and suddenly he found a message from the host providing a different number to call him. The host gave us a public location to meet us. We went there and met him. We were surprised right away that the host changed the apartment in Hydra, claiming that there was a water issue so he would take us to a different apartment that was nearby.

We were forced to accept this and follow him because our money was gone. We followed the host to the west side of Algiers which has new divisions far from downtown. We parked and went with him to see the apartment. We were surprised that the apartment was a very small one bedroom while I paid for three bedrooms. We told him to change it, that this was too small for us and we paid for a larger apartment.

The host then told us to stay that night in this apartment and he would try to find us another apartment next day. Just a note: while he was there I checked the dishwasher and found dirty dishes inside that had been there for days; just when I opened the door of the washer there was a fishy smell.

Anyway, in the morning we called him to check if he had something else. He told us to meet him in this apartment located in a popular neighborhood close to the airport (Bab Ezzouar). We went and met him there. The house was large and again supposed to be clean as he charged us $71 just for cleaning, $10 extra than what they charge in Algeria for cleaning.

Again checking the house I found the toilets had been used and never been cleaned. The apartment looked dusty. It had been closed for a long time and the fridge was messy with spills from other people who had used it before us. In addition, as we were forced to take this apartment I had to clean it myself and all the linen that was poorly taken care of.

That night we also found out that the wifi didn’t work. We called the host. He said he would come and check it. He came very late at night after we begged him and he said that it was not working but he would buy us a temporary modem. Guess what? We never heard from the host again and even we were tired of calling him every time.

The host called the evening of our check out to confirm that we were leaving. The day of check out we had until 12:00 PM to vacate the apartment. Suddenly around 8:00 AM I woke up to the door bell and found the housekeeper who came to “clean”. We told her that it was too early and that we have until noon. She was rude and started talking under her breath.

It’s not our fault that the host didn’t tell her or communicate with her. We called the host and informed him. He said to leave the apartment key with the housekeeper. I didn’t trust her; it looked like she was not a housekeeper in first place.

This was our bad experience with Airbnb. After I came back to the US, I called Airbnb to make a complaint. They said there was nothing they could do. We also wrote a long review but they never published it. They just included one sentence from a whole paragraph. I’m very disappointed and will never use Airbnb again. Guests are not protected and those listings are not verified. You never know what you will find.

False Advertising for Toronto Airbnb the First Time

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I was a first-time Airbnb user for a trip to Toronto in August for four people. The listing was advertised as a ‘2 bedroom luxury retreat’. While the location and view were great, the condo left much to be desired. It was definitely not luxury – more like shabby, and I don’t mean shabby chic.

I think the photos on the listing were probably the sales photos used to sell the unit to the host because nothing other than the view was like the photos. Not one single piece of furniture, all wall hangings, nor appliances were as in the photos.

In previous correspondence with the host, he had said that the unit had been painted and wouldn’t look like the listing photos. He never said the listing photos were a complete fabrication. The luxury condo looked like a poorly maintained frat house. No toilet paper or anything to dry a dish was anywhere to be found. The listing photos showed plush white towels; what we got was one small threadbare towel each.

To say we were disappointed was an understatement. The host who seemed so responsive prior to the final payment went completely dark once I contacted him about basic necessities and never followed up during our five-night stay. So, I wrote a negative review, and surprise – the host then immediately contacted me via phone calls and texts, saying he was taking the unit off Airbnb and moving in himself, that it was listed for more money than it should have been, etc.

He wanted me to change my review as it would affect the other unit he had listed with Airbnb. He offered a refund via e-transfer for our disappointing stay. I foolishly changed the review.

Guess what? That was a week ago and I never heard from him again, nor did I get any refund. Lesson learned and Airbnb may not ever see me using their service again. Only thing I’m sorry about is that I never took any photos of the actual condo to be able to post here alongside the fabricated one attached that I found in deleted emails. The listing is not online anymore.

Discrimination: Host Cancels Before Start of Trip

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I booked a house recently. I don’t want to name names or share links, because I don’t want Airbnb retaliation. The host sent me a convoluted message about the cleaning lady but she’d try to fix it to make sure it was ready. She then followed up with a convoluted message about how she couldn’t have it cleaned, and now there was some other problem that would prevent us from staying (again, I’m avoiding details). My guess is that she added this new issue because she didn’t want me to say “Hey, no worries, we’ll find a way to clean it and change the sheets.”

She asked me to cancel the reservation, which I did not. I made her do it on her end. Of course, I thought this was all suspicious. I’m a person of color. I had my white wife attempt a reservation at the same place on the same days, an hour after the cancellation (we added two extra days to the end to make it slightly different). Guess what? She approved the reservation. And contacted my wife. Airbnb was informed, but we have no idea what happened. She’s a Superhost.

False Advertising: Never Use Airbnb Again

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I got a $2919, three-night rental at about 7:00 PM and was instantly hit with a heavy, wet mildew smell throughout. The pool had a leaf covered tarp on it with greenish, brown looking water at steps. The vent was falling down with mold exposed. All other vents had been wiped quickly, leaving black all around.

Dead bug bodies, food, etc., was under sheets on mattresses with springs exposed. There were stains on all the mattress covers, of which there were three, one being shredded and filthy. The one extra bed pillow had a stain the size of my head.

The hall floor came apart at the seams and bubbled (a big raised bubble at the end of the hall) from moisture. Due to the feeling of the place, the smell, the mildew and mold, and having one person in our group with COPDE and one with MS causing breathing and balance issues, not to mention the place having only one bed/bedroom that would have been acceptable to stay in, we chose to leave.

We had been told from Evolve (supposedly our advocates) that the owner said she would give us half our money first and probably the other half after they get our photos. After around 10:00 PM our time all communication stopped, leaving us to find other arrangements at 10:00 PM on a holiday weekend. I won’t even get into that.

Apparently the owner came in from Florida, took a video which we cannot see because it is said to be to large to send, and lo and behold she thought the place was perfectly clean and acceptable: the floor was not buckling, just apart a little; the pool was clear except for a few leaves. After Airbnb checked with her and the cleaners? They have ruled the place perfectly acceptable. Well, I guess the owner and cleaners would say that and we cannot see the video. It’s just too large.

As of right now, we paid $2919 and another $1500 (the other places we stayed) for three nights (one being wasted at the original location). I have always used VRBO but saw this house with the beautiful crystal clear pool and went that way; that was a mistake. Please don’t go with Airbnb. All this is such a shame for us and all or family. We had so looked forward to this. Shame on Airbnb advertising rentals guaranteed to be as advertised.

The Worst Airbnb Experience (so far) in Jersey City

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Let’s start from the beginning. I needed to check-in about an hour or so earlier than noted on Airbnb. The host instructions were to contact the hosts’ representative if I had any questions. When I called them, the lady (offshore call center with struggling English) said to contact the host. Hence, I called the host number directly and I think the host picked up and agreed to check me in early.

He sent me the largest text message I’ve ever received (I had to swipe an entire mobile phone screens worth of text at least five times), with redundant check-in instructions that were entirely out of order, and largely useless. Towards the bottom were the keycodes to get in, which worked fine.

However, once inside and settled, a lot of issues were noticed that became red flags: the rooms upstairs were extremely hot, regardless of if the temperature controlling the central A/C was set at the lowest setting of 68. I advised the host of the problem, and made the following suggestions to remedy: install a portable A/C unit, install a window A/C unit, or program the thermostat to go lower than 68 (if possible).

The response received was literally a screenshot of some computer screen showing the temperature setting of 68 and stating to me it was comfortable. For me: stop right there, cardinal sin, game over, I’m cancelling. I don’t book reservations with gaslighting, pretentious idiots.

The bed top was a cheap, extremely uncomfortable memory foam. If you sleep on it, you will wake up with a back ache. In addition, either a guest, or some random guy was smoking low quality marijuana downstairs, stinking up the entire home. While in New Jersey it is medically legal, and there are no explicit house rules forbidding this, it is should be stated up front on the listing folks are allowed to do this. I likely would not have booked if I knew.

There is a dog next door that barks loudly and incessantly at all hours of the day and night. The host needs to contact the local animal control and police department about a noise complaint. He refused to do so.

As mentioned earlier, the host has a attitude of being dismissive of guest complaints, insulting their intelligence with nonsensical responses, gaslights, etc. The location is in the worst neighborhood of Jersey City (right on the border of JC and Bayonne). There is a lot of ‘hooping and hollaring’ outside at all hours of the night.

The cancellation policy is strict. Hence, regardless of the problems reported to the host, he will respond with some non-answer response, wasting your time, and refusing a refund. If you cancel, he will give you nothing no matter what. The only way to get a reasonable partial refund is to contact Airbnb.

In conclusion, I will be avoiding this clown, and all of his listings going forward. Avoid this guy like the plague unless you are a sadomasochist and love one-star experiences on Airbnb.

Host Changed House Rules, Airbnb Won’t Provide Refund

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I booked my first Airbnb stay for my Mom and I for use during renovations of my home. My filters were “entire place” and “two bedrooms”. I contacted a listing that appeared not too far from my home and told the host that I would not be a vacationer but rather I lived in the neighborhood. The only house rules that were listed were “No Smoking, Parties, or Events”

I was cool with that so I booked and a confirmation was sent. When I had a chance to go through the confirmation email, I noticed another completely new set of house rules, including “no additional guests unless they were approved by the host” and also a $25/guest per night charge if I had more than two overnight guests.

I am a home-based massage therapist so I contacted the host to asked if it would be allowed for me to see my clients while I was there. She literally said no, that they lived upstairs and didn’t allow extra traffic in their home. I thought I was renting an entire place, not a part of someone else’s home. The listing initially said English Basement Apartment.

Being my first time, I just thought this was how Airbnb does things and sucked it up as a $2500 loss. Until my neighbor who uses Airbnb all the time told me that it is a violation for a host not to disclose all house rules in their listing.

I contacted Airbnb for a refund or some type of resolution, as the cancellation policy was the long-term strict type (literally no chance of a refund). As of now they are upholding the deceitful, dishonest listing of the host, saying the host has a right to limit the number of guests, which I never disputed. I just wish I would’ve been told in advance and I would’ve chosen a different listing. I will never use Airbnb again; it’s such a scam. Has anyone ever sued a host before?

Ripped Off After Host Lied About Location

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I am disappointed with Airbnb. I made a reservation for September 9-12 on the basis the apartment was in lively location above a trendy bar. I found out this was not the case, and cancelled having discussed with my host who agreed to a 50% refund immediately and 50% when she re-let the property.

I searched in past few weeks and again today for the property and it does not appear coming up as being available for rent on those dates, which leads me to assume it is no longer available. Having read the latest review of the property, it was shut down recently by the fire officer due to dangerous gas smells. If this is the case, I presume it’s not available (quite rightly) but why should the host get to retain my deposit?

Airbnb had no reply for me. This is grossly unfair and borders on fraudulent. I’ve tried to call and speak to the help line but am getting nowhere.

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Strict Cancellation Policy Costs me Hundreds

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I reserved a duplex in Las Vegas for a business trip. I used a corporate credit card to make the reservation and paid the full amount for one receipt (almost two months out from reservation). The host has a strict cancellation policy, but I was okay with that because I had no intentions of cancelling the trip (already paid for the conference I was attending). I read through the policy as best I could.

The next week I found out I violated the company travel policy and was told to cancel the reservation ASAP. I did. I got back half the total amount, minus service fee, since it was past 48 hours, but well within 14 days.

I contacted the host for mercy on the refund policy, since it was extenuating circumstances. Initially the host said I could either re-book another date, or she would refund two thirds of the price if the place was re-booked. I asked again for mercy that I could not afford to just leave $450 out there. My complaint was that if I had only paid the down payment, I would have only been out half of that amount (a quarter of the total). I was stupid enough to pay the full amount, not expecting any problems. I stated that I would pay the service fee plus another $100.

The host cut off all contact with me. I got a case worker involved and another case worker when the first was awful, then a manager of the case workers involved. Now I can’t even get the two-thirds refund that was stated in the host’s message, and Airbnb has told me they can mediate no longer with the host since she wishes to stop all communication. So I get screwed, while Airbnb and the host profit off of half of a six-day rental that I never took… and the place did re-book. What is Airbnb’s responsibility to the guest?

The last message said this: “We can no longer continue to assist you, as a final decision has been made on this case. I’m truly sorry for all that has happened, and I believe the host should be accountable, but we can no longer mediate anything from them as they are not willing to mediate with us any longer. We have a final decision already made by the last agent, so there would not be any further discussion about the refund.”

Apparently the host can decide when the case is shut, even more than a month before the reservation date. How is this even legal? Thankfully it wasn’t a super expensive place that would’ve cost me thousands instead of hundreds. Lesson learned: never pay the full amount up front and never rent from hosts with a strict cancellation policy.

I have a lakefront property that I was considering renting through Airbnb and wouldn’t ever do this to a renter. How do people sleep at night, knowing they essentially stole money from someone? I basically donated $450 to the host and Airbnb for a few email exchanges and phone calls. I should get a donation receipt.

Where’s Airbnb’s Policy with a Mouse in the Caravan?

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We went for a family holiday and business trip to North Wales. I was taking part in a Welsh Culture Festival selling fashion. We decided to stay in a caravan about 30 minutes from the festival. It was a little old and gave us the basic requirements we needed but the reviews looked good so it was a done deal. My mother is also disabled so we needed somewhere she didn’t have to walk upstairs.

When we got there, the first impressions were okay, but the more you sat in the dingy caravan the more you discovered. Firstly, I got an Airbnb message from the host on my phone. I tried to text her back but it would only let me communicate through the website. I did, then the host texted me directly. This is where I know we went wrong.

All of the correspondence between us and the host was via text. The first thing she told me was her cesspit would be emptied the day after our arrival. We would have to sit in her garden with years’ worth of poo being emptied before us. The cesspit was also uncomfortably close to the caravan. We booked the caravan months in advance so she could have booked this at any other time but didn’t.

I soon discovered that there was no wifi, even though it said on the listing that there was. She then said she would contact her son who was “profoundly deaf and might be working”, one of her many excuses, like “I think I just need to put my hotspot on.” Let me get this straight: you’re advertising wifi to your guests using a hotspot on your phone in the house next door to the caravan?

At this point we didn’t even know if she was in the house or in another country so we could have been using a hotspot in England for all we knew. May I add she was also painfully slow at responding to our messages, leaving at least 30 minutes between each one.

Already disappointed, we tried our best to keep our spirits up, even after walking in on the pungent smell in the small bedroom, and cobwebs all over the place. As it got dark I turned the lights on and you could see that the carpet hadn’t been cleaned at all. I found plaster on the floor, and bugs stuck in the ceiling light.

Then something moved in the corner of my eye. All three of us looked at each other… what was that? “A moth,” I thought.

“A spider,” my dad thought.

My mum knew: a mouse. It ran under a small cabinet. I crept down on the floor to have a look and saw. Sat next to a leaf in the shadows was the mouse, frozen in sight staring right at me. My mum and I went to sit back on the sofa with our legs up, then we saw him scutter out from under the cabinet and into the kitchen area. We think he went into the kitchen cabinets then, either to hide in some kind of nest or through a hole out of the caravan as we couldn’t see him after that. He was cute but I’m sorry, unwelcome.

We complained about the situation to the host and asked if it could be sorted that night. We would have been willing to stay, maybe, if she would have been willing to do something about the situation. We waited an hour with no response. When we finally got a response she claimed she had lived there for 30 years and had never seen a mouse; she was gobsmacked.

She then tried to blame it on the farmer next door, asking if it was a field mouse as he had been doing the fields and then some girl that did the changeover might have let it in? Then she said, “Could you not just pick it up and throw it out?” Excuse me?

In the time she spent ignoring our messages, we managed to pull back the sofa and saw mouse droppings scattered everywhere. On closer inspection I found more in the dining area, and a few in the bathroom. This wasn’t a lone mouse that wandered in, it was a recurring problem. After seeing it scurry into the kitchen cupboards we knew it could potentially contaminate our food.

It got really late. We were running out of time to find back up accommodation, so we left and told her we wanted a full refund. She was “apologetic” but not really, still sticking to the same script.

We decided to go straight to Airbnb that night with all the photos we took and screenshots of the messages taken. Then at 1:00 AM she sent a paragraph of a text demanding to know why we said such horrible lies about her caravan. She had no problem responding then. She claimed she went to the caravan but we had already left, so she magically made an appearance late at night, stating that the caravan was spotless. She stays in five-star hotels and it was immaculately clean apparently.

As we drove past her house it was clear that it was dirty; in the conservatory there were piles of boxes and bin bags stacked on top of each other. The entrance of the house was full of beat up old cars and more trash.

Airbnb did nothing. We had pictures of the mouse droppings, dust and uncleanliness, and insects in the caravan and provided all of the screenshots. We were told “we can’t use text messages as evidence as they can be doctored.”

We couldn’t receive our money back as she claimed we didn’t tell her about any of the issues so they’ve taken her word for it and I have now lost £580 for a 10-night stay + about £1000 for last-minute accommodation for the week. All they did was offer a coupon for our next stay, and after bickering with them for a bit they retracted this coupon anyway.

I haven’t added the listing, and haven’t written a review yet as we are taking legal action and trying to get our money back via PayPal. She has some bad reviews on her profile concerning the cleanliness but they’re mainly good. I went to check recently and saw that she suddenly had loads of new reviews for July. Strange… either she had so many guests before us and couldn’t clean or they’re doctored in some way. Airbnb is more than happy to leave a rodent-infested listing on their website, so their policies have no legs.