I have rented my house to a Chinese woman for residential purposes only and the contract clearly states that she’s not allow to sublet my house in any way. A couple of months after signing the 2 years contract I found out that she listed my house on Airbnb. So, I got my lawyer to terminate the lease contract and while this is in progress I also contacted Airbnb, providing them will all the evidence including the house deed, lease contract, images, etc., to ask Airbnb to take down the listing. The response I got from Airbnb is that they cannot take down the listing because they are just the “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, so they are not able to close the listing unless the hosts do it themselves. In my opinion, this is ridiculous…so I asked their customer service, Julie, if I am allow list a government building or a palace on their website? Or to list someone’s house without the owner’s consent just to con money from Airbnb guests’ money? So Julie replied “we will not verify, evaluate or arbitrate the terms you identify”. I understand that they are just a “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, as Julie kept repeating during our telephone conversation, but is it right for them to ignore criminal activities to go on on their platform? I have never used Airbnb, (I don’t even have an account with them) and I never will nor recommend to anyone.
Tag Archives: hosting nightmare
Incompetent Airbnb “arbitrator” circumvents policy
I had a guest who first said she was “uncomfortable”, then changed it to she “feared for her personal safety”.”She ended up saying she was about to have a panic attack and said she ran out of my house because she was “afraid for her personal safety”. She also said the last host who she told that she was “uncomfortable” just handed her money for a refund, and she wanted me to hand her cash, which I did not even have yet. These days if you’re lucky they pay on time, which means 24 hours after the guest checks in. Then I had to deal with an Airbnb “arbitrator” named Kevin T who did not seem to know what “Guest Refund Policy” was and kept dismissing what I was saying, and only listened to her side without giving me a chance to defend myself. In the end, he circumvented my cancellation policy, and yanked nearly $1500 from me. He told me on a recorded phone call that he would pay me for 3 days and paid me for less than 1. Now, the case is closed. I love the way they do something unconscionable and then say the case is closed. Oh yeah, their legal team was supposed to contact my lawyer but never did. No way to contact their legal team. I am thinking of contacting the American Arbitration Association. I wonder if Airbnb will ban me if I do that. I guess transparency and honesty will go out the window at that point.