Tag Archives: airbnb pregnant

Getting Evicted While Staying at Airbnb

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This is my recent nightmare. I woke up around 11:00 AM to the maintenance man knocking on my unit stating he was looking for a water leak. He then informed me that the unit I was in was up for eviction.

I contacted Airbnb and then the host. I explained to Airbnb that I was pregnant and management was only giving me twenty minutes to vacate the premises. Airbnb asked me to work it out with the host. I called my husband because I was having a panic attack.

When the host arrived she went to the leasing office because she has three other units for rent and wanted to move us to another illegal unit. From noon to 10:00 PM I was in my car and on the phone with Airbnb. During this chaos I was humiliated by the manager who insulted me and belittled me in front of other tenants and the host.

The manager told my wife she had five minutes to vacate the premises or the sheriff would be escorting her out without being at fault. The host lied to her and pretty much stole my money and anyone before me because she knew she was being evicted.

Airbnb didn’t accommodate me or give me the sense they were here to help me. I felt alone and kept hoping Airbnb would find me a replacement house for the time being. Keep in mind I’m pregnant and with all the stress, sitting in the car for almost 11 hours with nowhere to go, Airbnb reps telling me they had to go home (sounds nice to say “I’m going home”), and the next agent helping me until she also had to go home, this left me with no choice but to pay for a hotel with my property in the car.

I was very disappointed that Airbnb was concerned about me wanting to get money back. I clearly told them I didn’t want my money back; I just needed a place to rest as I was extremely tired and depressed at this point.

The house I picked was a little more expensive. I paid the difference and still had nowhere to go. Not only did Airbnb not want to work with me but their only concern was how they didn’t go out of their way to really get us into anything that was not in our budget, considering I got evicted and humiliated and they just put me in a house.

Airbnb finally put someone on the line who was helpful but she had no authorization to make any major decisions. She gave us a $29 dollar credit then a $59 one for the only two days the host was refunding after Airbnb knew she was getting evicted and running her listing illegally.

My husband went to the leasing office and recorded the host telling the manager, who was her cousin, what was not true and also discussed our situation. The manager told the host that was not allowed. The host told the manager everything was okay. It wasn’t, because the manager came back to the apartment and told her she had to leave now.

That host is a fraud and Airbnb knows it. I’m going to small claims court and suing them for pain and suffering along with fraud. All I ask for is for Airbnb to take responsibility. As it is, Airbnb is advertising the homes and not really checking if the place is legal to use as an Airbnb. I blame Airbnb for everything that happened to my wife yesterday knowing she was stressed and could have affected the baby.

Six-Hour Drive to Airbnb Revealed Nothing

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My daughter, who is heavily pregnant, and myself, aged 68, booked a break away with Airbnb, as escapism for a couple of days, having had car crash, family sickness, and my mother’s terminal illness to deal with, not to mention redundancy. We travelled six hours from Kent to North Wales, and upon reaching our destination and phoning the host discovered there was no booking for us, even though money been taken from us, and a confirmation code and receipt number received.

After some while awaiting a call back from the host to no avail, we contacted Airbnb, and were shown no consideration, only insultingly being advised of the terms and conditions, shedding any responsibility. Only upon insisting on speaking to a superior staff member were we offered any semblance of an apology, and a list of properties apparently vacant, but they were all booked.

To cut a long arduous story short, we returned home on our six-hour journey to Kent. This all took place on August 9th and there has still been no apology, and no compensation has been received. I posted a complaint letter to a London Airbnb address, and that got returned, stating “addressee gone away”. It’s so frustrating, so customer unfriendly and inconsiderate. Maddening.

Two Nights in Airbnb Hell for Pregnant Guests

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My boyfriend and I wanted a quick vacation before the arrival of our first child. At four and a half months pregnant, we drove down to Miami from Toronto. We booked a nice-looking studio apartment in Miami and got ready for our trip. So, we made the 24-hour drive down to Miami and arrived at our listing.

The host came out of her house to greet us and show us to our place. She showed us where to find the key, and then started speaking to my boyfriend in Spanish. I didn’t understand much of their exchange, but he later explained to me that she told him “The owner of this property lives down the street, if she comes around or asks you any questions, just tell her you’re friends of mine visiting.”

I thought this was kind of sketchy, so I called Airbnb to let them know. Airbnb called me back, and let me know that they’ve simply decided to cancel the reservation and we needed to find a new place to stay. It was a Sunday afternoon at 7:30 PM. I was almost five months pregnant and dead tired from a 2500 km drive. I mentioned this all to the rep on the phone, and she told me that she was finished working and someone new would call me back right away.

Fast forward to two hours later, with me hounding and harassing Airbnb – spent well over 45 minutes waiting on the phone, only to be hung up on multiple times – and finally someone called me back. She said there was nothing available for the same night in our same price range. I argued over and over and over with her, and then she finally asked her manager for an approval to cover the cost of a new, more expensive listing.

She explained that she found a new listing with similar amenities to the one we previously chose. So we went ahead and headed over to the new place. The host on Airbnb was listed as a woman, but some dude showed up to show us around the apartment. We walked in; the place was a disgusting dump. He quickly rushed us through, and showed us the damp towels and airbeds. There was literally nothing else in the apartment. It was an empty apartment with two air mattresses on the floor. There were none of the amenities we previous requested: parking, TV, wifi.

To top it all off, the apartment door was secured only by a cheap $10 doorknob lock. There was a deadbolt, but they didn’t give us the key for it. I called Airbnb again at 11:30 PM and explained to them that this was not acceptable. The man on the phone told us that we should stay the night since it was late. He told me a case manager would contact me in the morning to sort it out.

The next morning, I called Airbnb yet again only to be told that my reservation couldn’t be cancelled since I stayed the first night. I explained to her that I was instructed to stay there by one of her colleagues, and she didn’t care. She told me I had to ask the host for a cancellation. I contacted the host, and she told us she could only offer a 50% refund. She then sent me a few nasty messages saying how we wasted her time and were just scamming her to get a “free night.”

We ignored that and told her we were leaving. She told us to leave the keys on the counter and lock the door. We did as instructed. We did get the 50% refund, and then after more and more arguing with Airbnb and speaking with a manager, they agreed to give us back the other 50% of the money to make a new reservation.

Finally, we brought all of our stuff back to the car, and as we were leaving, we saw a disgusting cockroach in the sink. I took a picture and sent it to Airbnb, which they totally ignored. I called them and aseked if they received my photo; they said someone would call me back. There still hasn’t been a response. I called them again and asked if they were really going to let people keep renting from a place that’s infested with cockroaches, and of course the line “disconnects” again.

Anyway, I put that out of my mind and tried to enjoy the rest of my vacation. A few days later, I saw the initial host wrote a bad review on my profile (how do they even leave me a review when I didn’t even stay at her house?). The second host sent me a request to pay her $285 saying she needed to replace the lock on the door (the $10 doorknob lock) because she couldn’t find the key that I left. I called Airbnb. They told me that I left the key and it was not my problem. The rep on the phone told me that a case manager would call me back. Again, no call back from Airbnb.

What was supposed to be a quick and fun vacation turned into a majorly stressful event. Two days of our week-long trip were wasted moving from listing to listing and talking on the phone with Airbnb reps. I will never use Airbnb again.