Ongoing Nightmare Housing Situation: Airbnb Unlivable

Posted on October 10, 2018

This is truly a nightmare that started over two weeks ago. I’m in a hotel now still dealing with it as the home’s walls (with wiring) started filling with water due to a broken pipe after the host’s property manager had failed to do anything for weeks and the host refused to do anything. I’ve had little support from Airbnb and still have 11 days left on the prepaid reservation.

It began two weeks ago (so much worse now). I rented a long-term Airbnb property, from mid-August through November 1st while we were waiting to have a house built. There were a few minor issues early on, but recently things have gotten really bad. The owner is not in the country (the place is in Baja, Mexico and he’s in the US). He has a local property manager that is supposed to handle things but has rarely shown up and is now not responding at all. 99% of the time when I contact the owner, he says he’ll contact the property manager and then I don’t hear back, email again and the whole thing starts over.

The more major issues include: there is an Airstream trailer on the property we assumed was being stored here, but suddenly without any warning a woman with three dogs moved in. We didn’t see her, only the dogs initially, and thought they were wild dogs that had snuck in, which is common here. When we went to shoo them off – as we have two little dogs – a woman came out of the trailer screaming at my partner that it was her property.

I immediately messaged the owner who told me he had no idea what was going on, but that he co-owns the place with his brother and maybe he knew; it was probably a crazy ex-girlfriend. She’s still here. He’s never responded when I’ve asked again about it and the dogs bark continuously; most of the time they’re just left outside. Sometimes they come right to our door and bark incessantly, making it difficult not only to take our dogs out but to actually enjoy the property.

There was a big rain storm last week and with the high heat and humidity, the front door has swollen so much that it’s cracked. It’s very difficult to shut at all, likely insecure, and easy to break in. Part of the ceiling has also being chipping off as there are cracks in the concrete with bad water leaks. They’re developing in many other places in the house, so another rainstorm is likely going to make that worse.

The property manager is also supposed to be taking care of the landscaping which has gotten out of control (not a big deal to us but it really looks bad), and pick up the trash once a week. We haven’t seem him in two weeks now so it’s really piling up and there doesn’t seem to be a place we can take it here; we’re in a small village in Baja, Mexico.

I think he’s supposed to be doing something to the water to prevent algae too, but that’s not happening since he isn’t here. Algae-filled water has been pouring down the side of the house near the front door.

An Airbnb case manager contacted the host right away who promised him he’d reach the property manager – suddenly he was able to. He promised the guy would arrive within two hours. He never did: no message, nothing.

Finally about 8:30 he messaged that the guy’s car had broken down and that his dad would give him a ride over. He was leaving right then and said that he would also come back at 7:30 in the morning to work on the landscaping problem. He’s just a few minutes away. Twenty minutes later, no one had come and I had to be up at 5:00. It was dark and he wouldn’t be able to see many of the problems anyway so I told him to just come in the morning. He could start the yard stuff and then afterward we’d show him the problems, that we would be here all day until about 5:00.

Of course, he never showed. I messaged him to see when he was coming. There was no response. I messaged the owner. Finally after he received a picture of the algae-covered wall that had gotten much worse he said it was “emergency time”. He was going to contact his brother who knows people there. He promised he’d contact him several times before but apparently he never really did because once that happened, his brother (the co-owner) sent over a couple that lives nearby and knows the house very well.

They were shocked and said it was extremely unacceptable. It was well known that this property manager takes people’s money and rarely does anything. He is totally unreliable. They also found more major problems that we hadn’t noticed and things have gotten worse; there are pools of water on the floor now. They took a lot of pictures and said they would be sure both brothers would receive them.

In the meantime, our Airbnb case manager was on his weekend holiday and wouldn’t be back until the next day. The owner said he was firing the property manager and trying to find someone else, but we finally left to go out to eat at 5:00 as we’d told the property manger. Then we got a text from him just as we got there that he was here waiting outside, knowing full well we wouldn’t be here.

After what the couple said and the experiences we’ve had, we totally don’t trust this guy. He still has all the keys. I messaged the owner and told him to call him to let him know because I really didn’t want to go back there and deal with that at this point. He told me he couldn’t reach him, but we got back and he was gone, with the trash taken and a few weeds taken out in the front. We haven’t heard anything from anyone after that.

We still have no cleaning supplies and have gone through almost all the towels soaking up the water. We messaged the owner again that the priority is now to get us cleaning supplies, towels and to get the backyard cleaned up because it’s gotten so much worse since even two days ago and we can’t take the dogs out front. The couple that saw it said how dangerous it was too. They were blown away about how bad everything was as the wife was a caretaker here a year ago and said it’s just gone completely downhill fast.

The owner keeps saying he’s trying to find a new “co-host/property manager”. In the meantime I was able to get a quicker move-in date on the house being built, October 15th. I told the case manager at Airbnb who previously told me he would process the reservation so that I wouldn’t be charged anymore. I was hoping I’d be able to move out of this situation early.

Based on his information I moved forward and was really happy I managed to get that negotiated that morning. I messaged the case manager (the one who’d left me hanging for 2.5 days while things got even worse) and he said he made a mistake, since it’s long term I had to pay for all the reservation. He knew it was long term as he even mentioned it in the message thread before telling me I could do that and then said several times he hoped I’d be able to move early. That, fortunately was resolved, with a new end date: October 16th.

It continues… a new repair person came and seemed very reliable. There was finally a new person that came to do some things but there have been so many other problems in the meantime, I don’t even have time to write about them all. The owner told me that he “just found out” the lots on the property – all in a relatively small area that’s gated so it looks like it’s all one place – were sold and he can’t do anything about the woman in the trailer and her dogs.

Airbnb won’t do anything because the trailer is now not on the host’s property. I want to scream. I told the case manager it was unacceptable; he did admit his mistake and said he’d talk to his team, so I’m waiting on that. I am seriously baffled at how this is being handled. I was pretty much just trying to deal with it until the check-out time, but then this happened…

A bad situation got worse after we noticed water seeping through the bedroom wall of the house we’ve been staying in through Airbnb. It turned out there was a broken pipe that was leaking in the walls, with wiring… going through the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The repair person said it was dangerous (obviously, and we couldn’t use electricity there).

We couldn’t leave immediately; it was dark and you can’t drive in the dark here in Baja due to the bad roads and other problems. However, we did leave the following morning. Our case manager was, this time, on an extended weekend (he went on his weekend at the time the other issues were occurring and left no backup).

The owner finally realized how bad it was. A repair person is there now. He has to take out the whole wall and this is going to take a lot of time. The owner sent a couple of different payments to help with the hotel, and also for other expenses as we had to buy cleaning supplies. We received the payment he sent yesterday through Airbnb back in our bank account today. However, earlier payments were still not received, they’re missing somewhere with Airbnb. We’re covering most of the expenses on our own.

Airbnb has been totally unhelpful. They don’t care at all that we had to leave the place and get a hotel. In fact, with the case manager gone when I finally got someone else, he didn’t even read the message I sent asking about the missing payment, but instead called the owner and then messaged me that the owner was getting it repaired and had sent the payment. That had all been documented in several places, but the Airbnb case manager didn’t bother to read it and just made things worse for me with the owner.

I am extremely disappointed with Airbnb. What would have happened if I didn’t have the extra cash or credit cards to cover the hotel, when our house through Airbnb was already paid for? This is still not resolved. I am way behind on work because of all of this. I work online and extremely stressed out. We don’t know how long the repairs will take at this point so this may cost us a lot more than we can afford right now.

We tried contacting Airbnb on Twitter and got the response: “The team will look at it when they can.” The last case manager said he is looking into seeing where the money has gone but had initially said it can take 15 business days because of our bank – this is not the case since the other went through in a day. In addition, they should not be leaving us in this situation to deal with ourselves; ot’s insanity.

The case manager lied. He said it was a problem with my “payment method” but Airbnb never sent the payment. He had me set up a payout account, but then suddenly it was actually sent to my payment method. In the meantime, I’m at the hotel trying to figure out when we can get back. I told the owner we’re booked through Friday, October 5th several times.

On Thursday morning I reminded him I needed to know what was going on so I could extend if it was necessary, if we could get back Friday. I got a message from the new maintenance person that it would be ready at noon on Friday. I told him we’d be there at 3:00 to provide extra cushion time. He said that was okay, and I updated the owner.

Today after checking out of the hotel and starting to drive to the Airbnb (an hour away because it’s in a remote area), I got a message from the owner that the house wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow, asking if the maintenance person had told me that. I told him no, he had just confirmed we could go back today… we were on our way.

I was on the side of the road for 30 minutes trying to get a response from the owner or repair person. The repair person called and said friends of the host’s brother and the co-owner are painting the inside of the house tonight. They told him to redo the roof. No one bothered to inform us.

While Airbnb has asked for receipts for the previous part of the stay, they won’t respond to what to do now or when I’ll be reimbursed. I can’t keep paying for a hotel for the next 11 days, especially when I’ve paid for a house through Airbnb. We have to dine out as we don’t have a kitchen now so that’s more expensive too. It’s now 8:30 PM here on Friday, October 5th. Six hours and still no word. I’ve been sent in circles numerous times. The host hasn’t even apologized. I’m exhausted, super stressed… this is insanity.

Airbnb: A Horrible End to our Honeymoon

Posted on October 8, 2018

I booked this property for the last part of my honeymoon in Italy. Upon arriving the place was great. The day we got there we had travelled from Turin to Rome to Naples to Sorrento so it had been a long day; we wanted to shower and nap. When trying to shower, I got only ice cold water. I told the host about the issue and she sent someone to look at it shortly and told me it should be fixed. However, she wanted to send them again in the morning just to be safe.

The next morning they came and take a look and then we left for a tour. After coming back from the tour we really needed a shower but again, there was no warm water. We had a special dinner to go to so it was very uncomfortable coming from a full day tour and not getting a proper shower.

All the way through I communicated the issues to the host through Airbnb. I even told her that this issue would be in her review. Her review for me said I was dishonest and would not recommend me. Why would I lie about this? And how is it a lie if she had someone look at the issue multiple times?

This was an extremely horrible experience especially as it was for my honeymoon and the first time I’ve used Airbnb for a trip. I tried getting the review from my profile removed and compensation for the horrible experience but Airbnb did not help. They only said if I had called during the stay, then they could have done something. This made no sense to me because their site recommends that you work it out with the host.

Airbnb Host Attempts Extortion Over Damages

Posted on October 8, 2018

My story is a classic case of an extortion attempt by a host. I have stayed at several Airbnbs in four different countries, and have had unique and enjoyable experiences each time. Because of my past success in being connected to great hosts and accommodations through the website, I decided to use book an Airbnb for three months while I began my new job after college, before moving into a place longer term.

My first impression of the place was that it seemed nice enough. I simply wanted my own quiet room to sleep in with functional appliances and plumbing while I worked my full-time job over the summer, and it initially seemed on par with my requirements. Sure, the wallpaper was peeling off the bedroom walls and there was a board covering a hole in the wall at the foot of my bed with a rusty nail sticking out of it, but I felt that it wasn’t a big deal so long as I didn’t stab myself with the nail as I slept.

Unfortunately, as time went on, I uncovered a number of issues with the place that made my stay unenjoyable. The washing machine didn’t work for two out of the three months I stayed there, leaving me no choice but to walk a mile to and from the laundromat each weekend. Furthermore, the place wasn’t nearly as quiet as I’d hoped, with neighbors blasting music into late hours of the night.

Other issues included A/C that was kept at too high a temperature in the humid summer months near DC, a shower that would rapidly switch from hot to cold without touching the dial, and water pressure troubles in the shower that would essentially render the showerhead to a drip while trying to bathe. All of this was tolerable as I was not trying to complain to her too much as I desired to be left a good review following my stay.

About halfway through my stay, something happened that left me unable to remain silent any longer. The scam this host was trying to pull off on me centered around a restroom that is shared among two guests in the upstairs hallway. For the first month or so, this restroom was shared between myself and a girl staying in the room next door. I had no issue sharing the restroom with her, as she kept the restroom tidy. She moved out for a short time before a new guest moved in, and in that hiatus I had the bathroom to myself.

However, I was unaware that she had moved out at the time, and thought nothing of it when I heard activity from the restroom, as I thought it was just her. Since the bathroom was in the hallway, it was fully accessible to anybody in the home. I woke one morning to an email from my host saying there had been a leak in my bathroom, and when I went downstairs, it was clear the leak had spread downstairs and caused drywall and ceiling damage below.

I assumed there had been an issue with the pipes, but later in the day, my host told me I was responsible for the damage. When I asked the host what transpired, she claimed that I pulled up the sink plug, ran the sink, and left the sink to overflow and flood.

First and foremost, I didn’t ever touch the sink plug and there was no reason I could conceive of that would cause me to even need to do so. Second, leaving the sink on full blast and walking away in conjunction with the pulling of the plug is as improbable as it is false. What was most frustrating about this conversation with my host was that there was no discussion about the events – she simply told me to my face that she would give me the invoice.

I tried to explain to her that I was not responsible and there must be an alternate explanation, but she wouldn’t listen. She believed it was impossible that there was either another guest using the restroom (which I certainly heard) or a plumbing issue (which I experienced with the water temperature and pressure in the shower). Just because I was the only one supposed to be using the restroom doesn’t mean that I was. The myriad of prior plumbing issues makes her story suspect as well.

Time elapsed and toward the tail end of my stay, I didn’t hear anything more about the incident from her, though I did see some contractors repair the damage. I contacted Airbnb and explained my story, and they were understanding. However, since I didn’t hear anything else from her, they weren’t able to help unless she took action.

Two days before my reservation concluded, I received a request for money from her with for nearly $2000 with pictures of the damage and an invoice that she typed up herself. I promptly declined the request, explaining once more that I wasn’t responsible for the damage, and that I didn’t appreciate her extortion efforts. She then involved Airbnb, and that is where we currently stand.

In the images she provided, there is one that is clearly staged where the sink plug is up and the water is running, but you can clearly see the water is only half full in the sink (being optimistic here), and anybody taking the picture could have easily stopped it from overflowing. Additionally, there is a picture of the overflowing sink with the plug down, which is illogical because in a functional sink, the water would have just drained downward.

Moreover, while she told me she wouldn’t charge for anything beyond to the damages, she listed “oversight” from herself as a $250 charge. Not only is she using me as the scapegoat, but she is trying to profit from repairing damages that I didn’t cause.

I am remaining optimistic due to her poor evidence and fictional charges on the invoice, and am hoping the truth prevails here. If anybody has had a similar experience, I would encourage you to share it, as knowledge about how to handle these situations is one of the best tools of preventing hosts from taking advantage of their guests in the future.

Nightmare Host Has No Time to Deliver Keys

Posted on October 8, 2018

I booked an Airbnb flat but suddenly the host didn’t have time to answer me and give me the details. The waiting time turned out to be a nightmare in cold weather. After I made the reservation, the host acted strangely and didn’t give anything more than her address. All other information was missing. I tried to ask couple of times how to arrive, what was around there, etc., but got no answer.

Then the host told me she was abroad and guests had to search for the keys in the cellar. I was thinking the host was in the same city, especially because she brought keys before to other guests as I saw her positive reviews. She didn’t have “time” to bring keys to me at all.

Then we agreed about an arrival time in the evening but the host suddenly changed her mind and sent me only one message, telling me she would be busy for 2-3 hours and couldn’t give me instructions to find the keys. It is incredible behaviour which I haven’t experienced before. The host knew I was already in the corridor waiting but suddenly she just became busy. The host didn’t ask her friend to bring the keys; it felt like the host only wanted money.

I tried to contact customer service but had to wait many days before getting any help. Then I got help and the host already lied to customer service by saying that she had given me all the instructions and she couldn’t be available for guests 24/7.

I never asked host to be available 24/7, only for the time I told her about my arrival that had been agreed upon. It seemed like she didn’t want to rent out her property. I think the real truth could be the host is living at her flat, kept the key with her, and there was no respect for guests. There were not any keys left in the cellar; I searched for them.

I felt terrible, especially because I walked 1 km to the apartment on a cold evening and ended without a key to the corridor and stuck outside. The host tried to ask customer service to remove her feedback so she could still do the same thing to others.

I know when people are really busy they will tell others “I’m busy” but not just suddenly change their mind and say they’re busy when guests told them their arrival time. I had to pay for an expensive hotel that same night because the host didn’t want to bring her keys.

Terrible host didn’t bring the keys and closed her phone

Posted on October 5, 2018

This Airbnb host didn’t tell me anything and had no information. All I got was the address and that the host also had some positive feedback (probably from her friends and colleagues). Immediately after I made the booking, she started to be rude. I tried to ask her how to arrive but got no instructions from her; I had to search by myself.

The apartment was also expensive, a similar price to 3-4 star hotels – I would have expected more customer service skills. Then when I was looking for the apartment, I had to call and ask which street it was. The host didn’t know any shops or banks near the apartment even though she said she was “living there”. Then suddenly the host told me she was in another country or place for a work and the keys were in the bike shed.

That’s when I knew things were not as they should be. She told me I had to look for the keys in a bike shed in some box that I didn’t see there. I had to ask for the door codes multiple times. If she had any advice for me, she wouldn’t share it. She expected everyone to have an iPhone or similar smartphone to use Whatsapp. I believe I’m not the only one who doesn’t have Whatsapp for messages. It was possible to send information through Airbnb but she played phone games and didn’t want to.

In the evening, I found the apartment (but no keys in the bike shed). She sent one message with a smile emoticon: that she was not available in the evening for 2-3 hours. Then she turned off her phone.

What a rude and impolite person; she just wanted money. The host knew I was coming and at what time but she decided to hide and turn off her phone. There were a lot of people coming and going in her building and I could not wait in the corridor for 2-3 hours until she would open her phone, assuming she would.

I would never have booked a place on Airbnb if I had known the host would ignore her phone and that she wouldn’t bring the keys. I also think a bike shed is not a safe place to keep any important things such as keys. It would be easy and simple to ask a friend to bring the keys; it would take about 5-20 minutes, which apparently she didn’t have.

This happened in Sweden. I don’t know if I’ll get any refund or not but the host has already tried to get more money: 180 euro because I cancelled the reservation. I had to go to a hostel because I didn’t have the keys.

Last minute demand for more cash or we cancel your reservation

Posted on October 2, 2018

I reserved a two bedroom condo in the Grand Venetian in Puerto Vallarta. The “Superhosts” were based out of Oregon. I booked the condo in January 2018 for a stay in December, nearly one year in advance. I left a deposit of $1600. This holiday was planned with other families who were staying in the same complex.

On September 29th, I was contacted by the hosts and was told that I would need to pay an additional $2500 if I wanted to keep the reservation. They confirmed that they quoted me the wrong price in January – they made a mistake – and the owner of the condo was requesting more money. I naturally told them that they needed to eat this cost because it was their mistake.

I advised the hosts that I could not find similar accommodations so close to Christmas. The hosts did not care and advised they had the right to cancel pursuant to Airbnb rules. After lengthy discussions with Airbnb, Airbnb cancelled the reservation. Read the fine print: if an owner wishes to act dishonorably they can simply wait until the 11th hour to threaten cancellation of your reservation by demanding more money. During Christmas this could be ruinous.

Because of these hosts and Airbnb, I had to reserve another condo at a higher rate for from the original resort and away from our friends. You are better off booking through HomeAway or with a hotel. Do not book any accommodation managed by these hosts. Their word and agreement is worthless.

Airbnb Refunds 100% of Hosting Charges but not Service Fee

Posted on October 1, 2018

I have used Airbnb a couple of times but recently discovered a few things while booking accommodation for our North America trip. Normally we would set a price range to search and compare accommodations. You are ready to pay what is shown while comparing but this is not the case with Airbnb. With Airbnb, you have to pay a charge for accommodations + cleaning fees + Airbnb service charges + city tax. It adds up very quickly; make sure you have compared prices properly.

What is a fair service charge for a broker/middleman or platform provider? I booked accommodation in Beverly Hills. The accommodation charges were less than $2000 but Airbnb’s service charges were around $200, which is a shockingly large fee to facilitate a deal. What was the $200 service charge even for? There was no reception, no room service, no linen changes when staying for multiple nights. On top of that, we also had to pay cleaning fees.

What pissed me was after booking I had the option to cancel and get a 100% refund for all the charges from the poor host but Airbnb didn’t want to refund the service charges after just 48 hours. That is a total rip off.

Now comes my worst experience of getting in touch with their customer support. Even though I run an IT company, I had to struggle to reach to a screen where I could write a complaint in my words and the robot didn’t try to take over my session. I literally had to go on their Facebook page to get some attention.

Finally, Airbnb gave me a refund but with the caveat that they could refund me only once or twice in a year; this was not acceptable to me. I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager in charge of policy to present a case for everyone, but no joy. There are a lot of such stories which I came across only because of the situation. My intention here is to highlight and inform everyone to be aware of Airbnb’s service charges, refund policies, and customer service. I am better off paying a little more for a hotel and get proper service provided by a human.

Airbnb Makes Fawlty Towers look like the Hilton

Posted on September 29, 2018

Do not stay at a certain Airbnb property at Newport beach in Sydney. It’s not a house; it’s an apartment in the middle floor of what once was a house. It has the most dangerous flight of stairs leading down to the apartment with no railings, loose pavement, and roots growing across the pathway. The security lights don’t work properly so at night you get halfway down and you are plunged into complete darkness.

It has the most uncomfortable lounges I have ever sat on; a bed of nails would be more comfortable. The place is a bit old and tired. Parking at the place is impossible on the street; it’s a narrow goat track and while she might give you one spot in her driveway, she advertises the property as sleeping nine guests. In reality, there are two bedrooms stuffed full of bunk beds and a master bedroom.

The host is bordering on a psychopath. The cupboards are stuffed full of unsorted junk from cables, broken toys, and scratched CDs. I think she is a hoarder. She seems pleasant at first but if you cross her watch out. One day I was parked illegally because we came out at night and couldn’t see the one rusty, tree-covered sign which had a 4-hour no parking zone on a Wednesday so the garbage trucks can get around the goat track. She was so vindictive she rang the ranger and had me booked; it cost $120, which I am appealing.

She was endlessly complaining about the noise we made but she spent her day dragging something across the floor which we heard in the apartment… probably dead bodies of other complaining guests to bury. She endlessly texted us about the most trivial things but couldn’t come downstairs and tell us to move the car. We couldn’t wait to leave.

The worst is when we left we photographed the entire place and three hours later she hit us up for an extra $360 for extra cleaning. We left it spotless. So I pulled the metadata off her photos and found she had gone in and messed up the place three hours after we left as the metadata has the time in the data. I showed her and Airbnb our photo metadata and hers and thankfully it was dropped.

We left a blender motor there in our rush to get as far away as possible so she said she would mail it back if I sent down a return postage bag. $30 later after saying she had mailed it has never arrived. If you want a holiday from hell, stay here. Airbnb was sympathetic but did nothing in the end. She has all these excellent reviews and I’m sure if you don’t cross her path it might be a reasonably pleasant stay, but don’t complain. The photo she uses on her page of sweeping views of Newport is not the view from the apartment. You’re in a gully with a tree obscuring most of the view; the place is hell. It makes Fawlty Towers look like the Hilton.

Host didn’t answer the door when I arrived at midnight

Posted on September 27, 2018

I booked a ferry set to arrive at an island at about 8:00 PM. I noted this when booking my reservation. Two days before I was supposed to arrive, the host asked me to confirm my arrival time. I thought that my message went through, but apparently the wifi didn’t load and the message didn’t send. Regardless, the host didn’t ask for a follow up and I assumed that he knew and all was well (the listing noted that the check-in time was flexible).

My ferry ended up running three hours late. I let my host know as soon as I could… and then I realized that my initial message didn’t go through. There was no response from the host during the three-hour ferry ride. I got to the apartment at midnight, but no one was there. I had to show up at a random hostel to find a place to stay. It was not a great situation to be in as a young solo female traveler. My host said that he assumed I was no longer coming because I didn’t respond to the message. I asked the host if he could refund my stay. He hasn’t responded. Is there anything I can do about this or do I just have to cut my losses?

Third-Party Booking Violation Causes Payment Problems

Posted on September 25, 2018

I am here to share my experience I had with Airbnb today. Firstly, my reservation was cancelled and I found out that it was cancelled on the day I landed in Japan. The day before my departure, I had checked the Airbnb app and the status was still confirmed. I didn’t expect that it had been cancelled nor did the host tell me upon my arrival; it showed it was cancelled after checking with the host.

Here is where the problem starts to get worse. I did not know that there is a policy that forbids a third party to book on behalf of someone (my reservation was booked by my brother). Please note that for my Japan trip I had also booked two different places and the other hosts had no issues with my brother booking on my behalf. My brother had called, checked with the Airbnb support team, and was told that the reservation was cancelled by them because of the typhoon.

Their only means of informing to us was just an email that indicated that the amount was refunded. Everyone might be wondering why no one checked the email. The reason is simple: everything was done on the Airbnb app. In the app the reservation was still confirmed and the host had not messaged or informed us in regards to the cancellation.

Because of this predicament, we were desperate to find another place to stay as it was already late at night. My brother and I did not know about the third party booking and proceeded to find another place to stay on the day itself. This is where my brother’s RM 5,200 (approximate 1,200 USD) was flushed down the drain as the booking was made without knowing that the host rejected it and insisted that we had violated the Airbnb rules.

The host asked us to cancel the booking on our own (my brother was very suspicious of the host’s unwilling-to-help behaviour) and read the cancellation policy. Needless to say, once my brother clicked “cancel”, it would be another reason for the host to use it against us, because the guest cancelled the booking. We did asked the host to refund us back the amount since we had not even stayed and explained our predicament to the host. However, the host chose not to refund us at all, knowing our predicament and the fact I have never even set foot at his home. We checked with Airbnb support and all they can do is to try to convince the host to refund the money to us; still, the host does not want to.

The violation here is because my brother is the one who booked on my behalf, and the information given to the host is accurate (passport picture, passport number, name, age, occupation, home address), if they want to they should only suspend or terminate my brother’s account. They refused and the host refused to refund my brother the full amount for a place that we did not stay. The host also confirmed the reservation before my brother was able to communicate about our predicament to allow me to find a place to stay; then he only told us that it was a violation, refused to refund anything, and stopped communicating with us.

Please do not hate me for posting this. My intention is to let you know what I faced using Airbnb and how the policy could be a loophole that could cause you to waste your money. Once you are booked, the payment will be immediately sent to the host, which I really find ridiculous – the host should check everything about the guests who are staying then proceed to confirm the reservation.

The refund policy was not even protected, especially in my case where there should be a policy or a means to get my refund. All in all, there is definitely a way to at least get my brother to stay in the place, maybe by getting me to create an account and book it again, but the host and Airbnb support did not even bothered to assist, but would rather see my brother’s money go down the drain. I will not use Airbnb anymore and I would strongly suggest using another platform.