Accused of Theft and Lying About Smells

Posted on September 20, 2020

My wife and I rented an Airbnb e to celebrate our first anniversary. From day one it smelled like a dog kennel. The second day, we found one bed bug which the co-host implied that we could’ve been responsible for rather than just quietly making things right. She moved us to a different room that was much better, but then the next day, she and her daughter accused us of messing with the way their appliances were plugged in and costing them $95 for an electrical inspection, when we didn’t and had absolutely no reason to.

The host’s daughter did not objectively serve us and was hardly involved as opposed to her mom. We filed a complaint with Airbnb the next day and the hosts kicked us out, though we had not officially told them we were canceling our reservation. They falsely accused us of filing a complaint of theft against them and took pictures of our naturally messy room before we had time to clean it up. They reported us to Airbnb corporate for vandalizing and trashing their place.

Uber in Accident While Passenger on Phone with Airbnb

Posted on April 30, 2020

I had been in this Airbnb house for two weeks already. I got a call around 11:00 AM from a woman representing Airbnb telling me my reservation had been cancelled and I needed to go check out now. She said my host had already been notified I would be checked out by 3:00 PM today.

“WTF are you talking about? What is going on? I haven’t broken any rules. I’ve haven’t done anything. Explain to me what it is that Airbnb thinks I have done.”

“Well I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

I started losing it over the phone at this woman. I had just paid $800 for next month. I don’t have any bad reviews. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. Where did they expect me to go? I wanted to know what it is that I did.

All the while I was getting louder and louder to the point I was screaming at the other end of the line, punching the back of the Uber seat (passenger’s side) and stomping on the floor. I was angry.

My family and I have been using Airbnb for years and never had issues: no bad reviews. I was just going off in the back of this poor lady’s car yelling and waving my arms around. She was trying to calm me down saying, “Sir, what’s the matter?”; “Sir, please please calm down”; “Sir the language”; “Oh my god sir please what is the matter? You don’t need to be rude to her”; “Sir please I don’t appreciate that word (the C word)”.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to what she was saying; I was focusing on this call. This went on for about another minute because out of the corner of my eye I noticed the driver was not paying attention to the road. She had her head turned around towards me yelling at me because I called this woman on the phone the “C” word. I noticed she had drifted into oncoming traffic. I yelled “Watch out!”

She turned and I swear it was like slow motion: this car swerved out the way of us and I watched it scrape a parked car. I said to the driver: “Pay attention to the road. Are you trying to kill me?”

While she was driving really fast, I still had the lady from Airbnb on the phone. That in itself was strange. She pulled up to my street going 40 miles per hour and pulled a cali stop. She didn’t notice the cop sitting at the light. My host was maybe five houses from the corner.

When I made it home, she said to get out of her car. The cop came, noticed she was an Uber driver, and asked me if I was okay. As I was walking in the door, I could hear her going off on this cop about me. Then he interrupted her and asked her what happened to the side of her car. I’m listening to everything at the door.

She asked, “What damage?”

She got out of the car. I heard “wtf?” then the cop said “Ma’am I’m placing you under arrest for hit and run, leaving an accident, and speeding in a residential area.”

All the while she was yelling: “That guy in the car: it’s his fault! He was driving me insane. He was yelling and stomping on the floor and punching the back of the seat. He called her a… I don’t like that word.”

The cop asked what this had to do with her sideswiping that car back there. I guess someone watched her, got her plate, and called it in. That cop happened to be in the right place and saw her plate.

The real kicker is he asked me to come outside and explain what happened. I said, “Man, I don’t know. She was driving like a bar out of hampering the start. I kept telling her she needed to slow down. That’s when she turned her head to me and said to shut up. That is when she scraped that car.”

He asked me why she didn’t stop.
“I don’t know. She was yelling ‘See, see what you made me do!’ Then before I knew it we were here and you rolled up.”

I could hear her in the back seat of the cop car yelling “He’s lying, officer!” just ranting, raving, and going off.

That was just the start of the day. My woman thought I was full of it with that story about the Uber ride. I thought she got what she deserved. She shouldn’t have been rubbernecking my conversation with Airbnb.

Anyway getting back to Airbnb. They claimed at first it was some security BS and she couldn’t tell me why my reservation was cancelled. They were going to contact me within 24 hours. My host was tripping out, saying she was sorry. She said when it got cleared up, I could come back. I was planning on staying there for maybe four months.

I have a job I’m doing out here. I like to use Airbnb because I can save money. I’ve been with them for years. All my family as well. Meanwhile I’m freaking out because I don’t know where a good cheap clean hotel is. My woman found one online. I’m mad as hell and want to know what happened.

Come around 7:00 PM, I got a call from Airbnb saying “Oh, we’re sorry. It turns out it was a glitch or something in the system and automatically cancelled your reservation.”

I’m like, “Okay now what? Are you guys going to compensate for the day of work you caused me to lose and reimburse me for the hotel room?”

She said, “I’m not qualified to make that decision. Do you have a pen? Here is your case number.”

“What do I need a case number for? Did I catch a case on a crime I didn’t know about?”
“I’m sending your case to a different department. We will contact you within 24 hours.”

They finally sent me the number and at the end of the message it said: “This message was sent by Airbnb with love.”

They finally got back to me after I’ve sent them hundreds of messages trying to get compensation for the missed day of work and the days I’ve been in this hotel breaking my bank account. I’ve already paid $511.91 on this hotel room and I still can’t make a reservation with Airbnb. Then they insult me with an offer of $146 towards my room.

That told me this company has no respect for its customers at all. This is completely their fault. It’s now starting to effect my girls and my woman. Airbnb is taking food off my table and the country’s got the population control problem going on right now; they don’t care.

I deal with a lot of BS from people but when it affects my way of life and my kids, there is a problem. I want my name cleared so I can make a reservation. I also want to be compensated for the hotel. My bank account is empty. I’m doing what I can to keep food on the table.

Like I said, I had the room covered for a month: $800 already paid. I just paid $500 for seven days. I want them to make it right. Any reputable company would acknowledge their mistake and make it right. What kind of people are working there? It’s like they got monkeys answering the phone, passing each case from department to department, never returning your messages.

I’m putting this out there right now: if this company doesn’t give me back my money and doesn’t clear my situation with the reservation, I will get even and I will get satisfaction. Think you can take food from my kids and make my little girls cry cause I can’t come home? I had to work on the weekend to make up for their mistake.

I don’t know what you’re thinking Airbnb. You should have never posted so much information on yourself. I love my kids to work weekends for them. This I promise. On my mother’s life, nobody — I mean no one — is allowed to make my little girl cry. Only I can make my woman mad, only me. Airbnb has messed with my life and I want compensation.

Mid-Stay Eviction: Warning to Others Looking at Airbnb

Posted on January 30, 2020

Warning to anyone looking for temporary accommodation in Melbourne. Please be wary of booking the following property. We booked it for 31 days through Airbnb (January 2nd though February 2nd, 2020), but were evicted by the host after 16 days.

This was not due to anything we had done, rather it was a result of the host being accused of “invasion of privacy” by an earlier guest. This allegation (I assume) was serious enough for Airbnb to suspended his account. Without warning, the host issued an officious email giving us three days to vacate the property; he considered the three days generous and claimed to have received “private legal advice”, which gave us no recourse to negotiate completing our fully paid stay.

My partner and I were travelling with our three-year-old son. We were twelve thousand miles from home and considering an allegation had been made against the host, we decided not to argue and avoid conflict. As a result of the eviction, we found ourselves without immediate access to any refund; we are still awaiting roughly AU$2400 from Airbnb, money that the host would have received 24 hours after our check in and undoubtedly still had in his bank account when the property was rented again a day or two after we were kicked out.

To compound our predicament, it was high season in Melbourne, so finding a suitable and affordable Airbnb property to move into was impossible. We found ourselves holed up in a hotel, paid for with a credit card and my partner in tears. As the Airbnb listing has been removed, we are unable to leave the host a review and hopefully warn others looking to rent his property. Having newly listed on other platforms he has given himself a clean slate to rent to other unwitting guests.

Left Broke and Homeless after Airbnb Experience

Posted on December 17, 2019

I’m glad I found this site. My story is horrifying. I don’t even know where to turn to seek legal counsel, but I am Googling it now.

I had booked a week’s stay in Tijuana in July. I stayed in a very affluent home, with several guests. The couple that owned it (different from the people I was corresponding with on Airbnb) seemed friendly and nice at first. When I first arrived, and told them my plans to stay longer, they showed me this sweeping private room with a bathroom on another floor that was still under construction. They said it would be ready in a week, at $700/month with a $700 deposit down. They said that the deposit was refundable at any time, and that there was no minimum or maximum amount of time to stay.

Within a couple days, I began paying them the $1400 to reserve that room. The process was a bit strange, but they received all their money within four days of my seven-day stay. On the fifth day, I had a horrible fall on a broken sidewalk in the shopping area, and twisted my foot badly. I came back to the home, trying to see if they could assist or direct me in any way. They sat, reading the paper, and sort of ignored me. I found the whole experience very offputting, but kept it to myself.

On the sixth day, I was outside chatting with another guest and smoking a cigarette (in a designated area), when the couple came outside and yelled at me about leaving a door unlocked. I hadn’t been the culprit, but they were aggressive and kept pushing the matter. I had – to be honest – forgotten to lock the door a night before, but only had stepped outside to smoke. This time I was not to blame, as the home has over four guest rooms (to my estimate) and a lot of foot traffic.

This accusation was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I told them I was no longer comfortable being in their home, and wanted my money back. They immediately pushed back, saying no. I told them that wasn’t acceptable, and went to my rented room to try to contact someone who could help (not easy to do when in another country).

Before I knew it, two fedarali were at my door. They told me to get my things, and get out (my lease officially didn’t end for a couple more hours). When I demanded my money, the woman who owns the house told them I had bought a big screen TV (they had, it was in the front room of their home. I’d seen it that morning.). Being a temporary visitor with no car, I explained to the officers I absolutely didn’t buy a TV, it made no sense I would do that at this stage. They seemed to half believe me, but were very intimidating.

The police made me sign a document in Spanish before they would let me exit the bedroom (they were acting in a way that I for sure felt they were going to arrest me, and don’t speak any Spanish). I also suffer from severe anxiety and PTSD, and this sent me into a fear spiral. I signed the document so they’d let me go, and was put in an Uber.

I had him stop to get what little money I had exchanged (I also realized what was left in my backpack was now missing). It wasn’t much, but while I was in the grocery store, the car left with my bags.

Now down to nothing, I was forced to walk for a couple miles to beg someone for help. I had to sleep on the street that night, and my foot was swollen to three times its size. I suffer from a degenerative bone disorder, and am basically handicapped. I took a picture of what my foot looked like the next morning.

The next day, I was determined to get my money, so I spent a couple hours in town finding a couple of bilingual high school students. I offered them money to get in the taxi with me to translate at the house. When we got there, it was worse than I expected. I was given $400, and before receiving it, was forced to sign another document in Spanish (I was so desperate, I did it).

At that point I was almost at zero dollars, in a town i didn’t know. They accused me of losing their keys (I absolutely did not. I know this because I have a chain wallet and left my keys attached to it for the course of the stay. When the federali escorted me out, I handed the key over then). According to them, they were going to have to get the locks changed and that would cost a few hundred more. In the end, they stole over $1000 from me, plus some of my luggage, and sent me into an anxiety spiral that took weeks to work through in therapy.

I am currently seeking legal representation, and would like any advice the community has. Thank you.

Airbnb Host Tried to Evict Me, Company Didn’t Help

Posted on August 6, 2019

I’ve been at a reservation for over two months now in Washington. Recently the landlady tried to buy the entire house out of her contracts and everyone refused. She then proceeded to start construction which has resulted in utilities being cut off on a regular basis. I took pictures and videos of the construction and complained to Airbnb. Wanna know what they did?

They called me about a week later telling me I had to get out and I would be refunded for the time I haven’t stayed yet. I said “no”, that I wouldn’t be leaving, and any attempt to kick me out could be argued in a court of law as an illegal eviction. I told them because I was already there for over two months I qualified as a tenant I didn’t actually have to leave if they forced me out.

The Airbnb support person told me if I didn’t get out by the end of the day I would be trespassing and the police would get involved. I mentioned how I would be contacting the police and an attorney to sue them if they moved forward.

She responded: “This is our policy so it’s fine.”

Me: “If a policy is in violation of state law the state will just ignore it.”

Her: “You can contact your lawyers and do what you want. We are a 25 billion dollar company and this is our policy.”

Me: “What about the Airbnb policy that states that if a home is unlivable or there’s unnecessary construction the guest gets a refund? What about the Airbnb policy?”

Her: Makes a comment about my tone and says she will be looking at the pictures I sent.

She put me on hold and it became very clear she had no idea what she was doing. She offered me $100 and to pay me back for the nights I haven’t stayed yet. I told her, “No. I’m not going to accept that. You can’t force me to take compensation I don’t believe is adequate and if you’re going to move forward with these actions I would like an explicit email acknowledging the fact that I did not agree to your terms. I will be contacting the police and an attorney.”

She said, “Sure, whatever,” mentioned my tone again, and hung up.

In the meantime, I contacted the police non-emergency number and they said they would call me back. It had been about two minutes since I spoke with Airbnb and they called me back.

Same support woman: “Your host is thinking about changing her mind but she says construction will continue. You can stay if you’re okay with the construction.”

Me: “I’m not okay with construction but if you allow me to stay I will.”

Her: “Well, why do you want to stay if there’s construction? She said you can stay if you’re okay with it and she will continue to shut off the water.”

Me: “Because I believe what she is doing is illegal and if I stay I’ll be able to collect damages in a court of law. Additionally if you kick me out right now I’ll be thrown on the street so even if you allow me to stay I will be suing her at this point. You don’t have to mention how I’ll be suing her.”

She hung up again, and said she would tell the host I wanted to “continue my reservation.” What a nice way of saying I didn’t want to spend the night on the streets. How kind of her.

In the meantime I finally got in touch with the police and explained the situation: how she decided to kick me out once I complained about the construction, and how I’m a tenant due to the way I’ve rented. He asked if I’d received mail at the property. I explained I had received some mail there. He then got upset and said, “Okay, so who am I talking to? I need a phone number.”

I gave him the landlady’s phone number. He called me five minutes later and told me she was no longer evicting me and she “changed her mind.”

I’m going to be suing. At this point in considering suing Airbnb too. The dumbest part is I have pictures of all of the construction and even messages from the landlady confirming when I complained and that the construction is renovations and not repairs necessary to the property.

Rowdy Guests Results in Police Arresting and Evicting

Posted on April 6, 2019

I’d like to share a recent video an incident involving the adjoining condo in my building and a rather unpleasant Airbnb guest. Our building has had numerous issues with Airbnb guests and it’s changed the sense of community we once had now that half the building is used by far-flung owners as income properties. We no longer know who is coming and going; it’s all unfamiliar faces with the very real threat of the unknown. We also share half our building with the Menno Simon College, so there are students actively in the building. I just wanted the share my horror story.

Airbnb Host Lost My Cat After Payment Problems

Posted on September 24, 2018

I was staying at an Airbnb for a couple weeks with my two cats. I have only ever had positive experiences. My host was a little… unique, but nice. Last night she drunkenly stopped by and in her intoxicated state mentioned something about a problem with my card? I didn’t know what she meant. Then my nightmare began.

I tried logging into Airbnb, and couldn’t. It wouldn’t say why. I sent a message and they said it would be reviewed. Then I found the email I used and checked it and they had sent me an email a couple hours earlier saying they thought the charges were fraudulent and refunded them. I Googled a support number and called, explained the situation was urgent and I needed to make sure my host was paid. They said they would call back in 48 hours.

I was in a separate house and my host was gone all night. I couldn’t get ahold of her. I had to leave eventually and when I came back she had evicted me, thrown all my things out, taken some of my things, was cussing me out, and, lost one of my cats. She knew I had two cats and she let one out. She didn’t care. I was trying to pay her in cash or work something out since I don’t know what happened with the Airbnb payment and I wanted to make sure she was paid.

I found out my beloved cat was set free, and she didn’t care. She didn’t listen. She threatened to stab me and have me arrested for grand larceny. She told me I had five minutes to get out. Amidst all the crazy cussing, the insults, and the name calling I could barely process I may never see my beloved pet cat ever again. I can assure you, we will never be using Airbnb again after this. I will tell every person I know of what my experience has been like the past couple of weeks.

I keep trying to figure out what I did wrong. I called, I tried desperately to contact people, and I offered to pay cash. That was before she evicted us. We wanted to make sure our host was paid. Nothing helped. I may have lost my beloved pet forever because of this. Why anyone would think it was okay under any circumstances to let someone’s pet out loose like that? I will never know.

She could have put him in his carrier, but she didn’t. She didn’t care I lost my pet in an area we had never been to before and I don’t know anyone. I never knew Airbnb had horror stories, until today and I found this site. I will never forgive myself for this. She seemed fine with letting me work on it to figure it out and that’s what I desperately tried to do. She was completely unavailable to contact and Airbnb was also impossible itself to contact. We will never use Airbnb again. I will tell everyone I can to never trust them ever again.

Kicked Out of Property, Airbnb Made it Right

Posted on August 14, 2018

A day before our departure after a good four-day stay our hostess kicked us out of her house. She went in the house when we were gone to “check her plants” which I had been watering for her. She didn’t like that my wife put her carry-on bag on the leather ottoman and a duvet in another room because it was damp and musty in that room. We were on the ocean with no air conditioning. The whole house was damp and musty.

The hostess sent me a nastygram and then confronted me at the front door. She used very foul language and gestures and kicked us out with one hour to leave. She said she was going to get the police. Ridiculous…

We left in one hour and left the house in the same condition we found it. I got us a hotel room for the night and we survived. I contacted Airbnb immediately with an email message and a phone call. They handled it very well. They were very empathetic and even reimbursed us for the hotel room. They also banned this woman from using Airbnb.

They told me she was very uncooperative with their investigation. No surprise there. I was concerned that she would continue to use Airbnb and attempt to ruin someone else’s hard earned money and vacation time. I am completely satisfied with how Airbnb handled the situation and I will use them again.

No Better Way to Put it: Airbnb Guest Smelled

Posted on July 28, 2018

I had a guy book for a week in my very nice home since my kids are off in college now. He claimed he worked in accounting at Powell’s Books and was needing a place while he looked for an apartment. From the second he stepped into my home, I knew something was wrong. He was twitchy, awkward, and filthy, smelling of vomit and feces. He had horrible shoes, filthy clothes, no socks, and a trashed suitcase he drug over my good wood floors.

I left the house and called Airbnb. They said that I would be penalized if I cancelled the reservation and they were reaching out to this guy. He promised he’d get to the laundry. I had a sleepless night with the stench in my very clean house. The next day he never left. The stench got worse and worse and he clearly had no job. I left for two hours in the evening and when I returned my bathroom was flooded; glass was all over the floor.

I marched into the room and almost choked. I told him to get out. I called Airbnb and they treated it like it was nothing. I got him out at 1:00 AM and stayed up all night hauling out fouled mattresses and bedding, cleaning up glass and feces. I am on day three with Airbnb and have spoken to no fewer than eight people. They are still not helping me.

Airbnb Nightmare: Threatened with Forcible Eviction

Posted on April 30, 2018

I had an Airbnb reservation for a basement (entire unit) from April 20th until May 27th. On April 22nd around 9:00 PM, the landlord decided that she wanted to cancel the reservation (because I was using the heater that was in the unit). Immediately, Airbnb contacted me, and told me I should leave the unit as soon as possible or the police would force me out. I had to rush to find a place so I wouldn’t spend the night in the streets.

We (my husband was with me at that time) visited this unit on April 4th to make sure everything was alright before reserving it; I was going to live there for 37 nights and I didn’t want to have any surprises. Everything looked okay. We also asked about the heating in the unit, and the landlords said that there was no problem as there was a wall heating unit in the living room. Even when I checked in on April 20th, the landlord explained to me how to operate the heating unit.

On April 22nd, I wanted to take a shower but when I opened the faucet, some brown waste came from the tap and filled the bathroom floor. It looked like sewage waste to me, therefore I messaged the host and asked her to take a look. When she came down and checked, she said that the house has a reliable sewage system and this should have come from the city water supply.

Then she came to the living room and asked me why I had the wall heating system on. I said that because I felt cold (the temperature was 2-3 C outside). She said I didn’t have the right to turn on the heating because the electricity bill would be high. I said I told her that I wanted to turn the heating system on. She left. The second time she came to clean up the waste in the bathroom, she told me that I couldn’t stay there anymore and I had to leave the unit. I said to discuss her issues with Airbnb.

Later, an Airbnb representative contacted me and told me that she had cancelled the reservation and I should leave the unit as soon as possible. I told her that I would find a unit tomorrow and will leave (I was very worried about my health with the sewage issue), but she said that I had to do it tonight or the landlord could call the police, and they would force me to leave. Mind you that this was 9:00 PM on a Sunday. I finally found a hotel at 10:00 PM and left the unit. I had to pay a high price for the unit because I was reserving at the last minute. This event has caused me so much stress that I couldn’t work for several days, and even remembering those events causes me trouble.

The next day, I sent a message to Airbnb and asked how they could force someone to leave the unit or threaten them with the police. This is totally unacceptable. If I have a reservation, I can’t cancel it without paying a high cancellation fee, but Airbnb can tell the clients to leave at 9:00 PM on a Sunday night or threaten them if they want to. The unit has serious sewage issues. It will threaten the health of anyone who wants to live there.

The following are the first messages that were exchanged between me and the Airbnb representative that night. She first called me but I couldn’t hear her, so she messaged me on the Airbnb website.

Agent:”I do apologize if you could not hear me. Your reservation with [host] is ending early. Please leave the listing as soon as possible. I have sent you an email that gives you the option to rebook or receive a full refund. Please let me know if you need rebooking assistance.”

Me: “Hi, I will think and let you know tonight. Thanks.”

Agent: “I have just tried giving you another call but was unable to reach you. Please let me know what time you can get out of the listing. If you don’t leave she has the authority to call the cops.”

Agent: “Are you leaving the listing now?”