Airbnb Nightmare in Austin: Stranger Walks in

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This is a long one. Ten friends and I are in college and were traveling to Austin. We booked a apartment that advertised it could host 20+ people. We showed up on Friday around 8:00 PM. We were unable to get in. We called and texted the host numerous times, to no avail. The keypad entry finally worked about 30 minutes later. During this time, a neighbor welcomed us by flipping us off when he saw us.

After getting inside it was clear the apartment hadn’t been cleaned: no sheets on beds, no toilet paper, trash bags, shampoo or other listed amenities. Again, we reached out to the host (still no response). There were seven glasses and four dishes, not a fully stocked kitchen as advertised. We had no other choice but to stay (since we had paid up front and we are broke college girls).

On Sunday night (we had rented through Monday) we were awakened by a uninvited guest who was able to get into the apartment. That’s correct: a man entered at midnight refusing to leave because he said he had rented the apartment and wasn’t going anywhere. Thankfully the neighbor who welcomed us with his middle finger jumped into action when he heard the commotion and literally kicked him out for us.

Airbnb is slow to respond and has wasted hours of our time, and the host is now threatening us if we leave a bad review, saying that he will tell Airbnb we were extorting him. We don’t need a refund. We need this shady apartment and host removed from the platform.