Tag Archives: airbnb nightmare

Airbnb: Lying and Disrespectful Host

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I have been renting homes on Airbnb for the past three summers, so I have had my fair share of landlords who are normally very nice and engaging, some who even come by before or after to meet the tenants. Brin was rude and unaccommodating the entire weekend. We were charged a cleaning fee but when we arrived the place was covered in dust and dead bugs. The pots needed to be cleaned and the house was not stocked. For starters, there was half a roll of paper towels in the entire house and that was it. I could understand this had we been informed that we needed to stock supplies other than groceries but per his confirmation the cleaner would have cleaned up from the guest the night before and the place would be stocked with supplies; we only needed food.

After we wiped things down and tried to settle in, we headed out to the pool only to found that it was filthy and gross. After a number of times reaching out to Brin to ask when they would come clean the pool and make it usable, we received a message stating “The pool cleaner will not come until next week, but you can use the skimmer to clean it yourself…” Excuse me? No, we paid for a pool, a clean pool, and a clean and stocked house. At that point Brin stopped replying and refused to answer any calls to resolve these and other concerns/issues. So basically he lied: we were the first group to start the rental season and the landlord did not bother to clean or stock the house or pool.

Other things to note: the upstairs bathtub did not drain properly so you would be standing in water that covered your feet. He then lied when we reported him, saying we just wanted a discount, but he did not have proof because the discount was asked for in person… He never came to the house, nor did he make an effort to rectify the issues with his tenants who paid to rent his home. So basically he took the money and disappeared. Very disappointing and I would never recommend this location to anyone in the future. All we asked for was a clean pool and a lot less attitude and the other issues would have been less noticeable but instead we were handed the pompous, disrespectful, liar Brin.

Airbnb: Business Based on Trust, but Where is it?

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I recently brought a party of seven to a ‘luxury beach villa’ in Boracay in the Philippines. The listing looked fabulous and perfect for our two-night stay. I booked it on the day and arrived with my party three hours later. Then the fun started. We were greeted by armed guards. Talk about putting us on edge. The house was uncomfortably hot. There was no way to freshen the house and the two air-con units in two of the bedrooms were useless. It must have been 40 degrees C inside. There were smelly animals everywhere. When I wrote to Airbnb about this they told me the animals were mentioned in the listing. I argued that the smell was not.

Once they have your money they don’t care. There was a pond inside – part of the listing. It smelled really bad. Again, not something you can discern from a photograph. But Airbnb didn’t care. When we tried to leave the host sent her unstable husband to the villa. The husband shouted at us and acted in a most aggressive manner. He threatened us with the armed security guards. When I brought all this up with Airbnb they were useless. It was extremely difficult to get through to them. When I did and asked for a full refund as per their guest refund policy they refused. No matter what argument I gave them they took a blanket line. I will never use Airbnb again. You simply cannot trust their site and how they vet their hosts. You also cannot trust they will act in the guest’s interests in any way. In a business where trusting with whom you will stay with is key, Airbnb is extremely exposed. I suspect one death or a serious problem will see the end of this company.

Horror, Thy Name is Airbnb NYC

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We (a family of four) were travelling to New York for the first time. We tried to make bookings on the Airbnb site, but many hosts either did not reply or refused. The response time from hosts was a minimum of 48 to 72 hours. We then chanced upon a place on East 13th Street, Manhattan which was reasonably priced. We paid up in full two months (for our 5-night stay) before our proposed trip. We confirmed with the host the night before check in. We had an email also from Airbnb. Eight hours before check in, we get an email from Airbnb cancelling our reservation. The host informed us that the reservation was cancelled abruptly by Airbnb. We could not find a reasonably priced hotel. Airbnb was of no help. They just refunded the money after two months. We lost money on the exchange rate and conversion charges for no service provided. You are pushed in a loop on their website trying to contact them for a resolution.

Airbnb Doesn’t Care About its Hosts

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What a joke! Airbnb offers hosts a “house manual”, but I recently discovered that once a guest has paid, they can do, say, or wear anything they wish. I put everything in my house rules – which the guest apparently chose not to read – and he got cozy with the neighbors (after I asked him not to), didn’t clean up after himself, did about 20 loads of laundry (in 12 days), took three showers a day, and bitched that I didn’t have sports on my TV. In addition, he told me stories about his crazy ex-girlfriend. He finally had to go, but I found damage to my computer desk (I took photos beforehand showing no damage), my house reeks of cheap cologne, and my neighbors know things about me that I didn’t share.

Finding yourself Stuck in an Airbnb Drug Den

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We are a young couple who has been using Airbnb for more than a year traveling in many countries. Unfortunately, our last stay in Casablanca wasn’t as pleasant as previous ones. There were 6 or 7 people living in the apartment. The first night everything was fine, but the second night they held some kind of party and were smoking weed and probably some other cheap drugs, and drinking a lot of alcohol. Did I mention the listing stated that apartment was “quiet” and suitable for “families traveling with children”? Maybe a family of meth heads.

We wanted to complain, but our host was never in the house; those people were all her “friends”, or permanent tenants we should say. It was really late so we decided to contact our host in the morning. When we woke up, we found this message from our host, informing us that we should pay “additional” fees to the other tenants, because they “took care of us”. We didn’t even understand what the hell was going on – what additional fees? – and thought the booking transaction had already been completed on the website. She was probably high too.

Anyway, we refused to pay the amount she was asking for. That’s when things got really weird. She asked us to hand in our passports along with a fee to make a “copy” for the police. We were just standing there thinking: “Well, time to GET THE HELL out of here.” It was clear that she just wanted to confiscate our documents so we wouldn’t leave… or for some other purpose. It didn’t really feel like she was asking; it felt like she was threatening us. Apparently, all guests “were asked to do the same for legal purposes.”  So you’re trying to tell me that you actually follow the law yet allow drug parties in your house? Anyway, we just went back to our room, immediately packed our things, and left. The only good thing was that Airbnb responded quickly to our complaint and gave us our money back, in a matter or hours. Anyway, be careful guys!

Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Airbnb Hell

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We booked a stay with a couple in Edinburgh for the 2015 Fringe Festival. It was our first experience using Airbnb. Although the room looked nice in the photos and was fine in real life, it turned out the young couple renting the room were renting themselves – evidently from a very cruddy landlord – and had decamped to the lounge for the Fringe in their one-bedroom flat (up six flights of stone steps). We therefore had access to a cramped and windowless kitchen and a cramped and windowless bathroom only. The water pressure was ridiculously weak throughout the flat and the WC didn’t flush without pouring a bucket of water (which took ages to fill from the low pressure taps) into the cistern. The shower also leaked, as did the wash hand basin.

The couple were obviously getting drunk every night on their rent money from us and the woman barged into our room one night and nearly got into bed with us, evidently having forgotten they had rented their room out! They also needed to go through our room to get to their washing machine, which was in a tiny room behind the bedroom. The kitchen was very poorly equipped and we were given nothing with which to wash up and no space to put our breakfast things. The man was pleasant enough but his partner was sullen and avoided us. Luckily we were out most of the time at shows or our stay would have been unbearable. They had the cheek to press for a review when we left, but we felt the kindest thing to do was say nothing as we had nothing good to say about our stay. Never again!

Kansas City: Unsafe Airbnb for Single Young Woman

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My niece flew to a large city to surprise me for my birthday weekend. My wife had agreed that she could stay in an Airbnb instead of our hotel. I would not have allowed that if I had known. When we went to take my niece to her Airbnb destination I became quite anxious as we passed two streets which my uncle who lived in the city had informed me never to be on or in that neighborhood. The Airbnb room was up a separate stairway on the third floor. The host had to remove a cat from the room with a vacuum cleaner. I begged my niece to bail. She is a 20-something professional and refused.

I asked the host if this was a safe neighborhood and he said yes. I told him my uncle who lives in the City told me to never travel on Troost Avenue as it is not safe. The host admitted Troost a block away was not safe. We started driving to our hotel as it was close to being dark and noticed the gangs coming out on Troost. This location was in the middle of the ghetto. The hotel clerk told me that it would be unsafe for me to drive on Troost or be in that area at night. My wife texted my niece and told her I was upset and quite concerned about her safety and she agreed to come to our hotel in the morning.

After we left the host told her there was no TV as a previous guest had gotten drunk and broken it. The same with the lock that did not work on her door. My niece later revealed that other guests showed up at 2:00 AM on her floor and were quite loud. She obviously was quite frightened since there was no lock on her door. My niece was lucky she did not get raped or murdered.

Parents: please warn your children – especially your daughters – DO NOT stay with Airbnb. Also I did a quick Google search of that address and learned it had a rating of D- and F for crime. That there was an aggravated assault, armed robbery, another assault, car theft, and burglary all in one night near this house. I also learned there were 75 registered offenders within a mile of the address. All the reviews for this address on Airbnb were extremely positive. This would give credence to the theory that Airbnb deletes negative reviews. I find it hard to believe that not one person commented about the clearly apparent, dangerous area where this house was located. Is one’s life not worth more than the $50 a night?

Airbnb Scammers – ALWAYS Check the URL!

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I’ve been looking to rent an apartment in Barcelona and two people have already tried to scam me using Airbnb’s name. The initial contact is by email, and the format is always the same:

*The Bait*

“Bought the apartment but moved, it’s a great deal/very low price, can’t be bothered to show the place beforehand, will use Airbnb for safety/trust.”

*The Final Touches*

You pay directly to an “Airbnb Agent”. Then he will show you the place. If you don’t like it, you can get your money back in two days OR they send you a fake link (like this one) that looks exactly like the real deal.

*Bonus Points for the Scammers*

They also steal your personal information: when you request a booking you can, conveniently, sign in using Facebook, Google or your real Airbnb account. I used 123@gmail.com and 1234567 and it “worked” to get into the payments area…

*The Result*

You lose a ton of cash and have no one to whom to go as you never dealt with the real Airbnb.

*The Lesson*

ALWAYS CHECK THE URLs and, if you plan to deal outside Airbnb for any reason, make a deal with the owner where the first week/nights of your stay are booked through the real site, and then arrange an alternative means of payment for the rest of your planned stay.

Airbnb Deceptive Disclosure of Terms and Conditions

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After investing a considerable amount of time reviewing the terms and conditions of host agreements with Airbnb I invested even more time in listing two vacation rental properties with them that I have rented for years through VRVO and vacation rentals. At first, I thought I was the problem because I was accustomed to direct control of the terms and conditions of the rental, especially the payment and cancellation policies.

1. They did not disclose that no payouts are possible until $2,000 is accrued in earned payments. There are no details on what happens to your $1,999 if you end your relationship with them.

2.  In the preview of the host agreement (before signing up) they gave the impression that payment is immediately forwarded to the owner. In fact, it is not credited to the owner’s account until AFTER the guest has checked in.

3. Their built-in software overrides and alters the owner’s choices or doesn’t give owners the option to choose, then sets a non-disclosed policy.

4. They kept changing my “strict cancellation” to flexible, and they kept turning off or modifying my minimums. They also advertised at different rates than I specified.

5. I found navigating their software and their self-help pages tedious and time consuming. Owners: stick with vacation rentals, vacation home rentals, and VRBO. Control the terms and conditions with which people occupy your valuable property.

Airbnb may be great for travelers (I haven’t read the guest horror stories yet) but it is effectively victimization and exploitation of homeowners who assume all the risk and pay a handsome fee to Airbnb for every booking. Before accepting ANY booking through Airbnb, read the fine print!