Someone illegally listed my house, Airbnb won’t remove!

I have rented my house to a Chinese woman for residential purposes only and the contract clearly states that she’s not allow to sublet my house in any way. A couple of months after signing the 2 years contract I found out that she listed my house on Airbnb.   So, I got my lawyer to terminate the lease contract and while this is in progress I also contacted Airbnb, providing them will all the evidence including the house deed, lease contract, images, etc., to ask Airbnb to take down the listing. The response I got from Airbnb is that they cannot take down the listing because they are just the “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, so they are not able to close the listing unless the hosts do it themselves. In my opinion, this is ridiculous…so I asked their customer service, Julie, if I am allow list a government building or a palace on their website? Or to list someone’s house without the owner’s consent just to con money from Airbnb guests’ money? So Julie replied “we will not verify, evaluate or arbitrate the terms you identify”. I understand that they are just a “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, as Julie kept repeating during our telephone conversation, but is it right for them to ignore criminal activities to go on on their platform? I have never used Airbnb, (I don’t even have an account with them) and I never will nor recommend to anyone.

Incompetent Airbnb “arbitrator” circumvents policy

I had a guest who first said she was “uncomfortable”, then changed it to she “feared for her personal safety”.”She ended up saying she was about to have a panic attack and said she ran out of my house because she was “afraid for her personal safety”. She also said the last host who she told that she was “uncomfortable” just handed her money for a refund, and she wanted me to hand her cash, which I did not even have yet. These days if you’re lucky they pay on time, which means 24 hours after the guest checks in. Then I had to deal with an Airbnb “arbitrator” named Kevin T who did not seem to know what “Guest Refund Policy” was and kept dismissing what I was saying, and only listened to her side without giving me a chance to defend myself. In the end, he circumvented my cancellation policy, and yanked nearly $1500 from me. He told me on a recorded phone call that he would pay me for 3 days and paid me for less than 1. Now, the case is closed. I love the way they do something unconscionable and then say the case is closed. Oh yeah, their legal team was supposed to contact my lawyer but never did. No way to contact their legal team. I am thinking of contacting the American Arbitration Association. I wonder if Airbnb will ban me if I do that. I guess transparency and honesty will go out the window at that point.

Guests cook pot butter – Stench lingers a week later!

New Years Eve we had guests arrive with a late night check in at 2 am… They were supposed to spend the next few days skiing…but instead they stayed inside and cooked pot butter! They invited 6 other guest who joined in the partying and at 3 AM we had several strangers smoking a huge bong, noisy, stinky mess! They left without one word. My beautiful guest house was trashed. Food, garbage, wet towels, pillows, blankets and 3 day old dirty dishes left for me to clean up. I was horrified by the level of mess left behind, but the worst part is the stench of the marijuana butter/oils they made and used to make brownies and cookies. Its been 4 days, windows open and the smell is just as bad. Several bottles of FreBreeze and its still beyond stinky and I cannot host other guests until the smell is gone. The carpet is new and they must have spilled this pot oil all around. My husband is beyond angry, disappointed and upset….I’m kicking myself for signing up for this airbnb…so NOT worth this heartache…our beautiful guest house was trashed…I don’t get why someone would destroy a beautiful home. Why not go to some cheap hotel in trashy area and do this type of crap?

AirBnB Customer Service – Slow and Rarely Helpful!

Each time I reach out to AirBnB, I lose great amounts of faith in their ability to realistically support their hosts on the expectations they set. They have INCREDIBLY dis-empowered customer service, proven from their resolutions and answers that provide pretty much no expectations and then a surprise outcome. None of their staff apparently have the power to do anything when helping you, and I’ve had several seemingly simple issues take over a month to resolve (3 times). From my understanding, they have only a few services that they provide that are crucial to a host’s success and integral to their role: – put your listing in front of interested travelers – manage guest/host refund and payment expectations – facilitate a good experience for hosts and guests. In these areas, they kind of suck. No, seriously they kind of suck. If it was out of 10, I’d give them a 4 or lower in each category. Here’s why:

“Put your listing in front of interested travelers” – I was one of the most searchable and highest ranking results in my area until a mystery shift happened about a month ago, and I suddenly went from top 3 results in a blind search, to almost being the 40th ranked result. No one could explain “why” this happened, and would only point me to their list of “improve your ranking” bullet points (which I easily satisfy and exceed all of them) and instruct me to share my listing on social media. After much prodding and time wasted on calls, I finally learned that brand new hosts get special treatment and a boost in rankings in their first month or two. So a successful acquisition campaign of new hosts in popular areas will push experienced and hard working hosts down in the rankings. Really!? This sounds like a horrible experience for guests and hosts. Push guests onto new hosts who have no experience, and punish good hosts for having experience and increased pricing. hmmmm

“Manage guest/host refund and payment expectations” I’ve had 3 issues in my 9 month history as a host get pushed to the resolution center and required AirBnB intervention. Both times it took over a month to resolve (a current one is now on a month). The current one, I recently discovered, froze a $650 payout and has been frozen for over a month with no understanding of why from anyone I speak to. They tell me it’s not protocol, it’s unusual, and that the “trip experience” team will have to look into it. If it’s unusual and not protocol, and AirBnB manages this portion of my business, it is their responsibility to fix it ASAP. This = disempowered employees who don’t even understand their own system but have no process to escalating potential technical issues that are impacting hosts tremendously. Imagine your job just taking $600 out of your paycheck and not understanding why it happened or helping you with it for a month?

“Facilitate a good experience for hosts and guests” They do a mixed bag of a job here. Lots of resources all over the place for guests and hosts, but they don’t focus on how important it is for guests and hosts to go through them. Should ANYONE just be allowed to host without any test/briefing on how to host well? Should all guests have to blindly fumble into the unique AirBnB’s without any expectations that these are small, 1-person run businesses sometimes but they expect it to be on par with hotels? AirBnB could do a tremendously better job here on creating quality filters for both host and guest, but I guess that would stifle their acquisition campaigns for new business. It will bite them in the butt in the long run, and a smarter competitor will surface to challenge them here and take market share…. and I will gladly join them 🙂 AirBnB is not a reliable business to count on for income, and I would not recommend anyone do it full time. At all. Only do a room in a house you live in, here and there maybe. Nothing more. For true vacation rental hosts, find alternatives or learn to market the listing yourself and compete.

Guests Trash Host’s Townhome – No Support from AirBNB!

I rented my lovely Whistler townhome to someone who claimed to be a 27 year old coming up with his partner and another couple for a weekend to explore Whistler and the surrounding area. They were actually a group of at least 7 guys, probably younger than 27, who threw a big party at our quiet complex. There was evidence of cocaine, pot, cigarettes on top of the hundreds of beer cans and liquor bottles left behind – not to mention all the dirty underwear and various personal belongings they forgot. There was vomit on the curtains, cigarette butts and vomit on the balcony. Neighbors reported a loud party with a disco ball, loud music and women that appeared to be strippers/prostitutes. My cleaning lady told me she has never seen such a horrific mess in her 8 years of working in Whistler! My cleaning lady took 12.5 hours to clean my home, which normally takes 3 hours. Of course this came out of my pocket. Despite having photos of the mess and an invoice from my cleaning lady, Airbnb offered me no support and gave the guests’ damage deposit back! I have a strict no-smoking policy listed in my house rules on their website, and despite photos of cigarette packages and butts, they wouldn’t even support me for that! I am shocked and appalled by their lack of customer support and promptly delisted my property. I also have my home on VRBO who are much more supportive of their hosts. I will stick with them!

No protection from airbnb

Host for 5 years in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hosting one of the biggest events of the year. That evening client complained of mold. Even though I knew there was no mold I told them that I would get it professionally checked in the morning. Client showed photos of a dirty wall a/c unit. Airbnb cancelled the booking before I was given an opportunity to carry out tests with no payout, I had an expert who came in and made it clear there was no mold and that the a/c unit just needed cleaning. Two weeks later I am still trying to get a payout. Guests can say anything they chose and hosts have zero protection.

If you have a serious problem, Airbnb is nowhere to be found

New host. Had several reservations booked. Became concerned when I didn’t hear back from my correspondence with guests. Had one guest who became pushy and passive aggressive before her rental dates. Informed Airbnb. Customer service was good at mediating and said they’d protect me. To call them if I had a problem with guest. Guest was not a good communicator and had no graciousness at all. Wanted me to let someone into the unit before her, that had not made the reservation. I wasn’t comfortable with it. Airbnb had every excuse for the guest and said I should let other members of the group in that didn’t make the reservation. Ended up cancelling reservation. Reached out via text message to next guests cell phone, only to find out she never received my emails through their site. Tried to talk to Airbnb and some dope named Lyle senior case manager decided it was all my fault and I’d pay a penalty for it. Tried to call with new information that guests don’t receive email, got tossed around. Got contacted via email from Lyle even though I asked to go above him. Was told their community relations dept would call me back. They never did. Called them a day later. They disconnected me. Called again. They had no record of the day before a conversation and reiterated that the decision by Kyle was final. They never let me talk to anyone higher. I dumped their service, app, my reservations… Everything. They couldn’t care less.

AIRBNB IS DUMPING SUPERHOSTS IN NYC IF THEY HAVE MORE THAN ONE LISTING.

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I am so disgusted with airbnb that I have been seriously branching out to other sites.  Anyway, the owner or manager from New York Stay called me and we talked for over one hour yesterday. She told me that the reason airbnb is dumping super hosts in NYC is because of the law here. She said this has been planned since airbnb came out with the warm and fuzzy campaign and the new logo. I asked airbnb about it and they said yes it is true. They are dumping you if you have more than one listing in NYC. The thing is that if airbnb did not have a financial stake in the process, they would not have to do that. If they would just collect a commission for hooking you up with the guests, and stop with holding the money to collect interest, stop with the 1099s, stop meddling with unqualified arbitrators, and just take their 15% and then have the guest pay the host directly and use the host’s contract, they could spend there time making sure the listings on their site are all real instead of causing grief for people due to their unethical incompetence. This company is a nightmare!!!! Plus, they could have warned people about this when they came out with the new warm and fuzzy campaign and that stupid logo.

Home Owners should never use Airbnb!

Airbnb is banned in some cities for GOOD REASON. For homeowners it is a nightmare and puts your investment or home in serious jeopardy. A pet was brought on our property and left damage, Airbnb did NOTHING after pictures, credible witness accounts and replacement cost of furniture was sent in. The agent at AirBNB named Pepper was no help at all. The alleged deposit Air bnb keeps is NOT a legal deposit, it is a hold on a credit card . The deposit is never transferred to the homeowner which leaves a total stranger to take possession of your home without a deposit. The homeowner is not paid till min 24 hours, this can cause a legal nightmare in some places with have very liberal eviction procedures. Do NOT use AIRBNB!  It should be illegal in every state and country. Air Bnb does not take in information such as passports and identification and has no full legal state lease if you are in the States. This is a serious problem. They have no criteria regarding the forfeit of the alleged debit card deposit which never gets to the home owner. No forfeit of deposit for violation of home owner rules. It is nearly impossible to speak to a supervisor . This company is operating outside of the law, do not risk your home or investment with this company.

DO NOT BECOME AN AIRBNB HOST!!! $1500 in damage and NO help!

Hosts beware!!! I had over $1500 in damage done by guests, all documented via photos and witnesses, and I even submitted professional estimates to repair walls, replace damaged dressers, sheets, mattresses, pillows, rugs, and carpet cleaning (guest took red lipstick and used it on my off white carpet all over the entire house!).  I advised airbnb at the VERY beginning of this guest abuse (verbal) that my house was being destroyed while they were here, it started slow and they went crazy with it when they departed (I was at work at that time).   I was never given the option to evict them without penalties.  I did EVERYTHING airbnb asked of me from submitting the request to “guests” which was refused immediately by them along with NO denial that they did it, continued on with the representative who then told me I had to speak to a different team at airbnb (this was now my FOURTH “pass off”).  The new airbnb individual said they needed documentation.  I provided it and asked if he could access or if I needed to start from the beginning (I had A LOT of evidence so this was weeks worth of work), I also requested a number to call. The representative, Jake, said they have no number to contact them, that they would only offer “fair market value ” (items are new and only 4 months old), and asked for additional/actual proof of original costs of the destroyed items.   I searched emails and the web to find this after I told Jake I didn’t have this information readily accessible/available. No response. I email again 6 days later with everything ready and ask him if what I have is what airbnb needs, no response. Airbnb appears to have closed the claim…… Wow, just wow.

This is a huge hit for my family. I continue to receive no response or resolution from Airbnb on this. I am sad this happened, hurt because I adored hosting people (before this guest), and financial burdened during holiday with a young child who will not get the gift she deserves because I’m left on my own to clean up the mess and have been abandoned by airbnb. I could have put an ad on Craigslist and had a better result and fewer fees.