Double Charged by Airbnb for Cockroach Resort!

I booked a 76-day trip through Airbnb at the Marina Tower Complex (also known as the Waikiki Marina) in Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii. The property was hosted by Abron (rental agent/property manager).

The first part of the nightmare begins with having to contact Airbnb to give them a new credit card number as my other credit card had been hacked, used for fraud charges, and then cancelled by the bank. While this should have been a simple task, Airbnb turned it into a nightmare with incompetent error after error. The next thing I see is an email from them stating they were taking payments from both cards, failing to cancel the old credit card. I called to correct this, and then they double charged the new card, and tried to credit the now bank cancelled old credit card. They did this despite the fact charges from them on the old card had already been processed some 6 months earlier, and they already had my money long ago. At this point I had now overpaid for the entire stay by more than $1000, and they still showed I owed them even more money on the rental receipt. They stated I would get a refund on my old cancelled card somehow and I would have to wait fifteen business days to see if the money came to me. They also stated that if after that point I still haven’t received a refund, I would have to forward them copies of all my bank statements to prove this money never went into my accounts. I was supposed to be able to do this somehow while sitting in a hotel room with nothing but a cell phone. They further stated I would have to remove the old credit card number from their site myself but their software would not allow me to view or cancel it from a cell phone. They told me to go find a computer, which I did, only to find I could not login to my account as it is connected to my gmail account on my home computer and can’t be accessed on a different computer. Furthermore, they then stated their software wouldn’t let me remove this old card until the end of the trip, two months from then. While they offered apologies and an account credit for both the numerous human errors and software failings, I had wasted too many hours with them and my bank to count on this matter mostly sitting on hold for 30 minutes at a time trying to get through to call centers.

The second part of my nightmare with Airbnb began with a request for help in dealing with problems with the vacation property and the host. The vacation property had one of its elevators break down and management decided to leave it down until major repairs could be finished later. The other elevator was only partially working as well, where the call button would trip out on circuit overloads, and the elevator would not stop at your floor most of the time. People would be generally walking down the stairs, and the property is 40 floors high. To add to this problem, cockroaches began to appear in my unit due to some plumbing done in my area and a couple untidy tenants on the same floor according to building management. The rental agent/host (Abron) for the unit refused to have the unit sprayed until several weeks had passed to get a cheap $10 end of the month spray deal, arranged by building management. He maintained he had to wait so the other units on the floor could be done at the same time to make it effective. Since it became apparent no other units were going to be sprayed on my floor and the rental manger still refused, I was forced to buy cockroach pesticides myself, but they didn’t seem to help. I decided to call Airbnb to see what they could do to help. Big mistake. They decided to penalize Abron regarding the cockroach issue with a 20% reduction in the rental rates until the unit was sprayed. However since they could only charge him this penalty in the last days of the rental agreement as he had already been paid in full until well after the the spraying would take place anyhow, he terminated the contract early, to avoid paying the penalty. A 20% reduction probably amounted to all he would have made as a rental agent anyhow. Airbnb allowed this, stating hosts can terminate if they choose to, and I was forced to find another rental for that last 17 days of my vacation, having to pay higher daily rates and double cleaning fees. Airbnb and Abron (host) both minimized their losses at my expense. Airbnb claimed Abron would not be able to rent through them for those same 17 days, however he could rent it through any other means, for additional income and to come out ahead. Airbnb only credited me part of the fees they collected from me on what became 2 rental agreements with them. Airbnb should have paid all my losses associated with their misguided intervention on this property agreement. Therefore, I will avoid ever using Airbnb again, and/or make sure to inquire that the so called “Host” is an actual owner, and not just a rental agent of the unit, who would have more to lose by terminating an agreement with either the tenant or Airbnb.

Airbnb Hell in Hawaii

A year ago I went to Hawaii, my favorite place. The flight was late and rental car was a no-show, so I was late arriving at the host location – it was between 8 and 9 pm. Half way through the stay, the host asked me to change rooms, but that required cancelling and re-booking. I had lost my credit card so the old one did not go through. I tried to reach airbnb to enter a new credit card number. The host also tried. We could not reach anyone. I offered the host cash but they refused, and then said that I had been nothing but trouble and told me to leave immediately or they would call the police! I am a 60-something, quiet, non-smoking, meditator-type. I went to a local hotel but some money was owed to me, and airbnb refused to refund it. They gave me some worthless coupons. They are worthless because the hosts of Puilani on the big island wrote a bad review of me and now I am not able to make other bookings and use the coupons. Airbnb still refuses to refund the money, or remove the host review. They have a poor business model for the travel industry. They need to have real people available real time to handle these kinds of issues. As for the hosts, they seemed to me to be burned out on hosting and unable to flow with the inevitable problems of travelers. I am very unsatisfied.

Beware of this Airbnb in Honolulu

Well my first host scheduled was supposed to secure a place for me Jenny excellent room with ocean view Honolulu hawaii seemed great we emailed and text and when her other hosts said in review she picked up from airport thought that was great only to find out she wanted to charge me three times as much as a cab or shuttle to her would normally be when I told her to this age was sort of shocked I did the research then after that it sort of went down hill she avoided my texts until at least day before I was supposed to fly out told me to get a cab never told me to meet her or when she would give me a key and didn’t want to be homeless in hawaii so after numerous talks with our B and B agents I canceled her thank God and was told to book hotel and because if this I could get maybe three night s reimburse or help on finding a new letting I got one hotel night which I had to prepay then air b gave me refund after that thanks then they send me a couple things that were not close to where I needed to be and said they would increase my credit which they did do thanks again but because it was last minute and u was in Honolulu I couldn’t find anything avail and was almost homeless in Hawaii until I reached out to an old letting that I had previously looked at a small room in an old house Raymond and Rachael in Hawaii pahai go valley, Honolulu and that’s where the fun hell began …the host Raymond was a raging alcoholic who fell asleep with Kit cigarettes every night that I had to intercept so it didn’t burn me in whole house down there were cockroaches every where they left there doors open all the time they acted weird because I wanted a key when I keft to lock door and at first were reluctant to give me key the railings are not attached and when you hold on to them they wobble and are old wooden and have huge holes in them fifty steps up kafir safety hazards think the house was haunted because the doors would open and shut and reopen and shut several times in repetition for the day so always having to prop up stuff against door cockroaches the size of mount rush more every where the room was ok mid size and cable ok here’s the clinchers he said in his add is near a bus stop wasn’t syre if I wanted a car yet so took him for his word what you don’t know is that he lied the bus stop is twenty to thirty minutes away by walking up two massive high. Hills and down a third one which is very steep hill which also essentially not lit for cars either any who I fell down this steep hill and a few days later in the hospital found out I broke my ankle in three places and sprained and cut on Raymond’s street I stated there for rest if trip till I had to fly home .while I stayed there one time he had a date over and I came out for water whith my crutches and he told his date I was faking and I liked to get attention I was fit to be tied at that point but had to stay as I was flying out in a few days also as for renting his cars they aren’t cheap for guests staying there over 35.00 per day and the bike is 35.00 per day not ten if if u want to take it out in trade and weed his jungle home for the day with rusty cutters impossible. Beware single lady’s he now is sepersted from his wife she was there greedy and moved out she seemed nice but didn’t talk much I think because if situation with him so she diesent live with him in his house now he offered to rent one of his cats to me at a higher price then offered then mumbled something about it not being insured and I immediately said maybe I’ll rent one from someone else every night was a recant about the marriage and hiw his wife was this and that which I just shook my head at and tried to avoid beware this place bugs alcohal cigarettes dark energy fairy railings and stairs old house dust coming from deteriorating ceiling barking dogs constantly next door rains all the time even if waikiki is sunny too far from town at least half hour by car always unlocked at owners request even if ur guest ur treated like crap I think this person just needs the money and has too many problems to be concerned with hospitality as a host too bad I lost money time and peace if mind for my vacation and too much money spending on cabs cause too far away from town a total mess now recovering from broken ankle because if the lies and because if the steep as hill connected to his place beware Raymond Orange Honolulu old house small room