Thinking of Using Airbnb? Think Again.
If you’re thinking of using Airbnb as an alternative to a hotel, bed and breakfast, or other type of accommodation, I urge you to read this first.
Our Airbnb nightmare lasted four days and ruined my daughter’s college graduation weekend, as well as my mother’s 70th birthday celebration. Know the risks you’re taking before you use Airbnb.
I have been wrestling with my thoughts for the past year. Given some factors, including a recent, poignant conversation with a stranger, and some current articles I’ve read about Airbnb, I’ve decided to publish my story. This is bad news:
“When it comes to lodging, Waliszewski said that short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO could outperform hotels in the near-term as travelers attempt to avoid interactions with strangers.” –Travel and Leisure
I try my best to keep my website a positive place, however, it’s simply unbalanced and unjust for experiences like this to be dismissed and ignored for the sake of positivity. Just as I feel strongly when I enjoy a fabulous hotel, or restaurant, and want to share my experience with you, I feel compelled to tell you about this terrible experience in order to help you avoid a similar situation.
My family’s Airbnb encounter last year was hellish: a Hotel California-esque ordeal which no one should ever have to experience. Airbnb not only mistreated us during the time we were there, but afterwards, too. They firmly refused to provide a full refund. This should have been the least they could have offered as a gesture of apology.
I realize that this year’s college (and high school) seniors won’t have a graduation weekend at all, however, I want to make sure that if Airbnb stays in business, that as many people as possible are better informed about their ethics and protocol as a multi-billion dollar company.
What my family experienced during my daughter’s university graduation weekend was nothing short of reprehensible. I hope that telling you our story may help increase the probability that it never happens to anyone else in future.
NB: I am sure that many Airbnb hosts are honest, reliable, communicative, have clean rentals and take pride in being welcoming and helpful. However, given my experience last year, clearly there are some hosts that are the antithesis of these hosts. I feel that I need to highlight how disgracefully, and unfairly Airbnb handled our situation, during, and after our stay.
When we can Safely Travel Again~
Think of how clean you want your future accommodations to be: will you trust a company like Airbnb that has no oversight on how clean or safe their rentals are? Or will you stick with hotels that have certain procedures and protocol with which they must comply?
There is literally NO ACCOUNTABILITY with Airbnb. After reading my experience, I think you’ll be opting for hotels, too.
Thinking of Using Airbnb? Think Again.
How a Horrible Host and Airbnb Ruined a Very SpecialWeekend for my Family
A weekend we’d looked forward to for four years–my daughter’s graduation from Villanova University last May–was nothing like we’d imagined. Instead of the joyous weekend, family reunion and serendipitous celebration of my mother’s 70th birthday, we found ourselves in a filthy, and disgusting situation with no other place to go. It appeared that we had arrived at our accommodation unannounced, despite the fact that I’d booked over two months in advance, and had already paid in full.
Background on the Booking.
Exactly one year prior to the date of needing accommodation in the Villanova area, I attempted to book at minimum, two consecutive nights in the same hotel. This was the first available date to do so, and I managed to secure two rooms, however, when I tried to book the second night the next day, the hotels were already full.
If you’ve had a child graduate from university, I probably need not explain anything to you. However, given that there are over 60 universities and colleges in the Philadephia area, booking hotel rooms during graduation season is a major challenge. I never did manage to secure consecutive rooms in the same hotel, despite consistently checking, and waiting for cancellations.
Enter Airbnb
In early March, someone had mentioned Airbnb to me so I checked the listings and found an entire house for rent not too far from Villanova University. The reviews looked good, one even commenting on the cleanliness of the property.
Edit (June 1, 2020): due to many commenters stating that this must simply be my fault for not checking the reviews, maybe these visuals will help. The 14 reviews includes my 1 star review, so the ratings would have been even higher when I checked them.
These are two of the reviews I read. So for those of you saying I didn’t check the reviews, I guess I should also have known these were fake?
I booked the house on March 10th, and cancelled the two separate hotel reservations. I felt so relieved that we wouldn’t have to change locations, and I also extended our stay for two more days. This way we could have a mini family reunion/vacation. I was excited!
Communication with the host didn’t start out on too well. As per Airbnb’s suggested protocol, I messaged her immediately after I had booked, just to say hello, who was coming to her rental, that I was looking forward to the stay, and asked details about our arrival. I texted again 12 days later, to no avail. She responded another 12 days later, which was over three weeks after my first message. However, she still never answered my question about how to check in. Her response also goes against Airbnb recommendations to always message through Airbnb (which I had done.)
Check In
May 16th arrived and I messaged the host in the morning, but didn’t hear back, so I called later. I finally spoke to her and she said her parents would be at the home to let us in.
Her parents were there, all right. Her mother was hanging drapes (and we wondered why the last minute drape-hanging was happening.)
And her father was laying sod in the backyard. We felt like we were intruding, arriving while they were working in and out of the home. We didn’t say anything, hoping they would leave since most of us had arrived (my daughter had come with us, but she wasn’t staying there.)
Upon our arrival, we immediately noticed how dirty the floors were and smelled a very strong dog odor. All of us noticed; it wasn’t just my mother who is usually the first to see anything that isn’t immaculately clean, or smell something bad.
It was also hard to miss a huge flat screen TV on the couch (see photo above.) I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach, and it kept tightening in response to everything that I was seeing. In the back of my mind, I knew if this wasn’t going to work out, we had no other place to go. I spoke to the host’s mother about the dirty floor and the TV and she said that we could help put the TV back up. I just looked at my family in disbelief: was this really happening?
At this point, another person was in the house. A young teenager appeared, seemingly coming home from school. He didn’t acknowledge us, but walked through the house as if everything was normal (he seemed not to notice strangers were in the house.)
At this point, my whole body was starting to react to this bizarre situation as we started seeing more and more dirt, fur, hair and dust everywhere we looked. The windows looked as though they hadn’t been cleaned in years, and it became clear that we could not stay in these filthy conditions, especially since we had wanted to cook here.
I called the host since I couldn’t communicate with the host’s mother. Several times, she said things that made absolutely no sense. For example, “the food on the floor is from the comforter” and she brought a TV remote in from another room, and called it “the internet.”
I told the host over the phone that the house had not been cleaned, the floors were filthy, there was a TV on the couch, and many other issues. She sounded shocked, and said she was on her way.
At one point, the doorbell rang and my father opened it as we were all standing by the front door (we didn’t even want to sit anywhere.) I have no idea who it was, but he asked for the the host, and then said, “Oh never mind, I’ll come back another time”, and left. If you’ve ever seen The Twilight Zone, this could easily have been an episode.
Before the host arrived, we had done a quick inspection of the main floor and upstairs. Both floors were disgustingly unclean.
Even some sheets and mattresses were stained. There are simply too many photos and videos to upload all of them. Every room smelled, too, it wasn’t just the downstairs.
The Host Arrives
Without making assumptions about why the host wasn’t there to begin with, and why she said and did all the things she did, let me just say, she was not based in reality. She was absolutely taken aback about the fact that I said her house was filthy. She said she’d had a cleaning crew come in and clean it top to bottom! Clearly, the evidence all over the house showed that it couldn’t have been in the last six months or more! It was obvious that we weren’t going to get anywhere when I tried to show her how dirty the floor was, but she refused to look (I’m serious.)
She started to tell me a sob story about how Airbnb hadn’t reimbursed her for damage to her house from some past guests, and how she works hard and didn’t like how I was speaking to her. I told her that she just didn’t like what I was telling her, and tried to speak to her rationally. I attempted to make her understand that these things had nothing to do with me; the point was that her entire house was filthy, and not in any condition to be occupied. She was in denial, and seemed as though she honestly didn’t understand anything that I had said (no, there was no language barrier). It was as though she was not present, mentally.
Calling/Texting Airbnb
There was no other choice but to get Airbnb involved. My mind was blown by this woman who was telling me to my face that her house was clean. In fact, she went so far as to say the “upstairs is immaculate.” You’ve seen a few of the photos from upstairs, but here are a few more.
NB: I commend you if you’ve made it this far without getting physically ill from these photos, but I’m going to warn you, the worst is yet to come. So don’t go any further if you’ve just eaten a meal. I love sharing beautiful pictures, but seeing and uploading all these are making me feel sick all over again. This is so not me, it’s difficult to share these. Just THINK: Airbnb saw all of these photos and deemed that nothing was wrong: now that’s SCARY. In the end, after I fought and fought with them, they still made us pay 50%!
I barely had any battery left on my phone when I contacted Airbnb, so I asked them to call me back on another number, which they failed to do. Luckily, my phone had not yet died, and I started to explain my situation. I went outside the front door for privacy as I didn’t want the host to hear me tell the rep that her house stunk of dog in addition to the filth inside.
As soon as I divulged this to the Airbnb rep, the door flew open and the host reprimanded me, saying loudly, “My house does not smell of dog!” I told her that it was not okay to eavesdrop on my conversation, but clearly things were heading south.
Yes, I had tried to see if any hotel rooms were available, but it was a joke: everything had been booked for a year in advance. Note the time: we arrived at 3 pm.
I cannot write every single thing that transpired because it was incredibly drawn out. In a nutshell:
- I continued my communication with Airbnb over text as the call kept dropping. They said there was nothing else available and I needed to work with the host and allow her to have cleaners come in.
- I said there was no way they could clean the house in a few hours, due to how much needed to be done, but I finally agreed, given there were no other options.
- The host said her cleaner was in the driveway, but she was sending him away because she didn’t want him in the house with me since I wasn’t nice (!!!)
- Her father pulled out of the driveway right after this (her father was “her cleaner.”)
- She had someone else come over, saying he was her attorney. He stayed in the kitchen with her while she mopped one floor for over 30 minutes. At this rate it would take her over a year to clean the house.
- The rep at Airbnb said it was time for his break and left. I honestly couldn’t believe he just left.
- My entire family: mother, father, husband, and son left in my son’s car to go for a tour of Villanova University with my daughter while I stayed behind and tried to deal with Airbnb and the host from hell. I felt even more sick knowing I was missing out on this special time with my family that I would never be able to get back.
No Choice but to Stay
- I finally couldn’t take being in the house with them any longer as they were talking about the situation and how the house was clean, they had done nothing wrong, and talking about me, etc. The agent came back after more than an hour break.
At this point, I asked the host and her “attorney” to leave. All she had cleaned was one floor, which was probably the cleanest floor in the house. Now it was up to me to clean what we had to use, such as the bathrooms, kitchen sink, beds, etc. However, no matter what I cleaned, it wasn’t going to help the dog odor!
No one in my family was happy about the situation, but we all knew we had no other alternative. I felt the worst for my mother who is so meticulously clean, more than any of us. I felt like a failure, although I’d done nothing wrong.
The Backyard
I had to call the host as the backyard had a sprinkler going and was flooding a small area. The host’s father came back and turned it off. However, as my son was sitting out back reading on another day, he returned, just showed up in the backyard without any notification whatsoever.
Who knows how many times he came over as we tried to stay out as long, and as much as we possibly could. I was not happy that he felt he could just wander in whenever he wanted while we were there.
DiscoveringThe Degree of Filth in the House Using Airbnb
I am not exaggerating when I say the house was FILTHY. Just look. Can you imagine being told this is “immaculate?”
Cleaning the toilet literally made me gag. The only reason I did it was because I had to for my family. My mother would never have been able to manage the feat, and I was the only one left at the house at this point. I truly wanted to run away from this disgusting hell-hole and the entire situation, but where could we go with every hotel booked for miles around?
Absolutely nowhere. My daughter’s graduation ceremonies were being held the next two days and my husband and parents’ flights weren’t until Monday (and this was Thursday!) We were stuck here.
I would have considered sleeping in a car over this house, but we didn’t rent a car and my son just had a Honda Civic. Then where would we shower and dress? It was an impossibility.
Allow me to Show you the Kitchen
For those of you who don’t know, this is mouse poop. And it happens to be in a frying pan. How does that strike you? Can you believe that all these photos and documentation meant nothing to Airbnb? Let me show you more and we’ll get to that in a bit.
The back of the drawer. No clue what this is, but it shouldn’t be here. Everything was reprehensible.
See the photo below? That’s the inside of the freezer door. See the dog fur/hair? Yep, that’s in the freezer; not kidding. Remember, I can only show you some of the kitchen, and the house. There was so much more!
Want to see the dishwasher? Probably not, right?
Looked like these had not been used or cleaned in YEARS.
The microwave was revolting. Who am I kidding, everything was revolting.
Downstairs/Basement Using Airbnb
And finally, let’s take a walk downstairs to the basement. This is just a little part of the disgustingly dirty floor.
This wall is disgraceful.
Thank goodness we didn’t do laundry here. I’m adding a video clip below that I took downstairs.
My Mother’s 70th Birthday Celebration that Didn’t Happen
I already had a huge bottle of bubbly and planned on making Mum a nice dinner, buying a cake, and celebrating her 70th birthday with our family since her birthday was a week later. My family lives all over the US, so this was the perfect time to celebrate my mother’s special birthday.
Alas, there was no special dinner being made in that kitchen. No cake was going in that fridge. Proper restaurants were slammed with existing reservations due to the graduations, so we just popped the bubbly at my daughter’s house where everyone didn’t even have a seat, and that was it. The most pathetic 70th “birthday party”, ever.
Airbnb’s Lack of Successful Resolution and Pathetic Customer Service
I called Airbnb upon my return to Los Angeles, but even though they had all the documentation and photos (more than I’ve shared here), they refused to take into account the fact that we COULD NOT LEAVE. They stated that if we complained about the condition of the house, we should have left in order to receive a full refund! It was a vicious circle of me telling them there was no place to go, and Airbnb saying, if it was so bad, you should have left.
After weeks of spending valuable time on the phone and waiting for them to make a decision, they refunded 50% of my payment and offered a $100 towards a future stay! What a joke–after this experience? At minimum, a full refund should have been given, and that still isn’t even close to making up for our ruined weekend! No amount of money can fix lost and ruined time with family.
Also, I discovered that although the listing says the home sleeps 8 (with 4 beds), there are only 3 beds and one is a twin, so it only sleeps 5. It still has not been corrected. How does Airbnb monitor these listings? There is simply no accountability.
Here’s why Airbnb Failed Miserably~
- The fact that Airbnb absolutely refused to look at the facts and realize that there was literally nowhere for my family to go during those four days says a lot about the company. They are focused on making and keeping money, not doing the right thing, and providing good customer service.
- Airbnb didn’t take into account that we left the premises CLEANER than when we arrived. When has that ever happened? They also didn’t take into account our wasted time, and the time we spent cleaning.
- Airbnb also blamed the victim by saying that I should have allowed the host to have someone come to clean WHILE WE WERE THERE. When this woman had over two months to prepare for our arrival, it’s okay to have hours and hours of our time taken away when we should have come to a clean house in the first place? Why is the responsibility never laid on the correct shoulders anymore?
Graduation
Given that this year no one will be able to graduate in the manner shown in the photo above, I’m grateful that my daughter was able to participate in her ceremony. However, our weekend hardly went as planned, all due to some bizarre lack of planning on our host’s part. Had she hired a cleaning crew to do a major (and I mean, MAJOR) cleaning inside her house before our arrival, things would have turned out much differently.
Is my story not enough to dissuade you from using Airbnb?
Then maybe the thousands of other submissions on this site will be.Airbnb Hell
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Please share the word about my experience. Have you had a nightmare experience with Airbnb? Would you have done anything differently than me if you would have been in this situation? Let me know.
✧
Two Final Notes
- I never took one photo of my daughter alone in her cap and gown that weekend. I honestly think that the chaos, anxiety, and stress from staying in that horrible filth was the reason I just wasn’t thinking clearly. I’ve been a professional wedding photographer, and I shoot photos all the time. This is just not like me, and it breaks my heart that I didn’t get just one of her alone. This is a shot from the week before with her friends; Denisa is in the center.
2. On Monday, after leaving “Hotel California” (I cannot tell you just how wonderful it felt leaving that place), Denisa and I took my parents into Philadelphia. After having Philly cheesesteaks for lunch at Reading Terminal Market, I witnessed a pedestrian being hit in a crosswalk by an SUV. I got the license plate and gave it to the victim (luckily he wasn’t badly hurt.)
Within 5 minutes, I had my new iPhone (with graduation photos) stolen right out of my hand as we were walking down the street! My 83 year old dad started chasing the thief, and fell on the sidewalk, injuring his chin, chest and later his legs would become completely bruised!
I yelled, “Stop him, he stole my phone!” and someone actually did! I got my phone back, but not after the man who had been hit by the SUV tried to subdue the thief and also fell, injuring his hand quite badly. He had been waiting for the police to arrive. Meanwhile, my daughter took my dad inside a Dunkin’ Donuts as he thought he was going to pass out. I also got two photos of the thief right after getting my phone back! Sounds like a movie, no? This photo says it all: the aftermath.
Let’s just say, it wasn’t the best weekend we’ve ever had. Bottom line: avoid Airbnb, and be super vigilant in Philadelphia.
Stay tuned for a lemon granita recipe next time!
I promise it won’t have any horrible photos.
Airbnb is abusing its power. They are unethical and negligent. Only Airbnb is protected in the event of a bad booking. I had our host cancel on us hours before check-in. It was a party of 7 (including children) in another country with nowhere to stay. Airbnb took hours away from our vacation to find a solution. As you mentioned the time lost with family can’t be replaced. A few days after the first debacle we were traveling to another side of the island and upon checking into the new location it was disgusting. Here I was again on my vacation dealing with Airbnb for hours. We now had to move to another location and scrap most of our plans. I ended up paying extra for something that was falsely sold as newly remolded and still shows as that on the Airbnb site. I would consider this as false advertising and a bait-and-hook scheme. They try to have you re-book on your vacation on the day of check-in knowing quite well that prices will be much higher. It is sickening how Airbnb can continue to ruin people’s trips and have no accountability. I am still reading all their terms of service but so far it seems that they are protected but not the customer. There are zero quality standards and that is unacceptable. I would recommend not using Airbnb unless you want your trip to be hell. It would be great for customers to join forces and seek legal action against Airbnb.
Hear, hear, Sara!! I’m applauding you whilst standing! I concur, and say ditto to everything you have written! I am so incredibly sorry for what happened to you and your family and completely feel your pain. It is such a scam with Airbnb, but because people keep using it, there will continue to be hellish situations like yours and mine. I will be sharing your comment on Facebook to spread the word! Thank you!
I have had the same experience with a filthy RBB listing.
The host was as convinced as yours that her flat was clean, pretended she has videos of herself cleaning the night before I arrived (camera in the apartment ?!), and declared to AirBnB Support Team that my photos and videos are not from her listing.
AirBnB decided to side with her without further verification, refused to refund me, and closed my file unilaterally.
Browsing the net shows that this company thrives on false promises of regulations and help to guests, and always gets itself out of troubles since individuals like us are not knowledgeable about international laws to fight against AirBnB, and abandoned our cases.
Thousands of AirBnB victims could make a class action. Anyone knows how ?
Trang Dao.
I am sooo sorry that happened to you! An out and out scam, and she gets away with it! Horrible! That class action suit would be fantastic! Hopefully someone with legal knowledge will start it and I’ll happily join in!
Had the worst Airbnb experience recently and I deleted my account after 10 years of using them. They went from being a great company to a company that is only focused on the bottom line. During my last and final trip with Airbnb, I had no hot water and a host that wouldn’t fix the issue. Airbnb told me that since HOT WATER WASN’T ON THE LIST OF THINGS INCLUDED IN THE RENTAL THAT I WASN’T ENTITLED TO IT. I was more upset with AIRBNB”s attitude than even the host. In fact I got an entire email from them stating how I was not entitled to hot water. I cut my stay short by 2 weeks, packed my bags, came home and deleted my account. The company has no morality and not even a basic sense of human decency. They train their workers from the Philippines (who barely speak English) to read like automatons from a scripts to give thoughtless canned answers and their canned answers get worse each year.
Would be happy to share the email stating that I’m not entitled to hot water. People should see what they are potentially getting into.
Hi Elisa, I am SO very sorry for your experience, and sadly I can relate. I just wish more people would see this side of Airbnb and stop making them bigger and more rich every year. It’s awful, they have zero accountability. I’m glad you added your comment here, will dm you to discuss the letter. Thank you, CC
I’m so sorry this happened to you: it was an abysmal failure of both the host and the customer service person and the company.
I’m not going to try and convince anyone to change their mind about AirBnB if they have had an awful time. I will just share that I was a top rated host for several years and have traveled many times to various cities and multiple countries with AirBnB. I have had excellent experiences and made friends of both my guests and my hosts: travel experiences that were 1000% different than the awful time you had. It’s a shame that the company has gotten (it seems) so big that they cannot guarantee quality, service, and fair financial dealings when a local host turns out to be a nightmare. I’m truly sorry. May you continue to travel and have lovely experiences (in hotels!)…Christine H., from Chicago
P.S. I came to your site ECSTATIC to discover recipes for British biscuits! I’m so excited to make them for my English friends, the next time I visit them in the London suburbs. Thank you!!!
Thanks, Christine. I do realize there are mostly good experiences on Airbnb, but I refuse to support the company after my experience.
On a much happier note, so happy you’ve discovered my biscuit recipes! I recommend the custard creams first! :)
Hi Chris so sorry that’s horrible. We had an experience with Airbnb and a Host from hell! We spent $5000 from the 7/28/22 through 8/2/22. The home wasn’t as dirty, but it was dirty there was black curly hair all over in the both bathrooms and throughout the home, and dust and dirt everywhere. The downstairs that we weren’t allowed to use although it said entire home, would’ve helped with luggage space because there was 1 closet that was tiny for all usage he had sheets and blankets and everything in this thing taking up so much room. He threw everything in that closet. The couch was very old and didn’t have any padding and it was really dusty, the couch had dusty shelves so when he sat down the dust would fly everywhere. No one had cleaned this in along time. I actually dusted around everything but left the music box that didn’t work very well, the speakers didn’t sound good, cracking sound we didn’t use them. Our Super Host had told us it was a specific system to limit showers to 10 minutes or a alarm would sound which we thought 10 minute increments, but it’s over all usage making it impossible to get ready or do things with water properly it was so insane not described well. It had big doors that opened up to the pacific that part was fabulous! There are other homes the same area bigger nicer without these water issues. The gourmet kitchen that’s not gourmet had Mismatched cookware broken knives ext. No real cooking stuff it made it impossible to cook. He had so many different coffee makers it was laughable. I told him coffee was very important to me. None of them were modern they were old percolators or French press wasted so much coffee. The only one that worked well was a very tiny one small cup. When I first pulled up in the dark in extreme fog in his driveway very small. He had a large low boulder that lined the front driveway! In the photos there’s no boulder, so you’re not expecting to have a boulder that has edges hanging into the driveway. It scratched my vehicle. I pulled up very carefully because it was on a steep incline. Who puts a boulder in front of their driveway! It’s already a tiny space. You must park perfectly or your back end will stick out into the very tiny road. If you have a bigger vehicle like mine it’s a hazard, and he shows a Porsche in the photos a smaller one. No boulder so you’re not expecting it and there is no description about the boulder. I literally had to clean everything before I felt ok. If we used 11 minutes of water it was insanity! Who wants water problems that ridiculously and it wasn’t described properly until after the refund situation would not be allowed! These issues ruined the trip. I was not relaxed having my car damaged made it awful the very first thing that happened. No help! Host didn’t care and there’s no sign or reflective strips on this thing you cannot see it. You can’t see 2 feet in front of your face. I have a 2021 RS blazer fully loaded hot red with black trim it’s such a beautiful car. I was getting thumbs up in Cannon Beach it beautiful. I always get compliments on my car. Now I have to fix it because the host refused to even pay my $500 deductible! Which would mean I would use my insurance and my premiums could go up. After his rude behavior having obstruction in his driveway is absolutely illegal. In all 50 states it says you can not block your driveway. To where it causes damage to a vehicle or blocks the driveway. Airbnb has done absolutely nothing. They’ve allowed the host to say horrible things about me, like you’ve been warned to other hosts and to break out the Sage, as if I’m some sort of demon because I wanted a clean space and paying $5000 for this space that was as small as a suite only it was smaller it was just shaped differently. Beautiful windows and fortunately they were clean but when you open them all the bugs came in because there’s no screens that you can utilized it’s hot. There were things in the basement when we had to go down and turn off this water alarm. Huge spiders the size of a thumb! Ugh. I was like I hope those do not come upstairs. I was cleaning things on my vacation. I shouldn’t have to do that. I couldn’t relax. My spouse and my son were definitely trying to make it better because they knew that it bothered me. I am a very clean person. I hate walking into a space where the floors and everything has to be cleaned because other peoples hair is left there and dust and dirt everywhere. The host had all of these great reviews. He did answer back quickly but he was really rude, saying stuff to my husband after asking how to turn off the alarm we were nice! He actually said this isn’t the four seasons, we could just cancel we could go somewhere else. He basically threatened to kick us out because we were upset about the car and the dirt and the problems. Getting new accommodations would be impossible because everything was already rented out! I am going to go ahead and go through my insurance company and have them go through his homeowners insurance company and my husband is a lawyer so it will make things a little smoother. However we will not get a refund from Airbnb because they don’t care about their guests! They care about their hosts more than they care about their guests! I thought without the guest there would be no hosts! I tried to put up a review that emphasized all of the issues that were absolutely true. Airbnb took it down. Glad partial the host was utilizing it to be rude to me and implying that I hurt his Boulder rather than his boulder scratched my vehicle. It was insane! He literally said that you saw it and you just ran into it for some reason. I thought yes that’s exactly what happened. I wanted to ruin my new car that cost $66,000. I love doing that. (Sarcasm) however I was not rude with the host not ever. I asked ? He got rude over the closet. When I asked about repairs to my car due to his negligence he was so mean. I actually asked him if we could resolve this and that hopefully everything would be ok. That he could you know do this because the boulder shouldn’t be there or there should be an explanation to warn people that it’s there and that edges stick out, and to be careful pulling in a tiny driveway so that you don’t actually hit it and the cameras on my vehicle unfortunately in the dark in the fog could not see the boulder. It sits too low and the edges stick out like a curb. Unfortunately it happened. I am so glad I was careful it’s a few scratches not a dent! This boulder has a lot of scratching on it u can see green and some other colors from other cars. I was not the first person who has hit it in the dark. You can see it in the day but you cannot see it in the dark. The rest of the nonsense I could put up with. I cleaned we went out to eat we could look at the ocean because it did have great views and it was a great location however the house was not as fabulous as he makes it out to be he says it’s a award winning modern Shangri-La fit for James Bond. He wrote as u walk up the steel staircase it’s like stepping into a spaceship. Lol. The rusty staircase! He also stated that every home in the area was on the same septic system however we spoke with the neighbor who is an author a famous author and she laughed and said no we’re taking pictures of his property because he’s not in line with the HOA people. We had two different photographers come to the property while we were there which is not ok, one of them tried to come in because the vehicle was gone. I was there but my car wasn’t so she thought we were gone and tried to come inside. I was like are you kidding me. People taking pictures of the property and him having someone he had come by try to enter the home! There is supposed to be a fire pit but it is so bad and not regulated that you can’t start a fire there. Unless you want to burn up the entire weed filled yard! Looks like grass in photos but it’s all different now. Even the wood on the outside is warped compared to the old photos that he took when it was first built and beautiful. From him implying that I just rammed into his boulder and that he hoped his boulder was OK from him calling me a demon and eating sage to be broken out because he didn’t agree with my review was just rude and insane I’ve never dealt with a host like him I have stayed at so many places through Airbnb and I’ve been happy with them and they’ve been happy with me plus nothing was personal. He made it very personal because he thinks his place is an award-winning modern Shangri-La and it’s not. And he describes it that way and you think you are going to be stepping into luxury but you’re not. You’re stepping into a kitchen that is supposed to be designed to cook in that doesn’t have the right pots and pans Nothing mixes together they’re broken knives that don’t work right there’s no pans to cook vegetables in because they’re not big enough to just Craziness going on. I guess some of his other guests don’t care about the water or they take one in the morning and have someone take one in the evening because that’s basically how that works. You can’t all get ready at the same time which is ridiculous. I can’t even take turns because it’s 10 minutes overall usage so if somebody takes a 10 minute shower or limited to 10 minutes like he has and then flushes the toilet the alarm will go off so we had to be super careful. Anyways Airbnb is not gonna refund anything and they are definitely not going to take care of my vehicle issue they keep saying they’re upgrading it to another person but I haven’t heard from anyone! It’s absurd! I wish more people knew about Airbnb not being involved with the actual upkeep of a property or how their host behave because the conversations that I had with the host were really questions and about my vehicle and he made it out to be more than it was and he turned into a very rude individual. We continue to be nice throughout because we are nice people. And he just kept being crazy and you snide comments and I couldn’t even stomach it anymore I just it was making me sick. I don’t like chaos! I couldn’t even speak to him on the phone my husband had to and he insulted him as well and my husband is a captain in the Navy and a lawyer and deserves respect he’s a vet for crying out loud! This man has no respect for anyone! He does not care about his guess. If he did he would’ve said you know what you’re right I need new pots and pans and I could get a knife block they’re not that expensive he’s cheaping out on everything. That makes for a horrible trip! His boulder protects his deck but it impedes the driveway!
I’m so sorry about your terrible experience. When I first purchased my home two years ago I never heard of air B and B. Cut to two years and I have 6 homes around me being rented out on air bnb. The worst is the home in the back of me- constant noise, unruly children and barking dogs at my dogs. I live in a mountain resort and all the homes sit on top of one another. The locals are all quiet and respectful of their neighbors. Not the air bnb renters. I’ve looked to sell but there’s no where for me to purchase a new home as the investors are buying up all these properties and turning them into air b and b’s and inflating the housing market up here over 200 percent. I’m on a fixed income and have severe disabilities. This was to have been my forever home. Now I get stressed out all the time wondering each week what disrespectful guests will be here. Also I did inform airbandb that one of the homes was not properly licensed and was illegally letting their home. They did not care.
I am so sorry to hear this, Kim. Stories like yours are being told all over the world. Something must be done at some point to keep them in check. It’s a horrible situation. Good luck to you.
Similar experience for us. Rented a house in San Clemente . Filthy, broken furniture, burned out light bulbs, deep cracks in the walls with ants pouring in! When we complained , I was told I was too picky, that this is what you get for that price in San Clemente! Airbnb never answered my complaints.
Another friend of mine rented an Airbnb. Not only was it dirty but they found a hidden camera! They left immediately!
I hate to hear these stories, Connie. Airbnb is an absolute bottom-feeder of a company. It’s so sad that they are constantly rewarded for this behavior and nothing is being done.
Thank you for sharing. This sounds traumatizing. It’s too bad that you trusted Airbnb and the host, only to be treated so poorly. I had a similar experience recently and I’m still trying to process it.
Beyond the experience, the worst part to me is that there are no consequences for the host, and Airbnb still has my money and they are a multi-billion dollar company doing this to others every, single day and there are zero consequences for them as well. Quite sickening, and I’m so sorry to hear you had the same type of experience. :(
Thank you for show and tell, I was researching and now I will take a hard pass on the AIRBNB thing. OMG you had such bad experiences, and at such a critical time juncture. I did finally have to giggle at some of the stupid things you were hearing from the people there, it defies logic! Wow, Amazing all the misadventures you had even after… Sorry it went so bad, but at least you will NEVER forget this trip/time. Hopefully someday you can look back and laugh, may be a long while though. We have had much travel experience(overseas and here) and some of the trips were like yours, one thing after another, dumped without tickets/airplane foreign country, reservations that were cancelled for no apparent reason, so I get it totally, and now I can laugh but at the time…nope. Anyhow, you have cleared up my confusion and now I know I will not choose the Airbnb route.
I’m glad you don’t have to take a chance of having something like this happen to you, Donna. It’s horrible. Good luck on finding your accommodations. :)
Thank you for sharing your experience. I had a bad Airbnb experience as well.
In my case, Pablo’s rental in Quito, Ecuador is not as it appears on the Airbnb ad. It’s humid, has mold/fungi, and was dirty. (More than the rental Christina paid for.) The landlord (no euphemism “host”) has three positive reviews from his friends or yoga-students.
I’m still working on my refund which has been going on for a month. Besides the refund, Airbnb Co. ought to pay me some money for alerting them about Pablo’s fake reviews and his rental which is a health-hazard.
All correspondence to/from Airbnb is in a pdf that I’ll send to the Dept. of Tourism, to whomever is in charge of sanitation, to hotelier association, and to the Airbnb HQ. I want my money back and, also, alert local authorities and interest groups.
No one cares, and that is the problem with Airbnb. They only care about their own bottom line. I hope you get your refund, Marcela.