Airbnb Host Refuses to Believe Her Property Has Spiders

I thought I would share a recent Airbnb story which has made me decide I will never use the app again. My partner and I booked into a lovely place recently that was part of a series of different units. It had great reviews and was set in a beautiful setting.

When we arrived the place was well set-up and clean. The only issue was that there were quite a lot of cobwebs around, particularly around the windows and furniture —like a lot. My partner dutifully picked up the broom and began cleaning the place of cobwebs. Other than that, our stay was very enjoyable. We didn’t think it was a big deal to clean them up; we figured they may just have been missed in cleaning since properties are just opening up again after COVID-19 lockdowns.

After our stay we made sure that the place was clean and tidy and left a very positive public review on Airbnb. We received positive public feedback from our host who said we were wonderful and clean and would be happy to have us back. We did make use of the private feedback option, and just noted that there were a lot of cobwebs around appliances, corners, furniture, light fixtures and windows. We chose not to say this publicly because we really liked the place and just wanted to support them for the future.

Fast forward a few weeks later and we stayed again but in a different unit. Again, lovely place and looked clean, well-set up and beautifully designed, I actually liked this unit better than the first one. But there were cobwebs everywhere again. This time, however, there were also lots of spiders. I don’t mean just a couple of them or little ones. I mean big black nasty ones. I think we killed over 30 and they kept coming out of places. We cleaned up the cobwebs and kept trying to kill the spiders, but when they began dropping from the ceiling through cracks we just couldn’t manage it.

In the middle of dinner, we messaged our host saying we were having issues. The host turned up with their partner, and immediately accused us of lying. They said our private feedback about the cobwebs was a lie (it wasn’t) and accused us of lying again about the spiders and cobwebs in this place. At this point my partner got heated up and they began arguing and he showed her all the cobwebs we still hadn’t cleaned as well as all the spiders we had killed.

She continued to accuse us of lying and then began to say that we just weren’t the right people for the property. Multiple times we said we wouldn’t lie about something like this especially at 8:00 PM where we have nowhere else to go, and that we had used up two cans of spider spray already trying to kill them. She kept referring back to the private feedback and even printed it out to show us and say we were lying about cleaning up the cobwebs in the first place. She also kept saying that since no one else ever had a problem we must surely be lying.

We were so confounded. If she was that upset about private feedback why the hell would she book us again? Luckily her partner was very kind and wanted to help us, and enabled us to move to the property we first stayed in which was clean and spider free. The host, however, made it clear she didn’t want us there at all and I assume would have rather we left altogether. She ended up leaving the property and slamming the door behind her, and it was her partner who helped us out.

Our mistake? I’m guessing we should have taken photos rather than clean it up ourselves both times. We cleaned it up the first time because we figured it wasn’t a big deal to do so, but just left feedback about it. We should have also not cleaned the property at all the second time, and instead taken photos and messaged the host first and showed her where all the spiders and cobwebs were. We made the mistake both times of not taking photos. In our naivety, we didn’t realize how important that would be.

As a result, we haven’t made a report to Airbnb because we just don’t have any evidence at this stage, and just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I am just in shock by her behavior. We weren’t trying to cause trouble. We genuinely loved the place apart from this issue (who wants to sleep with spiders dropping on their head?), and our first public review of the place was overwhelmingly positive.

After this experience I won’t go near Airbnb. Hosts have way too much power, and I just couldn’t believe how she was yelling at us and accusing of us of lying. It was unbelievable.

Airbnb: Might as well Flush your Money down the Toilet

My boyfriend and I used Airbnb for a place in San Diego, CA. The place was not like the listing seemed. We contacted Airbnb and they only gave us $140 (one-night refund). We still had to pay $400 for a crappy place that we left at 1:30 in the morning on the first night we got there! We lost money, lost sleep, and lost time. There was no real refund. We will never use or recommend Airbnb ever again. It’s not fair we should lose so much of our hard-earned money over this (we are in college and could barely afford our vacation, let alone paying for a place we didn’t even stay in on top of a nice hotel). Stick to the chain hotels because at least they’re concerned enough about their customers to right any wrongs that happen, and give refunds where they are due. Don’t use Airbnb unless you aren’t concerned about your own protection.

I want to make sure I also include the complaints we had with the place we stayed, as we can’t even leave a review for the host we had when all this happened. This is the message we sent the host:

“You have two complaints about street noise in your reviews. We had to hear the noise as it was well after 8:00 last night, and your fan barely functioned. We knew about the lack of AC, but the fan was completely useless; even at its highest level it was still extremely under powered. While I realize you cannot control the weather, we expected that the fan would at least be somewhat useful. As for the spider, I am not sure what to say. At roughly 10:00 pm Ashley closed the window (as we would rather be hot and uncomfortable then have to deal with the cars outside) and lay back down. At this point she felt something crawling on her, picked it up, and threw it on the floor. I turned on the light and found a large brown/black spider (looked like a wolf spider) on the floor. I killed it and flushed it, but have a bite on my arm now. I would be glad to provide pictures. There was sand all over the bathroom floor and the shower. Ashley wouldn’t take a shower unless it was clean so she cleaned it with Lysol and water.

Concerning the sprinklers: we came back from our family’s house at 9:00 pm. We stepped out of the car and got completely soaked. We should not be deterred to come back to the place before 9:00 pm. This also left water spots on our car (would be glad to provide pictures) and soaked my shoes / pants.

Concerning your neighbors – the people directly above us, anyway – around 12:00 am there was a really loud squeaking noise, like a bed above us. While we could deal with this and understood it happens, not a minute later we heard some really loud moaning that lasted roughly ten minutes. This made both Ashley and I really uncomfortable, and was the final straw to us leaving. The bed was extremely squeaky and firm as well. The heat that could not be beat from a useless fan + being bit by spiders + sand all over the floor + getting soaked by sprinklers and water spots on our car + people having loud sex upstairs + a terrible bed completely ruined our first time experience with Airbnb.

We left at 1:00 am as there was absolutely no chance of us being able to sleep there. We did not do a thorough investigation of the apartment as soon as we got there. Either way, it would have resulted in the same conclusion: leaving. For what we got we would have had a much better experience at something even as cheap as Motel 6 for much less money. While I do not mean to come off as rude, this was an extremely frustrating experience. Especially as we do not have much money (in college) and had to find another hotel room at 1:00 in the morning.”

Our host then replied tough luck. Never again.