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.

First Time Airbnb Experience a Positive One

Posted on July 25, 2018

This was my first time using Airbnb and it was sort of a horror story. We booked a room in a hotel resort with an option for an all-inclusive package to be paid at reception. Once we had driven several hours and checked in, the agreed price was marked up 50% from what was confirmed prior to booking. We called Airbnb and they advised us that they would honor the price difference as the host was unsympathetic and not willing to do so.

After dealing with Airbnb, night was falling and we started to see an infestation of cockroaches. We requested a callback from Airbnb and advised them we were out of there. They said they would find us alternative accommodation. By that night, we had not heard from them so we requested a callback; they said to book a hotel and they would reimburse us.

We stayed at a cheaper hotel and checked with them the next day. We never heard from them so we decided to just spend the money and book a five-star all-inclusive resort but only for three days and not the six which was initially booked. We never thought Airbnb would reimburse us for the hotel and thought it would be a battle to get the refund. Little did we know after going back and forth with Airbnb and them with the hostess, we got a full refund on the room booked. They also completely paid for our five-star hotel. We were eligible for the guest experience program.

All I can say is keep in touch with Airbnb when the first issues arises. We were impressed with the swiftness of reimbursement and the customer support from Airbnb for first time users. We were browsing this site upon investigating our ordeal. Reading all the horror stories, we’re glad we weren’t left hanging in the end.

Airbnb: The Worst Company I have ever Dealt with

Posted on July 24, 2018

I had a long, long drawn out fight with Airbnb that I thought would never get solved. My fiancé and I booked a house rental on March 16th, with out check-in date set to May 25th. On May 24th, one day before out trip, my fiancé (the account owner) got an email saying our trip had been cancelled because “We (Airbnb) don’t believe this transaction is legitimate”.

This trip has been booked, paid for, and cleared over a month before this email. The money had been long gone. We called and were told by a woman that it was a computer glitch that Airbnb was aware of, and technical support would call us ‘soon’. She could not offer any time frame at all, and did not seem to care that we were packed, had taken off of work, and paid long ago.

The call from technical support never came. The money was ‘refunded’ to us in the form of account credits. Not money. Our trip was for five days total, and cost about $800. We missed our trip. About five days later, we got another email saying his account was now completely banned and deactivated, and “We sent you an email about this issue back on the 1st”. We searched through all of our emails, and had definitely not gotten that one. In fact, on the 20th we got an automatic email telling us to “get ready!” for our trip.

Now, there was $700 in a deactivated account. Airbnb had no problem keeping their $100ish booking fee, and we never saw it again. Because the account was totally deactivated, and our phone numbers and accounts were blacklisted. This meant if we called or chatted with someone, we were automatically disconnected and never got help. We both even created second accounts. Several customer service people had no idea what to do, and sent us just one or two messages before closing the chat. We got one single message through to someone claiming that they would “forward our message to the appropriate person”. That chat is still open. I sent a message on it every few days asking if anyone was every going to answer.

Finally, my mother-in-law made a great suggestion: go to the BBB. I am 100% positive we would have never seen that money again if we hadn’t taken that advice. I filed a formal complaint, and they kept me updated the whole way. I got an email shortly after filing that said they were escalating my claim and reaching out to Airbnb. Only four days later we finally got an email from Airbnb, offering us a gift card that we could regift. I pushed for a check, and the next week we had $700 deposited into our Paypal account.

Please, other readers, file complaints. You don’t have to be seeking just money back, you can report them for being as terrible business. If enough people do, we can get them shut down eventually. They fully knew what they were doing, and knew that we obviously count not use credits put into a deleted account, and they kept ‘their share; of the money. I fought for that, too, but was told they would not give it back.