We arrived and brought up our coolers. Not even five minutes after we arrived, we got a knock on the door and this tall man counted us out. There were six of us and I said six on the reservation. He left and was very rude.

Then about ten minutes after that I got a call from Airbnb saying I was breaking the rules with having too many people and having alcohol in the apartment. We were all obviously over 21 and there was no rule against having alcohol.

At this point I was very annoyed. Luckily I had “I Love Lucy” on DVD and brought that into the room. We were all on the couch watching it. We didn’t even finish an episode when we got another knock on the door with a different woman bursting into the room, and saying that we unplugged their camera in the living room.

Now we knew we were being filmed in the apartment and decided to leave within 45 minutes. I’m starting to think they did it on purpose to take my money and get us out asap.

The post Birthday at New York Airbnb Gone Wrong appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

The host herself confessed a spate of burglaries in the neighbourhood. When we asked the host about a CCTV on her premises, she immediately said it was not on the outside as if she knew something has happened. Moreover, we were surprised that the host, as well as the Airbnb staff, were unempathetic and unhelpful. No consideration was given to guests’ safety.

We have cancelled all our future bookings at this place. We have used Airbnb in the past for may years. This is the first time we have had an unfortunate incident, and Airbnb customer support was very unhelpful.

We asked the Airbnb staff about the host not mentioning the CCTV in her listing, but the customer support insisted that the host did. When I asked Airbnb staff to show evidence of this, no response was received. Also, I requested to check when the host last updated her listing, and there was again no response from the Airbnb team. The Airbnb team also refused to refund the booking amount in full despite cancelling the booking two weeks in advance.

We have also used many American products and services in the past, and their services have been very customer-oriented. Special circumstances are always given an extra bit of attention. We have used Airbnb for many years and recommended it to others.

However, after this incident, we felt that the safety of the guest was not a priority for Airbnb. For that reason will try to avoid using Airbnb whenever possible and would not recommend it to others. We also plan to write about this incident and the way the untrained Airbnb managers have handled the situation on various blogs and websites and discourage people from using it.

The post Safety of Guests is not a Concern for Airbnb appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

We did not violate the Airbnb rules that were sent to us. Airbnb sided with a guest who not only broke Airbnb policies while staying in our house but fraudulently impeded our ability to make money in the future on this platform. To us, this is not only defamation of our character but was a whirlwind of events that left us unhappy and totally confused. We are still scratching our heads and wonder “what just happened?”

We have had our vacation rental for years without any complaints from guests, many of whom have come back to our rental. Now for the highlights. We received a call at night from someone claiming to be from Airbnb. They claimed that one of our past guests reported our house to them for having surveillance equipment, which of course was not true and considered by myself to be quite preposterous.

I immediately thought this was an attempt to defraud me via the phone. Since we had not had any disgruntled guests I asked the person for proof they were, in fact, working with Airbnb by requesting they send me a message in our Airbnb inbox. The person refused and said they could not do that. Since I have talked to customer service via messages in our inbox before, I was convinced this was a fraudulent call, a scammer, with the intent to perpetrate fraud. I gave them a piece of my mind and hung up on them.

Later I called Airbnb to report this call and was told by customer service that no one had called us. I mentioned an email that I found in my email box after the call and was first told it was not sent by Airbnb. I pushed the agent to further investigate, asked to be transferred to a supervisor and finally talked to someone who verified that the email was from an Airbnb agent.

I then answered the email and stated that I had talked with Airbnb customer service and they verified that they were an agent, the email was valid and that it was safe to open the email link they had asked me to click. I told the agent the accusation was false and that I was ready to talk to them.

After a few more calls to Airbnb, I received an email where we were told by this agent that they had all they needed to investigate. Again, not true because they never discussed this claim with me. I was never shown any evidence that we could review and they had none of our rebuttal information at that time.

We called our current guest, who had been with us over a week already, made them aware of the situation and invited them to look for said equipment by us. They did and found none. Eventually, Airbnb decided without talking with us that we did have non-disclosed surveillance equipment in the house, suspended our account forever and forced our current guest out of the house.

They called them and told them they had to get out. Our guest did not want to leave and told Airbnb they were happy with us, we had been excellent hosts, they loved the home, that there was no surveillance equipment in the house, and they didn’t want to leave. Airbnb told them they were forcefully canceling their reservation and they had to leave.

Since there was a current Airbnb guest in our house this proved to be a real eye-opening experience for them as well. They saw firsthand how unfairly we were being treated.

I failed to mention that we have in writing from the guest how wonderful their experience was so we were floored to find out who filed the claim. We have no idea why they would do such a thing but theorize that they were not happy we caught them violating our rules and Airbnb rules while they were in our house. We decided to let the infractions go and mark it up as lessons learned. We did nothing to them via Airbnb or any other way. In hindsight, perhaps we should have. We’d love to hear your similar stories and suggestions.

The post Off Airbnb Because Guest Falsely Reports Surveillance appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

Today, I would like to tell you my story to you. If someone can help, please contact me. We have done everything we could… even contacting Airbnb directors:

I am addressing this to all of you because I do not know who I can talk to about a really problematic situation with Airbnb support. We were Superhosts and proud of it. We have built a super relationship with more than 300 Airbnb guests around the world and many of them are still in contact with us.

Last Friday, we managed to address a false allegation that a guest had made against us. Subsequently, the security department has taken a dislike to us, cancelling our upcoming reservation (without informing us) and closed our accounts. We were Superhosts for several years. We have hosted more than 100 families around the world in our family house and private house. We were selected as one of the five families to make a promotional video for Airbnb in October 2019 and now, our account is closed. No reply, no callback… nothing.

A guest invited additional people without paying, unplugged the security cameras for the hidden extra guest, stole product, and made a defamatory review about us. If someone has already managed to reactivate his account. contact me. The guest review was deleted and a few hours after that they closed our account.

I’d like to point out that in July 2019 we had a similar issue with another guest. It escalated to the resolution center again and was resolved in our favor. The agent also pointed out that we should add a substantial penalty for guests who would tamper with the camera to act as a deterrent to hide or unplug the cameras. I’d also like to mention that the listing clearly indicates that we have cameras outside and inside. You can also see them in the profile pictures.

The camera outside focuses on the backyard and films the patio door and side door. The second camera is located in the kitchen and points at the side door as well and observes the activity in the kitchen. The third camera is installed in the living room and focuses on the living room to look at the front door. Basically, they are there to watch the ins and outs in the house and, as an added bonus, we feel a little secure to know that the stove won’t be left on by accident or water running in the sink.

To access the bathroom, you need to go in the corridor and then turn left to the bathroom. The cameras have no way to see into the bathroom and I’d like to add that they are not able to film in the bedrooms. You could strip naked out of the bathroom and walk to the master bedroom (located in the same corridor) without the crossing any cameras.

For sure, if a guest would have waltzed naked in the kitchen or living room, the camera would register it. This does not necessarily mean we would watch the footage, since we don’t have enough time in a day to observe 24 hours multiplied by three (three cameras recording 24 hours a day). The cameras are only accessed if damage happen, there’s a door alert, or whenever my neighbor reports that there are more guests than reported.

Now for this guest’s group we have three claims. The first is the easiest one: the $2 for a chocolate bar. In a discussion with the guest, we’ve mentioned and sent the price list for a little pilot project we have started: a mini convenience store in one of the kitchen cabinets. The goal was to sell snacks, dried pasta or canned goods to prevent a trip back to the supermarket. Some guests do not have a car or simply don’t feel like going out.

The markup on these items is about 25%… enough to cover stolen/damaged/expired merchandise. We see it as a service and not revenue. The guest’s daughter took a chocolate bar, as he admitted in communications. We simply want the $2 for the goods as it was explained when they arrived. It was never complimentary, and they knew it. Also, we couldn’t care less if Air Canada gives them away. Try that lame excuse at the supermarket to see if they’ll give them away since you’ve purchase $100 worth of meat… you’ll see.

The second claim is for the extra guest. We live near the house, but not next to it. My neighbors, ones I’ve known for 34 years and the second for 30+ years, kept an eye on the property for me. One has the key and helps with the garbage, pool and all. One of them reported to me that the guest’s group was six people. Their reservation was for five though.

The guest also proved this himself in writing by agreeing they lied to us, tried to cheat the Airbnb system, and did in fact invite an extra guest. We don’t care that they are trying to get away with only one night of extra guests instead of two (at that point, I would have been surprised he didn’t). So far, the guest proved that he was willing to lie to steal money from us, whether it was for the chocolate bar or the extra guest. My neighbor hasn’t lie to me in 30+ years… the guest did twice in a weekend. So this is why we are claiming an extra $40 (2 x $20).

The third claim is for the camera unplugging. $250 is the fee to tamper and/or unplug a camera as mentioned on the profile and added following an Airbnb agent’s suggestion. Again, something they proved they did in writing. This one is pretty obvious to me. They did it. They are guilty. The will pay the penalty fee. I want to point also that my husband had to realign the cameras after their stay since they had directed the camera “off track” as well.

After what was demonstrated above, it’s now striking why they did so. The camera clearly was an obstacle in getting the extra guest in, combined with the chocolate bar petty theft. Note that the penalty isn’t per day or per minute… it’s per offense. Since they have unhooked two cameras, we could have counted two offenses resulting in a $500 claim, but we found that $250 would be enough of a penalty.

I think this explains the reason we made these claims and clearly demonstrated that they are justified. If anything was left out, feel free to reach out to us. Thank you everybody for your support and help.

The post Canceled our Upcoming Reservation and Closed our Account appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

Woke up with our 14 units on Airbnb completely cancelled and our reservations cancelled. Guests were angry at us. Turns out one of the previous guests had put a hidden camera into our smoke detector to spy on future guests. I filed a police report and we’re “currently working with Airbnb” to resolve the situation. They refuse to tell us how to get our account reactivated and are telling me to dismantle the smoke detector and somehow figure out myself who did it. As we do a lease-sublease model, we pay about $30,000 in rent per month. Now that everything is vacant, I estimate we are losing about $1000/day. Please stop supporting Airbnb and use other platforms. It’s not safe and people should just talk and vet the owners/tenants directly and save on the ridiculous booking fee.

The post Losing $1000/day after Airbnb Cancelled our Reservations appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

We had just rented a second house only for Airbnb since it was going so well. That’s five properties total in Airbnb under my name, bank account and social security. I paid the taxes for it every year and was happy to do it too. Please read this and avoid it happening to you.

We don’t live in the house we rent on Airbnb. We had to set up a security camera (after many bad experiences in Miami) in the main living room entrance to check the maximum capacity of each bedroom or the entire house… isn’t violated. The house has three bedrooms, two living room areas, two bathrooms, a kitchen/dining room, a front porch and a big backyard.

A few days ago somebody complained about the security camera in the main living room entrance, and I received an email from an Airbnb (6:00 AM on October 23rd) case manager asking me if I had informed them in the listing that the camera was there, where it was, and if there were any other cameras in the house. In this email, she also informed me that I had 48 hours to explain this situation and answered all her questions and if not I would be suspended from the site forever. In those 48 hours my account would have Limited Access. The email was harsh, kind of like a thread almost. I felt uneasy.

So you can understand the details: when I rent the house as private bedrooms, people are only allowed to sleep in their assigned bedrooms, but when I rent the house to a big party of people as an entire property, I had added a sofa bed in the second living room to accommodate an extra two bodies. The house could now accommodate eight with the sofa bed, instead of six. There are many pictures in the listing showing where the sofa bed is located, of both living room areas, of the bedrooms, etc.

I emailed the case manager the same day, the 23rd around noon, letting her know that the camera was in the living room area, entrance part of the house, and that I had indeed informed them of this in the listing. I thought the situation was resolved. I called multiple times since the day to ask what limited access meant. What should I do and was I still receiving reservations for that night? Nobody was able to tell me over the phone. I received no reservations that night and I had one empty bedroom that would normally be booked at the last minute… I was worried.

At this point I am assuming that if you are put in limited access, that means no reservations. I tried to request money from a guest that came with a dog without telling me and wasn’t able to do that either; I charge $10 for pets for a cleaning fee. That night I was very worried and wrote to Airbnb a second time. There was no answer that whole day. I intended to go to the house the next day and take some pictures and videos to send to Airbnb to show them the house and where the camera was, since I had 48 hours.

I couldn’t go that same day, so I was heading to the house the next morning. At this point it had been about 24 hours, since I received the email the previous morning, but it was too late. On the way to the house I noticed I was no longer able to access my Airbnb account at all. At the moment I noticed, I called again having almost a panic attack. Nobody could tell me anything; they couldn’t even see my account anymore, they keep telling me to email them, which I had, like four times at this point. I received no answer from her.

It was about noon. 30 hours had passed at this point from her original email, and there was no answer. My check-out time was approaching on October 24th and I couldn’t contact any of my guests. I was freaking out because I could not chat with any of my current reservations. I had all the rooms full except for one. Again, many of them were checking out and many more were coming that same day, with many other guests coming Friday and Saturday.

I was banned at some point in the early morning of Thursday, October 25th. Finally around 1:30 PM on the 25th I got an email; I knew it was bad. The email said:

“It’s true that the surveillance device is disclosed on the house rules, but the camera is located in the living room and as it is stated on the description of the listing, the living room turns into a private space when you offered it to fit up to two more people. We call this a “zero tolerance area”, therefore this decision. Pursuant to this removal, all of your pending and/or accepted reservations will be immediately canceled.”

It was a nightmare. Airbnb had received the answer they requested by email, the device was disclosed, but they acted upon a question they never asked, and unanswered by me: is somebody sleeping where the camera is? The answer is no. It would have been so easy to ask me straight up, but they never did. They only asked if I had informed guests about it in the listing. I had.

I was banned after four years and all my upcoming reservations were canceled based on this customer service rep:s understanding that the camera is located in my second living room where I have a sofa bed. The house has in fact as I explained in the beginning two living room areas. If they would have taken a moment to ask me or to even look at the pictures of the house where you can clearly see both living room spaces, this would have not happened. Or if they would have waited the 48 hours they told me I had, and would have received my videos and more pictures of the house specifically showing the camera location in more detail maybe they would have understood, but I was given no time and no chance.

October, November, December, January, February, and March… I probably had about 40 or more reservations. They cancelled them all in a jiffy, and it was the understanding of the guests that it was me who cancelled. I was contacted over the phone by maybe three or four of them complaining aggressively to me and asking me the reason I cancelled on them. I was sad, stressed over all the money – about 15k lost in future reservations – and now also scared because I have made some enemies… that are coming to the city and know my address, some of them very upset at me.

To try to explain here the emotional, and financial stress I have gone through in the past days, and also my mom, no matter what words I used, would be an understatement. Only the people that have been here before would know. My story isn’t new; Airbnb has been doing this to hosts all around the world since 2013. I have read most of the stories by now. I wish I had known this before and would have left Airbnb a long time ago. They don’t care about me, they don’t care about my Superhost status, and they don’t care for the guests since obviously they cancel 40+ reservations before even asking me a second question to be sure of anything.

That’s my story. If you are approached by any case manager at the Trust and Safety Department of Airbnb… brace yourself, answer quickly, answer everything, even what they didn’t ask you, be thorough, be detailed, send pictures and videos, don’t call, because they can only be reached by email. Don’t be surprised if your account is canceled forever without even reading anything you sent to them. I am currently uploading all my properties to HomeAway, Tripadvisor, Homestay, Booking.com and few others. Any tips or help are more than welcome since right now I have about 12 rooms, most of them empty. Thank you for reading and leave Airbnb while you still can.

The post Banned from Airbnb, All Reservations Cancelled appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

I said more positive things but for some reason they’ve disappeared. Here are the host’s remarks:

“We would not host Jerry again, even though his other reviews were great. Jerry was polite upon arrival, but that’s the only thing he had going for him. With over 60 guests we’ve had in our home, he’s been the first guest we’ve had to call Airbnb to document a complaint about. He’s also the first guest that’s made us question continuing being hosts. He originally booked two nights, Wednesday and Thursday.

Arriving home Thursday after work to clean between my two jobs, I could only smell a strong coffee odor. I came to find out an entire cup of coffee had been spilled over the brand new kitchen table, down the side, and all over the hardwood floor with zero effort to clean it up, despite Clorox wipes and paper towels being two feet away. We looked back at the camera footage to confirm he spilled the coffee around 3:00 PM that day and got up and left it there. Up in the bathroom, soap had been poured all over the bathtub floor, causing a slipping hazard. It took a while to clean that up. I went to check the hamper in the room for towels. The hamper was half full of garbage, which ended up staining the brand new cloth hamper. Even though there’s a trash can provided right outside the bedroom door, in the dining room, and a third one by the garage, he chose to use the hamper. Instead of using it for towels, he just tossed them on the floor despite them being damp. He left the lights on 24/7 and even took our entire roll of Clorox wipes into his room without permission. I had the bathroom clean when I left for my second job. I came back to a filthy bathroom again, with toothpaste spit all in the sink and on the floor. A huge puddle of water was also on the floor that I had to clean at 11:00 PM. Friday, checkout day, he waited until 3:00 PM to checkout. Since our next guest arrived at 1:30 PM, we had to place him in a room that wasn’t meant for him. Jerry thought he’d booked for Friday night as well but had not and left upon the realization he’d accidentally booked one day too few, complaining about having to now book a hotel. After checkout we found half a dozen towels, hand towels, and wash cloths used for only a two-night stay. We only charge $30 per night to help travelers out and to help with our renovations of our new home, but his stay has cost us much more than what we made due to the damaged hamper, and ruined kitchen table that was brand new two months ago. Hopefully our hardwood floors will be fine. I work too hard to have my home treated so poorly. If he books again, I plan to ask Airbnb to cancel it.”

Finally, my response:

“Wow, I’m shocked! I wish Staunton had said something to me about all this. First, regarding toothpaste spit? I don’t have toothpaste at all. I noticed the towels being used by two friends of his that stayed one or two nights. I figured there was a shortage of towels. I did try to make coffee but only got half a cup. I did not notice any spills and I put the used filter in the trash. Maybe he’s talking about another guest? I gave him a great rating out of kindness as he’s new to the business and I overlooked a lot of inconveniences, e.g. the smell of animals in the house, no small refrigerator for personal use, no way to boil water for tea or coffee, no way to lock your room in spite of three guest rooms and finally the inconvenience of three guests/strangers using one small bathroom. The home itself was in disarray, the front yard was growing weeds and the parking was too tight. I did mistake the length of my stay but apologized profusely to his partner for the error and made no complaint regarding finding a motel room for Friday night. Based on his inaccurate and hostile comments I wouldn’t recommend this not-so-private Airbnb to anyone. By the way, I called Staunton on Friday to see if an extra night was available as he had told me originally that after Wednesday I’d be his only guest. He sent a cryptic note that he was at work and too busy to talk. This has been an unfortunate experience, the only such one since I began using Airbnb. Staunton should have talked with me about his grievances before going off on me after my kindness to him in my rating.”

A brief review: At my age of 74, I am compulsively clean:

1. I hang my towels up to dry. His guests threw theirs on the floor.

2. I do not use toothpaste as I have dentures. I noticed the toothpaste spit from the other guests. I don’t clean up after other guests.

3. Soap naturally sinks to the bottom of the tub when washed from your body.

4. Three guests for one bathroom is too much, especially with only two towel racks. I kept a dry towel in my room in order to have one when I needed it.

5. My room was not cleaned once during my stay.

6. There was no communication that anything was wrong.

7. I apologized profusely to Staunton’s cleaning man for the late checkout and my confusion about booking dates. I at no time complained about having to get a motel room.

8. There was a tiny trashcan in the bathroom that was full. There was no trashcan in my room.

9. I am totally offended by this young man and his hostile review. This has become a nightmare that I will not repeat. His review and the surveillance camera are unacceptable and deceitfully full of allegations harmful to my good standing with Airbnb with which I am now done with unless they take action in admonishing this young man.

This has ruined me to Airbnb. They are not available to hear or follow up on complaints. They need to investigate this particular listing for the surveillance cameras and take them off their site.

Update 5/23/2017:

Hi Jerry,

I wanted to take a moment to message you in response to your comment left on the review. Fortunately no one can see your inaccurate response from my end. I just wanted to address some things in your response. You stated you didn’t have toothpaste, but Thursday night you were the only guest that had been there between my cleaning of the bathroom at 5:30 PM and when the next guest that arrived that night whom I personally greeted. Before their arrival is when I found a blue paste (maybe not toothpaste, but some blue goo) spit in the sink and on the carpet. Meaning no other guest could have done that between my two cleanings. As for the spill, I’m not sure how you didn’t see that since the entire table was covered, as well as the river of coffee that had ran down the side and onto the floor. Again, that was between my lunch break cleaning at 12:30 PM and my evening cleaning at 5:30 PM. You were the only one there between those hours since my two uncles and partner were all gone before 10:30 AM. I do apologize for your “inconveniences” due to the animal smell even though we’ve had several reviews, including one that stated “warm, cozy, and smelled like a resort” along with other praises on how nice our rooms smell since we keep fragrances plugged in all throughout the house. Even though the smell of dog would still be expected in a listing that states dogs live inside the home, even though we bathe her frequently. Though she’s never allowed outside the bedroom unless she’s going out the back door so she’d never be in the guest portion of the home, ever, and never has been even since moving into the home.

The next day after you left, we noticed you’d used the Keurig with raw coffee grinds which ruined a $100+ machine, since they’re meant for coffee pods only. A mini fridge was provided for your use, as well as our large, empty fridge in the kitchen. Airbnb’s typically don’t provide a mini fridge in every single room, as we are not a hotel. In the kitchen, you’d have also found ways to boil water in a pot on the stove so that’s incorrect too. We also had several notes posted in the room and our listing stating that we provide room keys so that you can lock your door anytime, but you never once asked for a room key despite it being mentioned in three places and expressed verbally. As for the inconvenience of sharing the bathroom, you could read the following on our listing: “We have two other rooms listed along with this one. If other guests have booked those rooms the same night as your stay, the bathroom would be shared.” The bathroom has a lock as well as your bedroom. We get last^minute bookings daily, sometimes as late as 3:00 AM. So if I told you we’d have no guests Wednesday night, obviously that could change at any minute. Also, you’ll have to excuse the weeds in the yard as I work eight jobs and haven’t had time to cut the grass since my cousin committed suicide recently after her father had an accident, and I’ve been too busy tending to family matters to bother with weeds in the yard. You also stated you called me Friday, but I never received a phone call from you. Only a message asking me to call. And I responded saying I was at work and could not talk. I’m unsure how that could count as cryptic since it was just a few words and stated the obvious: 1) At work. 2) Can’t talk until 5:00.

I also see you have a place in Darlington on your wishlist, a home that the woman who actually referred me to Airbnb owns, so I’ve sent her an email with fair warning. I’m sorry you had an unfortunate experience, and I’m just as sorry for how insulted and abused we felt in our home with the constant messes. I should have brought my concerns up to you, but working so many jobs the only thing I can do in my spare time is clean between guests and then I’m right back out the door to my next job. I only even remember seeing you just once during your stay. I’m sure you’re a fantastic person, as I can tell from your other three reviews and how friendly you were at check-in, but unfortunately we just had our first horrible experience and were upset with how the house was treated. Unfortunately I didn’t get to know you very well and was only left seeing bad things, and that saddens me. I want to assure you that I’m a Superhost for a reason; this past week has just been a long and upsetting week for me. I wish you the best in all of your future travels.

The post He Said/He Said Airbnb Dispute with Surveillance Cameras appeared first on Airbnb Hell.