Host lied, then demanded cash payment!

I stayed at an Airbnb recently as I’ve used them 5 times already with no issues until recently. The place I rented was advertised as a 2 bedroom in NYC, but it was actually just a room with someone else living there! I was only told once I had paid the money and it was too late and too much of a hassle to book anywhere else. Long story short, it was one of the worst accommodations I’ve stayed in. The host was actually the brother and things were just not organized. Sheets smelled, put in the flat mates room, guys came home late with a woman at 3am forgetting they had a paying guest, didn’t provide the cash discount for the error to keep the booking after much persistence (apparently another Airbnb violation).

I complained to Airbnb, who were going to talk to the host while I was still staying in the rental, which I advise against, and I was offered a refund of 50% for the issues. Since I was still living there, I had the owner call me a liar and a cheat for having gone behind his back to complain, and given my visa status, he even threatened to file a claim against me if I didn’t adhere to his demands to refund the amount Airbnb took from him. I had to settle this with the host but I’m wondering if it’s worth bringing up with Airbnb. With the host threatening to sue me, and if he did go through with it (although I was not in the wrong) could have serious repercussions for me.

I’m wondering if Airbnb would be able or willing to protect me at all. After reading these articles, I highly doubt it.

The Psycho Airbnb Host of Cyprus

My girlfriend and I saw a beautiful wooden bungalow on Airbnb in the mountains of Paphos Cyrpus, and it was called the Zen bungalow, so we thought, it must be very silent there and clean and nice and if its zen the owner must be a cool guy, he advertised as a nice surfer and etc. We wanted to rent for 3 months the entire house as we needed to stay in Cyprus to do a course. We rented, he made us a price and my partner and son went first, they arrived late and he was waiting, they got into the house and it was covered in sand, he apologized saying that they had a sand storm 3 days ago and he hoped she didn’t mind then he left. The beds had no bedsheets, so she looked into the drawers and they were smelling very bad, so she texted him and he said it had new one somewhere else. Anyways he left all his toiletries in the toilet and all his dirty laundry too which we thought he will come back to pick it up. The beautiful hot tube he advertised and showed in the picture was the drain for the dirty water of the washing machine, when he took a picture he cut that part, so we couldn’t use it because it was disgusting, plus all his 12 pair of shoes were sitting in the area in our faces. Next morning the garden was a dump for construction stuff. The view was beautiful, we had two chicken barns in the garden and the smells would blow inside the house, he came to visit and was demanding that we feed the chickens and water the garden, and we had asked him before hand if there were animals around, he said no. He kept coming to the house unannounced and entering my girlfriend’s bedroom, the veranda was made of glass so one can see inside from the garden and she kept hearing people in the garden while she was still asleep, he even mention that he wanted to build a swimming pool so he would be working in the garden. We told him we rented the house to have privacy. Once the electricity was gone, we didn’t know what to do or where the electric box was located, and he replied in the text that he is not the electrical authority of Cyprus. He came over again and told us to keep the windows shut otherwise the wind can destroy them, he also advertised air conditioning and it only had a very weak one in the bedroom and boy Cyprus can be very hot and we asked him about it he just answered: open the window. Right so we had hot wind coming in. We didn’t know what to do as we had booked for all this time, by then we were feeding chickens and taking care of his garden, we felt sorry for the chickens, we even bought them food because he kept ignoring our messages. Then one day up he is again and we always turn of all lights in the night, that last night my girlfriend heard a noise so she asked me to leave one light out on, so I did, and because we were not used to we forgot it on, it was a saving bulb the ones that are very light and one can’t see in the day if its kitten or not, he saw it and started to be very rude, so this time we answered, he said he wanted to come inside the house because he wanted to see if we were keeping his house clean, I say of course we are and no, please we want privacy, so he grabbed me violently and I had a broken arm at the time, to come in and I told him I would call the police because he keeps trying to get in a house he rented for us and its illegal, plus he is only doing it because we are two girls. So he left, we were afraid of him as he hurt my arm. We called airbnb, they took us away from there and found us another place for 3 days, they said they would help to rehouse us, but they left the whole thing in our hands, to deal with people or find another place, they gave us a coupon only and we cancelled the whole thing. We found very nice house on booking.com where they are credit and checked, we had wonderful next 2 months in amazing house, clean and nice with a normal host, a very polite, nice man that was always asking if we needed anything, left us alone and happy, so we left there with inherit broken as we felt in love with the place, the house was spotless, and had all we needed also the silence and tidiness. AirBnB doesn’t check their hosts and doesn’t know what goes on. But at least they took us away from the Zen psycho of Paphos.

Crazy Hawaiian Host

How would you like to stay at a home of a major codependent lady host. This host in hawaii was so mentally unstable it was scary for me. She will say things so rude then immediately pull back with something like “i don’t mean it that way or this way”. Ridiculous! Host was always yelling at her child and husband. I also loved all the post notes that were all over my room and bathroom. The notes were reminders to turn off the lights, fan, don’t drop quilt onto the floor, fix your bed, be quiet, and keep door open.  One day before checking out, host asked me to leave because I wasn’t respecting her rules. This rule that I broke was coming quietly home at 11PM. A crazy host in hawaii. nightmare!