Tag Archives: airbnb injury

Got Bitten by a Rat in my Sleep at this Airbnb

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I stayed at a goat farm in North Carolina. The house was rustic but seemed pretty clean and the hosts were nice. So my friend goes to work very early in the morning around 4:00 AM. My friend lives in the area and has a car. She was staying at the Airbnb with me since it seemed like a nice getaway.

I woke up around 4:30 in the morning to a pain in my hand. I jerked away and heard something scurry off. When I turned on the light, my pinky was covered in blood. I woke the host up to let her know. She made me a cup of tea and basically told me I did not need to go to the ER because her husband did not want to wake up to drive me.

When my friend got back from work she insisted that we go to the ER. I got antibiotics and am not awaiting a bill which I’m sure will be very expensive. Airbnb took over two weeks to get back to me and offered me nothing. Finally, after back and forth for a month they offered me $50 which is about what the antibiotics cost. Still in a standstill with them but wow I don’t think I’ll ever feel comfortable at an Airbnb ever again.

Left Broke and Homeless after Airbnb Experience

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I’m glad I found this site. My story is horrifying. I don’t even know where to turn to seek legal counsel, but I am Googling it now.

I had booked a week’s stay in Tijuana in July. I stayed in a very affluent home, with several guests. The couple that owned it (different from the people I was corresponding with on Airbnb) seemed friendly and nice at first. When I first arrived, and told them my plans to stay longer, they showed me this sweeping private room with a bathroom on another floor that was still under construction. They said it would be ready in a week, at $700/month with a $700 deposit down. They said that the deposit was refundable at any time, and that there was no minimum or maximum amount of time to stay.

Within a couple days, I began paying them the $1400 to reserve that room. The process was a bit strange, but they received all their money within four days of my seven-day stay. On the fifth day, I had a horrible fall on a broken sidewalk in the shopping area, and twisted my foot badly. I came back to the home, trying to see if they could assist or direct me in any way. They sat, reading the paper, and sort of ignored me. I found the whole experience very offputting, but kept it to myself.

On the sixth day, I was outside chatting with another guest and smoking a cigarette (in a designated area), when the couple came outside and yelled at me about leaving a door unlocked. I hadn’t been the culprit, but they were aggressive and kept pushing the matter. I had – to be honest – forgotten to lock the door a night before, but only had stepped outside to smoke. This time I was not to blame, as the home has over four guest rooms (to my estimate) and a lot of foot traffic.

This accusation was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and I told them I was no longer comfortable being in their home, and wanted my money back. They immediately pushed back, saying no. I told them that wasn’t acceptable, and went to my rented room to try to contact someone who could help (not easy to do when in another country).

Before I knew it, two fedarali were at my door. They told me to get my things, and get out (my lease officially didn’t end for a couple more hours). When I demanded my money, the woman who owns the house told them I had bought a big screen TV (they had, it was in the front room of their home. I’d seen it that morning.). Being a temporary visitor with no car, I explained to the officers I absolutely didn’t buy a TV, it made no sense I would do that at this stage. They seemed to half believe me, but were very intimidating.

The police made me sign a document in Spanish before they would let me exit the bedroom (they were acting in a way that I for sure felt they were going to arrest me, and don’t speak any Spanish). I also suffer from severe anxiety and PTSD, and this sent me into a fear spiral. I signed the document so they’d let me go, and was put in an Uber.

I had him stop to get what little money I had exchanged (I also realized what was left in my backpack was now missing). It wasn’t much, but while I was in the grocery store, the car left with my bags.

Now down to nothing, I was forced to walk for a couple miles to beg someone for help. I had to sleep on the street that night, and my foot was swollen to three times its size. I suffer from a degenerative bone disorder, and am basically handicapped. I took a picture of what my foot looked like the next morning.

The next day, I was determined to get my money, so I spent a couple hours in town finding a couple of bilingual high school students. I offered them money to get in the taxi with me to translate at the house. When we got there, it was worse than I expected. I was given $400, and before receiving it, was forced to sign another document in Spanish (I was so desperate, I did it).

At that point I was almost at zero dollars, in a town i didn’t know. They accused me of losing their keys (I absolutely did not. I know this because I have a chain wallet and left my keys attached to it for the course of the stay. When the federali escorted me out, I handed the key over then). According to them, they were going to have to get the locks changed and that would cost a few hundred more. In the end, they stole over $1000 from me, plus some of my luggage, and sent me into an anxiety spiral that took weeks to work through in therapy.

I am currently seeking legal representation, and would like any advice the community has. Thank you.

Hospital Stay Prior to Hosting Questions Policy

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I recently applied for a refund within 24 hours of booking. I spoke to the host to explain the situation but Airbnb refused to give me more than a 50% refund because I had visitors coming to my home for a week. The week before their arrival, I broke my ankle and was in a cast and wheelchair.

When I got home from the hospital I realised that in two days I was not going to be ready to host guests in my home so I took a lovely little apartment for them to stay in which I booked in the middle of the night. The next day, my guests decided that because I wasn’t well, they would not visit.

I applied for a refund to Airbnb with this story which of course I am prepared to present proof of hospitalization, documentation, etc. From a 700+ Euro booking cancelled the next day, they refused to refund me more than 300 Euros because it was not my guests who were staying in the apartment who had the accident. They were healthy enough so this did not apply.

I find this quite far removed from the community-based hospitality concept that started out with Airbnb. I wonder who gets that 400 Euro difference, Airbnb or the host? Someone needs to come up with a new Airbnb-like concept.

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Dangerous Airbnb has my Car Towed, Wrist Broken

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My sister acts as a secretary for me, which really means she saves my life regularly. She booked me into the home of an Airbnb host in Kenasaw, GA (a suburb of Atlanta) in a condominium complex. Parking is an issue in Georgia. My sister had asked about parking and the lady texted me a parking number. The room was around back, which was strange.

I arrived during the day to a space with one bed, two sheets, a small refrigerator, and one roll of toilet tissue. The next day I got up, went to work, and stayed late because of torrential storms. When I arrived back at the room in the flood the lady’s van was parked in my spot. There were no others so I knocked on her door several times. I couldn’t get any response from this host.

I got my briefcase, my umbrella and coat and smudged along the trail to the back of the condo. There was no lighting in the back and I was using my phone to provide light. I got to the front door and there had been some carpentry work done while I was gone directly in front of my door. I steeped over part of it and a board that looked as if it were put there to walk on. The board slipped; I fell into the apartment door. I broke my wrist in two places.

That night my wrist hurt so I decided to go to the ER. I went out to get into my car about 4:00 AM and it was gone. I went through the acts of trying to contact my host, later to find she had had it towed. My focus changed from my wrist to my car. $235 later I was back in my car. It was time to go to work so I bought a wrist brace which helped a lot but not completely.

I got the host on the phone once and she very nervously said she didn’t own the property; it was her bosses. While looking for my car I called the condo association. They told me that area was the host’s and she knew there were not zones for Airbnb because she’d been reported before.

My wrist got worse before I finally went to the ER. It’s broken in two places because the host didn’t follow code. One other very simple violation of code is the life threatening issue of no smoke detectors. I photographed all of this. Stay away from this property – it could cost you your life.

P.S. If anyone who reads this knows a good personal injury attorney I would certainly like to meet with the attorney. I’m looking at six months in a cast and an operation.

Barcelona High Rise Not Accessible to Handicapped

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I booked a room in Barcelona through Airbnb in February, but by the time I traveled in late May, I had developed back and leg problems (sciatica). A couple days before arriving, it occurred to me that I didn’t know whether I would need to climb steps or if there was an elevator.

I contacted the host, who was willing to be helpful, but he was on the third floor without an elevator. I was able to see the building from the outside and could determine I would not be able to climb the stairs, or if I got up there, I would not get back down. The host declined to refund me because I cancelled too late (which I get), and he was generous in offering the same reservation for a future time (I will not get to go back to Barcelona to claim the offer).

At the time of booking, my fee went from the posted $47.00 per night to $125.00 because there was a big music festival in town that weekend. I hoped he would be able to book guests in, but he chose not to open up to a new Airbnb booking. My total fee was $420.00. So far I have received a refund of $18.96.

I contacted Airbnb to request a full refund. I had a case worker who asked for a doctor’s letter by June 14th. On June 10th (I had not yet received the doctor’s letter) I got this email message:

“Thank you for providing me the details. Please feel free to contact us when you have the letter from the doctor and we’ll be happy to analyse it in order to help you. You don’t have a time frame to provide this documentation. However, I’m forced to close this consult for the time being. It will re-open once you provide the doctor’s letter. Keep in mind that the letter is the only way we can help you. Please contact us when you need to. We’ll be glad to help you.”

The next day I sent the doctor’s letter. My case worker had disappeared. All I got were automatic responses saying they received my request. I have complied. Since I have a medical reason for the cancellation, I expect Airbnb to honor my refund request or least to acknowledge and act on it now that the documentation is in place. I have used Airbnb other places and had good experiences. Of course, it just takes one bad meal to keep me out of a restaurant.

Irresponsible Host Causes Accident at Bali Villa

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My family and I made plans to go to Bali and decided to book an Airbnb. We settled into this nice villa in Seminyak. We went there for a family getaway trip with my cousin’s family, just hoping to relax and enjoy the beauty of the villa and Bali. We arrived late at night around 10:00 PM, got settled, and was amazed how nice the villa was. It really was as described and how it looked in the pictures.

We went on a short trip shortly after to buy some food to eat in the villa. There were three other villas in the same area. To get to the villa where we were staying, you needed to walk for about 15 meters, and the path is paved with block paving. However, one of the blocks was not perfectly placed – part of it was bulging out. As it was late at night and there was minimal lighting to aid us, my brother tripped on it.

At first we thought that his thongs (flip flops) just broke. However, he said that he was in pain. Once I turned on my flashlight I started screaming. A lot of blood was pouring from his left foot. There were so much that I almost puked and had to look away. My family helped him right away and shouted for the villa’s security, asking if they had first aid kit. They didn’t.

However, security was nice and helped him to get into the car to be taken to nearest hospital. My brother ended up getting a tetanus injection and six stitches across his bottom toes. As a result, he was not able to walk properly nor could he enjoy the pool and beaches. Our holiday trip was really disturbed.

In addition to that, on the third day of our stay, the AC in the first room was broken, causing water leakage into the wardrobe. My cousin’s clothes were soaking wet. He had to buy new clothes afterwards as there were no more clean and dry clothes left.

What made us so unsatisfied with the place was that the owner did not take any responsibility for my brother’s incident. The fault was clearly on them as they were not able provide a safe place for us to walk. The paving block was easily fixed right away after my brother’s accident. They were just too lazy to do so, as they said that they needed to open it again. If that was the reason, they should have put a sign or plant around it so that people could avoid it.

We were not able to contact the owners right away as they were based overseas. We had to deal this matter through their employees, who said that the owner would not take any responsibility and that we should just claim it on our own insurance. We travelled domestic and our airline did not provide travel insurance. I also requested reimbursement through Airbnb but the hosts said that the accident happened outside the villa. It happened next to the villa’s parking space and on the entry way to the villa. We really did not enjoy our stay here. Thank you for reading.

Mom Gets Hurt, Customer Service Couldn’t Care Less

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I have used Airbnb before and had a wonderful time. I’m not blaming them, but my host and how things were handled were the problem. To make a long story short, my mom, my little nephew, and I went to Palm Springs and arrived at the Airbnb house. The pool stunk like fish or worse. The host gave me reasons why it smelled, but I didn’t want reasons for the odor, I just wanted it fixed. Granted , she sent someone over the next day.

Then my mom got hurt because ground that was not level in the car port had been covered with a carpet and we didn’t know this. She sprained her foot badly. However, things didn’t get any worse until 2:00 AM on the same day of our arrival. I had to call 911 to come get her because I had my nephew with me. The paramedics took her because she was in so much pain. We got back at 7:00 AM with a brace and walker.

I reached out to the host to let her know she should take care of this issue before it happens to someone else, and we thought we were hanging out in the car port. The last time I checked, when it’s blazing hot outside, the car port is a great place to park and let your family out, especially a diabetic 70-year-old mother and a 5-year-old nephew… I can use a parachute on my vacation to land at a house I rent if I want to. The host then asked us why we didn’t use the front door. Guess what? I didn’t want to. I just paid money to rent her house and took care of it like it was my own, even leaving it spotless (even after she talked to me like I was an idiot): I can use whatever door I want and I chose her carport door, so my family wouldn’t melt.

Her pool stunk, my mom got hurt, and everyone was miserable the whole time because she decided to cover a hole in the ground. Did it make the carport look better? What if something had happened to my nephew? The host is lucky my mom has health insurance to cover all expenses for the hospital and doctors. She is still in pain and has a brace on. Today is August 28th and I went on vacation August 7th (and injured the same day). It’s really sad that this has still not been addressed properly. I have had a few emails with Airbnb, but nothing has been done to refund my miserable vacation. I have called Airbnb a few times and asked for the people named on previous emails; the only response I have gotten is “he is not in today but will call you back as soon as possible.”

They didn’t call. They just emailed me telling me that I should go to the resolution center and deal with the same host that spoke to me like I was a moron. I don’t want to deal with the host. I want the Airbnb professional handling these cases to call me and tell me what I want to hear, not email me and give me the same disrespect I got from their host. I’m still waiting for their undivided attention.

Fair Warning? Who’s to Blame for this Airbnb Accident?

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My husband and wanted to return to the New Forest for a weekend 23 years after we had our honeymoon there. I found a beautiful barn conversion on Airbnb. We arrived around 8:00 PM on the Friday evening and was treated by our host’s son, a student. He said the door was unlocked and the key was inside. We went in and made ourselves at home. I cooked a meal and we lit the fire log burner. We sat and tried to access the internet; I had to ask him for the password. He said it was in the manual on the fridge. I looked and there was nothing but a bread board. I located the book (which was a completely unmarked ring binder in a small bookshelf), we found the code and I started to read through the book. There were lots of pages to read, but I read them all. There was a little note at the end, almost an afterthought, saying that the towel rail gets hot.

We then watched some TV and went to bed around 11:00 PM. When we woke on Saturday morning my husband wanted a shower. It was a great shower. However, when my husband got out and bent over to pick the towel off the floor, he burnt his buttocks on the towel rail. He screamed so loud, I ran to him and thought he was messing around at first. Then he turned around and he had the most horrific burns I had ever seen. It had removed several layers of skin and seeping raw flesh was in welts across his buttocks. He was in agony.

The worst part of this was that we had arrived on our Victory motorcycle, and the thought of travelling 3-4 hours home on Sunday was worrying to say the least. I wanted him to go to the hospital, but without knowing the area we opted for the nearest chemist. I asked the host where that was; he asked if everything was ok and my husband replied: “No, it bloody isn’t! I’ve just burnt my arse on your f%&#g towel rail!”

He was in so much pain. We set off tentatively to the chemist where he did not want to come in out of embarrassment. I went in, described the symptoms, and got the largest wound dressings they could find and some burn gel. Returning to the barn, I dressed the wound. However, the gel he’d given us was hurting it even more, so I carefully washed that off and tried to keep as much of the skin I could around the wound.

Later the same day, my husband went off to find his friend to take his mind off the pain as much as he could. At this stage we still had not seen or heard from the host’s son. I was sitting in the sun when a friend of hers came by, saying she was just popping in to see the host’s son. She was there for some time so I gathered he was in. I thought this extremely rude, especially under the circumstances. We stayed until early Sunday and left.

There was another surprise when we returned home as the host had written a report that I was pleasant, but my partner was rude and had shouted at her son about the towel rail. She also stated that we had left black marks all over her white rug which she said we had made from our dirty boots from the motorcycle we arrived on. Instantly I realised she was completely prejudiced against bikers and would blame anything she could on us. We took our boots off at the door (as we always do) and the marks were already on her rug; I thought they had probably come from the log burner. I thought nothing of them when we entered the property.

As you can imagine, we were both livid with her response. We decided to make a claim against the host and got our solicitor onto it as soon as we could. However we seem to have many problems with that, as the host has not responded to any email and our solicitor wants another address we can contact her by. This I realised was more difficult than I thought as trying to contact Airbnb is almost impossible.

Serious Injury and Unable to Travel, Ignored by Airbnb

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I had an accident and was seriously injured in February. On March 11th I advised a host  that we would need to cancel our trip planned for April 29th. I provided a medical note supporting our claim. I also asked for a full refund as I qualified for a refund under extenuating circumstances. The host ignored my emails and refunded only 50% of my payment; he didn’t even bother to respond. I asked Airbnb to get involved and support my request. I have heard nothing so far. As a result of my injury I will be operated upon soon and my recovery may take up to eight months. I gather Airbnb doesn’t care to comply with their own policies. I am still hoping to get a refund. This is one disappointed client.

Worst Host Ever After Guest Breaks Elbow

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The host is called Maryann, and she has a listing titled “Vermont, Mt Snow Ski house in Dover Vt”. Do not, and I mean, do not ever ever book or rent from this woman. She is the meanest, nastiest, greediest person alive. It’s no wonder she has zero reviews on this property. Here are the details.

My friend booked Maryann’s Vermont Mt Snow Ski house for February 17th-20th, President’s Day Weekend. My friend made this reservation primarily so she could go snowboarding at Mt. Snow. After all the house is titled after the resort so the host tries to capture this crowd. However, my friend broke her elbow on January 15th while snowboarding at Mt. Creek. She dislocated all of the bones in her elbow as a result of her fall. She went to the hospital and the doctor reset her bones and put her in a cast. The doctor told it would take months for her to get most of her mobility in her elbow. So my friend contacted Liftopia who she used for the lift tickets; they gave her a full refund after she sent them her medical documents.

My friend then notified Maryann. She even sent her the medical and doctor release forms and analysis. Could you believe Maryann asked to see the x-rays? About a week after the accident, my friend had her first checkup and got a letter from the orthopedic surgeon that she would not be able to snowboard for three months; she would be in a cast for an additional four weeks. My friend then sent all this to Maryann she wrote: “You and your friends could still come and enjoy the house and area. It is not rented with the idea that one must be on the slopes. Thank you but I do not feel any further funds should be refunded.”

This woman who titles her house “Mt. Snow Ski House” is now telling customers that the house is not meant for going to the slopes? Why else would we be going to Vermont in February? If the Airbnb policy was so straightforward why did she ask for medical forms? This is absolutely crazy. The host has had over a month to find another customer to rent her house. My friend, in addition to all the pain she has endured, the countless medical bills that she has to pay and continued future physical therapy, has the added insult of this nasty host who prefers to keep my injured friend’s money. If this is Airbnb’s policy, do not ever rent from them, and do not use their services.