Tag Archives: airbnb policy

Has Airbnb Missed the Mark Entirely?

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by AirbnbHell.com users do not necessarily reflect those of the Airbnb Hell staff.  That being said, we will continue to provide a free and uncensored platform for all of our contributors to share their Airbnb related stories, opinions, and experiences.

I am a boring old white male married with three children. I have no racial prejudices: the best man at my wedding was an Indian, I lived in Brixton when it was mostly black, I have gay friends, and I spent 11 years in the Middle East. I have employed Arabs and Jews and have friends who are both Muslims and Jewish – I even have a couple of friends who are lesbians – so clearly I am not racially prejudiced or against any particular minority group.

So what is Airbnb trying to do? They have sent me an email saying that unless I agree to their anti-discriminatory, pro-gay, pro-this and that terms and conditions, my guest house listing will be removed and any bookings I have made as an individual will be cancelled. What on earth are they trying to do? They are just an app with some really annoying features, like removing useful information from emails. This unbelievable arrogance speaks of delusions of grandeur. I will not agree to their new terms and conditions; it is not their business how I discriminate. I can fully understand why a old school catholic family may not want to host gay people. Surely they have that choice; it is their house and I am sure gay people would feel uncomfortable. Similarly, would a black guy want to rent a room from someone who is a member of the UK National Front? Probably not.

We all have our preferences. Airbnb has lost my listing for sure.

The Airbnb Community Commitment

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by AirbnbHell.com users do not necessarily reflect those of the Airbnb Hell staff.  That being said, we will continue to provide a free and uncensored platform for all of our contributors to share their Airbnb related stories, opinions, and experiences.

It seems that this new policy is leaving a huge gap in the non-discrimination policy. Airbnb is apparently allowing rampant and blatant discrimination against what certainly is a fair percentage of users. I expect that a federal lawsuit against Airbnb will be necessary to right this wrong. The discriminated group are the pedophiles, child molesters, rapists, and criminals that search for victims among single females or hosts with children in the home. Do you want to hurt the feelings of these criminals by making them feel less than welcome? I should hope not! Certainly you are only partially addressing this discriminated group by creating a mandatory policy for forcing single white women into having black males in their guest rooms! Just because fifty percent of blacks have a criminal record by the age of twenty-three, it is not their fault! This racial discrimination against black criminals has got to stop! I expect that the present administration will use the justice department to correct this grievous injustice in the near future (after all, if they are no longer in prison haven’t they “paid” for their crimes?) and now deserve to be restored to full rights regardless of how many times they have been convicted? Thank you for forcing everyone to stand up and “do the right thing.” This is just the camel’s nose under the tent for moving forward with the political allegiances which should be included in the future mandatory statement. Great job, Airbnb; it is all about controlling the masses and deciding what is best for them whether they like it or not!

Airbnb Policies Don’t Work if the Guest Cancels Early

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Don’t trust Airbnb with their cancellation policies. I had a guest arrive late one evening around midnight. They seemed quite happy with the apartment, then the next day called to say that they had found a place closer to the sea, and would like to leave. I said that would be fine, and then they asked for their money back. I responded it was not possible as I have lost other bookings. The next day they left and cancelled with Airbnb and requested a refund, which I declined. They also left the place filthy and full of rubbish. I heard nothing from Airbnb until after my next guest arrived, then they processed the refund from the payment of the other guests. Without telling me. This is daylight robbery. So hosts: beware your Airbnb cancellation policy means nothing. You are not covered. And what’s worse is they said that the apartment was listed incorrectly, which is all they have to do to get out of the cancellation policy. Do not list your property in Airbnb if you are a host.

Can’t Even Contact Airbnb Customer Service

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I recently booked two nights through Airbnb for the Manhattan area in New York. I was very excited to find such a great deal for the area. It turns out it was too good to be true. Within minutes of me booking, my “host” contacted me via text to request an additional security deposit of $500. This amount was not included on the additional costs page and was not included in the total that I had already been charged. I cancelled because I didn’t feel comfortable. This all happened within maybe 20 minutes. Now I cannot get my “service fee” back and there is no direct customer service phone, or email. I am extremely disappointed and upset that I just lost money because I was scammed. It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Airbnb Customer Furious over Refund Policy

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Before I begin, let me say that I am staying in a very nice Airbnb right now as I just moved to Tampa. Last weekend I looked and saw a reasonable studio apartment in Tampa that was less than I am paying now for a room in a residence. I put down $1,431. Later that day I drove to the part of town where the apartment is – it is located in a ghetto with all kinds of frightening people around. I wouldn’t feel safe in that area. I cancelled the reservation the same day; it was booked more than ten days in advance. I only received $682 back. After contacting the call center and being very angry I got another $200 refund. I will not stand for Airbnb taking $549 of my money. I intend to contact the CEO of the company or maybe go on the Tampa news. I will not take this lying down.

Red Wine Damages in Beautiful Penthouse

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We checked in the late morning on April 4th. On April 8th, we checked out early as we all had morning flights. We called the housekeeper to collect the keys from us as the owners were not available. We left everything as we found it but did not take out the rubbish as we weren’t provided with refuse bags or instructions on where it should be left. We personally didn’t think that this was an issue as the property was quite dirty on arrival with sanitary rubbish in the bathroom dustbins, dirt under the beds, old food in the fridge, etc. We left some leftover food and drinks in the fridge and left all the dishes and kitchen clean.

On my return to the office on the 8th I sent a message through Airbnb to the owner, as follows:

Hi Lasse! Thank you very much for having us stay in the penthouse. One of the girls tripped over the sliding door rail when coming in from outside and fell onto the couch with a glass of red wine. Please let us know what the charges are for the cleaning of the couch. I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

The accident happened on the evening of April 7th when we were locking up after dinner, before retiring to bed. Our manager entered from the balcony with a glass of wine in her hand, tripped over the rail of the glass sliding door and fell onto the floor and partially over the couch, spilling her wine on the floor and couch. There is a difference in the height from the floor outside to the inside creating a step, which in the dark is difficult to see. The couch is against the glass door so was in the immediate path to the kitchen from the balcony. We immediately offered to pay for cleaning the couch. If it was immediately handed in for cleaning there may have been a chance of removing the stain but the owner decided to wait almost a month before attending to the stain. I followed up via text messages on a couple of occasions and Lasse claimed that he didn’t have time to look into the cleaning of the couch and that he would do it between the times the penthouse was occupied.

It had been two months since we reported the spill on the couch when we were made aware of the fact that the dry cleaning had been unsuccessful and therefore recovering the couch was required at our expense (close to $1000). Whilst I understand that Lasse feels that the replacement of the fabric is required, I don’t understand that he feels that we should be held responsible for the charges. It was an accident and accidents happen. I would have thought that anybody with expensive furniture or appliances carry enough insurance to be covered for any incidents that could potentially damage or destroy their property. I was surprised at the request for the payment in total of the damages. I feel that Lasse only acknowledged the damages five days after I reported it. If something had been done about the spill immediately, the outcome may have been very different. A dispute was supposedly logged with Airbnb who found in favour of the host, leaving us with a massive bill (deducted off my credit card without my permission).

Be careful staying with Airbnb. Their terms clearly state that no matter what you do you are liable. Even if a property causes your death it is still in some way your own fault!

Hosts Get no Protection from Airbnb

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I am currently with my very first guest from Airbnb. I have been renting my two units successfully for four years but on a monthly basis, from 35 days to 8 months at the time. I had established procedures on checking on my tenants and being very careful to whom I rent. I even learned how conmen work and could recognize them immediately. This first guest of mine was very disrespectful from the very beginning. Due to a mistake on Airbnb’s part they did not charge her the entire amount she owed, and now I cannot collect the balance. I called customer service twice and the second time, the girl said they had no record of my first call. I don’t want to go through the whole story, but after careful review of the posted terms and conditions, hosts need to understand that Airbnb does not protect their interests. Their platform is that they are only an advertising agency and the contract is between guests and hosts. They are not obligated to take care of claims on damages, payment issues, or similar problems. This is not hotel management. You are on your own. Of course, I am very experienced in knowing what my rights and obligations are under the law in my state, and I have no problems filing claims with the court. However, as a host, I don’t vet the tenants and I don’t have their billing information. So, it is almost impossible to file a claim in court against problematic tenants. Airbnb policies are not acceptable. You need to understand that they will not provide any help and they are not obligated to provide protection to hosts. Simply find another place to advertise.

Airbnb Policy on Refunds Leaves Much to be Desired

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I am a foreign student studying in Canada and used Airbnb for my one-month holiday to the US, switching from one accommodation to another during the process. The hosts and the listings were fine in general, but AIRBNB DOES NOT HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE REFUND SYSTEM. During the trip, I had two bookings that were cancelled by the host, totaling a refund of about $600. The cancellations were made early and did not cause me much inconvenience. However, the issue is that I had just finished my studies and closed my Canadian account before leaving for the US; hence, the refund was made to a closed account. I thought that this would have been a small issue, since all Airbnb has to do is to retrieve the cash and transfer it to an alternative bank account.

How wrong I was.

1. AIRBNB HAS NO WAY OF RETRIEVING CASH THAT IS RETURNED TO THEM. The standard procedure for a cash refund in Airbnb is this: “Your money can only be refunded to the account you used for the booking. Your bank will issue you a cheque if your account is closed.” You cannot refund your money to an alternative account that you didn’t use to make your original payment. The bank does not always issue you a cheque. I have made numerous calls to the bank and found out that my bank’s policy on closed accounts is to return the money to the source, and Airbnb has no way of retrieving this amount.

2. AIRBNB PROVIDES NO WAY OF COMMUNICATING WITH THE PEOPLE WHO DEAL WITH MONETARY TRANSFERS/TRANSACTIONS. The people in Airbnb customer service center know very little about where your money goes. All they know and can do is to give you standard replies to standard questions. When questioned about what happens to the money that gets returned to Airbnb, the customer service center gave me the same response that I posted above (1). Want to talk to higher-ups? Want to discuss compensation? NOPE! All they have to do is to repeat this same standard answer again and again until you give up and put down the phone! So, that’s the tale of how I lost my refund and Airbnb lost a customer.

Airbnb Tax Problems

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I have just been notified by my tax office that they are conducting a tax audit of my tax returns, when I asked for further information I was told that AIRBNB have handed over my name, address and all payments made by AIRBNB to me to the United Kingdom tax authorities. Apparently AIRBNB has handed over to the UK taxman all the data they hold on UK taxpayers. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193503/Airbnb-landlords-face-huge-tax-bill-crackdown-Ireland.html