Should they pay? AirBnB nightmare

[NanFlanders]

My 18 yo DD and her friend have saved their wages from their PT jobs (at school) for a year to go to Paris for NYE. They booked an AirBnB (DD is autistic and wanted somewhere self-contained). When they arrived, the door of the flat wouldn't open. They called the owner who told them to be firm with the key - they tried this and the key broke off in the lock. They called the owner who became angry with them and told them they would have to pay, and that it would cost €1000 on NYE to get a locksmith. Things escalated and my DD's friend told the woman to "Fxxx off" (which obviously didn't help and I'm not excusing it) - though she did immediately send a Whatsapp message to her apologizing. At this point DD called me, as I speak some French, and I WhatsApped the owner to try to resolve the situation. She advised she couldn't do anything as she didn't live in Paris, "couldn't work miracles" and they should try a hotel. As you might expect, hotels in Paris on NYE were either extortionate or full or both. They called AirBnB who said they would help them get in the apartment that night - but didn't. Luckily they found beds in a mixed dorm in a hostel and are making the best of things, but today they have been sent a bill for £450 from Airbnb to pay for a locksmith. AIBU to suggest they should contest this? I feel they did as advised, were left in a very vulnerable position, are already out of pocket, and never even got into the flat!

I am sure you are contesting the bill so nothing more to add on this.

Please make it the last AirBnB you ever use, don't help to increase house prices and deny local people a home at a reasonable cost.

Don't get too hopeful - I had an Airbnb host make up things I'd broken after I left them an honest review (not even that bad, but the check in had been truly awful and stressful, so I mentioned that and a few other small things that I would have normally just ignored had it not been for the check in) and they believed the host over me (despite having a lengthy chat history with Airbnb support when I was trying to get in to the place that showed clearly they were lying about sending me an access code) for one of the broken items and as they have my card details they just took the money. Just a heads up that they might not be waiting for her to pay and will just take the money from her card or deposit, as they did with for the blind I broke that was already broken. They aren't as reliable with shitty hosts as they once were sadly.

@CatNoBag it does make me wonder if it is worth the risk at all. I don’t think anyone ever got a bill from a hotel chain for a locksmith or a broken blind!

Young girls shouldn't be going alone to AirBnBs. There are far too many safety issues.

Definitely don’t pay - go back to air bnb and also they should be refunding their entire trip costs. I had something a bit similar with them when I was asked to pay £500 for a damaged table in an apartment, I’d never used the table it was just obvious wear and tear. You just need to be consistent and in my case I said id be taking legal advice, it took a couple of weeks but they did back down.

Your poor DD, I feel very pissed off on her behalf.

OP Contest it. If any money has been taken for the booking or locks from your card do a charge back via the company.
I had to do this after arriving at an A BnB and discovering it was a gatehouse to a cemetery, having just lost a close family member it wasn't going to work for my holiday, so didn't enter the property.
The owner wasn't upfront in the description about this, and only one of the 56 photos showed a grave stone in one corner if you blew it up. I called her immediately she was abroad and refused to entertain sort of refund and was somewhat scathing about my reluctance.
I found somewhere else nearby - that in the first line of its description said it was next to a pub. (Should have pulled the covid card!)
A BNB agreed with me but she still refused.
Gave Amex all the info on my return, they did a full charge back - I would have been happy with half had she offered. I had used this card via PayPal. I learnt a lot from that experience, hope it helps someone else.

I did stop using them for quite a while after that, only recently cracked because they had so much more choice and better prices for a few recent trips so reluctantly returned to the fold for now. I'm even more careful when booking now though to background check the hosts etc, and have gone back to hotels if they're similar prices and convenience.

Also at least with hotels, there's nearly always someone on reception if there's a problem. We stayed in a flat recently (via booking dot com this time) and the duvet absolutely stank of BO 😷, not the bedding, the actual duvet. But what can you do when it's bedtime and there's no-one to hand to complain to? Luckily the place was hot as hades, so we could just do without...