A guest retaliated about having to pay to replace my air mattress (a crucial item I needed for future guests) after they admitted, in writing, to damaging it so badly that they removed it from the property (threw it away) while I was not home (which is technically theft). Their retaliation was to write me a negative review, where they said they looked in my (closed) drawers and cabinets(!), and then revealed my personal items that they didn’t like or agree with its presence in the home. I asked AirBnB to remove or edit this review to take out the mention of my personal items. I had a year’s worth of entirely positive reviews and was nearly qualified for AirBnB’s elite Superhost status, and this was a first-time AirBnB user obviously seeking revenge for something they did wrong, but AirBnB’s customer service repeatedly told me they agreed my situation was unfortunate and morally wrong of that guest, but they stood by their policy, which goes like this: ANYTHING in your home is open for guests’ use, viewing, and mentioning in a review, so long as they do not reveal personally identifiable financial information (ex. driver’s license number, tax ID, or bank numbers). I had previously removed that stuff from my home, but I had no idea your guests can write about pretty much anything else, even if it is out of sight and in an obviously hidden or private place that most polite humans would never dare to look or publicly admit that they did look there. I specifically confirmed with AirBnB that their policy means guests CAN write reviews about your prescription medications, health info, religious artifacts, political artifacts, or any other object which someone, somewhere might find offensive, or that you might deem too “personally identifiable” or too private to be mentioned on the Internet. I could not believe a company knowing let go of one of their best customers in exchange for allowing an evil new customer to remain. This was not even ALL of the bad things that this one guest did or that I suspect they did, but those other issues are a one-on-one guest problem, not an AirBnB problem. The above described AirBnB policy and customer service issues are the reasons why I will never use AirBnB again and encourage all others to not use them for hosting or staying!
Tag Archives: airbnb
Three bookings, three problems
I listed my house for rent on Airbnb for only one month and had three bookings. The first guest set a hot pot on my kitchen counter and melted it. The second guest dumped oil into the hot tub and broke the $200 handle, splitting the wood on the side of the spa. The last guest stole a white wicker storage chest with all the contents. I try so hard to make the house nice but why bother when three of three bookings ripped me off? I am ticked and disgusted. Now what do I do with the rest of these darned bookings? Cancel them? Grrrr…
Terrible airbnb in Exeter, uk
So, having booked 3 nights at a higher priced airbnb in Exeter, we arrive to find an old box in the bedroom, not enough towels for the expected guests, a dirty bathroom with no attempt to tidy up, a used old toilet roll in the loo and a stench of what smelt to me like cat piss throughout the property. Host suggested we don’t understand airebnb so it’s out fault! Short version is we didn’t stay, host got paid IN FULL! We got 1 night refunded and airbnb said they wouldn’t penalize the hosts.. the airbnb service is a joke. Avoid at all costs !
Does my mistake excuse their potheadedness?
So I will start this off by saying…my dog somehow managed to jump thru a screen window at my host’s place while I was away for a few hours, because I don’t usually need to kennel my dog. Not only that but who the f*ck can possibly, logically presume the creativity of their pets to find a way to jump thru a window screen? However, yes he did this (no excuse), but my host and his wife were ACTUALLY THERE when it happened, and total potheads to the point that they were kind enough to NOT even bother to show me the simple courtesy of calling or spending 15 seconds of their time to send a message to let me know it happened…so I could hurry my f*cking ass back there to attend to the problem I created. So I arrived at ~3 PM that day to find my dog wandering their neighborhood, my hosts not even there, but away from their property. And upon returning later they didn’t even address the fact that they didn’t let me know it happened but were so fucking lazy with following up on it later in their Airbnb claim was to go on Amazon.com and look up window screens (since Amazon.com has the most diverse solution/market for window screens) and pick the most advanced solution available for their flimsy, aluminum window screen my dog ruined – which was probably 3 times more than it was worth – and request to charge that premium. And on top of that tacked on a pillow that had a stain – which I didn’t even use because I brought my own orthopedic pillow – but the claim they made had me reimbursing them for a set of pillows rather than one. All of this after their untrained farm dog attacked my dog at one point during my stay to the point that they had to pull their dog off of him… Thanks Airbnb…I really appreciate the ‘services’ you provide…
Airbnb guests find a filthy flat, and can’t leave a review!
It appears if you cancel a reservation, you cannot review the property on Air B n B. We just arrived in Amsterdam to what was originally advertised as a “beautiful canal flat” in the center of Amsterdam. It was described as 2 bedrooms and modern. The truth is, that it is a squalid, filthy apartment. The second bedroom was an alcove beside the living area with no door. The “modern” touch was obviously the disco ball above the bed. The modern furnishings appeared to be cast offs with electrical tape holding together the foot stool. The TV stand looked to be from the early 60’s (remember the hardware from captain’s bed’s). The wall’s were filthy and need a good washing and paint job. The carpet was not installed properly and was just cut and put on the floors. We cancelled immediately and Air B n B gave me $218 as a refund for $1034!!! I have to wait 10 days to start the resolution process!! The host was not in town and we were let in by the cleaning person. I contacted the host by phone and the host did suggest he would have the apartment recleaned, but I told him it was impossible because the walls needed to be painted the windows cleaned and a door installed on the “second” bedroom. My phone was out of power and could not take pictures, but in no way did the photos on Air B n B resemble the photos on the website. Amazing how the walls show perfectly white in the photos and in real life they are filthy…
Dirty Airbnb in Chicago
On a long vacation with my wife and 2 kids, I did enjoy an spectacular apartment in South Boston using Airbnb. Next we flew to Chicago, using Airbnb again, I found a “CAVE”, dirty and a totally mess! I immediately left that disaster and notified Airbnb about that situation. They encouraged me to talk with the owner, I told her about the mess and dirt, she never disputed this issues. I sent pictures to Airbnb, some was really shocking and I felt confident about my refund. Airbnb answer my request, giving me back 27% of my fee, telling me that I cannot prove my complaint and this is it. Because I canceled my reservation, of course, I can not write a review about my horrible experience and warn other users about this scary situation.
Airbnb Host kicked off of platform and never told why
Some background. I have no idea, whatsoever, why I was kicked off the platform. I had many excellent reviews and a 4 star rating. I had 6 properties (all owned by me and manged by me) on the platform. I asked repeatedly what I did and they stated “Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.” They would never answer my question as to why. I received a text from Daniel Rusteen on August 20th, who saw my Craig’s List postings for my properties and asked if I would like to use ABB. He was paid for and taxed with the responsibility of generating new hosts for ABB and would give me a $500 credit to be used as a guest at any ABB listing. I texted back how funny this was as they kicked me off. He stated he had “pull” with ABB and could definitely get me re-instated. He asked for my dirver’s license so he could establish a new account and used one of my properties. Long story short, once I went into the new account to add content to my listing (and then add my other 5 listings), I was blocked. When I wrote and asked why I received: Katie C, Aug 25, 20:46: Hi Lucia, Thank you for getting in touch with us about your account. As we mentioned to you on January 5, 2016 and then multiple times following that date, we have removed you from our community for violations of our Terms of Service. This includes any previous account you created on our platform, and extends to any future account you make. As per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and must inform you that, moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with your account issue. Please feel free to review our Help Center article for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432 Thank you for your understanding. Best regards, Katie C www.airbnb.com/help This is the same message I received in the past and the one to which I questioned the reasoning as to their decision making. As you can see, I still can’t understand what caused this to occur in January. Regardless, I moved forward with VRBO for some of my properties and moved to long term rentals for others (thus CL). I’m much happier with VRBO. They support the hosts better, have much better customer service that responds quicker and costs less.
PAYONEER Never Sent Payment
Payoneer NEVER SENT ME THE PAYMENT NOR FOR WEEKS and they do not know about it, you call PAYONEER and their people always try to blame your bank or someone else for their mistake. They force you to get paid in your country currency even if you request to be paid in USD they want to make an additional profit with the exchange rates they are really BAD!! PAYONEER is the worst payment provider ever… I am thinking on dropping airbnb because of payoneer.
It’s Like They Don’t Even Want to Help
I wanted to book a room, but I was uncomfortable with verifying my ID (like, who the hell puts their SSN, even just the last four digits, or a picture of their license online?). The host I was trying to book with was wonderful- she tried everything she could to help me. After we talked for a bit (and she knew I was a real person) she tried to remove the requirement for verified ID. However, no matter what she or I did, I was still constantly asked to verify by giving either the last 4 digits of my SSN or a picture of my ID. When I tried to contact Airbnb about this issue, I found it impossible to do so (I couldn’t find their phone number OR email, and I could not click on the little fill-in box in the Help section. In the end, after three days, two calls to my credit card company (because I had tried to book and cancelled so many times due to the ID verification) and a lot of frustration, I eventually gave up and found another place to stay. Throughout it all, my host was amazingly helpful and very kind, but Airbnb was impossible for either of us to work with. I was frustrated with the ID Verification process, and she was frustrated that, even though she directly contacted them and asked them to remove the ID Verification requirement from her profile (after trying and being unable to remove it on her own) it was still there. Long story short, Airbnb is a nightmare and, though I really did wish to do business with my host, as she was lovely, I will not be using their services again in the future.
Airbnb – YOU SUCK
I’ve spent the last day and a half watching a friend deal with Airbnb’s inept customer support team after her AirBnb host backed out of her month long rental 45 minutes after she was supposed to meet him. I’ve listened to misinformation and baldface lies from the Airbnb CS team. Their solution was to charge her twice for two alternative rentals. The hosts were non responsive and $3,000 later ($1400 overdrawn) they pretty much washed their hands of the situation and left my friend homeless and broke for the next month. I’m curious as to who designed their Customer Service policy? Satan? Ebenezer Scrooge? Leaving people broke with no place to stay is bullshit. Lying to your customers and telling them that “you don’t have a manager” is absurd. What do they put in the water at their office? Every CS rep has the same apathetic monotone and a propensity for telling insane lies. I’ve personally never had any issues with my past stays, but watching my friend go through this has disgusted me. Airbnb is an international company with deep pockets. Websites like this wouldn’t exist if they showed some empathy and provided reasonable solutions and prompt resolutions to their guests. Dicks.