I wish I had never heard of Airbnb!! With all of the identify theft happening in the world, they accumulate a data base of information surpassing none. I found an apartment in Paris titled “Montmarte With Love” and was all ready to rent. I attempted to book (side note-they don’t tell you ahead of time you will be paying the currency exchange) so I put my credit card information in their data base along with remitting a copy of both sides of my driver’s license, phone number and e mail. That was not enough. They wanted a Facebook, Google or LinkedIn account. I have none because I am a professional accountant and I see SO much identity theft and what people go through that I protect my information. They offered me the option of submitting a video saying I am who I am but their web site does not work and that didn’t go through so I wasted SO much time. They would not process my info and cancelled my request. I feel bad for the host because she probably lost the best renter she could ever have! It is impossible to contact Airbnb and now my information is stored in their database. I will be going to Paris and staying at a hotel like NORMAL people do. Their web site is so convoluted and all they do is advertise. I made a horrible mistake, but that is how we learn in life!!
Tag Archives: airbnb nightmare
Student dorm rented on Airbnb, police show up!
I rented an apartment with a friend in Washington that turned out to be a student dorm. However, we do not realize it. We paid the host’s friend the deposit and we went to buy some groceries. Basically when we came back police were there at the dorm because the neighbors showed movement in the apartment. This host had not paid rent for 4 months the monthly fee so the police took our data and we ended up sleeping in the street that night because we could not afford to pay 300$ for a night of hotel plus Airbnb did not give us anything until the next day. They did not believe our story and they gave us the money back in form of another apartment but no compensation. Awful
AIRKKK – Airbnb guest almost funded KKK
We have the right to know who we are funding when we stay at a host’s home. I almost funded the right hand man of the ex Grand Wizard of the KKK. Read the True Horror Story here: http://www.haughtee.com/airkkk
Paying $40/night to Walk on Eggshells to my Room
Overall, I would call this an uncomfortable Airbnb experience. The host was Beverley in North Port, Florida and the room was called “It’s a large private bed and bath” Yes, it was clean, and Beverley provided 3 mini bagels plus some fruit, which was nice. The bed was super high and a bit wobbly, and the mini fridge goes off loudly for intervals in the night–but those are non-issues for a moderate/deep sleeper. However, much as I am the kind of guest who made myself scarce and basically used the room to sleep each night, I didn’t get the sense that common areas including the kitchen or living room were truly open to guests. That was one of a few unspoken rules/expectations that I encountered here, and I was walking a bit on eggshells by the end. I suggested things like the 10pm curfew could be put up front in the house rules section for everyone’s benefit. That there are children in the house REALLY changes the dynamic. I was accosted on the 2nd night by Beverley for coming home at 1am–she said her children were disrupted from their routines from asking about my whereabouts and the noise even though I tiptoed in each night. I felt bad and her children deserve to sleep, but this was something I completely didn’t anticipate. I figured if someone’s putting up her house for airbnb that they would have thought of the possibility that the guest may not follow their sleeping schedule. I didn’t pay $40/night to come home early every night on my vacation for fear of disturbing the sleep of children, and would have considered that before booking, if I knew that was an expectation.
There were other things which I won’t go into, because I don’t want to speak ill of a person who seems like an OK person, but the place just wasn’t suited for Airbnb. She did say some things that were slightly racial (I am Asian) and I talked to her about that and will give the benefit of doubt. Yes, I reached out to Beverley privately before writing this review. We talked out some things up there, but it was not an easy convo (she accused me of some things that I did not do and insinuated that her daughter had abilities to perceive when something is “wrong” with someone, and that she perceived that about me when she first saw me, which was VERY uncalled for) and there are some other things that I am leaving unsaid. I don’t think Beverly is a bad person, and I wish her well. I made one mistake which I apologized to her for, which was bringing my boyfriend in for 15 min after I had given her an estimated time frame about an hour earlier. He came later and I forgot to text her before entering the house, thinking we would just drop off the items quickly, but when we stayed a few more minutes to apply sunscreen before heading out, she had covertly entered the house and saw/heard us, and later accused me of purposely coming in the house with my bf while she went out, which was so not true. It was just a mistake on my part and I did apologize.
Conclusion: I just don’t think this was a house that was ready for prime time on Airbnb. If I could do it over, I should’ve just paid more to get a place where I could feel free to be a normal person operating on my own time and feel free walking around. I wanted to post this since it couldn’t get posted on Airbnb in time.
Young people destroy high-end Airbnb Villa!
Airbnb cancelled my account without informing and checking with me any information posted in Facebook from a group of young people who stayed in one of my villas for one week last summer. They just believed a group of young people who destroyed a villa during their holidays in one of my villas. They made rave parties during their stay of 7 nights, A/C units were broken, plants in the garden were destroyed, tiles of the terrasse around the pool were broken, bedrooms doors broken. They had at the villa more than 60 people every night. When they left the damages at the villa was nearly 2000.-€ and they paid for the rent only 1500.-€, plus 300.-€ breakage deposit. We took pictures of the damages after they left and sent them the invoice for the damages, but they never paid the invoice. It was so bad that we had to move the next guests coming into the villa the following week.
Filthy Airbnb room, nightmare getting any refund!
For our holidays in Mexico City we reserved two apartments from Airbnb. About $800 USD for 17 nights. The dollars are gone, but the lodging was unacceptable. Neither of our apartments was ready to use when we arrived, we had to look (and pay) for other places to stay. To put it plainly – airbnb is a disaster, don’t believe the colorful pictures, the euphemistic descriptions. Never agree to “strict” cancellation rules because if you do, you’re really trapped. After almost 24 hours of travel to reach our destination we arrived about midnight in the first apartment. The fridge and kitchen cabinets were full of left-over food packages, the wardrobes were filled with used clothes, shoes and textiles of the “host”. Hair everywhere, on kitchen and bath towels, bed linen, sofa, carpets etc… it was disgusting. We did not even open our luggage and left the apartment immediately to look for a decent hotel. Because of the bad experience, we decided to have a look at the second apartment before moving in. The place was in a quite grubby district, the forecourt was full of construction waste and the apartment was 28 steep steps upstairs (for me an awkward challenge). None of this was mentioned at all in the description. To reach airbnb help you need a lot of time (and patience) to navigate through the site, through a lot of predefined answers only to get stuck in a dead end or circles. When you finally succeed, you should not really expect answers or support from airbnb. We have to add, to be fair, that after many arguments back and forth airbnb finally agreed to refund 270 USD. Obviously airbnb does not invest any time or money investigating to check their “hosts”, nor pictures and descriptions, nor the guests reviews to confirm their validity. The risk falls entirely on you, the guest!
Airbnb Removes Negative Reviews and Host Scams Guests!
We booked through airbnb on the beginning of February in a small country house in Bolu, Turkey. We had an okay vacation; other than the lack of heat due to the broken electrical heatings and missing firewood. As we started our journey back, the host started to harass us via phone; claiming we damaged the heating devices, some tiles in a bathroom and burned her couches and carpet. She also told us that we did not clean up after ourselves. We informed her that those damages were present before we arrived, and we did not clean up after ourselves because the house was not clean to begin with and we paid a cleaning fee for that sole purpose only. She told us that the tile was broken, but was glued, and the glue came off. And asked us if we would leave our aunts house like this!? Our aunt doesn’t charge us 1200 for 3 nights we answered. THEN the nightmare began.
The host accused us of damaging the house, and demanded a payment of 1600 Turkish Liras (approximately $500 American dollars). Both parties left negative reviews on each others profiles, and the case was escalated to airbnb for resolution. We say we did not do the damage in question, and since the house was a village house with broken and burnt places everywhere, we did not feel the responsibility to take pictures of every broken or burnt thing in the house. And that there is no proof we did the damages in question. She on the other hand, presented pictures of the damages (and some ridiculous things like forgotten underwear – which she keeps bringing up; are we to pay for her lost innocence as a maiden? But this is Turkey I guess), and continued to leave bad reviews everywhere. Added some references (her friends I am guessing?) in her profile.
Today Airbnb sent us an email informing us that our negative review is to be removed because extortion! Arguing that we threatened the host to write a bad review. 1) That’s what the host says, and there is no proof of that since we did not exhort her in anyway. 2) Airbnb is probably taking her side. And they have a right to charge our credit cards( apparently with no limits) and they can do that at any time. I really believe in the responsibility of the accuser to prove the accusation; and since there is no proof that the damages were undertaken on our stay there; I still hope that the airbnb team will not force us to pay for her house renovation, but I am getting less hopeful each day.
But the immediate problem is that; OUR REVIEW WAS DELETED! If airbnb removes negative reviews on hosts, how can people make sure that the house they are staying is any good? What happens when the next guest is accused of false damage claims by this host. They will not see my review! So airbnb continues to make money, and everyone is happy? No. I will not be using airbnb from now on, whatever the solution to this damage claim. I refuse to give the right to fine me to a company. That right belongs to the judicial authorities, and they take action based on real proof; not hearsay. In this case the money is not as important as the accusations to our character; which the host’s review contains and remains in our page until this is over and we close our account for good.
Guests POISONED During Nightmare Airbnb Stay!!
We are SOOO disappointed with the accommodation that we booked in July 2015 in Amsterdam! It started out OK…
Upon arriving, the representative let us into the apartment, showed us through, provided some maps and information to the area etc. During his explanation of the apartment to us, he casually mentions that the apartment has a distinct smell as it was only days before, sprayed with poison/chemicals for routine pest control. At the time, we didn’t think anything of it. We left to get some dinner, returned, showered etc and prepared for bed. The next morning we woke with varying degrees of headaches, nausea, dizziness and near-vomiting. The smell was unbearable. (It was also quite rainy so no windows could be opened to air the place out.) We called the representative EARLY that morning (approx 7am) and informed him of what had happened and that other arrangements would need to be made. We let him know that we had activities planned for the day, but he said that ‘someone would be in touch’ to let us know of what to do from there. By 4pm that afternoon, we had not heard from him, the owner of the apartment OR Airbnb. We left and checked into a hotel. We did not hear from anyone for the remainder of our time in Amsterdam. We began the process (online) to claim a refund. We were surprised to learn that approximately only one night’s worth of accommodation was refunded and we were still out of pocket for the rest of the nights! (approx $AUD1700!)
The first issue is this – THEIR website states: Accommodations on the Airbnb platform should meet minimum quality standards regarding safety, access, and cleanliness, and they should be consistent with the description provided by the host. I’d like to know how an apartment, sprayed with toxic chemicals, is in any way SAFE?! We had two small children aged only 4 and 6 at the time, we were the most affected by this. On these grounds alone we should have qualified for a FULL refund. The apartment should have NOT been available at that time – to let the chemicals air/disappear. Airbnb DID NOT inform us of this prior to our check-in and should have. Had we known, we would not have stayed there. So I have to assume then that maybe they knew this, and that’s why this wasn’t disclosed? (can anyone say ‘fraud’). So they took our money anyway, knowing that the apartment was less than acceptable.
Second issue is this (again from their website): For a full refund, cancellation must be made a full 24 hours prior to listing’s local check in time (or 3:00 PM if not specified) on the day of check in. For example, if check-in is on Friday, cancel by Thursday of that week before check in time. or If the guest cancels less than 24 hours before check-in, the first night is non-refundable. or If the guest arrives and decides to leave early, the nights not spent 24 hours after the official cancellation are 100% refunded. Clearly, we fit into the third category. We did check in, we did leave early. So the nights not spent after the official cancellation are 100% refunded!! (or should be…)
I have called the Australian number (only to be diverted to some Phillipino call centre) where the staff are clearly only trained to answer with very scripted answers. My details are ‘passed on to case managers’ who DON’T call back even though I have asked for TWO calls now, but instead reply with emails that state: Thanks so much for your patience throughout this process. We appreciate the time you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team. However, we have issued our final decision for this case and we will disengage from further discussion on this topic. Really?! They’re “disengaging” from this topic?? The customer, ME, does NOT accept the matter closed! Their OWN policy tells me I’m entitled to a refund! What is the point of a policy if you do not stick to it?! It isn’t worth anything. Given the seriousness of our complaint – the POISON you expected us to live in – they STILL have not addressed this issue and they continue to say that they’re decision is final. Again, I do not consider this matter closed and I will be informing the relevant authorities here in Australia that I can and any and all social media platforms!
Save your money and just book with hotels! Zero stars for you Airbnb Fraudsters!
Terrible Customer Service -Airbnb only wants your money
Airbnb doesn’t care about your safety or your vacation, they just want your money. I had a terrible experience with them!
First of all, we couldn’t get into the place we booked and it was late at night. The hosts told us to find a hotel and they said would pay for the cab and hotel. After searching for a hotel until 2am, we finally found one and went there. The hosts then wanted us to spend another day of our 3 day vacation trying to find another airbnb place, and if it didn’t pan out we were on our own. So we made the decision to stay at the hotel and try to enjoy the rest of our vacation since we already lost 1/2 a day because of the airbnb hosts. We asked that they pay for 2 nights of the 3, but they reneged on everything. I had to ask that the phone calls be pulled. 18 emails later, they paid for one night at the hotel and I took my $250 credit. The next thing I know, Airbnb locked me out of my account and said they will not engage with me anymore. They admitted that they didn’t provide good customer service and they are sorry for that, but this matter is closed and they will not speak further to me. I called back and got a rep who was stoned. I wanted a name of someone in corporate to discuss this matter of customer service as they protect each other. He wouldn’t give me one. I eventually found a name, but it didn’t matter. I mailed in a letter about what happened and send copies of the emails… but again, no response from anyone at Airbnb.
I would not recommend using airbnb. If something goes wrong, you’re screwed.
FRAUD: Ana Y Oscar, Granada, Calle Alvaro de Bazan
I booked my room on Airbnb. the link of the host is the following:https://www.airbnb.it/users/show/29036470 The hosts Ana Y Oscar stole my money. I arrived in the room that looked 10 years older than in the picture. Anyway was ok. The problem was that the room was on a nightclub! So I could not sleep. I had to walk out the apartment at 2:30 in the morning and get another room and of course pay again. The hosts were unfriendly and pieces of sh… They didn’t give me the money back. Furthermore, given that I cancelled the second night, airbnb doesn’t allow me to write my negative review on the website. Don’t go to Ana y Oscat, they are thieves!