Airbnb review - unnecessarily harsh?

[Queenbouffant]

Long time lurker, first time poster so gentleness please.

I would like some perspective about a situation I find myself in.

I went on a big family trip abroad recently and for our final stay, had booked an amazing apartment on the beach. It wasn’t cheap (£300 a night) for 3 adults so we wanted to end the trip on a high.

Everything was booked & paid for in advance, but up to check in received no book in details, even though I had conversations with the owner via message about confirming the booking and confirming payments. I queried with the company (Airbnb) who said to give it some time and the owner should respond to my questions. When we arrived at the address still no check in details and we were wondered we were going down the scam route.

Eventually after a few calls with Airbnb, they gave me the owners number, who I had to call about getting in to the apartment.

The owner had no knowledge of what was going on but let us in to the apartment which wasn’t ready. A few things needed cleaning and what not. We weren’t impressed but brushed it off as a genuine mistake and that was the end of it.

The owner came back the next day when I was out and asked my 70 year old mother in law to come in and get my mobile number. She was reluctant to give it out so took his number instead. The issue was he said we hadn’t paid for the trip. We had.

When I got back I double checked bank statements and everything was legit on the booking website. I phoned him on my MIL’s mobile (didn’t have roaming for the country on mine) and he asked for lots of personal info like my full name, email, etc etc said I had to email him all my bank statements, booking confirmation etc etc and sort it. I told him I had paid for the trip, it was all confirmed on the booking end, and suggested he get in touch with the booking company to get his payment. I did give him the confirmation ID to track the payment. I said we were trying to enjoy an end to the holiday and this wasn’t my problem to sort. He hung up and we heard no more from him, so assume he got his payment.

Fast forward to review time, I left a review saying the property was lovely etc etc and would recommend the apartment BUT we had such a stress checking in and would recommend you check twice the property is actually booked. I also said the owner was lovely when we arrived but he came back the next day asking about payment which made my MIL a bit anxious.

I have since had a reply from the owner saying the review is not fair and it generates bad income AND he texted my MIL’s phone the same message, saved from when I rang him. She rang me last night, again, quite anxious about it.

I tried to complain to the booking company but received no response.

I am now questioning if my review was fair or if his behaviour was a bit dodgy.

i’m struggling to make head nor tail of your OP tbh

you booked and paid through air bnb

and you didn’t get any details

🤔 not the air bnb i use

The owner had no knowledge of what was going on huh?

If you told the truth then YANBU. I would be less than impressed to rock up to holiday accommodation that wasn't ready and have to sort out admin on my holiday. If it was a blip between him and the company, then he can add that to his answer to your review. He shouldn't be hassling you about it now OP, in fact he should be apologising.

We have used Airbnb quite a few times and I am not sure how this could happen though? Unless he has some sort of mental impairment?

I did get details, I got all the property details address etc. just needed to wait for the check in details on how to get in to the property, given 24 hours beforehand

I think your review was fair

Owner needs to work out why someone was able to book without him being aware

This did lead to a less than ideal experience for you and it’s fair enough to say so

It’s also obviously far from ideal for the owner so he needs to get it sorted!

Did he admit he had been paid in the end? Or is he still waiting for money?

Seems a tad harsh if he was genuine, but annoying on both sides for AirBnB messing up

why weren’t you communicating via air bnib?

She booked and paid, owner didnt get the booking through or (it seems) any money, and there was a mess up when getting there.

She put that on the review, though also said accommodation was fine. Owner not happy.

There’s a lot of Airbnb scams where someone who doesn’t own the property lists it, and the actual owner has no idea when people show up.

If that has happened here; and he got it ready and let you stay anyway, it seems remarkably harsh to leave a review like that. Likewise if it was somehow a failure on AirBnBs part, and the info didn’t get through.

Has the owner been paid yet?

I’m struggling to understand why you’d believe him to such an extent that you’d send bank statements to prove you’d paid, but not enough to not mention it in a review.

The review seems balanced and a true account of your experience so you ANBU.

but it was all supposedly via air bnb

which is crystal clear once booked and paid for

The review sounds more generous than I’d be feeling in your shoes, OP. I would get your MiL to block his number on her phone, tell him to keep communication via the AirBnB platform and that you will not respond to messages sent any other way and put an official complaint in to AirBnB if you haven’t already.

I have had a couple of AirBnBs fail to give check in details in a timely way and it is kind of stressful and really sets the stay off on the wrong foot. It almost always seems to be because they present the business as being run by a dedicated local who really cares and puts their heart and soul into it (and you can’t really blame people for presenting that front, because consumers love it) but really it’ll be a family scrambling to make a bit on the side without actually having the wherewithal for business and consistency or a loose network of agents fronting for the owner and not really knowing what’s going on.

I didn’t send any bank statements. When he asked for them that’s when alarm bells rang and I suggested he sort it out all with the booking company. I merely confirmed the payments had gone through and what booking code I was given for the property

Owner can reply to your review on AirBnB can’t he? Which future bookers can see?

If I was him I’d write a reply saying something like “Apologies, there was a glitch with AirBNB’s systems so I wasn’t getting notifications of bookings/payments, but this is now sorted so future bookers won’t have this issue.”

Block him on your mum’s phone in any case.

I found this odd too! The owner said he hadn’t received any of my messages leading up to the check in and said he had no knowledge of the booking on his end, so no way to contact me

Not possible on airbnb. Perhaps he pays someone to manage the rental who didn't do their job properly or he is just incompetent. But if the booking was confirmed on airbnb then he would have known about it. Complain to airbnb, they are usually pretty good at responding.

had conversations with the owner via message about confirming the booking and confirming payments.

Did you not show the owner those messages?

This was the bizarre thing, it was all very clear once booked and paid so we were surprised to receive no check in details 24 hours beforehand and the owner was equally baffled about who we were

This is a you problem

this is all very weird

as surely you were communicating via air bnib

what did the other reviews say? what’s the listings rating?

I told him when I phoned him that I had messages from him and he didn’t say anything about that

If it was a scam listing, OP’s review would have been left against the scam listing, not against the real one so I don’t see how it could have been that sort of situation.

The other reviews were fine, albeit sparse