Airbnb money grabbers

[Toetapper]

Airbnb hosts: Would you consider the following grounds for a refund?

The property was situated opposite a very noisy outdoor bar. I recorded 80db at 10pm at night, and I have videos to share. This was just the sound of the revellers - it was much louder with the music. The bedroom window on the top floor didn’t close, and so the noise was exceptionally intrusive. The property had not been adequately maintained. The listing does not reflect how the property looks now. Most indoor plants are dead. The garden was unusable, as it was dirty. We found a hair on the loo seat, a chip in the oven, mould on the window, and old laundry piled up. The windows were very dirty. Walls were scuffed and dirty. Decoration used for staging the property were taken down, leaving bare walls. The property is not adequately provisioned. We could not find the hair dryer. There was no washing up liquid, no bottle opener and just a handful of mugs. We complained as soon as we arrived, please check.

So, we spoke to Airbnb as soon as we got there. They didn’t resolve. The host declined to help. Said it was our fault for booking it as we should have known about the bar?! I disagree, and think that a/ he should have been honest about it, and b/ should have taken steps to mitigate noise for a comfortable stay. Instead not only was our bedroom window a rotting single glazed window, it wouldn’t close!

Offered a £300 ‘refund’ for our £1100 three night stay, but only if we vacated right away… assuming so he could rent it out again and pocket the £800 it would have cost us for the one night.

It’s now with Airbnb for arbitration, but I’m not holding out much hope. Any advice?

Got to be London?
Not acceptable at all e.g windows not closing is enough alone to warrant dissatisfied customers

If I had a photo of a pile of laundry i would absolutely share it in here rather than the books

I got the names wrong

yes you were correct
it was 3 nights!

Airbnb have offered a £300 refund. Just waiting to hear on what grounds they made their decision. This is much better than the ‘£300 if you pack your bags’ offer we had from the hosts at the start of our stay.

I'm a host, I mention explicitly annoying factors in an email as soon as people book (for example 1 property hasn't got a kitchen, it's more of a guest suite so I email stating this, another has steep stairs, I email mentioning this too). If I were them I'd say in advance "our property is bang in the middle of a bustling city with great nightlife on your doorstep, therefore you should expect some noise". Equally, I do think it's worth checking the location on Google maps, I always do and assume any bars locally will be super noisy, so we always go suburbs. I'd say 50/50 on this rather than it all being their fault.
The only part I think I'd see as unreasonable is the garden being "dirty" - it's outside, we do wipe our patio furniture but it could've been cleaned a couple of days before your arrival, and outside does do it's own thing, sometimes just hours before arrival.
Laundry, mould, dead indoor plants and unclean inside is not ok - you should definitely get your cleaning fee refunded Because it's not clean.
There's no requirement to have a hair dryer or washing up liquid, but if they're advertising it then it should be there - what does the listing say here?
I fully host and clean my three properties, all on our own land - I'd avoid any agency run, or co hosted properties, some are great but some clearly aren't and it's purely financial for them whereas I love my little homes and take care of them to ensure they're in great repair etc. Also when you say reviews are great, I'd see a 4 star review as negative and I'd never stay anywhere lower than 4.75 average - so are they actually air bnb great (4.8 plus) or are they real world great (anything above a 4 on, say, trip advisor is good).

I am a host, mostly direct bookings but I list one of mine on Air.
I do think it should be mentioned if a holiday let is in a particularly noisy area, specially given that the exact location is not always provided before a booking is confirmed (in my case anyway).
The place should be clean and in good order.
Were all of the legal bits and pieces correct (fire safety, carbon monoxide detector (if required), yale style locks etc...).

Is it really “much better”?

looks like you walk away with £300 having “endured” the remaining time (only a 3 night stay in total!) and £300 is what the owner offered you. So Airbnb are backing the owner

so what’s the difference?

All that “oh I wish I could post videos”

hit by the sounds of it you took loads of photos and the only one you decide to share is one of a few books

a little telling! 😆

Not a host but been in a similar situation. When we turned up to the air bnb it was horrifically unclean, not what the picture's showed at all.

We didn't stay though, put the keys back and booked a Hotel. The hosts were terrible, didn't even respond to our message but airbnb were great, refunded us the full amount.

The disappointing thing for us was, the hosts just cancelled the booking so we couldn't leave a review which was frustrating but we did get a full refund from airbnb.

Maybe it’s not always noisy?

I am an airbnb host OP.

I think the noise is a separate issue to what sounds like a dirty and unkept place.

I manage the properly myself with an excellent cleaner. I would be appalled to hear such feedback from guests.

The books mean nothing and airbnb won't take them into consideration.

Your angle should be the broken window, state of garden and lack of hygiene. Photo evidence is crucial. If it was that dirty, I wouldn't be staying there.

So I assume you want a discount because of the noise.

That is how it works. You got a refund, you don't get to leave a review.

Honestly, for every bad host, there are plenty of bad faith guests.

I cannot express how meticulously I run my airbnb, take such great care and make sure it's thoroughly cleaned between guests, deep cleaned monthly etc.

Yet, every now and then there will be a small complaint, latest were ants on the balcony. We are in a hot Southern European capital and insects are to be expected, there was no infestation, just the usual June smatterings of tiny ants. I am mindful of chemicals because we often have kids stay. Nevertheless, we went promptly round to put some more diatomaceous earth. The amount of ants were laughable on this huge terrace. Anyway, we received a message threatening a bad review unless we discounted because of the ants OUTSIDE

This is one example of bad faith guests whose intention is to get a discount through threatening a bad review. They will look for the smallest thing to obtain this discount. Thankfully, airbnb are very good at dealing with this and understand the genuine vs the chancers.

My main issues were the noise avd the fact that it wasn’t properly maintained / didn’t accurately represent the photos. I took a photo of the books as it was galling to pay a lot of money for a substandard service. As a PP states, there are lots of hosts who take pride in their service (and aren’t JUST) in it for the money - ie, they like to meet guests from other countries, cultures etc… This has been our experience so far on Airbnb - lovely places, and a good experience overall.

I would have loved to not stay at the property, but we’re not made of money, and as the host only offered a £300 refund to vacate, that wasn’t possible. Our only route was to complain after getting home, when I had the time and energy to do it - after enjoying the weekend as planned.

Thank you to the hosts who have replied and helped me realise that I’m not going mad and that our hosts should have done better.

You said you had “lots of pictures” of Most indoor plants are dead. The garden was unusable, as it was dirty. We found a hair on the loo seat, a chip in the oven, mould on the window, and old laundry piled up. The windows were very dirty. Walls were scuffed and dirty. Decoration used for staging the property were taken down, leaving bare walls.

but zero posted despite being desperate to post a video, other than one of a few books! 😆

So no photos of the laundry piled up? Then unusable garden? The indoor dead plants and filthy windows?

Take the £300 that the owner offered and Airbnb have supported

We have used airbnb many a times and can honestly say, the places we have been to other than this one have been absolutely outstanding. I generally prefer them to a hotel.

This particular one, was so horrible though, they deserved a bad a review to prevent others been put in that situation. We are fortunate enough that we could afford to book into a hotel before getting a refund through airbnb but others may not be.

Agree though, that you will always get some guests trying to get a discount so it's good that airbnb know the people trying to chance it.

Some of the stuff people whinged about in that series, was it '4 in a bed' where they stayed and reviewed each others properties, the reasons for reductions sometimes just seemed ridiculous.

This has been our experience so far on Airbnb - lovely places, and a good experience overall.

and it would seem this has been the experience of every other person who reviewed the property too

You keep referring to the garden as 'dirty'? Can you elaborate on that a little? Gardens are outdoor spaces that are not going to be sanitised. There's going to be some form or other or dirt in gardens. That in itself does not stop anyone with a garden from using it.

Given that the OP hasn’t posted photos of the alleged mould etc, she sounds like a chancer who fancied a discount off her holiday. But hard to water plants etc when guests are occupying the property

I’m a host and maintain my property to a very high standard, and have has zero complaints in 3 years of hosting, but I have had guests who stole items, snuck in extra guests (effectively stealing from me), and damaged items without admitting to it

OP: bear in mind if that is the case and you have been looking for faults, the hosts are likely to have this £300 taken from their payouts. Fair enough if there was a genuine issue, but really poor behaviour if you were just fault finding because you feel you overspent

Really wondering if this whole thread is her justifying it to herself as we’ve not seen evidence of the issues!

Yep. This is why I don't use AirBnB.

@Blinkagain what is your problem? Why do you care so much about what photos the OP has put up on Mumsnet??

Weird 🙄

The property sounds like shit and not a relaxing weekend away at all.

@thrive25 Why do you need to see evidence? Get over yourself. And many congrats on having a successful AirBnB - no one actually cares, but hey ho

Air BnB hosts on this thread: do you think it's fine to let your property with filthy windows, dead house plants, an unuseable garden? Really?? Good Lord!

^ As the OP hasn’t posted photos despite being ‘desperate’ too, I can only think that she has made all of this up to get a refund!