Airbnb host refusing to send AirPods without me paying?

[moryn]

Recently got back from a short break in Paris.

I left my AirPods on the bed, the host refuses to send them back unless I pay £50 plus postage.

AIBU to think this is ridiculous?

TBF, they may have to travel to the city and go out of their way, plus travel back etc so it's probably just a cost of their time. Next time buy some cheaper dupe Pods and if they are lost, they are lost.

Airbnb reviews are two way. I am sure many airbnb hosts would rather avoid a guest who is forgetful with their personal items and then quibbles over the admin cost for a safe return of an expensive item.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

I don’t think forgetting an item once would raise a concern, do you?

I’m think hosts have much more to worry about than a person forgetting iPods!

I don’t think forgetting an item once would raise a concern, do you?

If they leave a whiney review about the outrage of the host charging them extra for organizing international postage for their expensive forgotten luxury item, yup, they will sound like a high maintenance knob.

But they may also have cleaned the property well, been good quiet respectful guests.

More important than calling out an excessive charge to return an item.

Having run a holiday let, I’d know what guest I would rather have.

It’s the knob that leaves the place like a shit hole!

Have you posted anything to Europe recently? It’s not cheap.

But OP was paying the postage, on top
of the £50.

Eh? Their business is providing accommodation, not posting items out to people abroad. Why on earth is it their 'problem' when somebody expects them to provide an extra service that isn't part of what their business actually is?!

So would you think that if you dropped your phone in a shop, went back three hours later to find they’ve already disposed of it, because storing phones isn’t their job, running a shop is?

It’s called customer service. Hospitality often goes above and beyond to provide a good experience and encourage repeat custom.

Like I said, I’d be leaving a poor review.

Don’t think it’s unreasonable. Quite a few Airbnbs I’ve stayed in have said in the fine print £150 for return of left property and they’ve been in the UK. Postage is bloody expensive especially for tracked and insured to another country. It’s cheaper than re buying them and it’s not there fault.

How does that compare - if I went back myself for my phone? Equally, if I'd travelled 150 miles away in that time, before I realised that my phone was gone, I wouldn't blame the shop for not being on my doorstep!

Why exactly would you be leaving a poor review for them because you hadn't checked that you had your belongings with you when leaving and then they'd agreed to send them on for you, albeit with a charge to ensure that they aren't out of pocket because of your error?

Would you also accept it as fair if they left a poor review for you as a customer, for putting them to all of this hassle rather than bothering to have a 2-minute glance around before vacating the place?

But you’d hope they’d help you out, no?

Ive already said why I’d leave a poor review, because of the poor customer service and rip off charging for returning something that belongs to the OP. You can disagree, that’s fine, but I stand by it.

So even if the accommodation was absolutely spotless, in a great location and had provided good communication about the stay, you would post a poor review because you felt that the administration cost for returning an item that the person staying had carelessly forgotten was too high ?

We don’t know the property set up. Highly likely that host doesn’t live locally and pays a cleaning company to do turnarounds, so an additional visit or services that aren’t part of their standard procedure could well cost a lot.

Granted £50 seems high, but if someone posted a poor review because of that, I would still book and make sure DH and I both do the sweep of the property when leaving that we always do.

I run an online business and one of the reasons I hate returns is that I have lost all my profit plus the time I spent picking and packing the order and dealing with the return. So i can see that hotel pwners resent the time and expense of returning items to careless guests. Its not part of the service but an extra business service. They are entitled to charge what they wish. Just as guests who are careless with their belongings are at liberty to refuse to avail themselves of the service.

Yes, this. I think a lot of people confuse 'hospitality' - as in provided by a friend or family member as a favour - and 'hospitality' as a business.

I don't see why you'd expect a person whose business is providing accommodation to cheerfully spend their time dispatching goods to you for free, any more than you would expect a washing machine repairman to stick around after fixing it and do a load of laundry for you too!

I have an Airbnb and sometimes people leave small things behind, I have always notified them & posted for free, it’s called good customer service. Outrageous behaviour by you host.

Yes but PARIS isn't particularly remote, is it? And the air bnb IS "their work".

If the host manages the air bnb either they live close enough to it to clean it everytime a visitor leaves (which could be multiple times a week in the busy season) or they have someone else who does so.

Yes petrol!! Not everyone will have a post office right on their doorstep. Even in Paris.

The host may not live near the air b&b and have to pay a cleaner/admin person to do this task.

So @moryn are you going to 1) pay for them 2) come back to thread

@Blondeshavemorefun she's long gone. Plenty of info for the article she's writing! Or, she doesn't have time to come back here now she's decided to organise a courier herself.

Drives me nuts when we have one post posters !

This.. What the heck is the 50 quid for?!

Couriers will use their own fuel and collect from you. More options than just post office these days

It still takes time to research the options and arrange it, though - especially if it's going to a foreign country. You then have to arrange a collection time with the courier and plan your own day around being in, available and not in the middle of something when they're (hopefully) going to turn up - and I very much doubt they will (or even can) give you an exact time rather than a general time slot. Dealing with time slots is annoying enough when you've ordered something for yourself and then can't go out or get stuck into anything that you have to concentrate on, and even worry about going to the toilet in case they turn up at that moment.

I think a lot of people on this thread are just assuming that running the AirBnB is the host's only job, and pretty much the only thing they have to busy themselves with in their life.

I wouldn't be happy at all if somebody didn't bother to take a couple of minutes to check they had all their stuff before vacating my property and then made it my problem to solve, involving me doing online research and seeking quotes for doing their task for them, taking me far, far longer than the two minutes that they didn't bother to take.

It's some AirPods.

Stick 'em in a padded envelope and into the post box.

No-one's spending fifty quid on petrol to get to a post box.