Anyone taken Airbnb UK to small claims court?

[Phito9999]

If you have, did you claim against Airbnb or the host? The issue is long & dull but I've run out of patience with their resolution department and have not accepted their offer which was full of factual inaccuracies. I think I would be better off claiming through the court. I know I might lose and that would cost more but I'm willing to do that. I just want to make sure I get the paperwork/online application right.

@KrisAkabusi

I think you're lucky to be offered anything! You used the service for the agreed timespan. If you'd left you could have argued for costs incurred, but you didn't have any.

This. The 50% refund is generous.

You stayed there.

You can take 50% now, or take them to small claims court and likely be awarded 0%.

If you had needed to find alternative accommodation that would be entirely different, but like everyone else has said, because you stayed there the full 4 nights then a 50% refund is very generous. AirBnB are not known for their refunds/customer service!

Air B&B policy is clear that if there are any issues involved with the accommodation upon arrival you are entitled to a 100% refund, even if you stay the fist night, to allow for people who arrive late or need time to arrange alternative accommodation.

If you choose to stay for the full stay you are not entitled to a refund as by staying you are accepting the issue.

It’s the same as if you were in a restaurant and the meal wasn’t well cooked, you can send it back or refuse to pay/ask for your money back, but you can’t eat it all anyway even though it’s badly cooked and still expect it for free.

AirB&B are being generous offering you a 50% refund.
The small claims court will only be interested in the T&Cs, not your offence or outrage, you need to take a step back and look at it less personally,
I say this as someone who takes everything personally and gets incredibly outraged by these kind of things.

Did the faulty lock make that much of a difference to your trip? Also, if it did make much of a difference, why didn’t you just leave? I get that it’s really galling but these are the sorts of things that they may take into consideration.

I wouldn't have stayed if I couldn't lock myself in. Was there just one door? Could you have locked the front door from the outside and then used another entrance?

I had a good experience with their complaints process. Are they not accepting your claims, not offering appropriate compensation? Set out exactly what the problem is and the amount you expect (i'm sure you have already). After my bad experience with a host, i will only book with "super hosts" from now on, the rest can be cowboys.

I used to support people through a specific court process. And I used to ask them, "what do you want?" I did support a woman who was definitely going to lose and I told her that. When I asked the question (she was morally in the right but not legally or financially) she said, "I want to waste their time and make them unhappy". Fair enough. She did just that and bought me a plant as a thank you.

If OP wants to inconvenience then more than she wants money, fair enough.

But we can safely say that it seems to be the OP is bearing the stress of the claim Air Bnb won't stress over a minor sum as it is simply not personal to them.

I can assure you Airbnb will not be unhappy or inconvenienced in anyway by a small claims case. The best you can hope for is they think it isn't worth their while working on it so just give a full refund to avoid it going to court but apparently for OP its not about the money so presumably this wouldn't be satisfactory for her.

The host might be dragged in as a co-defendant though. Which is the real target of OP's ire.

If you were so at risk of being attacked or murdered then why did you stay there for 4 days?

My parents turned up at an air b&b once which was disgusting. They were only booked for 2 nights so got in the car and came straight home. They showed air b&b the pictures and got a full refund without issue. I suspect if they had stayed they wouldn't have been entitled to anything because they would have used the service.

Take the 50% offer and leave a review about the lock.

Sorry to say but echoing pp - because you stayed for the duration then they could counter with ‘if you felt unsafe/the property wasn’t appropriate why did you stay for the full duration’ etc. You could still try of course but I think it would be challenging.

Taking them to the small claims court and losing won’t make them fix the issue or stop ripping people off, it will just cost you money and you’ll most likely end up with £0 refund.

If that’s the outcome you want, go ahead - of not then take the 50%, which is far more likely to make them fix it by not wanting to risk it happening again.

how you did that, airbnb has stolen 300pounds to my partner, and it seems that we cant do nothing ...they even owe him a credit....they can do whatever they want ? and they your money that easy :(

@Phito9999

Your claim is against who you paid.

It’s worth having a look at Air b&b’s terms of service, which say that your contract is with the host and not them. “ Airbnb is not and does not become a party to or other participant in any contractual relationship between Members. Airbnb is not acting as an agent for any Member except for where Airbnb Payments acts as a collection agent as provided in the Payments Terms.”

I also agree with what others have said above. Even if your contact was with Air B&b I wouldn’t say that your prospects in a small claims court would be good. You would probably be better accepting their offer and drawing a line under it.

(Not a lawyer!!)

@Cascascascas - this thread is from March. Looks like @AYMA is asking the OP how they made a claim in the SCC.

What monetary loss did you actually suffer?
That's the only thing you can claim for.

I had exactly the same case with a basement flat in Gloucester Rd London. I wonder if you made the SCC claim and what the outcome was? I’ll be really grateful if you share please.

Can I ask the address to where you sent the claim?