Airbnb - injury and aggressive host

Waffleiron

Airbnb - injury, detained at property, now host demanding £791. Airbnb closed case. Help!

Looking for advice please on next steps after an Airbnb experience abroad.

The stay

Arrived to find the property very run-down, which we discussed with the host in person on arrival. During the week there were multiple issues including a leaking toilet and water supply problems - contact with the host via whatsapp for all of these. On Thursday I was in the kitchen barefoot when a large section of the ceramic countertop detached and crashed onto my foot. My 2-year-old was nearby — had he been standing where I was it could have been a serious head injury. Behind the broken tile, extensive water damage and rot was clearly visible. I struggled to weight bear for the final 3 days of our holiday.

Departure

I contacted the hosts about the above and the €180 cleaning fee came up, to be paid in cash on departure. Given the above I didn't feel this was appropriate. As I had already started a complaint thread with airbnb, we agreed we would follow this process through and include the 180 in that - if airbnb concluded it should be paid, we would pay it then. The host agreed to this plan.

On the morning of departure, with my children already in the car, the man who looked after the house (not the person I spoke to on phone) took our gate key fob, closed the electric gates, and refused to let us leave until we paid cash. He became increasingly aggressive. We did not have 180 cash - it was our last day, and we had agreed the day before to sort the dispute via airbnb. He then threatened to call the police to stop us at border control. I was in a rural location with a 5-year-old and 2-year-old and found it quite frightening to be held there against my will. I paid him via bank transfer - he refused this the first few times demanding cash but then did relent. My 5-year-old still references "the angry man at the holiday home." I have video footage of me asking him repeatedly to please let us go, and him ignoring me.

Airbnb's response

I reported everything immediately with photos and video. Airbnb's Safety team responded:

"We carefully reviewed your report and took the following actions: We educated the host about our policy."

When I pushed to actually address the problems raised they replied:

"We determined that we won't be able to offer you additional support on this matter at this time" and closed the case.

The host is now demanding £791 for the countertop — despite photos clearly showing longstanding water damage and rot as the cause. I disputed this via airbnb but haven't heard anything and given their responses so far I am worried they are not going to be helpful.

Does anyone have any suggestions of next steps??

Woodstok2000

Cancel the card you paid with, Ignore him and don't use Airbnb in future.

Worried_fool

Which country was this?

Waffleiron

It was Italy

dnpark38

When I first started to use Airbnb was given the advice only to use Super Hosts.

On the one occasion I did not I read other customers reviews very carefully.