Three Days of Pure Harassment over a Simple Misunderstanding

Posted on July 30, 2021

We arrived at our Airbnb today after 3:00 PM to check in. I walked in the backyard and found a pair of shoes — I didn’t know they were expensive, tried them on, and bought them back into the house. My son and I went out to dinner and when we came back we’re accused by host of stealing them. She stated they were her daughters and expensive and now she can’t return them and called the cops on me. I was horrified; I took them into the house to protect them. I didn’t text the host because I didn’t think it was my job to find out who these shoes belonged to. I offered to pay for them but they started to say nasty things to me again with the police there so I said we should wait until tomorrow.

I’m here with my family and we have nowhere to go. Everything is booked and there are no available rooms. The host broke into the house to get these shoes without my permission. I even called my husband during this and he stated what if I found a frisbee or a bottle of wine? How am I supposed to know? I didn’t harm or use anything. Just took them into the house. I want to feel safe here and not be pressured to buy these shoes.

The next two days were pure harassment. She called the cops on us for the next two days to force us to buy the shoes. It was a complete waste of time for the police and for my family. The host continued to watch the cameras on the home to see when we would come back from an activity. As soon as we arrived back at the home the cops would arrive 15 minutes later. The host also yelled profanities from the street to the house in the sunroom when we were putting sunblock on. My son took video of that interaction and we sent it to Airbnb.

Since this story has been uploaded to the platform, the matter has been handled by Airbnb and I was given a full refund and the host has been banned. You are not allowed to break into someone else’s space unless it is an absolute emergency. I want to thank Airbnb for handling this matter in a timely, professional way, listening to the guest’s side, and not thinking of the money made from the host.

When the host found out she was going to be banned, and the police said I was not going to be charged, she started yelling at Airbnb and the police. If any items are left in a shared space contracted by an Airbnb guest it is not the responsibility of the guest to secure the items.

Airbnb Host Accuses Guest of Having COVID

Posted on March 20, 2021

I was staying at an Airbnb location in New York City at the height of the pandemic in April 2020. Fifty three days into a 60-day stay, the host contacted Airbnb and accused me of having COVID-19. I had no symptoms and have since tested negative with the swab nasal test and the antibody test.

Just after 9:00 AM on a Friday I received a text from Airbnb that the host accused me of exposing her to coronavirus and I had to leave within 90 minutes. Not only was my reservation cancelled but Express Booking was disabled and I was told that I would have to call and get permission to stay with another Airbnb host.

I refused to leave and the host called the police three times, but first she changed the locks. Just before calling the police for the third time, she began throwing my personal possessions onto the street. While all of this was going on Airbnb was threatening penalties, although they did not specify how much.

Airbnb refused to refund a subsequent reservation at another location and only refunded a fraction of the pro-rated charges for the first reservation. Ultimately, I did use my second Airbnb reservation at my next stop without a problem. Airbnb did apologize, but this situation was so over the top and the pandemic is still raging I would warn all guests.

Also during the three police visits, nine officers were dispatched. It was very intense with the officers. I am not exaggerating when I say I could have been killed, but thanks to connections I had I was able to get through to the commanding officer of the precinct to give him the facts directly.

The host is still being investigated. The owner of the property is being investigated. The police were investigated and my complaint was found substantiated and is now awaiting departmental trials. Finally several agencies are involved in investigating Airbnb at the state and federal level.

Airbnb Party House Makes Resident Consider Moving

Posted on May 25, 2020

I live in a relatively quiet, residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the house next to me is a year-round property used for rentals that caters to groups of 15+. Oddly enough, this is illegal in D.C., and the absent owner advertises how they use a legal loophole to get past this. The owner proudly states that you can sleep in”peace and quiet” in their rental, and “no parties or events” are allowed.

I am so fed up with the constant parties: the blaring music at 3:00 AM, the fighting, the screaming, and the disgusting lack of respect guests have towards their neighbors. Just last night in the midst of stay at home orders, a group took the liberty of renting the unit for a party and turned the music up. I’ve had to call the police numerous times; they are always prompt, courteous, and handle the situation.

Last night’s group decided to retaliate and begin screaming that the police can’t quiet them down. I’ve had to go to the patio numerous times to politely ask guests to quiet down over the last year. I’ve been cursed at, had beer cans thrown at me, and told that I’m inconsiderate because it’s 2:00 AM on a Monday and their group paid “good money” to be there.

The owner doesn’t care whatsoever. I realize that it was probably of no use, but I called the phone number for Airbnb, and the rep had to ask me multiple times to either move away from people in the room or turn down my music. I was in my bedroom with the windows shut and white noise machine running; it was the partygoers next door. I’m sad that it’s come to this, but I will most likely have to move from the home and neighborhood I’ve loved so dearly.

Uber in Accident While Passenger on Phone with Airbnb

Posted on April 30, 2020

I had been in this Airbnb house for two weeks already. I got a call around 11:00 AM from a woman representing Airbnb telling me my reservation had been cancelled and I needed to go check out now. She said my host had already been notified I would be checked out by 3:00 PM today.

“WTF are you talking about? What is going on? I haven’t broken any rules. I’ve haven’t done anything. Explain to me what it is that Airbnb thinks I have done.”

“Well I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

I started losing it over the phone at this woman. I had just paid $800 for next month. I don’t have any bad reviews. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. Where did they expect me to go? I wanted to know what it is that I did.

All the while I was getting louder and louder to the point I was screaming at the other end of the line, punching the back of the Uber seat (passenger’s side) and stomping on the floor. I was angry.

My family and I have been using Airbnb for years and never had issues: no bad reviews. I was just going off in the back of this poor lady’s car yelling and waving my arms around. She was trying to calm me down saying, “Sir, what’s the matter?”; “Sir, please please calm down”; “Sir the language”; “Oh my god sir please what is the matter? You don’t need to be rude to her”; “Sir please I don’t appreciate that word (the C word)”.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to what she was saying; I was focusing on this call. This went on for about another minute because out of the corner of my eye I noticed the driver was not paying attention to the road. She had her head turned around towards me yelling at me because I called this woman on the phone the “C” word. I noticed she had drifted into oncoming traffic. I yelled “Watch out!”

She turned and I swear it was like slow motion: this car swerved out the way of us and I watched it scrape a parked car. I said to the driver: “Pay attention to the road. Are you trying to kill me?”

While she was driving really fast, I still had the lady from Airbnb on the phone. That in itself was strange. She pulled up to my street going 40 miles per hour and pulled a cali stop. She didn’t notice the cop sitting at the light. My host was maybe five houses from the corner.

When I made it home, she said to get out of her car. The cop came, noticed she was an Uber driver, and asked me if I was okay. As I was walking in the door, I could hear her going off on this cop about me. Then he interrupted her and asked her what happened to the side of her car. I’m listening to everything at the door.

She asked, “What damage?”

She got out of the car. I heard “wtf?” then the cop said “Ma’am I’m placing you under arrest for hit and run, leaving an accident, and speeding in a residential area.”

All the while she was yelling: “That guy in the car: it’s his fault! He was driving me insane. He was yelling and stomping on the floor and punching the back of the seat. He called her a… I don’t like that word.”

The cop asked what this had to do with her sideswiping that car back there. I guess someone watched her, got her plate, and called it in. That cop happened to be in the right place and saw her plate.

The real kicker is he asked me to come outside and explain what happened. I said, “Man, I don’t know. She was driving like a bar out of hampering the start. I kept telling her she needed to slow down. That’s when she turned her head to me and said to shut up. That is when she scraped that car.”

He asked me why she didn’t stop.
“I don’t know. She was yelling ‘See, see what you made me do!’ Then before I knew it we were here and you rolled up.”

I could hear her in the back seat of the cop car yelling “He’s lying, officer!” just ranting, raving, and going off.

That was just the start of the day. My woman thought I was full of it with that story about the Uber ride. I thought she got what she deserved. She shouldn’t have been rubbernecking my conversation with Airbnb.

Anyway getting back to Airbnb. They claimed at first it was some security BS and she couldn’t tell me why my reservation was cancelled. They were going to contact me within 24 hours. My host was tripping out, saying she was sorry. She said when it got cleared up, I could come back. I was planning on staying there for maybe four months.

I have a job I’m doing out here. I like to use Airbnb because I can save money. I’ve been with them for years. All my family as well. Meanwhile I’m freaking out because I don’t know where a good cheap clean hotel is. My woman found one online. I’m mad as hell and want to know what happened.

Come around 7:00 PM, I got a call from Airbnb saying “Oh, we’re sorry. It turns out it was a glitch or something in the system and automatically cancelled your reservation.”

I’m like, “Okay now what? Are you guys going to compensate for the day of work you caused me to lose and reimburse me for the hotel room?”

She said, “I’m not qualified to make that decision. Do you have a pen? Here is your case number.”

“What do I need a case number for? Did I catch a case on a crime I didn’t know about?”
“I’m sending your case to a different department. We will contact you within 24 hours.”

They finally sent me the number and at the end of the message it said: “This message was sent by Airbnb with love.”

They finally got back to me after I’ve sent them hundreds of messages trying to get compensation for the missed day of work and the days I’ve been in this hotel breaking my bank account. I’ve already paid $511.91 on this hotel room and I still can’t make a reservation with Airbnb. Then they insult me with an offer of $146 towards my room.

That told me this company has no respect for its customers at all. This is completely their fault. It’s now starting to effect my girls and my woman. Airbnb is taking food off my table and the country’s got the population control problem going on right now; they don’t care.

I deal with a lot of BS from people but when it affects my way of life and my kids, there is a problem. I want my name cleared so I can make a reservation. I also want to be compensated for the hotel. My bank account is empty. I’m doing what I can to keep food on the table.

Like I said, I had the room covered for a month: $800 already paid. I just paid $500 for seven days. I want them to make it right. Any reputable company would acknowledge their mistake and make it right. What kind of people are working there? It’s like they got monkeys answering the phone, passing each case from department to department, never returning your messages.

I’m putting this out there right now: if this company doesn’t give me back my money and doesn’t clear my situation with the reservation, I will get even and I will get satisfaction. Think you can take food from my kids and make my little girls cry cause I can’t come home? I had to work on the weekend to make up for their mistake.

I don’t know what you’re thinking Airbnb. You should have never posted so much information on yourself. I love my kids to work weekends for them. This I promise. On my mother’s life, nobody — I mean no one — is allowed to make my little girl cry. Only I can make my woman mad, only me. Airbnb has messed with my life and I want compensation.

Drunk Airbnb Guest Wandering the Neighborhood

Posted on January 6, 2020

Last night, at 10:30 PM, a truck drove down the driveway, past my bedroom, and into my backyard where I have my collection of older Mercedes Benz automobiles. The passenger hopped out of the truck, peed, and began asking direction to his Airbnb which, I just discovered, is next door. He, and his truck, had to be chased out of my yard with an electric baton (taser device). He left swearing and I called 911.

The funny thing is that I am one of the rare people in this exceptionally rural area who does not keep a gun at my bed. The guests were lucky to have gone down my driveway instead of another’s. Now, because I am unhappy about a drunk peeing in my back yard in the middle of the night, I get to become the neighbor from hell.

Left Broke and Homeless after Airbnb Experience

Posted on December 17, 2019

I’m glad I found this site. My story is horrifying. I don’t even know where to turn to seek legal counsel, but I am Googling it now.

I had booked a week’s stay in Tijuana in July. I stayed in a very affluent home, with several guests. The couple that owned it (different from the people I was corresponding with on Airbnb) seemed friendly and nice at first. When I first arrived, and told them my plans to stay longer, they showed me this sweeping private room with a bathroom on another floor that was still under construction. They said it would be ready in a week, at $700/month with a $700 deposit down. They said that the deposit was refundable at any time, and that there was no minimum or maximum amount of time to stay.

Within a couple days, I began paying them the $1400 to reserve that room. The process was a bit strange, but they received all their money within four days of my seven-day stay. On the fifth day, I had a horrible fall on a broken sidewalk in the shopping area, and twisted my foot badly. I came back to the home, trying to see if they could assist or direct me in any way. They sat, reading the paper, and sort of ignored me. I found the whole experience very offputting, but kept it to myself.

On the sixth day, I was outside chatting with another guest and smoking a cigarette (in a designated area), when the couple came outside and yelled at me about leaving a door unlocked. I hadn’t been the culprit, but they were aggressive and kept pushing the matter. I had – to be honest – forgotten to lock the door a night before, but only had stepped outside to smoke. This time I was not to blame, as the home has over four guest rooms (to my estimate) and a lot of foot traffic.

This accusation was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I told them I was no longer comfortable being in their home, and wanted my money back. They immediately pushed back, saying no. I told them that wasn’t acceptable, and went to my rented room to try to contact someone who could help (not easy to do when in another country).

Before I knew it, two fedarali were at my door. They told me to get my things, and get out (my lease officially didn’t end for a couple more hours). When I demanded my money, the woman who owns the house told them I had bought a big screen TV (they had, it was in the front room of their home. I’d seen it that morning.). Being a temporary visitor with no car, I explained to the officers I absolutely didn’t buy a TV, it made no sense I would do that at this stage. They seemed to half believe me, but were very intimidating.

The police made me sign a document in Spanish before they would let me exit the bedroom (they were acting in a way that I for sure felt they were going to arrest me, and don’t speak any Spanish). I also suffer from severe anxiety and PTSD, and this sent me into a fear spiral. I signed the document so they’d let me go, and was put in an Uber.

I had him stop to get what little money I had exchanged (I also realized what was left in my backpack was now missing). It wasn’t much, but while I was in the grocery store, the car left with my bags.

Now down to nothing, I was forced to walk for a couple miles to beg someone for help. I had to sleep on the street that night, and my foot was swollen to three times its size. I suffer from a degenerative bone disorder, and am basically handicapped. I took a picture of what my foot looked like the next morning.

The next day, I was determined to get my money, so I spent a couple hours in town finding a couple of bilingual high school students. I offered them money to get in the taxi with me to translate at the house. When we got there, it was worse than I expected. I was given $400, and before receiving it, was forced to sign another document in Spanish (I was so desperate, I did it).

At that point I was almost at zero dollars, in a town i didn’t know. They accused me of losing their keys (I absolutely did not. I know this because I have a chain wallet and left my keys attached to it for the course of the stay. When the federali escorted me out, I handed the key over then). According to them, they were going to have to get the locks changed and that would cost a few hundred more. In the end, they stole over $1000 from me, plus some of my luggage, and sent me into an anxiety spiral that took weeks to work through in therapy.

I am currently seeking legal representation, and would like any advice the community has. Thank you.

Airbnb Guest Attacked my Dog, Deleted from Airbnb

Posted on December 17, 2019

I’ve rented a few locations in Prague on Airbnb in the past two years. I had 107 four-star reviews, until a frat group from Israel arrived to get me kicked off the platform. Due to manners I greeted the guests in person at the place. They booked for seven days. I showed them everything.

Within the first five minutes, I got called “ata homo” multiple times which I think is Hebrew for “you f%g”. I’m not the kind of guy who receives much disrespect unless people are of the utterly stupid kind, so I told them in English that I do understand them and they should show some manners. We got along great from that point on. It was fine when they were noisy or caused minor damage. They are young; they lack the respect that comes with responsibility. Not everyone has basic manners that are the basics of my life.

I live in the same district as the Airbnb. One Saturday night I walked my dog, seeing the group in front of the place. I walked by, asked if all was well with them, and if there were any issues. Suddenly one of the guys started to call me a racist (they were all just as white as me), saying that “people like you kill Jews” to which I replied with “my great grandfather actually served at Waffen-SS as a officer but those days are over, or else we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”

This resulted in them leaving to a Vietnamese shop nearby. I was just thinking “holy crap, these f-ing tourists”. Right next to the place is one great Pizza place (and Russian food). I stopped by there, and talked with them for a bit. My dog got free food and some water… all good.

Then I heard a bottle smash into the wall next to me; the frat boys from hell threw it, shouting English and Hebrew gibberish from across the street. I just told them to be quiet – normal people live here too. They crossed the street, and some highly aggressive talking starts from them. I had no idea what was up with them.

One of them kicked my dog who was just standing beside me not giving much a s&%t about whats going on. Like he actually kicked a dog in the chest. I replied “attack” and the dog defended himself by attacking the attacker. What an absolute mess: the pizza place owner came out of his joint and threatened us with the police. The guys tried to hit him and instead earned some fists.

The police arrived, took the guy who attacked my dog to the hospital – he lost two fingers. One other guy had a mildly broken nose, nothing too bad in my opinion. All were arrested but let go the next day. I immediately contacted Airbnb over this incident and wanted them to cancel the stay of these idiots. No. I was supposed to host them a few more days until they left.

Instead, the next morning before they left the police station, I went into the apartment to pack their stuff together. A legal person (a student lawyer of my lawyers) was around to provide “neutral opinion of the situation” so nothing got stolen or anything. I bagged everything and placed it in front of the door.

The place was not really damaged but a lot of the furniture was ruined. The total costs for repairs was 427,000 CZK, almost 20,000 Euro.

The guys arrived, picked up their stuff without any issue, and left to go somewhere else. I wrote them a long one-star rating, which after five days disappeared. Airbnb deleted my account within three days, after some s&%tchat with support over three months. They sent me a letter that I am not allowed to discuss this matter anywhere else.

Now I think I will sue them, because after all, Airbnb is involved in heavy tax avoidance schemes here in Czechia. Hosts never have to pay taxes unless they do so on their own accord. Airbnb never pays taxes to the city around here because hosts are supposed to pay taxes, but Airbnb won’t even forward them to the cities in which they are renting.

Sure, it is an easy way of making money, but the people are deteriorating fast. Other hosts I know of also complain more and more that people are an utter disgrace to society. It makes one wonder: how are we supposed to get a sense of society when scum and scams never get punished?

Terrorists Hosted by Airbnb Subletter in Israel

Posted on November 20, 2019

I am an owner of an apartment. Since I live in another country, somebody I knew – and I thought I could trust, as they rented my flat previously – suggested I rent my flat on Airbnb. I really didn’t want to do it as my flat was just renovated. However, she convinced me and I stupidly fell for it.

After a few months, I visited and had some issues with this girl whom I did not know. She was illegally renting several flats on Airbnb. On this visit she told me that she went to Israel where, before boarding a flight, she was arrested by the police. After a long search, it turned out that she was arrested as they found emails with a terrorist whom she hosted. I don’t know if this was in my flat or another.

I contacted Airbnb who did not want to give any information, who also don’t even have an office or email being an online/internet business, which is absolutely absurd. I had to turn to the authorities who did not help either. The girl refused to give me the contacts of the people who stayed in my flat. This very same girl also stole the money she got from rentals. Airbnb refused to give me the information of people who stayed in my flat and how much they paid. The girl stole the money.

Please do not use Airbnb. I didn’t use them even before the accident as I prefer authentic places. Airbnb is not that. Be careful. You never know when a terrorist visits and you put your life, the life of the people in the building in danger. Airbnb should be illegal.

Nightmare Guest Gets 13-year Airbnb Host Banned

Posted on October 31, 2019

This is both a host and a guest story. I have been a host since about 2006 and have always been a huge advocate of Airbnb. I have also loved using Airbnb myself all over the world. I have had tons of positive reviews on both the guest and host side.

Now, suddenly, after having a terrible experience with a guest, I am permanently deactivated. Airbnb won’t talk to me. The reservation I have for my family at Christmas time in Savannah has been canceled, and I have received no refund. In addition, my fiancé, who was also on that reservation, was also deactivated.

I had decided to sell my three unit property that has two units listed on Airbnb. The units are monthly rentals and usually rent from 1-6 months. The real estate agent asked me to leave the units open to make it easier to show them, so I was considering taking the listings down.

However, I received a request from a guest who said she was between leases and needed a place to stay. She didn’t have any reviews on her profile but I decided to help her out. I asked her for two things: I said I am selling the property. Would you be willing to work with my real estate agent for showings? She would need to leave the extra key in the lockbox for the agent. And would you be willing to keep the apartment clean? She agreed to those conditions and I accepted the reservation.

She checked in on a Sunday and that afternoon I called her and messaged her and got no response. On Tuesday morning the city inspector was scheduled to come through for the city certification, something the city does every four years. I called and messaged her multiple times Sunday and Monday and got no response.

On Monday my friend went over to see if she was there and if the second set of keys was in the lockbox. She was not there and neither were the keys. By Monday night I called Airbnb and I sent her a message saying that if she didn’t respond I was going to have to get a locksmith for the city appointment. I should have had more sets of keys but only had two sets (one for her and one for the lockbox).

In the morning we had a locksmith get into the apartment and we found a disaster. There was stuff everywhere, alcohol bottles everywhere, lighters, discharge papers from rehab, her wallet and the wallet of another person plus the parole card of a third person (the reservation was for one person).

The stove had been dismantled. There was food everywhere. We found a needle in the bathroom. While my friend was there with the city she discovered the guest had locked herself out and gone out partying, didn’t come back until 3:00 AM and then tried to break into the wrong apartment, scaring my neighbors and the tenants in the other unit, who called the cops.

However, they didn’t contact me at any point. They never ended up contacting me. I was finally able to cancel their reservation through Airbnb, but I still had her stuff. I called the mental hospital/ rehab listed on the papers in the property and gave them the contact info of my friend to try to get her stuff back to her (I do not live in the area any longer).

She screamed at my friend, told her she was going to get revenge, and that it was a race issue, that we were treating her badly because she was black (I had never seen her). Shortly thereafter, her stuff disappeared from the apartment, and there was a lighter left on the table. She or her friends must have broken in and taken her things.

A few days later, and my account is deactivated and my fiancé’s account is as well. Airbnb won’t talk to me. I have a paid for reservation in Savannah for which I believe I should be refunded. It is upsetting that, after years of working with Airbnb, they would do this without even hearing my side of the story, and that they can cancel a reservation without refunding the money. It seems like the consumer should have more rights than this.

Host Rented the Apartment During our Stay

Posted on October 23, 2019

We are three girls and one boy from San Francisco, traveling to NYC this past weekend. The Airbnb nightmare in NYC resulted in two intrusions in the middle of the night that ended up with the police escorting the host out. Airbnb support “apologized for the inconvenience” and this guy is still renting on the platform.

The first red flag was that the host never gave us the address to the apartment after asking numerous times until right before our plane was going to take off. We had to call Airbnb support and we were not sure if we would have a place to stay that night. He called us after Airbnb support was involved and the first thing he said was “I am EXTREMELY BUSY”. Finally we got the address. He acknowledged his tone in the text.

The second red flag was after we saw how dirty, and not true to the description the apartment was (expectation vs reality here), the host cancelled the posting. We had to find the original images using a website cache. We called Airbnb support and they gave us a refund and a 60-dollar coupon to rebook a room. Since it was 5:00 PM on the last night we were staying in NYC, we confirmed with them if we could stay another night. They said yes, and that they would take care of the payout to the host.

On our last night, shit started going down. At around 11:30 PM a girl walked in with suitcases and keys. We were all shocked. She said she got the keys from a mutual friend and thought she could stay here. We were dumbfounded and said we are here for another night. She left after that. After that we were scared of another guest intrusion, so we propped a chair against the door.

At 12:09 AM we were awoken with loud banging and kicking on the door. An angry man’s voice shouted: “Get out of my fucking apartment! Open the fucking door!” on repeat. We cracked open the door. It waas our host and his girlfriend. He threatened us that he would get into the apartment “either nicely or not nicely.”

One of my friends (a licensed lawyer in NY), asked if we could have a civil discussion. He said yes, and we let him inside. He ordered us to sit down. He had a large duffel bag with him that made a huge thud when he let it down. I called 911 at the start of the break-in but I didn’t have pants on so I stayed in the room, only coming out after the 911 call ended and I found a pair of pants from one of my friend’s on the floor.

During the confrontation, he was very agitated and smoking the entire time. Apparently the large hole in the kitchen only happened Saturday morning (we arrived Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM) and he just didn’t have time to take care of it. That’s some fast acting mold. He was very upset that he was “not getting a dime from us staying here,” plus he got fined on top of our stay.

He demanded to be paid either from Airbnb or us, right there right now. He called Airbnb support there, and demanded to talk to “the highest level staffed personnel there.” I don’t think they listened to him. He later hung up. He calmed down a bit after seeing the messages we showed him saying we are staying according to instructions and Airbnb will pay.

He threatened to call the cops. I told them not to worry; I already did. His girlfriend was trying to de-escalate the situation after this. It seemed like it was not the first time she had seen this happened. He works from 9:00 to 5:00 so that’s why he missed all the calls. However, he did not miss the phone call at midnight from the new tenant telling him we were in there.

We interrupted his $200 dinner with his girlfriend (I thought he worked from 9:00 to 5:00? Who is eating a fancy dinner at midnight?) He avoided questions on why the apartment was so dirty. The cleaning fee was $100 – what was that spent on?

The police then rang the doorbell. Thank you NYPD; you guys are the best. They arrived so fast. The host and his girlfriend left and never came back. The policeman came up and told us he would make sure he didn’t come back and the policeman would walk them out. He told us to barricade the door again in case they came back.

Two of my girlfriends suggested we book and move to another room and I said I would not let him win. We all slept there that night although not very well. This whole time, the host never bothered to respond to Airbnb support, or our messages, or reached out to us to let us know about the new tenant, or the fact that he was coming to kick down the door with a heavy duffel bag. He left it at our apartment and we did not look inside.

What was really surprising was Airbnb’s response. They just apologized for “the inconvenience” and told us to leave feedback on their website. This guy is still out there renting to people. What baffled me was this apartment had 100+ great reviews and the host said he has been renting for six years.

Airbnb asked us what else we wanted after the refund. We don’t care about the money. We don’t want any more people falling for his fake pictures and this crazy guy breaking into your apartment at night. Our full booking was only around $360 a night, so we care more about taking this guy off the platform than the actual refund.