I encountered a very calculating and dishonest host. She will go to great lengths to make sure your negative review never sees the light of day.
I left my stay early due to the pool being frigid and unheated. I mistakenly assumed since the pool was the front featured amenity, it would be heated. I fully accept that mistake. In my previous experiences with pools, hosts have specified if the pool wasn’t heated and would offer to do so with an extra charge. When I asked the host about the pool, however, she launched into a rant about how it was too expensive to heat her pool, offered no solution, and if I wanted to swim I should go to the civic center or the Marriott.
Once she learned that my husband and I checked into a nearby hotel and left early, she acted contrite and said she would like to offer a “small refund.” I told her that would be appreciated. Next, she told me that her reviews were “very important to her,” and that she would send the refund after we both completed our respective reviews. Believing she was in good faith trying to rectify the situation, I gladly accepted.
As it turned out, her plan was to trick me into giving a positive review and once they were completed, she abandoned the refund. Reviews are permanent and cannot be revised. Therefore, I had to contact Airbnb to have my review removed and report the issue. If you take a minute to scroll through and find the few people who gave her a bad review, you’ll see that she responds in a rage, seemingly losing her ability to proofread and use correct grammar.
My only intention with this response was to make people aware of the kind of person they’ll be dealing with, because I’m sure she has done the same thing to others in the past and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again in the future. I have repeatedly tried to rectify this with Airbnb and get my real review shown and they won’t listen. They also state that there isn’t enough evidence, when it is all clearly in the Airbnb messaging system if they cared enough to read it.
Airbnb terms of service require guests notify them of the problems during the stay so they can find the guest suitable accommodations and/or refund.
Also Airbnb will provide up to a 50% nightly refund for amenities advertised but not available. This means you must notify Airbnb during your stay for a refund.
The reason for requiring guests to notify Airbnb during the stay prevents the host from withholding a refund or influencing the review
You didn’t follow the terms of service you agreed to and you failed to notify Airbnb in a timely basis of a problem, and you let refund potential from reviewing a host honestly so the next guest could be warned
This emphasizes the importance of reading the terms of service instead of clicking through it AND involving the booking platform when there is a problem
I’m sorry this happened.
If the listing did not describe the pool as being heated, you are right, that was 100% your problem. I would not have given you a refund either.
Also, one blatant lie that makes me question everything is your statement that she wanted reviews from “both of you”. Only the person who made the reservation is allowed to leave a review. If six guests stay at my place, I get 1 review.
I believe the 2 reviews are the host’s review of the guest and the guest’s review of the host. Not two guest reviews.
My guess is that you didn’t leave her a 5 star review. Even 4 or 3 star reviews are bad for a host. If you left any other review except a 5 star review — you probably made her angry and she took it as in insult, thus she responded with zero refund. I’m not saying this is right, but just thinking about why she may have left you without the partial refund she promised.