I rented my villa in Marbella, Spain to a guest from Ireland. He informed me his family were arriving the following day. Subsequently I found out that six or more young guys turned up and in the week they were in my house, they destroyed it. Airbnb has been ‘looking into this’ for five weeks now. They blocked two toilets with whole rolls of toilet paper, ripped a door off the hinges, broke my washing machine, made cigarette burns on my brand new couches, vomited on the bed and walls and around the toilet, made marks all over the walls, and somehow got them wet. I had to employ three cleaning ladies for eight hours each, fix the toilets and door, and purchase new linen, towels, and glasses for what wasn’t broken or thrown out. I’m not sure how many people were sleeping on the bed but the supporting boards were also broken and this was a €3000 bed. The damage and costs equate to around €10,000. At check out, when we were supposed to meet, they vacated the premises and locked me out of the house without meeting me or giving me the keys back. I had to employ a locksmith on a Sunday to change my locks. It has caused me a lot of stress and my house is ruined.
Category Archives: Airbnb Host Stories
These are real, uncensored stories from Airbnb Hosts. We encourage our site visitors to read and share their Airbnb Host Stories to help warn others of the dangers of using Airbnb, and consider using alternative options in the sharing economy.
Crooked Host Holds Deposit After Long Stay
We arrived in Utah on June 20th, 2017 as a result of a military move from Arizona. This was our nineth move in 18 years, so my family and I were used to it. Utah was exceptionally difficult to find accommodations while we were waiting for base housing to become available. Air conditioning at the temporary lodging facility on base was broken and hotels were booked in the surrounding 30-mile area from the base.
I decided to give Airbnb a try. I found a property listing in Ogden. I messaged the host and asked if he would be willing to negotiate a deal on the property since I needed a place to stay for a month. He agreed and stated that there would be a $500 dollar deposit for the property that would be returned once his property manager determined there was no damage when we moved out. We agreed to the terms and paid for the stay in full.
Our stay was great with the exception of the condition of the mattress in one of the bedrooms and the downstairs sink that was cracked. The landscape outside was a mess: dirt and open irrigation holes were everywhere. The lampposts outside were on the ground and wires were exposed. We were assured that the landscaping would be completed soon. In the month we stayed, hardly any progress was made with the numerous half-completed projects. We never complained and just figured it was a money issue. We left the property on July 20th and moved into our house on base.
This is when the problems began with the host. We inquired when we could expect the $500 deposit to be returned. I was then contacted by the property manager asking about a shampoo bottle ring on the master bathroom shower shelf. I said it may have been caused by my wife’s color stay shampoo and we were glad to come clean it and see the stain for ourselves. We were assured we would have the opportunity to clean the bathroom and see the stain. We inquired several times over the next few weeks without any response due to the fact the invoice stated that the deposit would be returned in three days.
When the host finally responded, he said we would have to wait to clean the unit due to another guest staying there. We waited several weeks to hear from either the host or property manager but they never responded. I contacted the property manager six weeks after we moved out and asked about the stain and when we could expect the deposit back. I never received a reply. The next day my wife received a text from the owner asking for my email stating that his lawyer would contact me for to settle for damages. We are honest people so we gave it to him.
I received an email on September 11th from a bus stop bench lawyer located out of Orem stating that his client was not going to return the deposit and was in fact wishing to seek an additional $1575 for replacement of the entire upper vinyl shower piece. On the estimate, there wasn’t a itemized list of parts or labor, only a dollar amount and the name of a repair company. The estimate didn’t even have a business address. The lawyer also stated there were additional damages such as a scratch on “high end” furniture and stains on towels. The lawyer stated that I have received pictures of the damages; however, I have not. I have text messages from the property manager saying there were attached photos but I never received them and I said so in a response back to her. The unit was also supposedly occupied immediately after we vacated the property, which also calls the damages into question.
Be aware of staying in Ogden with this host. I strongly caution anyone to stay elsewhere. You will be opening yourself up to a money grubbing host looking to make a profit at your expense based on false claims of damages.
Blocked for Discrimination after Strange Booking
I’ve been blocked from Airbnb for discrimination, mainly because I mentioned the canceled guest’s country of origin in trying to explain that normally someone from 7,000 miles away doesn’t book in our tiny town, and that the person could not tell us why he booked here. On an afternoon this summer, a guest had booked for a stay starting three days later. We are in a town town in the middle of the Midwest, so there are specific reasons people usually give when they book.
This guest was coming from a place literally 7,000 miles away. I asked what brought him to the area, and he said “we are tourism” and would arrive in three to five hours. It seemed pretty odd that someone would arrive in less than five hours from somewhere 7,000 miles away. I responded and told him that he had not booked that day. He said he meant three days from then. I asked other questions (which I have screenshots of), but he did not and could not mention specifics regarding our area.
I checked his three reviews, which were brief and vague: “… was a great guest”; “very polite, friendly and clean person”; “excellent guest and well spoken and easy to communicate.” That was it. Normally when I check someone’s reviews, they’re pretty specific about the visit, so my weirdness radar had kicked in.
I called the Airbnb help number within six minutes of the booking to ask for guidance. The customer service representative I spoke to said that there were reviews on the Airbnb user and that he didn’t see anything odd with the guest, but that there was a policy that a host could cancel at least once (maybe twice?) without repercussion, and I had not done so before. I contacted the person who booked to try to elicit a better explanation, which is when he said he was going to be visiting a major city more than 200 miles and four hours from my Airbnb location.
It seemed odd; Airbnb’s website says: “Trust your intuition: If you don’t feel right about a reservation, don’t accept it!” It encourages guests to explain themselves and their trip to put their hosts at ease. This was not happening. The entire length of this booking was for about an hour; I try to respond to people as quickly as possible in regard to their travel. This was not a last-minute cancellation of something that had been booked for a long time. Suddenly, someone called from Airbnb (but actually probably from the arbitration company). This is when I should have had a lawyer right by my side, or just not agreed to talk on the phone.
I honestly could not even understand at first what would have caused the claim of discrimination against a nationality, because to me it was a decision based on multiple reasons, none of which were the specific country the person was from – it was the distance, the vagueness, and the indication that he would be visiting somewhere completely different, nowhere near my Airbnb. At the time of Airbnb’s initial indication that they were looking into me being discriminatory, there were two standing bookings at my property, and I conveyed my concern about those to the person who had called me from arbitration.
My account was delisted but not deactivated, so I assumed Airbnb would at least allow me to host the last two guests while making its decision. I heard nothing from Airbnb and lost a couple thousand dollars in income. At this point, I felt so personally gutted that I decided even if Airbnb were going to let me keep my account, I would never use them again because of the awful assumptions it made about me even though their employees could easily see, in messages, how weird the whole transaction was.
I got to host one of the two already-booked guests, but here it is five days before the last booked guest (who had a special need of having a place that accepts more than one pet), and my account has been deleted as of now and forever. Why would a company do that? I don’t even know what happens to that guest now. Is she totally out of luck? Where will she stay?
Of course, Airbnb uses forced arbitration clauses that give me no rights to even present the evidence I have of the person giving vague and incorrect answers to any questions I asked, nor did Airbnb apparently review a recording of the customer service representative telling me that I had a free cancellation to give. Would I have canceled without Airbnb’s permission? Likely, because of my gut feeling about the booking, but that certainly seemed to me to imply the company’s consent.
While waiting for the complete cancellation of my account, I’ve researched the legality and the common occurrences of Airbnb just leaving people high and dry for no reason. I understand they have to protect people from discrimination, and if I fit that category of one who discriminates, so be it; that’s apparently in the eye of the beholder. However, Airbnb seems to have totally erred on the side of caution when the word “discrimination” is invoked. I would try HomeAway or another company, but my Airbnb is not in a tourist town at all. One of the reasons I’d been booked every weekend is because I was one of three Airbnbs in the whole area. It’s very painful to do so much to tend to every little detail, build up a perfect rating from really happy guests, then have the rug pulled out from under me.
No Protection Against Deceptive Guests Breaking Rules
I had a group of five people book the minimum stay in my house for three nights and they ended up staying only one night, getting a refund for the others. I received a snotty email the next morning with a list of unbelievable reasons why they left. This was planned. They must have had another booking somewhere and needed just one night as a filler. My house is immaculate. I work very hard to make sure it is always so, but they managed to get a refund from Airbnb, because Airbnb does not care. My “case manager” never got back to me or answered any emails. They just let me get cheated by some rotten people who even were so low as to give me a one-star review, when everything was provided and spotless. I did everything I could: sent maps, was there to greet them… I told them if they needed me to just let me know. Never did they look me in the eye. They were fishy, because something was up. Had they communicated any problem whatsoever – there were no problems – I would have been able to act and would have done so immediately. Airbnb will not ever provide any means to contact them, so basically it’s a one-sided system. I am very upset about the fact that there is no protection against assholes.
Guests Trashed our Home, Airbnb Ignores us for Weeks
This guest and his family completely trashed our home. We came home after five weeks to a complete infestation of flies, fruit flies, maggots, bed bugs and lice. This guest never took their trash out in five weeks in July; they simply left it in the house and, as you can imagine, the condition of it was deplorable. We found piles of maggot-filled trash bags inside our home. The smell of rotting food and trash was overpowering. The swarms of flies required multiple treatments from a professional exterminator, who said he had never seen anything like it. They apparently ate in every room in the house (living room, bedrooms, bathroom) and left spilled food on the rugs, couches, and bathroom floor. I’m not talking about crumbs; these were chunks of meat, broccoli, and tomatoes on our furniture just surrounded in flies and maggots.
They broke our TV, refrigerator, and dishwasher, ripped our brand new bed sheets and bedspreads, put tables on top of bureaus (why?), left the mattresses on the floor (had taken off the bed frames), and clogged up the kitchen and bathroom sinks with god only knows what. Our home will never be the same. It’s been over two weeks and the stench of these disgusting people is still in our home. We had to have exterminators come back twice to eradicate the flies and eventually had to throw everything away: beds, couches, pillows, rugs, sheets, towels. We hired professional cleaners to remove the dead bugs not once but twice. These guests lived like complete animals but that does not explain how as human beings, they could completely disrespect and destroy another person’s home.
We have been going all through the proper channels with Airbnb for three weeks and we cannot even get anyone to contact us regarding our claim for over $20,000 worth of damage. They supposedly cover up to $1,000,000 but I don’t believe it. We’ve been waiting on hold for hours at a time, and sending multiple emails with no response. Customer service agents claim to have no authority to do anything except send an email to a supervisor say they will contact us but they never do. We sent 50+ pictures of the damage to our home, videos, receipts for everything, a copy of the police report, and there has been nothing from Airbnb.
Our family has been displaced from our home for three weeks, having to stay in hotels and pay for and replace our damaged items completely on our own. Our lives have been put on hold and this incident has caused our family great emotional and financial duress.
Airbnb Fraud: Someone Cancelled the Reservation For Host
We were contacted after midnight by a guest asking if we could take him and his family on such short notice and check in at 3:30 AM. We worked our butts off to get the house ready for him and his family and accommodate them on short notice. My husband was in the backyard cleaning up the pool at 3:30 when they arrived. We greeted them and welcomed them to Dallas; they checked in and then out at 11:00 AM. In the morning I discovered someone on Airbnb had posed as me, canceled the reservation, and without even so much as a phone call or message, the payment had been removed from our account.
We have a strict cancellation policy which doesn’t allow cancellation without 24 hours’ notice and at 50% of the cost. The guest had concerns about the Internet and TV, which he just needed to contact us to get access. Instead he went around our backs to Airbnb and then committed fraud by logging in as me and cancelling the reservation. Airbnb sent me a message three days later telling me that our Airbnb host status was in jeopardy due to the cancellation. We want our money back and the cancellation removed. This is not the first time Airbnb has interfered with payments in the past. A guest was looking for a cheaper stay and they refunded the reservation, even though they didn’t give us notice and broke Airbnb rules by having a friend make the reservation and not stay there. Third party reservations are against policy. They took money out of our future reservations to refund them.
Airbnb Knows My Postal Address And I Don’t?
I’m trying to post my property to rent on Airbnb. When I try to complete the postal address section, Airbnb won’t accept my address. It keeps saying “the address is not accurate enough – try adding a street or house number,” even though it already contains both . The end result is the Airbnb website substitutes another address, half a mile away, which is also a B&B, so my customers will be directed somewhere else. I know my own address. It has been confirmed by the local council authority. This is not good enough for Airbnb. There is nowhere on the Airbnb website that allows you to ask a question to a real person or make a phone call. I tried the number which I found on Airbnb Hell but, when you finally get through, the voice of the Airbnb employee is so scrambled and distorted, it’s totally unintelligible.
Account Hacked, Do Not Host Anyone on Airbnb
Before reading this story, quickly Google “Airbnb account hacked” and you will see this is a regular occurrence, happening to many people. Upon signing up for Airbnb, our account was hacked. Access was gained to our personal emails and even work accounts. We do not know exactly how this happened except that it was done through Airbnb. This by itself is scary and completely unacceptable. The hackers accessed and changed our bank details on the Airbnb website. Money was then stolen from us. Without getting into the details, customer service was terrible and infuriating. We fought for a month: phone calls, emails, the lot. Without our consent, Airbnb opted to close the investigation. This cut us off from replying to emails or talking to the customer service team. We never got our money back and ended up cancelling our account. I would strongly advise others to find alternatives. You have no security with Airbnb.
Domestic Horror at Airbnb Forces Guests to Call 911
My husband and I decided to use Airbnb for the first time because we were looking to spend a romantic weekend in the Poconos area of Pennsylvania. When we got to the house we were greeted by the hostess’ husband who informed us that his wife was delayed by a flight coming from Texas and he would go pick her up at midnight. My husband and I were offered beer and later this man asked my husband to go fishing. It all seemed wonderful and when they returned from their fishing trip we went to bed expecting that the man would go out around midnight to pick his wife up at the airport.
Sleep was difficult because the mattresses thrown on the floor were uncomfortable and squeaked at every turn. Nevertheless we had agreed to make the best of the one-night stay. Well, around 1:00 AM, I was awakened by loud cursing and yelling by a male voice, which I tied to ignore. Soon I heard more yelling and now a female voice was involved. I figured the hostess had been picked up from the airport and was settling home to go to bed. However, the voices got louder as did the cursing and it all seemed to be outside.
I looked outside our window and saw the hostess’ husband yelling at another man and later as the other man got back into his car the hostess’ husband kicked his car, which angered the man in the car (I later found out he was a taxi driver the hostess had used to get home). The man got out and the two men began to argue again, but eventually the taxi driver got in his vehicle and left. The issue did not end there as the hostess’ husband continue to argue with her, to the point of smashing her fingers on the door. This caused her to scream which caused us to come down.
We offered the hostess to call 911 as she told us that he smashed her fingers and also poured beer all over her luggage which was still outside the house in the driveway. We offered to assist bringing it in, but her husband would not allow it. When she tried to go get it, he tried to lock her out of the home. He escalated in his loud verbal attacks and threats to the point where we had to call 911 at around 2:00 AM. Once police arrived we waited to get the okay from them to be allowed to leave. We left around 3:30 AM and had to sleep in our car. While this ordeal was going on, we found out that the husband was never consulted by the hostess about her plan to make their home into an Airbnb, which he disagreed with. He informed us that he had assaulted another guest who arrived at the house around 10:00 PM on a night when the hostess’ husband was expected to work the next day. We found out from the hostess that her husband was on parole and has a criminal record. What a night.
Airbnb Guest Has Few Valid Complaints, Plenty of Disrespect
I had a guest who is actually from across town in Halifax. She stayed at one of my properties for two nights. She arrived by bus and went to my neighbour’s house by mistake. She had a very powerful personality and I think she was upset or insulted when I went out to do my yoga, work, and meet with friends. She used all of my toilet paper in two nights. I hope it was just in her bag and not in my drains. She complained about my towel detergent and all her illnesses and sensitivities. I asked for her passport, as I noticed my listing somehow had the validation restriction lifted. She was very upset. I explained the Airbnb website asked to show ID.
Then she commented on my insulating plastic wrap on my china cabinet handles. This is my house and I have this cabinet for my china. There are plenty of dishes to use for my guests in the kitchen. What concerns me now is the long letter she wrote over nothing; it was a personal attack on me and my character. I have not experienced this disrespectful behaviour from any guest. She was so overbearing. I am afraid to write a comment about her and feel she will definitely downgrade my rating due to her own unhappiness. What do I do? I am getting my lock changed at a cost of $117, as I feel this lady was so unbalanced. She wrote about a towel that she was concerned about but that is minor. I told her not to worry about it; there were only three there. I usually put four but I could read her aggressive energy and just wanted her out. I offered to give her a lift in my car, in a diplomatic way. This was a guest from hell. I lost money to host her, but learned my listing validation was turned off.