How bad a bug infestation does there have to be before Airbnb will issue a refund? And what does this tell us about the best way to book short-term rental accommodations?
You can save a lot on an Airbnb or other short-term rentals by cutting out the booking platform from the transaction to save their fees. And if they aren’t going to take care of their guests, what are you paying those fees for?
- Airbnb doesn’t want you to know the specific property you are booking until it’s already reserved. They don’t show you the address. They don’t want you finding the exact place, communicating with the host, and cutting them out.
- But you can just use the photo from the listing, upload it to google images, and find that same photo on the property’s own website. There are other ways to find the location and search for the property.
The host saves Airbnb fees, you save Airbnb fees, but you lose out on Airbnb protections. How much are those worth, exactly? Probably not much!
M. L. Rio, in a series of tweets on January 9, recounted a disastrous Airbnb rental experience. They’d booked a month-long stay but the place was infested with roaches. The stove malfunctioned. The door didn’t stay locked. And Airbnb wouldn’t help, telling them to pound sand. And that’s after numerous hours on hold with customer service, who even told them they’d get a refund if they moved out within a couple of hours, which they did – despite a broken ankle, which complicated getting in and out of a third-floor walk-up with a month’s worth of belongings.
The Airbnb rental itself was quite bad:
For a fun game, let's do a tour of the unit @Airbnb refuses to give me a refund for! I'm sure they'd hate if you liked it shared this, which seems to be the only way to get their attention. Let's start with the entryway. Not off to a great start re: cleanliness. pic.twitter.com/wRIeIVGQIw
— M. L. Rio (@SureAsMel) January 10, 2024
But wait, @Airbnb! There's more: when I left today I locked the door. When I got back it was unlocked and one of the screws was missing from the deadbolt. The host is, naturally, suggesting that I am too stupid to lock a door properly despite locking it ten times before. pic.twitter.com/5t16pdTRKb
— M. L. Rio (@SureAsMel) January 10, 2024
When I first got here, there was a small cockroach in the kitchen. I killed it, which was evidently my mistake, because @AirbnbHelp wanted proof. Since then I've killed two more and one got away, but here's your proof! pic.twitter.com/PWC4GEYC4X
— M. L. Rio (@SureAsMel) January 10, 2024
But why keep the fun in the front room? Let's talk about the bathroom, @Airbnb pic.twitter.com/YKyGxsgpm1
— M. L. Rio (@SureAsMel) January 10, 2024
There were rodents, “mouse droppings and general filth” and water came through the ceiling when it rained. Some of the bathroom fixtures were ‘held up with chewing gum’. But the worst part wasn’t the condition of the home, it was Airbnb customer service. The descriptions and photos (more photos in the thread, and video) were not “enough evidence for a refund.”
The guest noted that the furniture was “different from the pictures.” The heat didn’t work. The stove had “four mismatched knobs, none of which are pointing the same way” and while the gas turned on, it did not turn off. There were roaches everywhere, including the bathroom. She didn’t have photos of the roach from when she showered, because she was… naked without her phone. Airbnb insisted that she document that the water wouldn’t get hot, though offered no advice on how to do this.
Contacting Airbnb she was promised a call back that never came. Following up, customer service was completely inopposite in its responses. Then they just ignored her. She tried another phone call, and was told she’d get a refund if she checked out by 11.
They scrambled to pack up their belongings and left. The promised follow up call never came, and then Airbnb denied making the refund commitment (on a recorded line). She was out $2,500 with nowhere to stay, so she moved her belongings back inside up to the Airbnbug.
Short-term rentals make sense in basically two scenarios:
- Towns where there are no reasonable hotel options
- When you need a full home with multiple bedrooms and full kitchen
And the value that the Airbnb ‘platform’ provides is that it’s focal: a place where buyers and sellers meet. They tell you they are more than this, and that they provide assurances to guests and hosts, but from most of the stories I’ve seen they really don’t.
Their model is to take a fee from both parties, and to earn a return on the cash they receive from guests before disbursing it to hosts, while limiting investment in customer service. That’s fine as far as it goes, but their marketing leads people to believe it’s something that it isn’t, in order to have confidence booking.
It’s the wild west, you need to verify that properties are real, that the host is authorized to rent it, and that there are enough reviews spaced out over time that are also likely real in order to have confidence. In other words, required due diligence is greater than many realize.
I never use Airbnb. Too many horror stories !!
Airbnb and their Hosts are only interested in one thing: YOUR $$ MONEY
It may cost more, but you’ll get the service and the quality you expect by staying at a hotel, even if it’s a lowly Holiday Inn Express. Many Holiday Inn Expresses are individually owned franchises (versus Corporate) so you can work out an agreeable deal simply by talking with them beforehand.
After my runaround and inability to get a refund I have not booked on airbnb since. I booked a condo and when I went to get my keys I was told to go to a different property with a car worth of valuables. There was no parking available and was told to leave everything parking in a parking lot tgat was a significant walk to try and find keys. I also learned in the process of doing this that airbnbs were not allowed where my rental was located and attempted to either have my keys delivered to me or to cancel. The host did not live in the area and airbnb told me they wouldn’t cancel and to work it out from the host who never responded. I mentioned it was an illegal airbnb and support refused to even follow up. Told me they could not discuss issues like that. This wasted 2 hours before I just booked a hotel. AMEX charged back so I did get a refund of the 2nd payment and contacted the property manager letting them know about the airbnb. I did notice it was off the platform. I had other examples of illegal airbnbs in the area prior to this one and learned my lesson with this company.
I’ve rented Airbnb’s only from highly rated hosts, and haven’t had a really bad experience thus far. Sometimes not so great, but not like the horror stories I hear. I would rent them (from great hosts) over dilapidated Holiday Inn Express’s and other motels that claim to be hotels if that’s the available option.
I have personally never booked an Airbnb. I have friends who are sold on Airbnbs, To me it’s not worth the chance of a bad experience.
I have never (and never will) used AirBNB. I have used VRBO and other similar such sites to book vacation condos or houses but those are usually professionally managed so never had an issue.
Gary – IMHO you are being very unprofessional basically telling people to go around AirBNB after they have booked a place (cancelling it and then contracting directly with the property owner). While I don’t like AirBNB and, as noted, will never use them I feel a business is due the fee they charge if you use them to find the property. Also, don’t know if AirBNB reads your blog but you are setting yourself up for a tortious interference lawsuit suggesting people cut them out and even giving ways to work around them. Be very careful. Also, this is very inappropriate on your part and only someone that is really cheap would do this. Shame on anyone that does!
Had 1 experience. It was 1 too many.
Never again
Have had a few VRBO go sideways so stick to known hotels.
Gary isn’t being unprofessional at all. I’ve done long stays in people’s homes as a guest, and after a week or two the hosts have worked it out that we just do a cash deal between us and bypass ABNB. Of course, you do your due diligence in the first week there. I’ve made some great friends this way, and whenever I am back in their country I ask if their room/studio is available. I’m a highly-rated guest: clean, quiet, go to bed early, etc. and a 60+ woman, so it works to my advantage.
I’d like ABNB to go back to how it was: a stay in a spare room, hosted by like-minded fellow travelers who do unto others. Maybe some app developer/venture capitalist can fill that niche again?
I’ve used Airbnb a few times and never had a bad experience. Were there any clues about shady rentals in the description of the rentals?
I agree with kimmiea. It’s like with some Uber/Lyft drivers… especially in small towns where there aren’t many or they don’t always have the app on (or because of all of the above the pricing is ridiculous… like recently in Harlingen Uber wanted $70 to go 4 miles to the airport – the hotel front desk offered that her father who was there hanging out would drive me and only asked for $10)… plenty will give you their direct number or contact info and just reach out to arrange a ride directly next time. Probably save a little over the rideshare, and they keep 100%.
I’d rather deal with someone direct as they’re going to be more forthcoming than someone who knows they can hide behind Airbnb. Just like there are the tales of guests getting the runaround or bad experiences like this, plenty of hosts know they can pretty much get away with anything and get paid.
Airbnb has become a burden of late!!
Lots of supplemental instructions once you arrive (clean this, scrub that before you leave); attempts to garner incremental revenue ($85 for half hour early check in); and phantom owners where everything is communicated via text messages.
One more headache, and I’ll move back to hotels.
AirBNB really needs to go out of business.
Such a horrible company with zero common sense.
The least the hosts could do is pay you royalties on the adult film you are unknowingly taking a starring role via hidden camera.
Fortunately, things have always been fine with AirBNB (minor problems were quickly fixed by hosts). I had a bad problem with VRBO (now owned by Expedia), when the host simply didn’t show up. VRBO was completely unhelpful; ;they wouldn’t rebook me, they dragged their feet on the refund, and refused to pay the costs I incurred from same-day hotel rooms during peak tourist season. In the end, I sued, and won damages in arbitration. I’ll write up the paper for a law review someday. I’m sorry to hear AirBNB (as a platform) is also useless on customer service.
I had a not perfect AirBnB in Buenos Aires. But, this seems par for the course there. One of the two elevators stopped working during the stay. The building seemed like it had seen better days. One of the people staying in the unit couldn’t eat out because of a number of allergies. The building super helped with the elevator, and we were able to stay. Still, the entire state of Buenes Aires seems to be in a state of decay, and locally built tiny elevators seemed the norm. It met the needs for what we needed, but wasn’t perfect. A hotel wouldn’t have met our needs, so it was OK for what it was. At least it was free of bedbugs and cockroaches.
NedsKid, stuff like that happens in hotels too from what I hear. They’re welcome to film me doing boring stuff in the room if it brightens up their sad lives lol.
Remember the old ads for Holiday Inn – The best surprise is no surprise? Well, I’ve had too many surprises at AirBNBs. Never again.
I’ve never been rejected checking in for a hotel because I didn’t have enough comments in my profile. I have with AirBnB.
@AC
So are you just a fake lawyer online or someone who failed the bar multiple times?
What you are saying is if you go to a store and find an item you like, and end up buying it later from another place, that you should pay the original store a fee? Do you keep a spreadsheet of all the items you have seen so you can correctly recall which store you saw it first? How do you pay the fee (for example, to Target? Do you mail a check to their headquarters in Minneapolis?).
I am an AirBnB host, and hosts have many stories from the other direction. People who are obviously scamming them to get their stay for free. The latest I heard was a guest who said they shouldn’t have to pay for their week long stay because the mattress wasn’t comfortable. (Didn’t leave early and never mentioned it to the host.) The host only won that one because they had a receipt showing the mattress was less than 1 year old. They were told by AirBnB if the mattress was more than 1 year old they would have lost. (For reference, I have beds MUCH older than 1 year old and half my guests comment on how comfortable they are. And it’s extremely hard to make everyone happy with a mattress; just look at mattress reviews where half love and half hate the same ones.)
The real problem with AirBnB is that they don’t have a true process of dealing with complaints from either side. The person who complains should make their case, the other side should get to respond, then a trained person or group of people should judge based on the evidence who is right and who is wrong. Currently AirBnB actually errs on the side of siding with the guest, who they see as their customer. And the host is never given an opportunity to respond, just told ‘we credited the guest.”
There are bad hosts and properties and there are bad guests, but if AirBnB wants to put themselves in the middle, they need a better process for resolving complaints.
@CSue. You got it, they screw both sides and that’s the problem. I have had good experiences when it’s a local, hands on host, but there is no real way to know that. Airbnb used to be that way. Now its a business where there are airbnb slum lords and airbnb support is some monkey at an off shore call center who makes pennies per hour and can only follow a script. Not surecif there is a solution, but at this point a Residence Inn is a better option than an airbnb for me.
Have had same horror story where raw sewage was coming up the shower drain. Got the not my fault from Host and was the city fault and lines must be frozen, City inspected and not their fault as all clear up to property line which host is accountable for thereafter into the house. Hosts sent gentlemen who does their plumbing who shared with us that they have had root issues for years with their plumbing and they refuse to fix the problem and remove trees/bushes necessary. Was very clear my father was in a walker and we needed railings which were also not installed. Kitchen had signs beside outlets outlining you could only plug in one appliance at a time and there were burn marks at all outlets due to wiring issues. We moved out and Airbnb got the photos, every email, text and we shared we had recorded discussion. Told us we could get $ 200 refund. Told them to pound dirt and for years I have been using Amex Platinum for these exact types of problems. They get the information and form their own opinion then act as our advocate for refund and we no longer are engaged. If none received they refund all of the money to us near immediately.. WORTH EVERY SINGLE PENNY OF THEIR ANNUAL FEE.
This is why airbnb hotels car rentals etc should always be booked on amex. You can just dispute and amex disputes team has a policy that our customer is always right.