Tag Archives: Airbnb USA

No Refunds, No Matter What? An Airbnb Guest Weighs in

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It was my first time using Airbnb and I was excited. After researching and looking at over 20 places in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I found a place that looked amazing (which it does, in the pictures). But this is not about how amazing the place is or the conditions of the place once I arrived. This is about eight hours later booking the place for a last-minute trip.

Once I booked, a few moments later I got really sick, and it seems I got food poisoning. I’ve traveled around the world for work and always enjoyed using mainstream hotels. Because of this, I never considered that there would be a subjective and erratic refund policy where one place gives you a 48-hour full refund with no questions asked and another just plain no refunds… period.

I was finally able to get a hold of the host, and they advised me to ask Airbnb to resolve this. After finally getting someone with Airbnb they said they couldn’t do anything and the host was the one that could refund me… It turned into a ping pong hot potato game and was getting nowhere. At this point I was vomiting and feverish with a rash all over my body.

They said, “Well, it was on the refund policy when you booked.”

I was confused since I did not see “anything” about this anywhere, so I looked. After running a search on the page in the browser, I found it past “everything” including the reviews at the bottom in the footer area of the page.

At this point I spoke with my business credit card company and will need to wait for the charges to post, so I can submit a claim. This is absolutely unethical and in a world where most services are customer-centric I am baffled. I spent some time reading about nightmare situations from hosts here. Airbnb seems to be based on an overall unethical business model. I’ve had people rent my home and destroy it to the point it cost me $30,000 to repair, so I understand the side of being a host. It seems the business model is focused on a win-win model that only Airbnb can win.

Do not use Airbnb unless you are comfortable losing money. Look for the refund policy, which is randomly set by the host. Airbnb is not there to protect you as a consumer. They are there just to make the process easier for you to spend money and not be safer.

If you are a host, you need to be comfortable in being able to resolve issues without Airbnb being involved or have insurance that covers vandalism. You are playing in their sandbox, and they hold all the cards. Unless you are one of those individuals that have the time to go after them and get pleasure out of it… your time on this earth is better spent elsewhere.

To my friends and people in Puerto Rico: you are the reason our reputation at Airbnb has fallen so low. I am deeply disappointed. My time is worth more than your petty no-refund unethical smoke screen expense. As a business owner, I know personally you will pay a hefty price, and it’s not always in money.

Discrimination at Airbnb in the South of France

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Eight years ago I rented a studio in Montpellier, France for one month. I prepaid and arrived at the studio at the arranged time. I was told to return the next day. Remember that I had already paid. I stayed one day before the owner asked me to leave.

Why? Who knows?

I am an African American college professor who was planning to write for a month. Last year I rented another studio in Marseille for a month via Airbnb. The owner met me and let me in with no problem. There was an internet issue that was resolved by me purchasing my own service. Suddenly the owner wanted to come by with her boyfriend. She seemed to be uncomfortable. The boyfriend kept talking to me about Africa. I am African American. They asked me to leave although I paid for one month and had been there six days.

I was frustrated as I was at the end of the semester and super busy. I left because I don’t want to stay where I was not wanted. Airbnb kept more than 50% of my money even though I stayed for one week and paid for four. I will never use Airbnb again and the company clearly condones racism. I wanted all of my money refunded as I had to go to a hotel. I still want my money. Never again will I use Airbnb. I tell my friends and everyone I know not to use them. As a U.S. citizen, there is no way in hell that I would rent an Airbnb in the U.S. Never.

Bait and Switch at Airbnb in New Orleans

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We arrived at our Airbnb after being moved due to an AC failure at the original place we booked. We booked it six months in advance and notified the host of the change the day before arrival. The new place at motor works is nice, but has some issues that management could have resolved and didn’t.

The refrigerator never worked and it was 100 degrees everyday; the door handle on the entrance door was falling off — that was finally fixed; the glass was falling off of the upstairs tub and that was fixed; the downstairs shower leaks into the bedroom closet and the water runs under the bed. There was no hand soap in the downstairs bathrooms, so we bought our own; there were very few paper towels and no hand towels. The beds were comfortable and the AC worked well, so I gave it one star.

A working refrigerator in 100-degree weather is a must and a maintenance man that says he will be back and actually shows up again when the door handle is practically falling off would be nice as well. We paid $200/night for the place we originally were going to stay, then they moved us to a place $200/night less with a refrigerator that didn’t work and they never replaced it like they said they would.

Airbnb removed the above review as it violated their community guidelines. I was told the host disputed the relevance of my posting the distance to a homeless camp… seems like that’s something people would want to know. As of right now we were offered a $517 refund. The difference in house pricing was $1,000 alone.

Fraudulent Charges without Record of Receipt

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Recently I was charged $2,800 by Airbnb: $1,800 for a booking and then two “mysterious” charges of $499 each which were not linked with a booking on their platform and for which I did not receive a record of receipt or any record of the charges on their platform whatsoever. Airbnb has thus far refused to provide a record or receipt of these charges. I received a refund for the charges, but was not provided any information on their basis or cause of the charges, and the charges were somehow linked with a mysterious login from California into my account. It would have been impossible to make these charges through an external login and so it must be assumed that these charges, two charges of $499 each, were made internally without cause through their payment processor.

Airbnb also erases records of logins from the consumer-facing portal once it is discovered that the login is fraudulent, thus erasing your ability to log the history of such. So I have no ability to show that the charges were associated with a separate login to my account, but I could honestly just provide this other information as well as the arbitrary nature of the booking (a booking for December made in May, seven months out). I’m considering suing Airbnb for breach of fiduciary duty.

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Airbnb Bait and Switch Ruins Miami Birthday Trip

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I posted a review on Airbnb of the drama but they took it down stating I posted ‘sensitive content’ but have yet to tell me what that is. The host sent me an email with an address that was not the actual address of his unit. He lied. There were multiple codes to enter the elevator and the unit that didn’t work all the time either. There were also signs posted at the elevators stating that they do not allow Airbnb.

Our flight was delayed due to weather issues. We had to overnight in Nashville. I told the host and he said to call when we arrived in Miami. A full day after our initial check-in time, we arrived. It was when I called a second time notifying him of our arrival that the host revealed that he purposefully emailed me the wrong address. The real address was two blocks away. Not only that, he said we could not all enter the building at the same time, could not bring all of our bags in at once nor could we talk to the staff. If they did speak to us, we were to say we were his cousins. The Airbnb ad also said there was free parking; there was no free parking on the street or in the building, just $45 per day.

There was pubic hair in the sheets and pee stains on the mattress. Fingerprints were on most surfaces, the light switches were dirty, there were wet towels in the washing machine, years of dust and dirt buildup in the louvered doors to the laundry closet, the bedsheets were dirty (crumbs, specks of glitter, pen and marker on sheets), and makeup marks on the doorframe of the master bathroom. The toilet cover and seat looked around 50 years old. The toilet bowl was not completely clean. There were dry food pieces in the microwave. The high chair back had no screws. Refrigerator was dirty.

There were fingerprints on the sliding glass door to the balcony that had two metal folding chairs. Blinds were missing pieces and not even long enough to cover the glass on the door that lead to the master bedroom. A few random suspect sheets to change out but nothing matched. The towels looked recycled. There were only three washcloths, recycled from a car wash I suspect.

The host had the nerve to tell us his ‘man’ who was supposed to clean did not have time to finish. How is that even possible when we were a day late? He had the nerve to ask us to wash the sheets and finish drying the wet towels. We immediately went to Walmart and picked up sheets and cleaning supplies. Beforehand he promised to reimburse us for parking, the day we lost and Walmart costs. The time we lost doing this and standing in the longest line ever can never be repaid.

We told Airbnb about these issues but the first thing they said to us was we should have called within 24 hours of check-in. How can we call when we didn’t find out until after the time expired? Despite proof of the legitimate flight delay and proof that he waited 24 hours to reveal the real address, Airbnb refused to refund us outright. Instead they said the host would have to agree. Which of course he did not. The guy even sent me a threatening text message a week after his refusal.

I put up a review, they take it down. Do they take down his bait and switch post? Nope. Airbnb is completely complicit in his scam.

I am going to pay the arbitration fee and go through the process which is required by their terms of service before you sue Airbnb. I will never use this service again. To make matters worse, the unit wasn’t even cheaper than a hotel; it was just a busy weekend in Miami and we couldn’t get anything else close by all of the events we were going to for my sister’s birthday trip.

Airbnb and its Hosts’ Unfair Business Practices

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I was looking for an Airbnb place for me and my son in the vicinity of Woodstock, New Hampshire, for Feb. 8-15, 2022. Because of my age and the circumstances due to COVID-19, I needed a private bathroom and two rooms.

I used a map displayed on my computer, as provided by Airbnb. I picked this property because it appeared very close to Woodstock and met my requirements. I booked it and paid a full fee of $910. As soon as my booking was confirmed I received an address of the property and it became clear that it was a mistake. The property was in Vermont, a one-hour drive from Woodstock. The mistake was caused by the scale of the map, in which the property appeared close to Woodstock, and I did not realize that.

Within less than 15 minutes I cancelled my booking and requested a refund from the host. I explained in my request that I made a mistake. The property was off the market for less than 15 minutes and was advertised as available immediately after my cancellation.

The host responded that he could not issue the refund. He did not explain why. He referred me to the Airbnb management. I explained my situation to them and requested a refund from the host again. He responded that he would answer in an hour, as required by Airbnb. He did not. He was holding my money, while at the same time he was advertising his inn on the Airbnb website.

I felt trapped. Obviously, I could not look for a different place since I paid the booking fee. The next day the Airbnb representative began negotiating with the host to obtain a refund. At some point during the next day around late afternoon or evening the Airbnb representative informed me that the host refused to issue the refund and that Airbnb could not overrule his rejection.

The host made money off my mistake and was listing his property as available for booking.
I understand that when someone books a property in advance and then cancels shortly before the planned arrival the property owner may legitimately face a loss of potential customers, but my case was totally different. I cancelled my booking within minutes of receiving an address of the property, and then it was back on the market.

The host kept me hostage and engaged in unfair business practices under the protection of Airbnb. Sometime late in the evening I received a message from Airbnb that the host agreed to a 50% refund. Considering the cost of this booking I could not absorb such a loss. This was totally unethical. The Airbnb representative agreed with my grievances, but appeared to refuse to overrule the host’s response.

My only option to which the host agreed was to rebook. I was stuck with this place. I drove an extra two hours every day during my five days staying there to reach my preplanned destinations.

Two days later the host sent me a message that if I would like to cancel for a second time, he would issue a full refund. And again, a day later he offered a full refund if I cancel again.
Everyone knows that when the number of days before the planned arrival gets smaller, the availability of places to stay declines rapidly. Every day, every hour counts. By the time the host decided to offer me a refund. I couldn’t find anything close to Woodstock that met my requirements.

Airbnb’s refusal to overrule the host’s response and his lack of timely responsiveness during the Airbnb negotiations, which continued for two days, inflicted great emotional harm and stress on me. I felt trapped. During my stay, I accrued additional financial cost, loss of time and unnecessary two hours driving daily to my destinations in New Hampshire.

Also, during our stay in his property, we suffered from vertigo, teary and itchy eyes due to the presence of enormous amounts of various laundry, house and personal cleaning volatile chemicals as well as air purifiers, and even charcoal starter above the kitchen stove. It was impossible to relax on the sofas due to the constant sneezing. And the TV was losing connection all the time.

I wrote this review to be publicly displayed on the Airbnb website, for the benefit of potential tourists. This information needs to be available to protect the travelers from the unfair practices of Airbnb and their host.

Unfortunately, Airbnb prevented me from publishing this review under the pretext that it violated their rules. I wrote the address and host’s name in my initial version of this document. While writing my review I found that the host’s name and address of this property are in full view on Facebook.

Thus, the privacy restrictions invoked in this case by Airbnb were used simply to prevent publication of my critical review and to protect their host and the company from publishing the inconvenient truth. The fact that this information is openly available on Facebook implies that I could not have violated the privacy rule of Airbnb.

Please note that I agreed to remove anything that Airbnb finds objectionable in order to resubmit my review. Airbnb refused.

Host Said I Booked a Listing that Does Not Accept Reservations

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I sent a notification of a dispute and an attempt in good faith to negotiate an informal resolution. The dispute involved my confirmed reservation for an Airbnb listing in Clearwater, Florida. My confirmed reservation was for Dec. 11 to Dec. 18, 2021. This story shows that Airbnb has fake listings on their site, does bait and switch with listings, and allows host to cancel at the last minute if they can get more money elsewhere or from a different guest.

On Sept. 28, my husband’s sister called us to say she was driving to Clearwater to spend a couple months on vacation. We had not seen her in over four years and were really excited. After talking it over, my husband and I decided to drive from Baton Rouge to Florida and spend a week on vacation at an Airbnb to spend time with his sister. I spend several days going through the Airbnb listings and finally found the perfect one. I knew I would not find any listings the week for Christmas so we decided to celebrate the week before.

It was a whole house, would take the dogs, had a fenced yard, was on one of the canals, had a heated pool and included a pontoon boat you could take to the beaches. It was also only a few minutes away from where my husband’s sister was staying. I wrote Airbnb about the issue that the listing asked people to book on the Sandbar Vacation Rentals website instead of with Airbnb. I did not do that, but instead booked from the Airbnb site where I had originally found the listing.

As you can see my reservation was confirmed right away. Half the payment was made and we started to prepare for our vacation. I had not had a vacation in years and had been saving up my vacation days for a trip to Europe after COVID died down, but decided to use some of my days for this trip to visit with my sister-in-law. I applied to my employer to take the days and before I left for vacation, as required by my employer, I entered the vacation days into my timesheet. As far as I know once you do that they cannot be recovered.

I baked Christmas cookies, made fudge, and ordered some wonderful lamb tenderloins for our Christmas dinner. We planned an outing to the aquarium, a pontoon boat ride to look at Christmas decorations and even ordered our first meal from Casa Tina. We also planned a drive to Orlando to pick up a dog I was going to rescue. I got regular emails from Airbnb confirming my reservation, notifying me that the second half of my payment was due, and then received. I assumed the host also received these notices from Airbnb.

We loaded up the car and proceeded to drive eight hours to Tallahassee. At 2:00 PM on Friday, Dec. 10, I texted the host to let them know we would arrive and check into the house at 4:00 PM the next day (Dec. 11). The host asked me to confirm my name, saying he did not have the cell number on file. I texted my name and reservation confirmation code back to him.

He replied, “I’m sorry, but you booked a listing that does not accept reservations. We do not have a reservation for you.”

I texted back the confirmation number and that I had paid in full. The host confirmed I was talking to them and said they did not have my money, suggesting we call Airbnb. I got sent to a “customer ambassador” that would help me with my issue. He was nice enough but did not speak great English and seemed to not understand the situation. He said he would call the host and get back to me. He seemed to be reading from a script and was very concerned that I have the Airbnb cancellation policy, even thought I was not the one cancelling.

After he talked with the host, he called me back and essentially said they did not have a reservation for me but gave me no other explanation of how this happened. He admitted that Airbnb had a fully paid active reservation for me on an active listing but did indicate why the host was not going to honor the reservation. He said I would get a full refund but that it would take 5-15 days. I asked if it could just be applied to a new listing as we would need a place to stay. He said that was not possible as they just didn’t do that. I said we still needed a place to stay and could he find us comparable accommodations. He said he would work on it and call me back. I never heard from him again.

When we got to our hotel in Tallahassee, I immediately got on my computer and looked for a place to stay. My sister-in-law also started looking. Even the host sent some suggestions, but Airbnb never did. None of the listings that the host sent worked as they would not take two large dogs and were also not even in Clearwater. Everything, even nice hotels, that would take two large dogs and were close to my sister-in-law’s house was booked, since it was only a week before Christmas.

They next day we had to decide to drive on to Clearwater with no place to stay or to return home. My husband, bless his heart, felt like Airbnb would find a new house for us to stay in and wanted to drive on. I did not share his opinion since they had never called us back. With a grumpy husband, a grumpier wife, and two large dogs lacking exercise I said we were driving home.

Everyone was angry and depressed. He broke out in hives, his sister cried, and I tweeted my displeasure. My tweets got responses from Airbnb saying they would follow up. It’s been five days and the only real follow-up I got was to say I would get a refund: no help finding another place to stay, no apologies, except they were sorry for the “inconvenience”. Every message I got sounded like it was a canned AI responding to me with no mention of my situation.

My vacation was ruined, my vacation days stolen, and I am depressed and have started on medication. I submitted my mileage, my hotel bill, and the value of my lost vacation days to Airbnb, asking to be compensated. I got back another stupid canned message saying they couldn’t issue a refund as per their policies.

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Airbnb Fails to Follow Its Own Guest Refund Policy

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I rented an Airbnb for a four-night, five-day stay at a cost of $1906.76. On the host’s Airbnb primary webpage, there was nothing listed about the host having dogs that frequently barked, and one described that ‘may’ bite. Nor was there anything to indicate that the host might not be present at the property during the stay (as we had assumed).

The dog disclosure was only evident when one clicked on ‘show more’ in the ‘Health & Safety’ information, at the bottom of the web page. This is deceptive, as there are four or five health and safety issues listed at the bottom of the first page, but apparently the other more significant issues don’t ‘fit’ on the page, hence the need to ‘show more.’ How creative of Airbnb to do that. At any rate, the hosts are not fully transparent about having pets, as nowhere in the listing’s primary description page does one read anything about pets being present, let alone pets that bark and ‘may bite.’

The evening before the rental was to begin, the host messaged us that they were delayed coming back from Portugal, and that their ‘house sitters’ were leaving the property earlier than scheduled, resulting in them having to place their two dogs in a garage (directly above the area that we would be occupying during the rental), and that we might hear some barking. The host suggested that if we were disturbed by this, to simply turn on a TV, a stereo or a white noise machine (they’ve tested them – indicating this has been a problem for prior guests). It is our opinion now, that the host did this as a CYA [cover your ass] tactic, specifically so she could deny a refund should a request be made due to this issue. And congratulations, it worked.

We messaged the host that this new situation was not okay, that we did not know they had dogs that barked and might bite, and that, given the new information which had the dogs staying in the garage and barking, we did not want to stay at the property. I messaged her that we wanted to cancel and receive a refund. The host ignored this request, and refused a refund. We were scheduled to fly to Colorado Springs very early the next morning, and since it was already 10:00 PM, we made arrangements for another booking with Airbnb.

We had to get up at 5:30 AM to go to the airport the next morning, and did not want to continue a back-and-forth message session with the host, as the host also indicated that they would be flying international back to the USA, and could easily be out of communication with anyone. The host messaged us at 3:00 AM that morning (which we did not see until the next day) indicating that she would be able to get someone else to take care of the dogs. For us, this was too little, too late. This was her problem, but she made it our problem. We value our peace, security and safety, and did not want to risk a stay at a property without the hosts being present and with two dogs that might be kept with no supervision, barking.

We escalated this issue to Airbnb on the evening of the 7th (before the booking was scheduled to start), and spoke with seven representatives by phone and three by Airbnb messages over the course of the rental period. The first Airbnb representatives we spoke with on the phone told us about the dog disclosure under ‘show more.’ He was almost proud that he could do that, as if he had practiced doing it and had done it before. It made his day to be able to prove that we had been advised of the health and safety condition in advance, even though it is not immediately apparent that one has to do this in order to be fully informed.

However, we had also read Airbnb’s policy for hosts who keep ‘potentially dangerous’ animals on a rental property, and found that it stated that a secure enclosure had to be provided for such animals, so that they could not get out and threaten a guest’s safety (i.e. bite them). We shared with the Airbnb representative the host’s own ‘check in’ instructions (now curiously removed from the host’s website, but a screen shot has been added to this review). The photos in the ‘check in’ instructions show the guest being directed right by the area where the dogs are kept outdoors (yellow arrow), and more importantly, show the type of ‘enclosure’ provided by the host.

This ‘enclosure’ is nothing more than a portable ‘puppy’ fence, only two feet high (see attached photos). We did not believe this enclosure to be secure, and did not want to risk having my wife bitten by one of the dogs, who in our opinion, could easily knock down, jump over or escape the flimsy outdoor ‘enclosure’ (see photos). Not to mention we did not want to risk staying there, and having new issues arise with the host not being able to get home from overseas, or not being able to have a third party come to the property to ‘quiet’ down the barking dogs.

One has to wonder about the ‘intelligence’ and ‘foresight’ of any host who would own a dog that has a propensity to bite, place that dog in a non-secure enclosure, and then direct guests to walk immediately by that same enclosure every time they were coming and going from the property. This particular host is asking to be sued by a family with a small child who is bitten, and with the type of arrangements indicated by the host (in writing no less), they would easily lose that lawsuit. It was our opinion that the host lacked good judgment, and we did not want to risk discovering additional areas of poor judgment on the part of this host. This was a safety issue.

All of this was clearly explained to the Airbnb ‘investigative’ representatives and case managers/ambassadors/supervisors assigned to review our case. Screenshots were taken of everything. The host’s check in instructions were shown to an Airbnb representative. We were repeatedly told by Airbnb not to cancel the rental. When we asked one of the representatives if we should check in to the property, given the safety issues we had identified, the response was, “No you need to wait until the rep gets back to you with instructions.”

Their only messages to us were that they were in the process of communicating with the host, and then were escalating the issue (again) to a supervisor. Meanwhile the host had been told to message us ‘check in’ instructions, no doubt so she could claim us as a no show, and claim she had done ‘everything possible’ to accommodate us. The money was more important to her. Remember that about these folks, and wait until you see what she does at the end of this.

The time to check in came and went, and we were already staying at another Airbnb. It was not until the last day of the rental that the Airbnb supervisor indicated that we would not get a refund, and he added insult to injury by stating that we were denied a refund because we had not stayed at the booking.

I actually asked one of the Airbnb representatives this question on the day prior to the rental. Specifically, we asked if we would be considered a ‘no show’ if we did not cancel or check in, and were told, “No please do not worry, we have escalated this to the investigation team. They will contact you and let you know the status of this.” This was deliberately deceptive on the part of Airbnb.

I then requested that the decision be appealed, thinking that it would be viewed by another Airbnb management team member, higher up than the supervisor. No, it was the supervisor reviewing his own decision. And he did what he is good at: he lied to me a second time. I had been requesting all along that I speak via phone, directly with the rep and then the supervisor. Each time I requested this on the phone with Airbnb reps I was told that the rep and then the supervisor would be calling me. Neither of them ever called. We know our phone works, because we have received calls from Airbnb reps before, on the same phone we have in our profile, the same phone that is verified.

The supervisor lied and said that he was going to call but could not, because the phone listed in our account was not verified. The supervisor really should be fired for that. At any rate, the supervisor denied the appeal of his own decision. We hope his supervisor read this review.

We followed the advice of Airbnb customer service, and requested a partial refund from the hosts. They denied the refund. We were amazed that they simply ignored our original request to cancel the booking on Oct. 7. The hosts must be having a hard time paying the rent on their $800,000 home in Colorado Springs, that or their trip to Portugal must have been very expensive. The host was told that, in our opinion, what she did constituted ‘theft,’ specifically as a breach of contract, and a form of ‘unjust enrichment.’ She should have done the right thing and realized that they as hosts:

  • Deliberately do not state anything about the dogs on the first page of the rental. They don’t want you to know about the dogs because that might negatively impact their cash flow. It’s great to have dogs. But you know what, you really need to tell people about them on the first page of your rental description. Why are you hiding that information? Has one of your dog’s already bitten someone? That would be our guess.
  • Deliberately direct guests to walk to and from the entrance to the rental immediately by the non-secure ‘enclosure’ (that she says is a fence) every time a guest walks to and from the required entrance to the rental, subjecting the guests to barking and a potential dog bite each and every time. Why don’t you take some of that rental money you are making a build a proper enclosure? What would happen to one of your dogs if their head got stuck in that puppy gate when you weren’t there? Answer, they would likely strangle themselves or at the very least become injured. Ever hear of animal cruelty?

The final insult came after the host was told that it was our opinion that what she had done (not refunding the money) was wrong (i.e. theft), and that we would be posting a review of the experience online. Airbnb had removed our review of her property because they indicated we had not stayed at her rental. How convenient for the hosts. Remember, it was Airbnb’s own customer service representatives who said we should not cancel and not occupy until the safety issue was resolved and we received a call from the rep.

The host then threatened us in her final message, indicating that we should be careful because, “You don’t know us or who we maybe connected to.” We filed an extortion/threat complaint against her with Airbnb, which was summarily ignored by Airbnb, and the ‘investigation’ (if there ever was one) promptly closed.

We have utilized Airbnb six times in the past eight years. Every rental was a joy and a treasure, and we always had a wonderful experience at every property we stayed at. Every host we stayed at was very complimentary of our behavior as guests at their property. And most of those experiences were us travelling with our own dogs. Keep that in mind. We are excellent guests and excellent dog owners.
Probably why it is so easy for us to spot ‘bad’ dog owners. But this final experience with Airbnb was a true eye-opener for us.

Airbnb management did not have our back on this, and was deceptive and untruthful. We will never use Airbnb again.

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Airbnb Host Expected Me to Clean the Toilet After Fees

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I paid over $1,300 for a three-night stay at an Airbnb in Michigan City, Indiana. It had a pool. At first, all was well. We had a great time, but the night we got home, I got over 25 messages from the host, claiming she was disappointed in the way I left her house.

My crime? I didn’t vacuum or sweep the kitchen (I actually did sweep… must have missed a spot). I didn’t put her cushions back correctly in the garage (I tried; I just didn’t do it correctly). I put too many sheets in her washing machine (there wasn’t even a checkout manual — I had just stripped the beds and washed the sheets out of courtesy). I didn’t clean the stove (I don’t pay $1,300 to clean a stove). I didn’t wipe off the bathroom counter (again, just soap grime… no biggie). I entered her “clearly marked private space” (this was a cabinet with a post-it note where I found the laundry detergent).

She found dozens of other flagrant violations, all this from a person who didn’t leave a checkout manual. All this from a person I actually attempted to help by washing sheets and towels. All this from a person who included a $200 cleaning fee. All this from a person I actually left $20 for a cleaning crew (actually, there likely isn’t one). I did forget to empty the kitchen garbage into the outside garbage, but if someone strips your beds, attempts laundry, and doesn’t leave a dirty dish, you’d think this grave sin would be overlooked.

Instead, she left me a very, very mean review. I’ve flagged her conduct — which bordered on harassment — to Airbnb. Here’s hoping they care. I’ve attached some of the photos she sent me, that allegedly show what a “pig” I am. I’ve examined the photos carefully and for the life of me, I can’t spot what the problems are.

Exposed Jagged Glass, Bloodstained Sheets, Delusional Host

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It took weeks to resolve our bad stay with Airbnb and, since it’s not actually resolved in my eyes, I have a tale for the sore-eyed.

My husband and I reserved a stay in a Catskills Airbnb with a hot tub, described as “clean” and “well-kept.” Suffice it to say it was neither: mildewed pillowcases, pillows yellow with the drool of years past, and I found lots of similarly stained sheets in the closet when I tried to change out the dirties (none were clean but all backup bedding had stains, and a lot of blood). The duvet cover had never been washed. My mistake was thinking that the host’s cranky answers to any negative reviews might have had some merit, and there were 180 reviews before my scathing one. Another mistake: not reviewing all of them.

Airbnb immediately refunded the cleaning fee after I send photos of the gross situation. Getting any further with support after that first level is like pulling teeth. I requested a refund of the service fee as well because in my humble opinion the listing should not be active. I researched their hygiene and cleanliness standards; feel free to send your photos in if you have a dirty experience like we did.

We did stay for the three days because the Catskills rental market is hot this year, and not a lot of rentals were available. We also have a dog — how many other rentals were likely to allow pets? Was Airbnb really going to pay for a stay at a swell, canine-accepting place like the Emerson Spa? I didn’t want anyone to crash right into our three-day stay, which we do annually after dropping the kids off at camp. What was the owner going to do, even if I did spend half the time on the phone with Airbnb support, send his crappy cleaning person in to do another bad job, and FedEx us new pillows?

We were worn out from waiting for a response from Airbnb about the host’s responsibility to provide a safe place. I accepted their inadequate offer of a $100 coupon instead of refunding the service fee. At this point it really wasn’t about the money; we didn’t want someone’s innocent six-year old gashing their chubby little finger on the exposed glass as host advertised as “fine for children six and over.”

At one point I had to rethink what other people consider “clean” and “hygienic,” but that morphed into wondering why anyone would think we’d want to shell out $300 a night to sleep on bloodstained sheets? I got my answer when I saw his “review” of us which wasn’t even posted as a review. The host simply responded to my honest review. He sounded positively unhinged.