Author Archives: cfma

Airbnb Doesn’t Care About Basic Cleanliness

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I booked a room in LA for three months. It was probably not the best move, but I didn’t know anyone in LA and I actually thought it would be safer to use Airbnb. When I finally got there, I thought it was the dirtiest place I had ever seen. I can only assume that the host and his flatmate used used all the old furniture they had to furnish the so-called guest room. There was one shaky secretary, one chair whose height adjustment no longer worked, an old drawer, and one old bed. This bed was quite a sight: its stage was broken, so the host decided to put one mattress on top of the other in order to compensate for that. The mattress on the top looked and felt like a rescue from an underfunded dog shelter: it was quite possibly older than myself (30) and it sank in when I’d lie on it to sleep. Quite soon I had a lot of back pain.

The room itself was filthy beyond belief. It seemed to have never been cleaned for over a year. I vacuumed the carpet the first morning I spent there, and I cleaned the secretary, the windows, and the drawer. Everything was dusty and stained. The sheets also did not seem to be recently cleaned. The rest of the house wasn’t much better: the furniture was far newer and more appropriate, but it was equally dirty. It boggles my mind: do these people actually think it’s normal to live like this? There was an unpleasant smell in the house. The kitchen had mold. The floor was sticky due to the accumulated filth.

I left the house after one week (as soon as I found another room). I asked for a refund, which, as expected, the little scammer that calls himself a host refused to pay. So I got Airbnb involved. What did they do? Nothing. Zero. After two weeks they still hadn’t responded to my claim. I had to call them, after spending an hour searching for their number on the internet (it’s nowhere on their website, which is indicative of their whole attitude). When they finally said something, it amounted to nothing.

“The host is unwilling to negotiate a refund.” Oh, really? Who would have guessed?

So how much did I lose? $2000, thanks to the host’s strict cancellation policy (which has already been struck down by a court in South Korea). The host then went on to double book the room. In addition, some of the reviews on his posting were fake. How do I know this? I had seen one of his flatmate’s friends when I was there, the first morning. He left a review on the posting two weeks after I left, raving about how awesome the host was.

Scammed by Airbnb Host with Personal Problems

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I booked this entire place from a girl named Danica, in Vancouver, the Westminster area. When my boyfriend and I arrived, we followed the instructions to enter the place, but then we saw the front door wasn’t locked. We went up to the number of the suite as we were instructed by the host in the message, then we were surprised that the suite door was opened and not locked. We opened the door: the bed was a mess and looked like someone had just used the room. I went in and checked the rest of the place. There were trash bags still in the kitchen.

Then I messaged the host to ask her what happened; she didn’t answer my text or calls. I asked someone in her complex if she was home, and one girl said she was. We asked her if she could call her down to talk to us, and the girl just disappeared. A few seconds later, Danica answered my texts… so she was home the whole time but didn’t want to come down and resolve the problem. When I told her I wanted a refund, she initially agreed, then she said her housekeeper must have made some mistakes. I said I didn’t care anymore; this was just unacceptable to us. We had just arrived in Vancouver and went all the way from the airport to her place (a 34-minute trip).

Then she told me that she was trying to resolve her divorce case… excuse me? I don’t have to know about a host’s personal matters, and would we be in any position to understand her issues? I asked her to refund me ASAP, then she just ignored me. Nothing has been resolved, and I still haven’t gotten my money back. It’s so difficult to contact Airbnb customer service: I called, and no one picked up. This is outrageous, the worst experience with Airbnb ever.

Airbnb Not as Advertised for Elderly Parents

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We arranged for my elderly parents to stay in what was advertised as a full house/apartment in Greenville, SC. When my parents arrived, we met them at the Airbnb they had reserved and discovered it to be a room with a king size bed, one chair, and no dining room table. There wasn’t even a full kitchen (a sink, coffee pot, microwave, and fridge). This is not an apartment or a full house. Neither a person nor a couple could live there for two weeks. They could sleep and shower there, but that is all there is room for.

When we told the host we would have to move, my parents and I said we would like a refund for the booking on the first night. She told us we must just not like it and that she had had only good reviews so far. If we had a complaint, we needed to take it to Airbnb. We took it to Airbnb. Their customer service people have been trained to be empathetic and understanding, so one thinks their case will be heard and that they will help. However, after several hours total on the phone and online chat, my parents only received a 50% refund. The 50% refund was because “they had not received a response from their email.” Not only had they received a response, they had received more than one response.

All told, we have contacted Airbnb six times. The last time they sent us back to the owner, who has not yet responded. The third line in the cancellation policy says if you leave early you will be refunded the remaining balance. This did not happen. Airbnb also said, on the fifth call, that we had not provided photo evidence of our complaint. This is true. However, we were never asked to provide photo evidence. We cannot even give a bad review as they make sure there is no place to do it.

We cannot request money for the trip because the trip has already passed. We cannot make a report to the BBB because my father or mother have to do it. My father had a major stroke a month ago and is unable to do it, and my mother, who is his power of attorney, wrote a letter to the BBB asking them to allow me to complain on her behalf because of her poor health.

Airbnb House Filled with Potheads, Constant Sleepovers

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Our host did not indicate how many people were living in his house (four people, including him). When we arrived the house was freezing because their idea of comfortable is to sit in the home with jeans and jackets on. Then we thought that the house didn’t have a heater; it did, but they would only turn it on for two hours at night. There was no hot water, just warm water the same temperature as cold water where we come from. The sitting room had nothing, the TV didn’t work, and there was no light. They sat on the couches with their shoes on. Every night they had friends over who would smoke with them and crash on the living room sofa. Every other night they had parties until 3:00 AM and a bunch of people would come and all smoke together, play, and sing music loudly. They would not leave and all of them would sleep in the living room.

The only time we sat with them was the first day, to get to know them. Only one person spoke English. He told us right away that he was going to marry another one of the roommates because she offered him money; he is Italian and she can legally stay in Spain. It was terrible knowing this because our room didn’t have a lock or safe. For safety we had to lock all our valuables in our luggage every day and night. Everybody living in the house was a drug user and the smell of marijuana permeated the whole house everyday. The living room table was filled with marijuana and cigarette ash, as if the house were a drug den.

All their kitchen equipment was in bad condition so we bought our own. They did not have a water boiler so we bought that as well. One day I came to make tea and couldn’t find my mug; they were smoking and using my mug as an ashtray. They showed no remorse and I had to clean it. They did not provide any cabinets in which we could put our supplies and furthermore used our food on more than three occasions even though we told them it was ours. They blamed us for not putting our food in our section of the fridge; mind you these products were not supposed to be in the fridge.

They also kept the cats’ litter box in the small kitchen. At times the litter box wouldn’t be cleaned for two days and the whole kitchen would smell horrible. Furthermore they did not wash their dishes for days and filled the washing area with their dishes; this was why we couldn’t wash our dishes.

Once they could have killed us as well. We came back to the smell of gas and burning everywhere and saw that the pan was on the gas and it had not been turned off. It was possible it had been left like that for more than an hour; smoke was everywhere. We did not speak to anybody throughout our stay and were outside every day. We spent half the day outside trying to avoid their horrible house for the fifteen unfortunate days we had to spend there. Nestor and his roommates are true definition of potheads who have no responsibility or concern about what they do or how they treat their guests. We did not want to write a review, as we thought it was best to just forget about it, but they showed no respect, forcing us to write the truth.

Hacked After Concerns About Identity Theft

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I used Airbnb once and was pretty satisfied with it. Shortly thereafter, Airbnb required that users upload two forms of government-issued ID. With seemingly every large online business being hacked every other month, I simply won’t do that. My credit card has fraud protection, but should Airbnb be hacked and my bloody passport stolen, I think I’m fairly screwed.

I decided to cancel the account. When you try to go to account settings, you’re blocked until you upload your ID. Airbnb, of course, lists no way to actually contact anyone at the company, so I put it off. Like a fool, I forgot about it. Now someone in Poland has accessed my account. I was able to reset my password, but when I finally dug around on the web to find a phone number for Airbnb, courtesy of Airbnb Hell, they said they can’t help me access my account until I give them the credit card number I used to pay for my one trip. I can’t access my account to see which one it was, and I don’t have it on me – because both of my credit card numbers had to be changed after retailers at which they were used were hacked. I left some negative feedback on the site briefly spelling this out. I did actually get an email from Airbnb letting me know that I could cancel my account by going to my account settings. Helpful…

Fraud from Stolen Credit Card Number on Airbnb

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Last year, I booked a room on Airbnb. Everything went okay for the reservation and stay. Last week, I wanted to book a room again with Airbnb before and after a tour in Europe. I sent an email to the host to check the availability for August 2017 but to my big surprise, the room was automatically booked as Airbnb had kept my credit card information in their files. All I wanted was to check the availability, as the website was not posting a calendar like the last time. A refund from Airbnb was made for both transactions the same day as the host understood what I initially wanted to do.

A week later, I received a phone call on my voicemail at home from a well-known USA airline company (we live in Canada) to check if I had booked flights in Las Vegas to New York for $900 that morning. I spent more than two hours trying to reach the airline’s customer service (the booking number of the flight was left on my voicemail) and getting my credit card company to cancel the card. I was lucky that the airline cancelled the transaction for those who were trying to use my credit card and the scammers were not allowed to board the flight. I also found out from my credit card company that while having a good time in Las Vegas, the scammers had also tried to make a purchase for $3000 before booking the flights but the transaction did not go through because it was over the limit.

I will never use Again again. Please share this information on social media before other innocent victims fall prey to those leeches. My computer is protected with top of the line anti-virus software, so someone on the Airbnb side has connections to steal my credit card information.

Dirty Airbnb Leaves Guest Without Refund

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The first time I cancelled, Airbnb kept the reservation fee. I paid $226 for a week’s stay. I spoke to the owner and he was very forthcoming and helpful. He is operating his property from a foreign country and has a caretaker. I walked in to a big surprise. The bath room had not been cleaned and the toilet was filthy, to put it mildly. The beds were not made and they were using the same sheets without washing them. Dirty and clean clothes were all over the place and the dusty floors had not even been cleaned. I called the owner; he was very understanding and agreed to pay me the whole sum once I cancelled, but Airbnb only refund me $83 out of the $226 or so I paid. I didn’t even spent ten minutes in that place. You cannot contact them over the phone. They have no idea how they ruined someone’s good time and money. My host is willing to give me my money back but not Airbnb… how about that?

Host and Guest Come to Agreement, Customer Service Disagrees

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I am a longtime Airbnb host. A guest failed to notify us of a leaking radiator for over a month. By the time we were aware of the problem, it had ruined the kitchen floor and required a $3100 repair. We were eventually able to work out a fair and amicable resolution with the guest, who agreed to pay us $500 towards the $1000 insurance deductible that we had to pay. After we reached this agreement, an Airbnb case manager blocked the payment and closed the case on the grounds that we had involved our insurance company. This is completely absurd; should we have taken the full loss or tried to get the guest to pay the full amount? Since this happened a few days ago, I have reached out to Airbnb repeatedly without being able to speak with anyone with the authority to remedy the situation. This is a horrible experience that is showing an inept and unfeeling Airbnb.

Slander is Acceptable to Airbnb Regardless of the Facts

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My wife and I stayed at this Airbnb in Barcelona with a host who has had rave reviews. My review was also quite positive as we had no complaints. Upon posting my review, I saw what our host, Gloria, had written. Her comments were slanderous fabrications with no basis in fact. What happened is that we left the room early in the day. While we were gone Gloria, without our permission, let a “worker” in the room to do some “repairs.” After the worker had left she smelled smoke. That evening, upon our return, we were confronted by Gloria and accused of smoking in the room. Neither my wife nor I smoke and we were not about to take up smoking at seventy years old. We assured Gloria that we had not smoked and the accusation was false. It was pointed out to her that the fact that there was no smell of smoke before we left for the day or in the evening should be a clue as to who smoked in the room, i.e. the worker. I thought that was the end of it.

When I read her review I was livid as she persisted with the slander and a whole lot of other accusations. Filing a complaint with Airbnb, I was advised by a representative that there was nothing to be done, because a review is a review. My response to Gloria’s review was taken down. The reason was that I shared what Gloria had told us, in great detail, upon arrival in her place. She claimed to be one of twenty-five people in the world with a rare kind of brain tumor. Believing her, I had given her the benefit of a doubt and in my response indicated that Gloria’s rant may be mitigated by the fact that she has brain tumors. Apparently Airbnb decided that a comment on the host’s health condition violated their policy, even though the host herself had gone through excruciating detail telling us her medical history. Confidentiality did not seem to be a concern with her. My protest, a matter of honor, has been ignored. The host’s falsehoods stand while my response has been taken down. Needless to say we will not be staying at Airbnb properties again. My trust in them has been badly shaken as it is clear that some hosts are, in my opinion, less than stable.