Airbnb Wouldn’t Send Messages from Guests to Hosts

We are new hosts and had a really bad experience with Airbnb. Airbnb didn’t send us SMS messages from guests, not even for one. As we are not on the Internet all the time (and we didn’t get those SMS messages from Airbnb), of course we didn’t respond to guests. The guests didn’t book, we lost at least 250€, but also lost other guests, who had to book another place, which was more expensive (we had the lowest price in the city: 13€/person/night) and of course with a bigger service fee for Airbnb only.

Maybe the reason was just that: for guests to pay a bigger service fee. That takes us to this conclusion: for just a few euros or dollars more, everyone loses, guests and hosts. You can just imagine what could happen if some guest (maybe you) booked instantly: Airbnb wouldn’t send you an SMS, the guest would face closed doors as the host might not be home that night, and the guest would be in the middle of the street in one of most dangerous cities in the world. Who would care?

Airbnb didn’t gave me any answer as to why they didn’t send an SMS from guests to me for one whole week. Because we didn’t respond to guests (as we didn’t know about their questions before booking) we also had a really bad response rate, which Airbnb didn’t correct as promises. Guests base their decisions on the response rate too. We lost a whole day due to talking with Airbnb staff, but nothing happened: he just talked and talked.

Be aware when you search for a place on Airbnb: the cheapest ones are never on first listing page. It is a shame for such a big and rich company to make so many ugly mistakes in year 2019.

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Airbnb Nightmare in Cottage Country, Ontario

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I sent photos below to Airbnb to show the unhygienic and gross hellhole that was misrepresented as Muskoka Rocks in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. It was filthy, unsafe and disgusting. It was impossible to stay and the host could not have improved our stay within hours. The house we stayed in was not the house in the picture on the website. It was a firetrap and was unlivable.

We have asked for a refund but got no response except for an offer of $200. This rental was $1600 for six nights. We went for a small getaway to celebrate one year of my companion being clear of Stage 4 cancer. I’m disappointed and disgusted by Airbnb’s lack of humanity and moral accountability. The host deliberately misrepresented the place and even put another gorgeous house on the site. Our one-star review has never appeared on the site. Any advice or help is welcome.

Men Break in at Night while we are Asleep

This summer, my girlfriend and I stayed at an Airbnb in the South of France for three nights: a one bedroom apartment in the heart of the old city of Aix-en-Provence. We arrived around 6:00 PM. The young guy who greeted us hadn’t finished cleaning up the place yet, so we just left our bags there and went out for dinner.

Fast forward two days. It was around midnight and we had just gotten back to the apartment after a long day. We went to bed, exhausted. I woke up around 9:00 AM, walked into the living room to grab my laptop from the couch – no laptop. I looked around; no phone either. Maybe I left it in my bag? No bag. My girlfriend’s bag was also missing.

I noticed large black footsteps on the tile floor (looked like a construction worker’s boots). I noticed that the window was wide open. My girlfriend still had her cell phone; she kept it in the bedroom during the night. We did our best to stay calm and focused.

We called the host who said he would be there in about an hour (he lives in neighboring Marseille). Meanwhile we went to the local police office to file a report. When we got back, the host was there, searching for any damage to his property. At first he said it didn’t look like there was a break-in. I showed him the footsteps.

Then he blamed us for leaving the window open. I pointed out to him that it had been 110 degrees out, that we were up on the second floor, and that the apartment had no AC. I also pointed out to him that the other window in the living room was broken, and also the window in our bedroom (though that one has bars). He shrugged and blamed the damage on previous Airbnb guests.

Then his tone changed a bit. I think he realized that we were still in shock and at a loss about what to do next. He admitted that when we called him he suspected we were lying, but that he believed us now. He assured us that all would be taken care of, that he had insurance, as does Airbnb. That we would get compensated for our stolen goods (computers, wallets, bags, phone, etc.). He promised to help us as long as we didn’t mention anything about the break-in in our review.

Awkward pause. Then, more gently, he asked us to please check out as soon as possible, since new guests are coming, and he needed to clean the apartment. Another awkward pause. My girlfriend reminded me that we still had lots of stuff to take care of (calling our banks, credit cards, my phone company, getting cash somehow…) so we may as well head out anyway.

Once we started packing all our stuff, she also reminded me that he was a Superhost so he must know how to handle everything with the insurance. I expressed to him my concern about the next guests – maybe the burglar is targeting this apartment? He reassured me it was all fine, and that he would just tell the next guests to lock the windows before they go to bed.

Once we were out on the street, all the admin stuff took us longer, and we ended up having to stay in Aix for one more night. We called the Airbnb host in Avignon (the next town on our trip, where we had another booking for three nights) to tell him what had happened, and that we would only arrive the next day. He said no problem, but that he must charge us still for that unused night. We understand. It’s not his fault that we were victims of a break-in, after all.

It is at this moment that our vacation officially ends (not on paper, as we are still in France, but for all other practical matters) and the saga with Airbnb’s customer service begins. It was the usual progression of “we will call you back” then “please send us the police report for the Nth time” then “please send us all the receipts for the stolen items for the Nth time” then “sorry we can’t help you” then “we can offer you $100 as compensation” then finally “we can offer you $500 out of our goodwill and the case is now closed.”

It took three weeks of constant calling to get to that point. $500 barely covers 10% of what was stolen (not to mention the stay itself, the extra night in Aix, and the lost night in Avignon). That aside, what shocked me most was how little Airbnb seemed to care about our overall experience and about the safety of future guests at that specific Airbnb.

The host, on his end, was always “on vacation” or “busy” when we tried to reach him. He never filed a claim with his insurance (does he even have insurance, we began to wonder). He continued to rent the apartment to guests nonstop through the Airbnb platform.

I became a little paranoid: who knows how many times that apartment has gotten broken into? Who knows how many other former guests now wake up in the middle of the night from nightmares about a man breaking into their apartment? Airbnb knows, but not the rest of the Airbnb community, because we were cheated into not mentioning it in our review. I’m angry with myself for agreeing to that deal. I’m angry with Airbnb for not caring about anything or anyone excerpt for their own profit and growth. Let the truth be known.

UPDATE: Now at nearly four weeks since the incident, we managed to get a hold of the host. He began by apologizing that it didn’t work out with his insurance in the end. He assured us that he did his absolute best. The reason the claim was rejected? We left the window open.

We told him we had done our research on the topic – that an open window voids insurance in France only if the break-in happens on a first floor/garden level apartment. He insisted that his insurance told him otherwise. We asked for the type of insurance policy he has, but he refused to tell us.

Finally, clearly angry at this point, he told us the name of the insurance company, then hung up the phone. We tried calling him back, but he wouldn’t pick up.

We then called the insurance company he had just mentioned, gave them his name and address, explained the situation, and they informed us that a claim was never made. They also told us the type of insurance policy has has: the most basic policy (what in France they call “Assurance Habitation”), which only covers his own belongings in the case of a break-in. Definitely not the insurance policy one should have for a full-time Airbnb rental.

As we had suspected by this point, his whole promise of helping us get reimbursed for our stolen belongings was a charade – a way to manipulate us into not mentioning the break-in in our review during high-season.

As for Airbnb? They know the full story. We’re still waiting for the promised email from their elusive case manager.

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Let’s Talk About How Airbnb Reviews Work

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My friend and I were going on a quick trip to Pittsburgh for a concert. We did not want to stay in a room adjoined to a house, so we ended up booking a unit described as a “tiny home.” The pictures were all close-ups, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Once I booked, the host demanded I change my accidental booking of one person to two (which was fine because the listing boasted an air mattress as well). Overall a $133 fee.

We got to the unit, in which the host just left the key in the door (super safe) to find a shack connected to a house. This is what one calls an efficiency, not a tiny home. Also, if this mysterious air mattress existed, it was nowhere to be found. Here I was, drinking a beer while being able to hear my friend, willing to overlook this because we had to leave.

In the morning, I awoke to my friend complaining of bites, and we looked in the bed; it was covered in ants. Still, I am trying to overlook things. While in the car ride back I received the attached message from the host. I tried to go about things as he wished, and didn’t leave a review just yet. I asked if the extra $30 for the second person could possibly be refunded as he listed it incorrectly, and, you know, bug bites. Nope, no such luck.

Lo and behold, Airbnb customer service was even worse. “The host just wants a good review.” The best part? I finally left a negative review after being patient and kind for 48 hours. Remember how I was supposed to get five stars? Yep, here’s what happened after my review. So there is my tale. Good luck to those who have issues with this service – you will need it.

Playa del Carmen Airbnb Misrepresentation

My kids and I stayed in this unit for only one night and left early the next morning – less than 12 hours. We were in Playa del Carmen before heading to Cozumel to get married and then left immediately for our honeymoon.

Upon return to the country from our honeymoon, I attempted to write a review on both properties we stayed at, but apparently there is only a 14-day window to review properties. I had missed that window given I was on my honeymoon. It is imperative that future guests are aware of the status of this unit and that the host is notified that their advertising and preparation is inaccurate, inadequate and unsanitary.

Here are some of the issues. We arrived at the unit late at night to find that we were given an inaccurate entrance code on the security gate and the front door. We had to contact the host who showed up 30 minutes later to let us in and verified that he had provided the wrong code. We were let into the unit, dropped our bags, used the bathroom and discovered that there was no soap or toilet paper.

We are a family of seven and I had to go feed everybody after a full day of travel before returning to go to bed. I texted the host to let him know there was no shampoo, soap, or toilet paper and while we were at dinner, he dropped some off at the front door. We returned to the unit close to midnight and found the sheets on one of the beds was dirty, with hair and grime on a pillow.

We rented the unit because it could sleep all of us yet there was no bedding for the fifth bed. I gave up my bedding in order for my daughter to sleep on the pull out futon. Furthermore, the unit had not been cleaned much, if at all. There was a half drunk bottle of vodka sitting at the bar, the kitchen area was extremely poorly equipped and dirty, and the smell in the unit was terrible.

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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.

Host Cancels and I Lose the Service Fee?

Here is my letter to Airbnb after a recent trip to Croatia. I sent this a week ago and haven’t had any response yet. The host  has three listings in Split.

Please go back and read the email chain between myself and this host. Also, read the emails that went between myself and Airbnb. Check the times and dates on them. I booked this listing on the morning of July 12th. The host accepted my request and took my money for the booking, including all fees.

My wife and I then got in the car and drove from Trieste, Italy all the way down to Split, where we expected to check in. After paying $40 in tolls, a tank of gas, and the 4+ hours of driving, I received a message from this host claiming, “Thank you but I am so sorry, booking and Airbnb something mix. We are not free today”. But she had already taken my money.

So, there we were, room cancelled from right under us, after all this driving. This was when I started my communication with Airbnb. After a few messages between Airbnb and this host, my money was refunded… minus the Airbnb service fee. That was about $40. WTF is that?

Over the next few days, I sent several emails to Airbnb asking for my service fee back. When Airbnb did reply, they told me that “service fees are not refundable”. I heard this in all replies from Airbnb after explaining what had happened.

For an operation as big as Airbnb, this is truly a scam. Seriously, read the messages from this host. They cancelled the booking, not me. How can Airbnb think that they can take my money, when I didn’t cancel the booking? And even worse, every response from Airbnb simply restated that service fees are non-refundable. Either you didn’t understand that the host cancelled, or you are just a scam of a business.

After reading up on Airbnb hosts, I have been led to believe that this is a common scam that some Airbnb hosts pull: list the property on several different booking sites and accept bookings for that day only to cancel all of them except the highest one. Why wouldn’t the hosts do this if they don’t have to reimburse the service fees? Yet, Airbnb feels that they are entitled to keeping the service fee from the person who books? Dirty business on the host’s, and Airbnb’s part.

In the end, after several days of trying to get my service fee back, Airbnb offered me the amount back in a “goodwill credit”. Huh? Goodwill? Credit? At this point the last thing I wanted was a credit that obligates me to booking another Airbnb listing. This situation took over three days and nine messages from me to Airbnb, plus several messages to the host, to ultimately having Airbnb not give my actual money back.

Below is a quote from your last message to me. “Please know that we appreciate your loyalty and I am personally looking forward to many more years with you. We are here to support you 24/7 and can be contacted any time over email and the phone.”

24/7 support? At one point, I didn’t get a reply to my messages for over 48 hours. Please, read all of the messages that went back and forth regarding this booking. Any reasonable consumer will see how I got scammed here.

On the day that I drove to Split, only to have my booking cancelled, I ended up having to book a place at the last minute in Trogir, 30 minutes outside of Split. This was a direct result of one of your hosts cancelling my booking… and you charged me the service fee.

Airbnb wasted a lot of my time (booking, driving, rebooking, messaging, follow up, etc) and caused me to have to rebook 30 minutes away from the original booking. This made me incur more costs that shouldn’t have happened. As a consumer, I figure that Airbnb owes me money, not a bogus “goodwill voucher”. Airbnb should be going after this host to cover the my costs involved. Airbnb wants reviews of their hosts, and Airbnb. I did review this host but, of course, that review doesn’t get posted. Apparently, Airbnb is protecting this host’s listing and credibility. That is very deceptive to potential renters.

If you won’t post my reviews, I will post my own. Twitter, Facebook, etc. I don’t have to embellish this story in any way at all. I will be sure to include the host’s information and listings as well. So that is why my score is so low. If the exact same thing happened to you, you’d be pissed too.

Airbnb Cancelled without Time to Respond

My Airbnb was cancelled within six hours. In December 2018 I booked an apartment in Corfu City for August 2019. Half of the fee had already been paid in advance (so far, standard procedure).

On July 27th at 7:00 PM an email arrived in my account. Airbnb sent a message telling me I had 72 hours to update my payment modalities since the transaction of the remaining fee hadn’t gone through. Further down in the email Airbnb let me know I had until the next day – the 28th – otherwise my booking would be cancelled. What was it? 24 hours or 72 hours to update the account? A discrepancy in itself.

The second email I found arrived only six hours later at 2:00 in the morning telling me my booking had been cancelled and a refund had been made to my account. Airbnb kept a cancellation fee of 48.77 Euro. I found those emails the evening of 28th (I am on vacation after all, and not checking my email every five hours).

We were already on Corfu island, a very uncomfortable situation to suddenly find ourselves without accommodation the upcoming weekend. I had to get in touch with the host immediately. Our host was extremely nice and helped us activate the booking again. Now I wonder – whatever happened to my 48 Euro? I have already written to Airbnb, but no one has gotten in touch with me so far.

I wonder if this happens often? A long standing booking cancelled by Airbnb within six hours? Not even being given a chance to update the payment modalities before cancellation? The cancellation fee mysteriously vanishing? No further information by Airbnb provided? Everything left for the guest and the host to be figured out (which was a tedious procedure and I am still ending up paying more)? I am very disappointed in Airbnb. Next time I will find accommodation through other platforms.

Stranded at Taipei Airbnb after no Contact

I recently booked an Airbnb in Taipei. I advised the host in advance when I would be arriving. I asked how I would get the keys and was advised I would be greeted. I have learned the hard way that the address on a listing does not have to be the address of the Airbnb. I have also learned that a host is allowed to give instructions on how to locate the keys and if for any reason I can not understand the instructions or they do not work, the host does not have to assist me. Here is my story.

I proceeded to go to the address on the Airbnb listing and it was not a residential address. There was no one to greet me even though I was advised in advance there would be, so I called the contact number. The person who answered did not speak english so I found a stranger to call for me. The stranger advised me that the person who answered said they could not assist me.

I then messaged the phone number and received the following reply in English: “So are you coming tonight or tomorrow?” I told him I was here now. The host then sent me a list of outrageous instructions. I first had to view a video to find the mailbox, then go a few blocks to a mailbox, open the box, get another box, enter a code to open that box and take out a magnetic strip, walk a few more blocks to another location, use the magnetic strip to make the elevator work, then watch another video to get the code to open the unit. Well, I could not play the first video so I messaged the host that I could not play the video and he didn’t reply. There I was, stranded.

I was convinced this was a scam host because the address did not exist, there was no host to greet me, I could not communicate by phone, my final communication from the host asked what day I was arriving which I found frustrating as I had already communicated this, the instructions had a video that I could not play, and when I advised the host I could not view the video, he did not reply. Airbnb advised me I was at fault because I proceeded to cancel the reservation when in fact I should have called them first for their assistance.

Airbnb Can’t Decide how to Verify Accounts

I tried to log in to my Airbnb account of one year. Error: “There was a problem. Please try again.” I set up a new account with another email address: same error and no login possible.

I called customer service – the guy had no idea what to do. I told him my assumption was that I had too many similar accounts. I suggested a solution because he had none: deleting all older accounts and focusing on one. He did that whilst he was yawning loudly on the phone. I told him to please not fall asleep (I had still a sense of humour in the first hour of this Airbnb “session”). Later I tried the existing account and still got the same error: “Something went wrong. Please try again…”

I told the guy to also delete my last existing account and not to hang up because I set up a new account with a third email address while he was still on the phone, not to lose the person who knew the case when I would have to call again. After one hour, I could sign in.

The next and until now unsolved problem: verification. I took a photo of my passport, within that square thing on the screen. Next step: I saw half of my my face and the question: “Does this picture look good?”

No – it was only half my face. I tried three more times to take a picture of my passport where in the end I could answer with “Yes, I can see my full face.” Although it was really small, but maybe that’s a problem for later.

Next step: selfie for verifying my passport. I took a pictured and waited 15 minutes. I took another selfie, then another before calling customer service. The guy on the phone said I should use another ID, only he didn’t know how. Then he found out after reading an article about this problem: I should click on “submitting ID”, in the changing profile category.

I clicked on “submitting ID” and the system wanted me to upload a selfie to verify my ID. That was the problem from before. The guy said he would find out how to change the ID. He didn’t. I gave up, after three hours spending my holiday time in front of a screen.

Some hours later the same guy gave me a call and asked me if the problem had been resolved. He didn’t give me a solution – I don’t have one either. No verification, no reservation, no booking… there we are. I found a place to stay at the Airbnb I wanted to reserve via the old-fashioned way: talking to people in real life. I found the address via Google because the host had a public project. I told him about my Airbnb problems and we agreed on a cheaper price and to do it without Airbnb. Great!

Will I ever use Airbnb again? I don’t know, but the first thing I have to do is delete my existing account and set up a new one. Thanks to my own problem-solving competence which is obviously better than any of the people in customer service…