Tag Archives: bad hosts

Hurricanes just aren’t in our Airbnb Policy

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I loved Airbnb and thought it to be an amazing thing. Like many, I’d often browse the app for cool places to stay, daydreaming of my next opportunity to get away.

I’ve just returned home from a road trip with my partner and we had booked Airbnbs along our way out to east coast Canada. Due to a severe weather issue, we had decided to cancel our booking with one of the hosts. Before we cancelled, I was sure to make contact with them so we could talk it all over and come to a mutual decision of what would be best and safest.

After the call, they agreed it would be best we not take our chances in travelling out to where the stay was supposed to be, and they said they would consider what refund would be comfortable for them. They had also offered a free future stay in exchange for the cancellation, but now they have offered a future 15% discount in place of that offer.

After a few days passed, I contacted them again to see if they had thought more about a refund. They said they would contact Airbnb to see what they thought about my request, which later they then said that Airbnb didn’t take the weather seriously as it didn’t appear on their “weather radar”. In turn, they had no intention of refunding me at all.

Not being satisfied with the outcome, I contacted Airbnb myself in hopes of conveying the situation perhaps a little clearer from my position. I was put in touch with someone who asked if I could link them with some resources online that showed the weather conditions I had mentioned.

I linked her with the first article I could find, which came up right away when I searched “October 17th 2019 Nova Scotia weather” which mentioned the “weather bomb” my partner and I experienced and chose not to risk driving in. In the article there were plenty of videos and pictures from locals showing trees being ripped out of the ground, cranes falling into buildings, etc.

The article also mentioned the winds which had been blowing at 60-100 kph. They said it was “hurricane like conditions” and I was expected to drive through that in order to make my stay. I have family who lived an hour away from where I was staying before the storm, that said even if I had nowhere to go after cancelling the Airbnb, I shouldn’t drive to them to stay at their home because even that drive would not be safe. The reservation I had cancelled was a five and a half hour drive away. We even had our host contact us about the storm, asking if we had heard about it and what our plans were in case we needed help navigating that out last minute.

The customer service rep said there was nothing Airbnb could do and that if I were to get a refund it would need to come directly from the host, which the host clearly did not want to do and keep the money. After trying to explain my situation further, she then said that “the decision is final” and that I would be compensated nothing.

This is all coming after she apologized on behalf of Airbnb and said that Airbnb wants to treat their customers with respect and make them feel valued. It’s such a shame how ridiculous this situation became and how poorly this was handled. Clearly, the customer is not valued or respected and our safety and well-being was in no way a concern.

Airbnb would rather have my $200 then a valued user/guest who had once loved this service. I regret to say, I have decided to never again use the Airbnb service and have deleted my account. I will never be able to recommend anyone using Airbnb after all of this.

No Clarity From Airbnb Terms and Conditions

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This was the first time I had ever used Airbnb. I made an account and followed the app as much as I could and then found a room for a night in Bristol with three friends. For £142 we could get one room with one bed and a sofa bed. How they can charge that much for that is beyond me but we were desperate.

I read the terms and conditions. One said no parties or events. Maybe I’m stupid, but to me that does not include going out with friends or having drinks with friends; a party or an event is so much bigger than that and I thought they’re charging a lot because they know it’s graduation in Bristol for two weeks. On top of this they had graduated from UWE and were teachers. My picture is of me: a 22-year-old girl with a glass of wine in my hand. I thought they would be fine; it’s not like we’ll be barging in at 4:00 AM with a bunch of people, playing music and carrying on. We will just need to go and sleep. There were no parties and we weren’t attending any event apart from my graduation the morning before.

The hosts then messaged me (I’ve attached it) saying things such as “will you be coming in early Thursday morning and can you please give us information on your friends for security reasons and can you finish your own form (I thought I’d finished but had a lot left to put in).” Not long after that they sent a message saying they accepted my request to stay. I then messaged back saying, “yes, we will be back in the early hours.” That’s when they got shirty. They wouldn’t allow us to stay.

After all that we were stranded in Bristol and I had forked out £142 I still don’t have, so I owe the bank money because I’m so bloody poor as a student – I am still applying for decent jobs. The hosts had no sympathy – it had not even been 24 hours since I requested a booking and they were so angry. I literally begged for a refund because I interpreted Airbnb’s terms incorrectly and they took my money and refused to give it back. Then they said they’d refund me, but they’d have to only give me the money they’re given by someone who takes the booking. I was so happy as they had told me about all the people who wanted to stay (also I had not heard or realised or seen anything about this pre-requesting thing) so I thought, “yes, I’m in luck!”

Then I saw £142 had been taken out my account. I emailed telling them the money had been withdrawn and asking if they had processed the refund yet. They told me they hadn’t because no one came to stay. I said to them, “okay, if you aren’t going to give it to me out of a friendly understandable gesture then I’m going to fight this.”

We spent four hours arguing and they blamed Airbnb for all of it and took no responsibility even though they asked me questions and took my money without even knowing my answers. People like that have no heart. They used my lack of knowledge, my age and my status of being a student to take my money. I understand that Airbnb writes the terms and they need to be clearer. These hosts weren’t even going to let me go out for a meal and drinks as they considered that a pre-planned event.

We were screwed even if we said we wouldn’t go for cocktails. I mentioned that they didn’t even let me introduce my friends. If security is breached (it wouldn’t have been; my friends are lovely) it would have meant that we would be stranded with £142 gone because they didn’t get this information before. Now they said Airbnb doesn’t have a step for this so they have to ask. What I don’t understand is why would you ask and then take the money before you even know? Essentially you’re scamming people. I couldn’t even tell them before they took my money.

I believe that because I apologised asap when I found out I didn’t realise what they (the hosts) meant by that term they should have just cancelled immediately or asked me to and refunded me so they could then accept these other people that were looking. Instead they got angry at me and acted rude. We are still arguing and I am not letting this go. I spent 45 minutes waiting to get through to Airbnb and there was no answer. I’ll keep trying. If you’re looking for somewhere to stop off before a daytime flight – as you probably aren’t allowed to leave early in the morning – then stay here.

Bad Hosts and Cutting Property Owners Out

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I own a property in a villa complex which was hosted by a third party. The same person hosted a property adjacent to mine. This host has been using the two villas for approximately 4 years.

It came to my attention late last year that the host embezzled approximately $2500 from my villa rentals. I confronted the host and after threats of legal action the money was returned. A short time after that the host and I parted company, for obvious reasons. Soon after, I discovered that the other villa being hosted was delisted, without notice or consultation, and all the reviews, bookings, some photographs and narrative were diverted onto my listing. Consequently, I had no listing and all relevant data pertaining to my villa were now being used by the host to promote the other villa. I know it sounds confusing. On closure I received an invoice from the host showing glaring abnormalities in bookings for Oct/Nov/Dec. Pay raises for staff, calls for Xmas donations, and outlandish claims for expenses in my opinion were used to recuperate the money she had embezzled and reluctantly repaid. As an example I took a screenshot for the month of November which showed my villa occupied for the entire month except for the 28th/29th/30th. The invoice from the host showed it to be occupied for 8 days only. I queried this and was told there were a lot of cancellations due to volcanic ash in the region. I then asked for an Airbnb transaction history for that period to prove or disprove my suspicions.

No reply. Two emails later still no reply. Off to Airbnb requesting a Transaction History, stating my concerns and my case et al. Negative response, after 7 emails and communicating with different ‘consultants’ the final advised to approach the host to discuss the matter amicably. Do you think the host is going to give me any information which is likely to incriminate himself, no way. I think as THE property owner I am entitled to whatever records are available with Airbnb pertaining to my villa. One professional consultant I communicated with I quote, “Wow, this is too hot for me to handle I shall refer it to the appropriate section.” No further reply. This the stock answer I get from Airbnb: I understand that the answer our team is providing you is not one that you are looking for. Regrettably, following our privacy policy, we are unable to disclose any account information to a third party. I understand that you are not physically in the same location as your previous business partner but we strongly encourage you to contact them directly to reach a solution. Really helpful. Doh!

Airbnb Hell in Hawaii

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A year ago I went to Hawaii, my favorite place. The flight was late and rental car was a no-show, so I was late arriving at the host location – it was between 8 and 9 pm. Half way through the stay, the host asked me to change rooms, but that required cancelling and re-booking. I had lost my credit card so the old one did not go through. I tried to reach airbnb to enter a new credit card number. The host also tried. We could not reach anyone. I offered the host cash but they refused, and then said that I had been nothing but trouble and told me to leave immediately or they would call the police! I am a 60-something, quiet, non-smoking, meditator-type. I went to a local hotel but some money was owed to me, and airbnb refused to refund it. They gave me some worthless coupons. They are worthless because the hosts of Puilani on the big island wrote a bad review of me and now I am not able to make other bookings and use the coupons. Airbnb still refuses to refund the money, or remove the host review. They have a poor business model for the travel industry. They need to have real people available real time to handle these kinds of issues. As for the hosts, they seemed to me to be burned out on hosting and unable to flow with the inevitable problems of travelers. I am very unsatisfied.