Airbnb UK nightmare

festivallife

Firstly I have emailed their CEO with no response, their support team doesn't answer any of my questions and is possibly not complying with an SAR request under GDPR. The owner tried to extort me into writing a good review in exchange for a refund. I have requested the email addresses of the legal and complaints department of airbnb, but have received no response. I have tried to make an official complaint to airbnb but this has not been acknowledged either. Airbnb seem unaccountable.

I am currently using air BnB every two weeks. I have 5 star reviews from every other host.

The main features of the house did not work during our stay. These were;
SONOS music system
Cinema Room with faulty projector
Cold and dirty indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi spa
A BBQ I or the co-host couldn't light

The above is all from the listing on airbnb. Again these facilities did not work and were unusable. They were the main reasons for booking this property. The problems also included a broken freezer, dirty towels, plates of food, rubbish and merchandise left from previous guests.

Air bnb offered little to no support during the two night stay and have been non existent since. I believe they are hoping I give up or go away. So far we have received a 20% refund. The owner has given three contradictory answers to the pool and Jacuzzi being fixed and ignored a lot of our complaints, or lied to say they were fixed.

The host/owner also said: "If you leave a review and try to mess our high reviews up, I too would give you an honest review and you may not appreciate that and further, I will refute the discount that I am contemplating giving you at the moment"

I believe the above may be extortion? It certainly breaks airbnb uk terms and conditions, but Im not aware they have taken any action at all?

To reiterate the four main features of the property were broken or unusable. The property had not been fully cleaned before our arrival and throughout our stay we were just given excuses or told lies. Not one facility that was broken upon arrival was fixed and usable when we left/checked out.

I requested a full refund after the host/owner lied to me so much, tried to extort me into leaving a false review and treating me so badly.

I have written evidence of everything above and photos to prove everything Ive said. This is now causing me great distress and I have already spent more than fifty hours on this. Air bnb seemingly do not care and dont want to even respond, let alone help.

I am thinking of contacting the help section of newspapers and other consumer champions and my local MP. We weren't after a full refund initially but after being treated so badly, lied to so often and spending more than fifty hours chasing up the hosts and airbnb during and after our stay I feel we should receive a full refund. I also have concerns regarding airbnb uk and the host trying to extort me and lying about the repairs.

Any advice welcome really?

visidigi

The items you list would not justify a full refund. Partial maybe. But full refund is not realistic.

You seem to be very stressed about a few features of a rental - its very easy to argue that the four main features of a rental you list are nothing of the sort. A bed, working fridge, flushing facilities etc are all main features, not sound, swimming and BBQ.

I'd relax a little bit, 50 hrs on this is overkill. Take a reasonable refund and move on.

stripeyfox

Take the refund and move on. Whilst I appreciate it is frustrating, a faulty projector in a cinema room is not my idea of a "nightmare"

festivallife

Fair points. As stated initially it wasn't a full refund I/we were after. Its the lies and treatment from the owner and airbnb that have pushed me into feeling that way. Similar properties without the features we booked for were 50-75% cheaper.

Airbnb dont respond to anything, so i have to continuously chase them up. The host lies all the time about repairs so i have to refute and provide evidence to those.

visidigi

festivallife wrote: »

Fair points. As stated initially it wasn't a full refund I/we were after. Its the lies and treatment from the owner and airbnb that have pushed me into feeling that way. Similar properties without the features we booked for were 50-75% cheaper.

Airbnb dont respond to anything, so i have to continuously chase them up. The host lies all the time about repairs so i have to refute and provide evidence to those.

Give up - Airbnb aren't going to be interested. They are really lacking in the CS care levels lately (recently had to help my mum out with an owner who kept coming in the property and complaining about nothing).

You can make airbnb react, but that would be via legal channels, which, lets be honest your complaints don't justify.

If you want to avoid owners like this one start using hotels instead with accountable staff.

festivallife

This has most definitely put me off airbnb. The owner/host doesn't care, lies, tried to extort me and basically just told me to accept it.

As you say the customer care is appalling, non-existent and I have now realised I wont get anywhere with airbnb.

However I wont be giving up. Have contacted consumer champions, my local MP and will consider small claims. I dont feel airbnb should be able to act like this and should the host be allowed to continue on airbnb after breaking their extortion terms?

Also the host says "we will give you a reasonable refund for the pool" then goes onto say it was fixed and heated to standard. He shouldn't be allowed to lie like that and get away with it

DoaM

What do you have in writing from the host? (email is OK).

lucy03

festivallife wrote: »

This has most definitely put me off airbnb. The owner/host doesn't care, lies, tried to extort me and basically just told me to accept it.

As you say the customer care is appalling, non-existent and I have now realised I wont get anywhere with airbnb.

However I wont be giving up. Have contacted consumer champions, my local MP and will consider small claims. I dont feel airbnb should be able to act like this and should the host be allowed to continue on airbnb after breaking their extortion terms?

Also the host says "we will give you a reasonable refund for the pool" then goes onto say it was fixed and heated to standard. He shouldn't be allowed to lie like that and get away with it

I'm afraid I don't have much to add in terms of helping you directly, but I do sympathise. A friend had a booking cancelled the day before and Airbnb said that the contract was between the host and my friend, but they were prepared to give them a £10 goodwill gesture. She complained, but Airbnb didn't shift, they just keep saying it wasn't their fault. Which technically it wasn't I suppose, but I'm surprised they don't have some inbuilt policy to deal with this.

When I had a similar issue (although the cancellation was from a B&B a couple of weeks before) last year, booking.com found alternative accommodation, they paid the price difference as it was a higher price alternative and paid for taxis between the locations.

powerful_Rogue

festivallife wrote: »

Firstly I have emailed their CEO with no response, their support team doesn't answer any of my questions and is possibly not complying with an SAR request under GDPR. The owner tried to extort me into writing a good review in exchange for a refund. I have requested the email addresses of the legal and complaints department of airbnb, but have received no response. I have tried to make an official complaint to airbnb but this has not been acknowledged either. Airbnb seem unaccountable.

I am currently using air BnB every two weeks. I have 5 star reviews from every other host.

The main features of the house did not work during our stay. These were;
SONOS music system
Cinema Room with faulty projector
Cold and dirty indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi spa
A BBQ I or the co-host couldn't light

The above is all from the listing on airbnb. Again these facilities did not work and were unusable. They were the main reasons for booking this property. The problems also included a broken freezer, dirty towels, plates of food, rubbish and merchandise left from previous guests.

Air bnb offered little to no support during the two night stay and have been non existent since. I believe they are hoping I give up or go away. So far we have received a 20% refund. The owner has given three contradictory answers to the pool and Jacuzzi being fixed and ignored a lot of our complaints, or lied to say they were fixed.

The host/owner also said: "If you leave a review and try to mess our high reviews up, I too would give you an honest review and you may not appreciate that and further, I will refute the discount that I am contemplating giving you at the moment"

I believe the above may be extortion? It certainly breaks airbnb uk terms and conditions, but Im not aware they have taken any action at all?

To reiterate the four main features of the property were broken or unusable. The property had not been fully cleaned before our arrival and throughout our stay we were just given excuses or told lies. Not one facility that was broken upon arrival was fixed and usable when we left/checked out.

I requested a full refund after the host/owner lied to me so much, tried to extort me into leaving a false review and treating me so badly.

I have written evidence of everything above and photos to prove everything Ive said. This is now causing me great distress and I have already spent more than fifty hours on this. Air bnb seemingly do not care and dont want to even respond, let alone help.

I am thinking of contacting the help section of newspapers and other consumer champions and my local MP. We weren't after a full refund initially but after being treated so badly, lied to so often and spending more than fifty hours chasing up the hosts and airbnb during and after our stay I feel we should receive a full refund. I also have concerns regarding airbnb uk and the host trying to extort me and lying about the repairs.

Any advice welcome really?

I'm struggling to see how you mark that as extortion. Seems a case of "You leave us an honest review and we will do the same about you".


You also keep saying they lie about the repairs. To be honest, what has that got to do with you? You stayed there two nights and not been back since. Why are you 1)pressing this issue on repairs and 2) know they have lied about the repairs if you have not been back.

You do seem to be coming off quite unreasonable in your approach to what are quite minor issues. Not ignoreable issues, but minor.

Might that have something to do with why AirBnB are ignorning you?

davidmcn

What did you expect your MP to do about it? I think they're a bit busy at the moment to sort out barbecue-lighting problems.

lincroft1710

visidigi wrote: »

.

I'd relax a little bit, 50 hrs on this is overkill. Take a reasonable refund and move on.

50 hrs is ridiculous!!!