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Hi all,
I actually don’t know what to do. I am a Superhost with all 5 star reviews because I only rent out my own home and I try to make sure everything is perfect for guests.
However, I booked my family 2 week vacation for me, my 85 year old mother and my sister in Marbella, Spain. This really expensive holiday was meant to be very relaxing as my Mum hasn’t been well and needs time to recover.
So we booked through AirBnB expecting the same experience as I would provide.
So here comes the rant…
The car Sat Nav couldn’t find the address so we spent ages driving around & eventually had to pay a taxi man to take us to the address. I spoke to the Host on the phone telling her the probly, she said she would have to lock up the house if she was to come get us. Ok we let that go. When we arrived at the house, it didn’t look like some of the pictures on the profile. Some furniture and rugs were missing. My Mum has no where to sit but on a grubby torn leather sofa. No sun loungers on the patio. The bedrooms were not dressed like in the pictures, no netting around beds or cushions or even headboards. We arrived very late after our flight and there wasn’t tea\coffee\milk no condiments…nothing!!! Not even a kettle.
No Tv channels, even though English channels advertised.
There was a problem with the AC, they were leaking on the floors making it a health hazard for my elderly mother.
So to say the least, I said this wasn’t good enough & that she had advertised something completely different. The host said that she had just taken over this property from the owner and he wasn’t willing to leave the items that were missing in the property for AirBnB guests and that the pictures uploaded were provided to her by the owner of the property. She also told me the previous renters didn’t have any problems. She also said that she could arrange for a refund giving us no where else to go.
She did try and resolve the issues today by bringing sun loungers, a chair for my mum and a kettle.
There were dirty plates in the kitchen & when I pointed this out to her, she said she would speak to the cleaners.
I did say to her that I was a Super host and would never have guests walking into this.
Today, we answered the door 6 times to workmen coming into the property to resolve all the issues. The AC is still not working. The AC engineers told us there was a problem with the AC last week too, but when I met the Host outside the property walking her dogs, she asked was the AC working, I said no, her response was “that’s strange” and would get the engineers back out tomorrow. She then proceeded to enter a property a few doors up, so she must have known about all these problems if she lives so close.
Tomorrow will be our 3rd day at the property.
I did say that I would be complaining to AirBnb but she asked would I not give her a chance to resolve the issues, to which I agreed but that I wanted a refund of 3 nights to which she said she would speak to the owner. I’ve heard nothing back from her.
I really feel like I’m being duped… I’m so not happy with all this.
Is there anything I can do? Should I contact Airbnb?
All help is much appreciated.
I’m a little scared to do that in case we can’t find anything else…we booked this place because of location and my mother’s needs … it was the only place on Airbnb that ticked all the boxes for my mum.
Because you can’t judge others by your own standards. This is why hosting other hosts is often a complete nightmare. “Oh I don’t do things this way” etc.
Again, I’m sorry. It sounds very frustrating and you must feel particularly annoyed because you wanted to give your mum a nice time.
It sounds like the host has at least tried to address some of the issues? I’m thinking that being conciliatory might be your best bet? You know, you “catch more flies with honey”… maybe if you thank her for what she’s done so far and say it would be great if she could provide/do xyz because this is an important holiday for you.
Just to salvage the best you can so at least the holiday isn’t completely ruined? Wouldn’t it be better to work with the host rather than go through all the stress of calling Airbnb and trying to be re-located?
Sorry again for being so snippy and unhelpful.
OK, that’s true. But it’s not going to help the current situation. It’s clearly one of multiple listings recently taken over by… someone… These sort of places are always the same. The photos are probably stock ones from another site. Nothing is going to look like the photos.
When the host said took over the property, does that mean, it was sold and current host bought it or is it a co host. If the host had bought the property, should a new listing have been created with new pictures etc.
It sounds like she is trying to make amends, although its not ideal with lots of workmen around.
If you were staying in a hotel and were lost, they would not go and collect you. You have to find your own way. I had a guest arrive last week and complained to my hubby that he got lost. You would think we hid the house on him. My husband politely informed him that directions were on the listing and with booking.com guests have a button to help locate the property, its goes into google maps. It was his own fault that he got lost, never bothered to read the information i provide
But its not relaxing with workers coming and going, i know she is trying to correct the situation but sometimes you just need peace and quiet.
Try enjoy the rest of the holiday
