Tag Archives: rude host

Dirty Airbnb Stay in San Diego with Bed Bugs

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Early this month two friends and I decided to take a much needed break and head down from northern California to San Diego for a relaxing getaway.

We arrived at the apartment late in the evening, and immediately noticed a few issues with cleanliness. The sponge provided to wash dishes was old and smelled musty, there was a sticky gunk in the side of the stove and on some places on the walls, the bathroom sink had some little hairs on it, and there were some stains on the sheets.

Because it was late and we were tired, we took some photos and planned to deal with it in the morning when we could speak to the host on the phone. However, about an hour later one of the guests noticed a bug crawling across her pillow case and jumped up to see it disappear down the side of the bed. She turned on the light and found another of the same kind of bug inside the pillow case. She took a photo; we looked it up and it appeared to be a bed bug.

Based on the state of the rest of the place, it was the final straw. We immediately packed up, hopped in the car, and started calling hotels to find a place to sleep that night and for the rest of our stay. Once we found a hotel around almost 2:00 AM, I contacted the host, explained the problem, and sent him the photos we took. He originally offered to reimburse us for the last two nights of the reservation, but not the total (cleaning fees and first night), which I declined as we were seeking a full refund for that horrible experience, plus we had to scramble to book another place to stay last minute which meant we shouldered an additional cost for that.

Two days later, the host contacted me saying he “had a company come look at the place, and there were no bed bugs,” so he’s refusing to refund us for any of the nights. However, he agreed that the place was dirty, so sent me back $42 for the cleaning fee. As I pushed that this was unacceptable, he started saying that actually, the photos we provided were “not even his sheets”, and it was “clearly not his apartment”, saying that he “can’t find a linen matching the one in the photo with the bug” and that he “took his own photos as evidence of this.”

Because he won’t share his “evidence” photos, I have no way of knowing if he changed the sheets after we left and took new pictures to make it look like we’re lying about the whole incident. However, the photos we have not only show a time and location stamp matching the first night of our reservation, but we also have video that clearly shows we are in his apartment when we found the bugs.

To make matters worse, the host left a (somewhat incoherent) review of me stating that I was “running a scam” and in all caps “DO NOT HOST”. What kind of scam could I be running? I have clear proof of the bed bugs and other cleanliness issues, I did not stay a single night in the apartment, and he still has my money. If anything, I’ve been scammed.

I have contacted Airbnb about the issue multiple times, and have received no response on my case. The most I’ve heard from them is when I took to social media to rant about their horrible service, to which they gave me the canned response of “we’ve escalated your ticket to the appropriate team,” and I’ve heard nothing since.

After doing some digging, I’ve noticed several other reviews on the host’s other listings mentioning the conditions being unsanitary (cockroaches, sand in the bed on the day of arrival, stains on sheets and towels, etc). Especially during the pandemic, hosts should be held to a higher standard for cleanliness.

Unfortunately though, Airbnb does not seem to care about guests’ safety at all, and this host is still collecting money and accepting listings as a representative of their platform.

Early Contact with Aggressive Airbnb Host

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After great experiences with Airbnb 95% of the time, I had a truly horrible experience with a host today in Brisbane. I booked an apartment automatically – no contact with the host – so I then messaged them to confirm I would collect the key on Thursday afternoon and also ask what time we could leave on Sunday. There was no reply and I was flying up to Brisbane at lunchtime to stay with a friend. I wanted to have the details on the keys to print before I left – I called the number given and left a message. Then a man rang back on my phone. He did not introduce himself but was very rude about the fact that I called and shouted, saying “he would call in a few hours.” I asked why it was not possible to confirm the details on getting the keys now. He replied they would “get back to me when they felt like it.” Then he accused me of being “too wound up for their liking and I should cancel the booking.”

His tone was then very aggressive, very rude, and to be frank, scared me. Details of access are usually provided asap after the booking so I was not being unreasonable plus this man really frightened me especially as he now has my mobile number and has rung twice and hung up then rang again and yelled at me for having the nerve to message the site to say I felt I was put in a position where I had to cancel and I was advising Airbnb that another person was accessing the account and making rude phone calls. I therefore will have to pursue a formal complaint as it looks like this is the only way I will get my money back given their unreasonable behaviour and cancellation policy. Anyone thinking of booking in Brisbane: message me first and I will advise which apartment this is, so as to not give yourself the scare I had.

Unprofessional host ruined my holiday

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Found an apartment last minute on airbnb in Copenhagen. The apartment was ok, not great but no complaints other than the greasy kitchen and broken shower head. On the last day, I was told I need to leave by 10am (though the website states check out time was 12pm) because the next guest was coming. So I obliged and left the apartment at 9.30am even though it was a mad rush as I am traveling with two young children in winter. I got a rude shock when 2 hours later, the angry host texted me with a series of photos of his apartment floor – and asking me why there were cereals on the floor among other things. He also threatened to charge me because I did not clean the apartment before I leave. I had to apologize profusely to him. I thought I paid €58 for the cleaning fee?! Then he told me the €58 was for pre-arrival, and I will have to reinstate his place to its original condition (does it mean the next guest doesn’t need to pay cleaning fee because it is my duty to help him reinstate his apartment to original condition?!). I was pretty upset over this but I just apologized to him on that day and moved on. Later he messaged me again telling me to leave a good review for him as he has left a good one for me. I did not respond to his message as I didn’t feel like leaving someone a good review after being scolded. I just want to leave things as it is. However, it gets pretty annoying when the host left another message today asking me to give him a good review!

Hosts never responded, stayed elsewhere

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We wanted to book a room, the room had good reviews. Put the card in and nothing. We gather that hosts don’t have to bother to reply if they don’t want to book you in. Personality, just a reply saying they are unable to do so, for whatever reason, is fine, but not nothing. We were not really sure they even got our message. We ended up going elsewhere. And you couldn’t write a review of this as there was no place to put it as we hadn’t actually stayed. For a first time user, this left a bad taste.

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Do NOT rent from SOFIA KASIANENKO, Brooklyn, NY

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Do not EVER rent from Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC (30 Rogers Ave, Apt 3D), you will regret it! Link to listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2477728 User: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/2959577. Stayed at her place for a month – turned out to be a complete utter nightmare. It was so bad that AirBnB even refunded our money, given how notorious they are for not doing so. Thank god for our credit card company who resolved the dispute in our favor as well. She is a young Russian lady in her mid 20s – a consummate liar and scamster who had the audacity to rent her apartment out to guests even though she did not pay RENT to her landlord for TWO whole months. Soon after she handed us the keys, she flew off to Russia for a whole MONTH and ignored all our problems entirely. We could have been kicked out from the place by the landlord because rent was due — she couldn’t care less, and rented it out so she could make a quick buck off unsuspecting guests. Had the landlord not slipped a demand letter under the door, we would not have known. At first glance, her place looked fine. But it turned out to be an absolutely filthy and disgusting dump because it was infested with COCKROACHES, FLIES and SILVERFISH because of how dirty and unhygienic she is. We killed about 12 flies a day. She kept denying that there was a pest problem — and it gets better – she accused us of lying and causing the fly/cockroach problem when she was the one that had been living there for 2 years! As if we could conjure flies out of thin air. The place also had huge DUST BALLS, GRIME, BROWN STAINS and feathers gathered in the corners because she was so lazy that she didn’t even try to clean before we got there. I had to spend my own money to get a vaccuum cleaner because my asthma attacks started coming back again. It was so filthy that if you walked on it without socks on, you would have to wash your feet ASAP because grime would STICK on your feet. Thirdly, her neighbor upstairs would not stop making tons of noise every single night. We woke up almost every night. When we complained about all these problems, Sofia did not even care or act concerned. She completely denied all the issues we brought up – late rent, pest, noise and dirt problems — and accused US of causing them. She also lied in her review of us, saying that we stole one of her keys and that she had to change her lock (though I don’t see why she has to change her lock when she has another copy of the keys available). Presumably so she could lie her way into keeping our security deposit. Unsurprisingly, this brazen liar left us a horrible review for us, to which we responded and offered to show her future guests PICTURES and PROOF of her nasty cockroach-ridden dump of a place. This story has a happy ending because we got a refund from both AirBnB (which is super rent) and our credit card company after we showed them videos and pictures of the pests and noise. So beware, DO NOT RENT FROM THIS con artist liar, Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn! I’m surprised her landlord hasn’t kicked her out already for illegally renting her apartment out and being such a filthy, unhygenic slob. Pics of pests and her filthy apartment attached.

Rude host and slow response from AirBnB customer “service”

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Tried to rent a pricey villa in Mallorca, then the host tells me to bugger off after I ask him for a better pice. So I ask AirBnB to intervene to no avail. I then try to show my good faith to book the place and am still not getting a response. Since my trip is coming up soon I notify the “host” that I’ve booked elsewhere. Then within minutes he tries to charge my credit card (luckily no room on my card). I’ve called and emailed AirBnB to intervene but am getting absolutely nowhere with them. A week has gone by now and there is still the threat of them trying to charge me for the place.