To expect a full refund minus one night from this Air BnB host? Air BnB experts help please!!!

[Iamthemoom]

Booked an Air Bnb for 22 nights in London. Arrived to find that there were more omissions to the listing than facts. Described as 'lovely' and 'cosy', the flat was literally on a busy roundabout, very noisy, on the ground floor of a very dodgy block of flats which was in serious disrepair.

The door to the flat itself didn't close securely and the lock didn't work properly. It felt incredibly insecure and unsafe.

There was a terrible stench in the flat which they had attempted to cover with multiple air fresheners and plug ins. These gave DD such a bad headache and nausea we thought she might have a virus but this stopped within 5 mins of leaving the flat and she was fine.

Neighbours were very noisy and woke us in early hours banging and crashing about. There was a lot of antisocial behaviour in the block too.

We arrived super late last night so braved it but immediately messaged the host early this morning explaining the issues and that we can't stay somewhere unsafe with this awful smell for another 21 nights. We packed up and found a hotel for the moment.

As we had to pay upfront the full fee (around £2k) we asked for a refund minus the night we stayed. Host (which is a rental management company) is refusing claiming all the issues we mention are out of their control and no one else has complained (they have 5 reviews) and directed us to AirBnB resolution centre who say they are passing to a speciality team.

What are the chances Air BnB will side with us and refund?
We did take out the Air Bnb insurance - will that cover us if not?

You took a risk booking for so long with so few reviews

It sounds awful, but you paid less than £100 a night in London on a place with fewer than 5 reviews, surely you must have suspected it would be awful?

Hopefully the Airbnb insurance you have will cover it but I expect you'll have to pay a lot more for an alternative.

I'm a Air b&B host in London and it sounds very cheap ( less than £100/ night right?) so I prob would have been worried about what I'd get as as a guest. Which zone/area is this in? Was the location disclosed in advance?

That said Air b&B tends to side with the customer so you'll prob get a refund yes. The smell, the noise and the lack of security of the door sounds problematic.

@Popfull @SausageRoll2020 We've never used AirBnb before and the photographs presented a very nice flat. It's not in central London but in an area quite far out where we are working during this period.

I'd focus on the door not locking but your downfall may be not allowing the host to fix the problem before leaving and demanding a refund. I'd be surprised if you got a full refund tbh.

Gosh! How incredibly helpful! OP! Fire up your time machine quick!

I’m all ears for your advice 😂

Did you take photos / video of the broken lock etc

Yes and submitted them.

Yes you can say the photos don't represent the reality (take photos to demonstrate it) and take evidence of the door not shutting and any other issues. As others said it is rather cheap for London but you did say far out and not the nicest neighbourhood plus you tend to get longer stay discounts. I charge 2-3 times as much but my place is zone 1 and very nice neighbourhood.

Lead with the door not locking, everything else really is opinions on acceptable standards or at a push not as described but that’s a total security issue

I'm on Air B&B host forums and they do tend to side with the guest than the host from what I've seen on there, although I've never had any complaints or had bad guests to couldn't say from personal experience.

Hi, this sounds awful! I really hope you manage to find somewhere suitable for the rest of your stay. Unfortunately I'm not sure you'll get the resolution you want here. We had a bit of an Airbnb disaster a couple of years back (left in the middle of nowhere in a villa in Spain which had no power or water for 3 days of our 2 week holiday). We requested a refund for the 3 days we were without power and water but were refused and were just given a tiny token amount instead. The hosts (a management company) seemed incredulous that I'd requested the refund and thought I was being unreasonable with the amount I was requesting back. During the stay they did offer for us to leave early and refund us for the unused nights but we decided to stay as we would have been even more out of pocket, had to find somewhere available, pack up all our things etc etc when we only had a few nights left. Your saving grace here might be that you did actually leave so they technically could re-let it for the nights you had booked, in which case they would be unreasonable not to refund you. Really hope it works out for you!

Have you left a review and uploaded the photos on Airbnb site, it sounds bloody awful.

Yes the issue here was that you chose to stay although as a host I would have offered a partial refund if the guest chose to stay. You can't expect a full refund if you're still there unfortunately.

@Bunny44 IT certainly wasn't the cheapest flat in the area and it presented as one of the best. It is a LONG way out. We searched for a nicer area where the work is but the only available flats were in this adjacent not so nice area. We did research the area showing on the listing but they only gave the actual address after we paid so it was impossible to know how bad it would be. One minute walk either side is great.

Thank you for being helpful and hopefully the photos will do it but you can't photograph a smell so impossible to get across how bad it was!

It's London.

I don't think you can really complain that the flat was on a busy roundabout, there was noise outside, or the neighbours were noisy.

That's just life, and it always amazes me when people think they are entitled to a refund for things like this.

Also, £2k for 22 nights in London. £90 per night. It also amazes me when people pay for something cheap yet expect perfection and complain about it.

Not yet as we were hoping for a refund. Should we do that while Air Bnb are still considering the case? Or wait until it's settled?

Yes but according to what I've seen on the forums it looks like they tend to side with the guest on that one. Sounds like you've done everything you need to. Was it a damp smell?

You won’t be able to if a case is ongoing

You only get 14 days to review, don't let that period lapse.

As I explained it is WAY out and all flats in the area were around this price, plus the long stay discount so we were not expecting something unrealistic. Just a safe stay without being poisoned by a toxic stench! But thanks for being so helpful!

@Iamthemoom word of caution, do not threaten the host with a bad review if they don't refund as this won't go down well with Air BnB and could compromise the refund process.

I'm a host,on quite a few host forums. Air BnB mostly side with the guest no matter what, so if you get refused a refund keep trying.

The safety aspect of the door not closing is the key thing here. Stress 'safety' a lot. Did it have a key free main door? By law it should( as well as smoke alarms in every room) If it didn't again that's a safety issue.

Less than £100 a night is incredibly cheap anywhere, but especially London. It means the host is charging £85 a night as the rest is fees that go straight to Air BnB. But you should still expect a safe environment.

Don't threaten them with a bad review if you don't get a refund. This is the one and only sure fire way your review won't be published. Don't review now, it won't show up for 2 weeks anyway unless the host reviews you.

@Bunny44 Thank you. No not damp, very hard to pin down but a really rotten stench plus the air fresheners which were everywhere implying they knew it was uninhabitable with that smell.

Everyone saying it's our fault as it was cheap etc - it was a comparable price to other flats in the area and is way out of central London. We also got a long stay discount. And yes we realise exactly how stupid we are to get something without 100s of reviews (which none of the flats round here had), but we had to book something quickly in an area with very few Air Bnbs!