Rental Nightmare From Smelly, Dirty Airbnb

I rented a home for the first time through Airbnb – worst mistake ever. I usually go through HomeAway and never had an issue.

The home I rented, for starters, was in an unsafe neighborhood. Directly across the street was a huge dumpster and alcoholics just doing their thing. The yard had dry weeds in the front.

Upon entering the home there was a foul odor of sewage. I decided to take a look around to see what the place looked like and discovered dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The refrigerator looked as if it should have been in the dumpster across the street. It had some sort of lining inside the refrigerator. It was dirty, not something I wanted to put anything in.

The microwave had food fingerprints as if someone recently had food on their hands and opened the door. The garbage can lid was completely soiled with who knows what. Because I had an event the next morning, I thought it was no biggie, I could take care of that.

I dashed off to Walmart for some cleaning supplies because I didn’t want to seek lodging this late in the game. I came back and proceeded to clean when I discovered there was no hot water. At this point, I realized I could not do anything without hot water.

At 7:41 PM I contacted the host. She messaged back saying she’d be by when she got out of her meeting. 10:00 PM rolled around and I didn’t hear from her. I messaged again. No answer. At 12:00 AM, she messaged saying she had come by, but it was late so she did not want to disturb me. Then she said she would send a plumber in the morning.

Now at this point I was tired and frustrated and just wanted to rest. I was sitting on the couch and one of the throw pillows fell to reveal a large white stain on the sofa.

Trust me; this nightmare wasn’t over. I decided I was not staying here. I messaged her letting her know I was leaving in the morning and I wanted a refund. She then messaged back saying I could change my reservation date… as if I would want to stay there.

I decided I was going to the bedroom. I opened the closet. Because the area was not so savory, I checked all of the closet. I found dirty sheets in a tote with no lid. I was disgusted at this point. I decide to pull back the covers on the bed; there were crumbs in the bed, and one of the pillows had something green on it.

Needless to say, there was no sleeping going on that night. As soon as daylight hit, I was out of there. I informed the host of everything, and requested a refund. She wants to give me $76.48 of my $264. I will never rent from Airbnb again.

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2 Comments

  1. I also just had a nightmare AirBnB experience and will NEVER book with AirBnB ever again. On AirBnB, the place was rated as “sparkling clean” and had good reviews, however, when I arrived, the strong smell of mold and mildew hit me immediately. Inside, the room was filthy and looked like the floor had not been cleaned in months. There was a huge dead bug on the floor, dried spills on the floor, dried food encrusted on the microwave, and disgusting mildew and dirt all over the base board heaters. The filth and the overwhelming mold smell was horrible and there was NO WAY I was going to spend even 1 night in that horrid place!!! Plus the driveway was a nightmare to get into with this steep incline and was even worse of a nightmare to back out of!!! Horrible. NEVER AGAIN will I ever book with AirBnB. I can book with a hotel without any of this risk, danger, stress and headache!!! Ridiculous. I am amazed that so many people like to use AirBnb. You never know what you’re getting and you can’t even trust the reviews!!

  2. Same experience I had in Florida. Left after 15 minutes and checked in at the Hyatt for only $30 more per day. With that I had fresh clean linens everyday. I disputed the Airbnb charge with the credit card company and was credited the full amount. Best of luck to you. Airbnb is a scam.

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