Tag Archives: security deposit

​ Securty deposit means NOTHING + Resolution Center Lies

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I had an issue with the heaters/wall in my flat during a guest’s Airbnb booking…

On jan 15, i received a message from Lily : Add file 1 Then i sent everything, the before/after photos, invoice, the phone numbers of the previous Airbnb customers just before the arrival of guest who made the trouble with the heaters. On January 25, i received this message : Lily is out of the office so I (Aidan) will be your case manager moving forward. He told me that my invoice is not accepted even if it’s was same work needed to be done by the company because when i bought the apartment the heaters was not fixed correctly on the wall. Anyway, i understood the point as the invoice was dated two months earlier. Normally, Aidan should have told me to send an estimates as mentioned before in Lyli’s message and Airbnb terms. It was the only missing piece to proceed the checking of the case… What’s coming next is Aidan responsibility and lies. In few words, he told me to pay for the work myself then send the invoice and proof of the payment of the company. All of this before the case manager’s decision! Securty deposit means NOTHING then ? This is unbelievable, if i did the work myself it means all apartment owners using Airbnb doesn’t have any protection from the deposit. Can you imagine ? If something happen in the apartment, the owner should pay for everything himself (and of course resolve it in less than 72 hours!). Only after that action the case manager examined the case and decide what to do with the deposit. This is totally crazy… Add files 2 and 3 and 4.
On jan 26, Aidan clearly refused the estimate that i was waiting for. It was the only missing piece, remember this is important.

On feb 3 I decided to send an email in French (via https://www.airbnb.com/help/contact_us) about our discussion with Aiden that i found really weird as he did not accept the estimates.

On feb 4, I got a call from a french representative (Oceane B). I told her about the invoice/payment receipt before the case decision. She confirmed me that i don’t need to pay anything before Airbnb leave his decision and she is totally right and following the terms. Then she said she wasn’t sure if she could accept my new estimate because it was already few days after Aidan last message with his 72H thing. Then she asked to another person in the office, probably a case manager… someone responsible for sure. I was waiting for few minutes on the line. She finally got the answer to me : “That’s ok We’ll wait for your estimate, please send it as soon as possible”. I also receive a email as proof : Add this file : https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2mw4dxf74m9g2q/Screenshot2016-02-0521.54.38.png?dl=0 “N’hésitez pas à nous envoyer le devis dès que vous le recevez.” = “Feel free to send us an estimate as soon as you receive it”. So i was finally relaxed, my case will finally be examined, i just need to send the estimate as soon as i receive it from the company. Add this file : https://www.dropbox.com/s/73w5h007v0z3r1t/Photo05-02-2016135401.png?dl=0 Later on, Aidan told me that he and Oceane are in the same office in Berlin, and he spoke to Oceane in person regarding my phone call.

On feb 5 (the day after), I received : Add file 5 I was shocked, Even more shocked as i get notified the day before by email that Airbnb will wait for the estimates. Wait a minute, did you remember he refused the new estimate i was waiting for on jan 26 ? Now he says i didn’t follow up providing any receipts or estimates. With the issue in my apartment, i have now another issue coming from the guy at the Resolution Center. – Asking the owner to pay for the work before Airbnb deposit decision is totally forbidden, i can complain not only in courts but also in the media and blog by sharing the previous proofs. – Not accepting the estimates and later saying i didn’t follow the terms is a lie. – No apologies. Please spread the news around you.

Hosts were scam artists and AirBnB did nothing to help!

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I hosted my boyfriend’s birthday at an AirBnB cabin in a ski town in California. As all 15 of my guests were driving several hours up to the cabin we were contacted and told that our booked cabin was flooded.  Airbnb helped us find another cabin large enough to hold all 15 guests, however the new cabin cost additional $600. There was also a huge increase in cleaning fees. We had a lot of trouble with parking our cars since we were told we could park four cars and there was no parking due to a snow-covered driveway which the host had not cleared of snow. In the end, we went home frustrated but we were not too upset about the overall experience. However, several days later after I wrote a review recording that there was nowhere to park at the cabin, the host accused us of breaking a rod iron stove grate. They told us it would be $245 to replace it. I let my case manager through Airbnb know that we did not break the grate. But because I did not have pictures of the grate, Airbnb charged me the money through my deposit. After this happened I went through the reviews on yelp about the cabins rental company and discovered 10 other accusations from other guests that the same rental company scammed them out of their entire deposit. When I tried to share this information repeatedly with Airbnb I was never given any reconsideration of my situation. In the end they told me there was absolutely nothing that could be done and that the reviews on yelp had nothing to do with my case. I have rented homes all over the world but I will not go through AirBnB again.  They really didn’t care at all that there was obviously a trend where this hosting company took advantage of guests.

Guests Trash Host’s Townhome – No Support from AirBNB!

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I rented my lovely Whistler townhome to someone who claimed to be a 27 year old coming up with his partner and another couple for a weekend to explore Whistler and the surrounding area. They were actually a group of at least 7 guys, probably younger than 27, who threw a big party at our quiet complex. There was evidence of cocaine, pot, cigarettes on top of the hundreds of beer cans and liquor bottles left behind – not to mention all the dirty underwear and various personal belongings they forgot. There was vomit on the curtains, cigarette butts and vomit on the balcony. Neighbors reported a loud party with a disco ball, loud music and women that appeared to be strippers/prostitutes. My cleaning lady told me she has never seen such a horrific mess in her 8 years of working in Whistler! My cleaning lady took 12.5 hours to clean my home, which normally takes 3 hours. Of course this came out of my pocket. Despite having photos of the mess and an invoice from my cleaning lady, Airbnb offered me no support and gave the guests’ damage deposit back! I have a strict no-smoking policy listed in my house rules on their website, and despite photos of cigarette packages and butts, they wouldn’t even support me for that! I am shocked and appalled by their lack of customer support and promptly delisted my property. I also have my home on VRBO who are much more supportive of their hosts. I will stick with them!

Host Lied and Stole Deposit – Horrible Expierence

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I just used Airbnb for the first time. When I got home my Host asked me for my security deposit which was $1000, saying I had damaged a chair. I told her that I never sat in the chair, which I had not and told her I was not willing to hand over 1000 dollars for a chair I never sat in. She turned it over to the “resolution ” center and submitted some photos of a worn out chair. The photos clearly show wear on old leather chair. Its was to me laughable and yet AIRBNB sided with the host even though I denied even sitting in the chair and gave her my deposit. I am out the $1000 with no recourse and she gets a free chair at my expense. I am now blocked, they blocked my access to the photos and hide behind their user agreement. No one will talk to me as all decisions are final. Its is ridiculous.

Airbnb took $470 from our security deposit!

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The host claimed that we made a damage soon after we left their condo. The damage was already there when we were there but the host claims that the maid took pictures of it before we were there and after we left. I contacted airbnb and told them can this host just lie and take money from us like this and airbnb kindly said no, but they will investigate. Few days later, airbnb took $470 from our credit card. I reached out to the supervisor and she hung up on me. She didn’t want to deal with this case. They just want us to pay for the damage we did not even make. Happy host who gets to have free $470 from an honest family stayed in their condo for one night. We went there to show our kids snow and it turned out to be a stressful, deceiving disaster! I feel so bad for airbnb. Never ever using airbnb again!