Airbnb

[TriciaA1991]

We have returned from the most awful Airbnb booking.
Some of the faults:
It was dirty (toenails in a drawer, dirt in others, towels stained, generally grubby everywhere)
Cables cut and hanging loose, wall paper over other cables
Broken glass in doors
Doorlock not fixed - it turned with the key
No crockery.

We left and I reported to Airbnb. I didn't ask for a refund, I asked them to look into it.
Basically all Airbnb have said is that the owner denies it and won't refund. They have "no evidence" as I didn't contact him. He lives away and it is "professionally managed", so that, as far as Airbnb are concerned, is that. Case closed. No concern.

I am amazed. It is not fit for purpose.
Having previously had only excellent, or pretty good experiences of Airbnb, I don't know whether I would dare book again - unless there were 100s of reviews. This had 5 x 5* . Were they all fake??

Did you provide photos?

I have photos but they don't want them!

Re the reviews, some people have low standards. AirBnB has long had poor customer service, one of the many reasons I no longer use them. Can you upload the photos when you leave your review?

Did you report whilst you were there or after you got back?

No - that isn't possible, sadly

After we left - we didn't stay. Apparently you are expected to stay in the filth and message the host and if you leave it doesn't count. It's a joke!

You can send photos to the host via the AirBNB messaging system. Have you done that?

You should have sent them to the host immediately when you were still there. And then escalate to AirBNB if there was no acceptable response within a reasonable time.

I have now - I didn't know you could

Hope you got some wi. We had cause to complain recently when building work was being carried out and we weren’t told . You get Air Cover. We messaged host, took photos an uplevelled to support after our stay with photos etc. we got a 30% refund . If we had left we could have got more and been moved somewhere else but we were only away a few days so tried to make the best of it. Airbnb were actually really good. Refunded within the day!

Unfortunately this is something that needs to be dealt with immediately and whilst there. You’ll have to read the small print but if they weren’t aware there was a problem until after your booked stay, they might assume you had used the property and were angling for a cheeky refund maybe?

I would have taken the same photos that appear in the listing to show the difference, plus all the extra filth and failings and messages the host with them on arrival, then started a complaint with Airbnb (they will then look over your correspondence with the host).

I’ve heard of places getting double-booked on Airbnb and privately, and guests have been put in similar accommodation but not the actual property they’d booked online. Do you think this has happened, given the reviews were good?

My experience of challenging Airbnb is that you have to be extremely persistent. Don’t take their initial “sorry, nothing we can do, case closed” and push further. It took us multiple messages and phone calls to sort our complaint out, but we were eventually compensated.

Just realised this is a resurrected thread, but may be useful to someone.

Interestingly, I have been keeping an eye on it over the last few months. There were several wonderful reviews (but very brief) saying things like "Wonderful house with everything you could possibly want." and I am sure they were false.

I just checked after seeing these new posts - the property has been removed. I hope AirBnb have done so - they told me they would if there were further complaints. There were also two different listings on Booking.com. the one with some bad reviews has gone.