Locked Out After a Late Arrival at Airbnb

We traveled from Indiana to Iowa for a friend’s wedding that I was the personal attendant for so we were ready for a busy weekend and only planned to use the Airbnb to sleep. The hosts texted us about an ETA and sent a detailed message about wifi and the room, but failed to mention anything about the keys or doors.

The door was unlocked when we got there so we walked in. The hosts were there and were welcoming when showing us the room and bathroom accommodations. We set down our stuff but quickly had to leave for the rehearsal dinner. The host had texted if we had any questions to let her know but I didn’t think to respond since I had a lot on my mind and didn’t have any questions at the moment. We didn’t talk to the hosts much because we wanted our privacy, knew we would be gone most of the weekend, and didn’t really know what the “social rules” of Airbnb were since this was our first trip using the platform.

We arrived back on the first night around 10:30 PM. The door was unlocked but we didn’t see the hosts. We were practically gone the whole entire next day due to the wedding and didn’t arrive back until almost midnight and we found the door was locked. We were exhausted and tried calling the hosts because we didn’t see their car in the driveway. The back door was also locked. Finally, one host answered the door (in his underwear) saying they had fallen asleep.

At this point we were not comfortable staying there since our things were still inside and we were without a place to stay for a while. We had to drive two hours away to find other accommodations around 3:00 AM. The host texted us the next day saying she heard everything turned out okay but I never responded because I wanted to go through Airbnb for a refund. I later messaged the host through the Airbnb Resolution Center to see if I could have a half refund since we only stayed one out of two nights.

She proceeded to say I was extorting money from her, got back late, and that we were unfriendly, racist, and rude. I’m not sure how we could’ve been all those things if we didn’t talk to the hosts much other than to text them about the door being locked multiple times. There also was never a rule saying we had to be back at night at a certain time or keep in constant communication with the hosts. It was a busy weekend and we were just looking for a place to sleep at night.

I have read other reviews of this host where guests said the accommodations were wonderful but the hosts were kind of loud and that was frustrating. The host replied back to this review calling them racists as well. This is slander and defamation of character and a host should not be able to throw that word around lightly.

Posted in Airbnb Guest Stories and tagged , , , , , .

5 Comments

  1. I think we have a contender for the biggest PITA guests of 2018.

    I would love to hear their side of this story.

  2. Clearly a hotel mentality and cheapskate attitude. Indeed, you belong to the realm of hotel accommodation – and pay accordingly:)

  3. You sound like a nut job. Who goes to an Airbnb and doesn’t ask about keys??.. also was your issue with the underware ? Why cancel? And you booked a place where previous guests said Greg were called racists??. Wtf.

  4. Huh? You are staying in their house?
    Of course they can lock their doors before going to bed. And they were more than happy to communicate with you about it but you chose to ignore that.
    You just expected them to wait up until all hours for you to return home so they can lock their door and go to sleep? Get a grip. You won’t be getting a refund or another airbnb host to accept you.

  5. This is just a weird story. High communication is an important element of a happy experience. Did you tell tell them your plans? Did you coordinate? These hosts probably don’t have self service check-ins or doors. You all might have opened up a little more and planned. The fault is 50/50.

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