Unprepared Host - Air says resolve with unresponsive Host

I post this as advice for fellow hosts, and to get advice for my sister as a guest. As a Host, I was mortified a fellow host would be such a nitwit, and a poor reflection on Airbnb hosts.

My sister reserved at a place that offered a one night whole place basement apartment stay. She told the Host arrival would be about 5pm. She ended up not getting there until 7pm. When she got there the vestibule door was locked that led to the door with the lockbox. She checked and rechecked the door and looked for a key. Nothing. She emailed the and called Host. No response in 20 minutes. I told her to contact Airbnb. She did. She had sat in her car waiting for the host and did not see anyone coming to the door. 10 minutes later she got out of the car to check the door…the vestibule door was unlocked but inside door she still had to use the lockbox. When inside, there was a door shut that was likely to upstairs and likely how door was opened from the inside.

She dropped her bags, did not check out the entire place as it was late in a strange place and she wanted to get supper before it got too late and as a single woman in a strange town, she wanted to not be out late. She said the place smelled like a lot of freshener, but she had an odd feeling about the Airbnb and said it didn’t feel clean (pillows strewn on side tables and a sheet left on the day bed next to it), kitchen appeared clean. She didn’t do a full check on the place until after she returned. When she returned, she found:

  1. Bed sheets in main room not properly made (askew) like they were just pulled up after being slept in.
  2. Bathroom had lumped wet towels and washcloths in tub and on counter.
  3. Cigarette butt floating in toilet of non smoking rental

It was already by this time after 9 pm, and she left. The place clearly was not cleaned. Even with her arriving 2 hours later than expected was not clean. I would be so embarrassed if I ever “forgot” to prep a place prior to arrival. She had made the reservation THREE weeks prior. This was not a last minute reservation. Whoever opened the door from upstairs (he was still up there walking around) had to know the filth of the place yet made no effort to contact my sister to say “we goofed, give us 2 hours to prep the place, etc,” before she even entered the place.

Air says she should have resolved with Host. Host was completely unresponsive when she initially contacted them. She stayed at a local hotel chain for the night.

Now, how does one handle the guest review? As a host, I would want a chance to explain, but feel that should have been done up front, and this Host did not reach out to her at all. I told her to be factual, not emotional in review. Air will not refund her money, despite that she was there a total of 10 minutes.

This is so weird as it completely runs counter to everything we hear from the host side. If she took pictures of all the problems and contacted Airbnb right away she should have gotten help from Airbnb.

One reason I won’t stay with a host who isn’t a superhost or who has cancellations on their record is because of the chances of running into something like this. It’s terrible, there are plenty of terrible hosts and it’s a real pain to get fixed.

I would give this host one star in every category.

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She got pictures! Totally forgot to post that! She is a Superhost with 40+ positive reviews. All 5 stars. This time it sounds like it was one time, and my sis is not trying to swindle anything. She actually feels bad if she ruins her rating, for which I told her she deserves it! No communication or effort on host part. My sis over analyzes the reviews before she buys or books anything so that’s why this is such a surprise.

I got a 3 star review early on in my Airbnb career and I deserved it. People need to be honest in their reviews. As for Airbnb she should tweet the pictures and push it until she is refunded.

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I think the key with something like this is to try, @retropet: to make the effort, even if you know you won’t get a response. Your sister knew the host would not respond, given her previous encounter. But send the message through the messaging anyway. Send a couple of messages. Give it, say 15 to 30 minutes. Last message is “I am going to have to get a hotel if I don’t hear from you right away.” And then phone Airbnb right away.
There it all is - all your attempts to do the right thing - right in the messaging. Cannot be denied.
The one time I had some craziness that needed intervention, it was my messaging to the unresponsive other party that saved me.
But that’s all hindsight. You asked about the review. Make it last-minute, as we do with guests we don’t want to prompt too early. Make it honest. That host should not be out there making us all look bad. Your poor sister!

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One more thing, and this is not to excuse the host in any way but the Airbnb app frequently lags badly. So if I send a message via the app it takes 15 minutes for the guest to get it and then 15 for me to get a reply. That can be a serious problem if one is trying to communicate in a timely fashion, like the guest is sitting in their car outside the rental waiting. I encourage guests to message me via my cell phone if there is an issue for this reason. Yes all communication needs to be on the platform if there is an issue but if the platform is causing the issue, you have to be flexible.

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Thats some good advice right there ^^^^^

RR

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@retropet Rita, you indicated that your sister is a Superhost; was the host of the basement apartment also a Superhost? I don’t mean to imply anything negative about your sister, but how is it that she left her bags and went out to dinner without first taking a good look at the place? I can’t imagine that the basement apartment was so spacious that you sister would not have seen the piled towels, unmade bed, etc…

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I was kind of wondering that too? In any case, the fact that the host did not respond to any of her messages is unacceptable.
I think it’s good practice for even the remotest of hosts to just send a courtesy message to check all is ok.

No, my sister is not a Superhost. The place where she stayed had 40+ reviews and THAT Airbnb had Superhost status. Sorry this was not clear. I stated this as my sister makes sure it is a reputable place with good ratings.

Of course, she is kicking herself in the head for not doing a once over when she got there initially, but as I said, she arrived late in a strange town and needed to run back out for food, etc. a Regardless, she did not take time to do a thorough check and regrets it.

I get guests telling me stories all the time from local hosts. The guests and hosts are equally bad on Airbnb. Some people say I’m negative, but I look at it as a good thing for me technically. Its easy to look good when so many people around you are clueless!

My number one complaint from guests is about hosts who are pet owners. I hear complaints about cats scampering on their head while their sleeping, dogs licking their face in the morning, cat litter encrusted floors, etc.

I have seen or observed this that as any company that grows into a multi-million dollar business eventually loses its credibility because of the operations at large scales. Since they directly don’t offer any services, these mediators like Uber, AirBnb don’t really offer much support towards the after sales services.

An update: my sister was given a full refund. Not surprisingly other guests complained around the time of her stay, as I went back to that listing since then. Seems they were having some issues!

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It’s always good to hear the end of the story. Especially good when it is happily ever after. Thanks, @retropet!

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