Tag Archives: airbnb evicted

Airbnb Made Me Homeless After Guests Refuse to Leave

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I made a big mistake when I used Airbnb. I have had three tenants staying in my apartment for two months. While I know Airbnb is offering a very bad solution and not protecting its hosts when it comes to actual long stays , I took tenants who I made sure needed to leave the apartment within a time frame.

Towards the end of their stay, I was shocked one day to discover by accident that Airbnb cancelled the reservation and refunded the guests $12,000 without contacting me — not a single email. They gave them back the money for their entire stay, despite the fact that they stayed two months without even approaching me.

I went to the apartment to check what was going on, and I was in shock to discover that the tenants were still in the apartment, despite the fact that the reservation has been cancelled a few days ago. They immediately called the police on me and I was kicked out of my own apartment by a team of the police, a complete shock. I contacted Airbnb and have been on the line for hours. Calls are disconnected, transferring me from one representative to another. I realized it is a s%$t show.

Airbnb created basically a situation where I have people using my apartment for two months without paying a dime. I have no protection from this terrible company and I need to take out of my pocket money for lawyers to evict the tenants and rectify this situation.

Mid-Stay Eviction: Warning to Others Looking at Airbnb

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Warning to anyone looking for temporary accommodation in Melbourne. Please be wary of booking the following property. We booked it for 31 days through Airbnb (January 2nd though February 2nd, 2020), but were evicted by the host after 16 days.

This was not due to anything we had done, rather it was a result of the host being accused of “invasion of privacy” by an earlier guest. This allegation (I assume) was serious enough for Airbnb to suspended his account. Without warning, the host issued an officious email giving us three days to vacate the property; he considered the three days generous and claimed to have received “private legal advice”, which gave us no recourse to negotiate completing our fully paid stay.

My partner and I were travelling with our three-year-old son. We were twelve thousand miles from home and considering an allegation had been made against the host, we decided not to argue and avoid conflict. As a result of the eviction, we found ourselves without immediate access to any refund; we are still awaiting roughly AU$2400 from Airbnb, money that the host would have received 24 hours after our check in and undoubtedly still had in his bank account when the property was rented again a day or two after we were kicked out.

To compound our predicament, it was high season in Melbourne, so finding a suitable and affordable Airbnb property to move into was impossible. We found ourselves holed up in a hotel, paid for with a credit card and my partner in tears. As the Airbnb listing has been removed, we are unable to leave the host a review and hopefully warn others looking to rent his property. Having newly listed on other platforms he has given himself a clean slate to rent to other unwitting guests.

Airbnb Host Tried to Evict Me, Company Didn’t Help

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I’ve been at a reservation for over two months now in Washington. Recently the landlady tried to buy the entire house out of her contracts and everyone refused. She then proceeded to start construction which has resulted in utilities being cut off on a regular basis. I took pictures and videos of the construction and complained to Airbnb. Wanna know what they did?

They called me about a week later telling me I had to get out and I would be refunded for the time I haven’t stayed yet. I said “no”, that I wouldn’t be leaving, and any attempt to kick me out could be argued in a court of law as an illegal eviction. I told them because I was already there for over two months I qualified as a tenant I didn’t actually have to leave if they forced me out.

The Airbnb support person told me if I didn’t get out by the end of the day I would be trespassing and the police would get involved. I mentioned how I would be contacting the police and an attorney to sue them if they moved forward.

She responded: “This is our policy so it’s fine.”

Me: “If a policy is in violation of state law the state will just ignore it.”

Her: “You can contact your lawyers and do what you want. We are a 25 billion dollar company and this is our policy.”

Me: “What about the Airbnb policy that states that if a home is unlivable or there’s unnecessary construction the guest gets a refund? What about the Airbnb policy?”

Her: Makes a comment about my tone and says she will be looking at the pictures I sent.

She put me on hold and it became very clear she had no idea what she was doing. She offered me $100 and to pay me back for the nights I haven’t stayed yet. I told her, “No. I’m not going to accept that. You can’t force me to take compensation I don’t believe is adequate and if you’re going to move forward with these actions I would like an explicit email acknowledging the fact that I did not agree to your terms. I will be contacting the police and an attorney.”

She said, “Sure, whatever,” mentioned my tone again, and hung up.

In the meantime, I contacted the police non-emergency number and they said they would call me back. It had been about two minutes since I spoke with Airbnb and they called me back.

Same support woman: “Your host is thinking about changing her mind but she says construction will continue. You can stay if you’re okay with the construction.”

Me: “I’m not okay with construction but if you allow me to stay I will.”

Her: “Well, why do you want to stay if there’s construction? She said you can stay if you’re okay with it and she will continue to shut off the water.”

Me: “Because I believe what she is doing is illegal and if I stay I’ll be able to collect damages in a court of law. Additionally if you kick me out right now I’ll be thrown on the street so even if you allow me to stay I will be suing her at this point. You don’t have to mention how I’ll be suing her.”

She hung up again, and said she would tell the host I wanted to “continue my reservation.” What a nice way of saying I didn’t want to spend the night on the streets. How kind of her.

In the meantime I finally got in touch with the police and explained the situation: how she decided to kick me out once I complained about the construction, and how I’m a tenant due to the way I’ve rented. He asked if I’d received mail at the property. I explained I had received some mail there. He then got upset and said, “Okay, so who am I talking to? I need a phone number.”

I gave him the landlady’s phone number. He called me five minutes later and told me she was no longer evicting me and she “changed her mind.”

I’m going to be suing. At this point in considering suing Airbnb too. The dumbest part is I have pictures of all of the construction and even messages from the landlady confirming when I complained and that the construction is renovations and not repairs necessary to the property.

Airbnb Evicted Guests, Then Let Them Leave 1-Star Review

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I’ll start off by saying that these were my first guests with Airbnb. We rent out a guest room in our house, with access to our sun room, kitchen and pool area. The guests were a father and son. The father did not speak English, but assured us that the son was fluent. They arrived and promptly began breaking all of our (very simple) house rules. They hung out constantly in areas that were not included in the listing, took our groceries, ruined a set of sheets and mattress pad with blood, talked loudly on FaceTime while wandering through the house, and were unsafe in the pool.

After a week of this activity, we sent a reminder email with the house rules, asking that they please follow them, and also slipped a copy under the door with a translation. The men apologized and said they would stop breaking the rules. They did not stop breaking the rules. The final straw came when the father returned to our home after visiting with friends, completely intoxicated. He was giggling and running around the house, trying to get me to swim with him in a pretty inappropriate way (my husband was at work, and I was working from home). I refused the swim.

My husband came home and we went out to dinner, only to return to find the man, still intoxicated, running around the house in his underwear. The next day I contacted Airbnb, and the representative escalated me to a higher up team member. The higher team member said, “Oh, no, we can’t have that,” and proceeded to terminate their stay with us and said they would contact the guests and have them placed elsewhere. She explained that we would lose out on the rest of the money from the listing, which I agreed to (just get these people out of my house).

When I returned home, the men were still there, not making any move to leave. When we spoke to them, they said their information on Airbnb was out of date and they had not heard from them. We explained the situation, and they became agitated and started arguing with us, saying that the underwear situation had “only happened once.” I had to threaten police intervention to get them to finally pack up and go.

Now, in an obviously retaliatory fashion, they have put up a one-star review with one sentence in their native language, but the listing is, obviously, ruined. When I contacted Airbnb to express my frustration, they said it was the guests’ chance to tell their side of the story. Except… they’re not telling their side of the story. They’re downrating our home so we will have trouble booking (as I mentioned, this was our first experience). I have been back and forth with Airbnb about the false nature of this “review” and the fact that it is defamatory. Supposedly my grievance has been forwarded to the legal team. I’m considering deleting our listing altogether and starting over. Shame on me, I suppose, for thinking they wouldn’t recommend eviction if they were going to allow these guests to ruin our listing.