Airbnb - attempted assault, advice please!

HegoDeli

Hi,

I’m not sure this is really the right place to post this but I need some advice and I’m not really sure where to go. 

My sister and I were booked to stay in an Airbnb in the Dominican Republic from August 29th - September 27th. 

At 4am on the 1st of September the night security guard of the building broke into our apartment, locked himself in my room and got into bed with me. Thankfully I woke up and immediately started screaming before anything really really awful could actually happen. 

Airbnb have given us a full refund for the stay and offered us either 3 nights $325 p/n at a hotel or they’d rebook us in another Airbnb for the duration of the stay. 

We obviously didn’t feel comfortable with staying in another Airbnb so we opted to go to a hotel that we had stayed in before, however the $325 didn’t cover the cost of this and we ended up staying until the 12th. 

BA charged us almost £800 to change our flights (I did explain the situation in hopes they’d waive the fee or at least reduce it, but no luck).

We were also charged a security deposit of around £150 by the Airbnb host. 

I have asked Airbnb to reimburse us for some of the costs we have incurred due to the experience. I appreciate that they gave us a full refund for the Airbnb but we were left without accommodation for what should have been almost 4 weeks! Plus then the cost of changing the flights. I have asked them to return the security deposit because I don’t feel comfortable contacting the host after what happened (I know it’s not their fault but it’s just a really uncomfortable position to be in). 

Airbnb have essentially said that inline with their refund policy they can’t offer us anything else and that I need to contact the host directly to ask for the security deposit. I have asked them to escalate it to a manager.

I feel really dismissed and like they’ve just swept the fact that a man tried to assault me under the rug. 

In total staying at the hotel from the 1st-12th cost us £3540.33, of this Airbnb covered £739.35 ($325 x3 nights).

Am I being unreasonable in expecting them to cover it? I haven’t even touched on the emotional impacts this has had on me, my sleep is entirely messed up and I just feel awful and anxious. I just don’t feel like they care about what actually happened? Surely they must have some level of responsibility for our safety?? 

I’m not entirely sure what I’m asking, opinions I guess? What would you do if you were in my position? 

Thank you! 

springmagpie

Did you have holiday insurance? The additional costs may be covered with under your policy

mr_stripey

A very upsetting experience

I would say that Airbnb should cover the costs of your original planned stay - and refund the security deposit

I don't think they will cover your decision to stay longer than the booking and the change of flights

Did you report this to the police?

elsien

I don’t think they did stay longer than the booking, I think they left early because the hotel was more expensive and they didn’t want another B&B.

I can’t see the Airbnb are responsible for you deciding to cut your holiday short and any associated costs from you not accepting their alternative offer.

mr_stripey

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82138761#Comment_82138761

ah I see. Sorry I didn't read it properly!

Ignore me!

Westin

Did you report the matter to the local police?

HegoDeli

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82138726#Comment_82138726

Yes we have an annual policy, I haven’t looked into the terms etc yet

HegoDeli

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82138761#Comment_82138761

yes, we cut our planned 4 weeks down to 2. It’s just a shame, we were really looking forward to this trip and to have it spoiled so early on, there was no way we were going to feel safe in another Airbnb :( thank you for reading and sharing your opinion!

HegoDeli

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82138857#Comment_82138857

yes we did it online as neither of us speak Spanish! I have a reference number for it but haven’t heard anything from them since reporting it :/

NoodleDoodleMan

What a helluva "holiday" to have had.

We had a port visit to the Dominican Republic on a cruise years ago - got some horror stories about tourists' negative experiences.

Glad to get back on the ship.

For a travel insurance claim you need a police report to pursue this.

saajan_12

Firstly very sorry to hear your experience, which must have been terrible.

However remember the primary fault is with the person and your recourse would be through the police or even civil for punitive damages in country. Neither the host nor AirBnB have acutally caused this (I'm assuming the host ie appartment owner is separate to the building owner who would employ the night security?)

Its totally understandable you wouldn't want to stay there, hence the refund of that AirBnB. I'd argue even the security deposit should come back since presumably nothing was damaged.

The 3 nights hotel was reasonable to give you some breathing room rather than having to scramble for new accommodation in a few hours.

However the point was never to give you a free holiday - if you get the full 4 weeks, or even 12 days covered plus the AirBnB refund, you're getting free accommodation throughout. Potentially could look at mid tier hotels or other AirBnBs in houses with no security team access in a whole other area. The flight change was also your choice, you could have stayed on and put the refund money towards new accommodation.

Overall I think you have a decent argument for the security deposit, but beyond that I think they've been pretty fair.