I’m typically a VRBO user, however this trip I booked through AirBNB as I thought I found the perfect house. Our stay was last Friday-Sunday.
Just to describe a few of our issues- there were 8-10 people hanging out on the sidewalk outside the house upon arrival, neighborhood was very sketchy. We received a message before our arrival stating the maid had an emergency and finished everything but putting the blankets on the beds. We were offered a $20 refund to do this ourselves (no problem at all) however the floors had not been cleaned either and we all wore socks or sores the entire trip. We paid an extra $80 for the hot tub to be turned on for the weekend, when we arrived around 8pm it was 90 degrees and at 2am it had only got up to 95 degrees, he offered us $40 back which was nice since we were unable to use it night 1. Saturday morning I go to take a shower and the water in the master shower was freezing cold. Same morning my 11 year old poops in the toilet, flushes and it completely filled to the rim with fecal matter (when I say completely full I mean there is absolutely no way this was only my kids poop, it was FULL.)
I message the host and tell him the issues, send him pictures- he proceeds to tell me to climb in the attic to check the hot water heater. Which we do and it is fine, (still no explaination on the cold shower other than give it a minute to heat up…I was in there 10 minutes with it all the way on hot, it never heated.) He sends a plumber after we leave for the day, only to message me and say that he is not paying $400 to have a toilet snaked and to please use another bathroom. When we arrived back at the house, it smelled like total crap! The plumber left all the crap in the toilet with the lid open and the doors open to the master bed and living room. We literally couldn’t use that entire end of the house for the second day/night of our stay. We left early Sunday morning, and I decided to wait to leave a review until I had time to get over how bad the stay went.
I received an email on Tuesday that my host had left me a review (I now know it stated I was great, no issues, welcome to stay anytime.) It’s now Thursday night, 4.5 days after check-out, I write a very polite negative review of the house and even bragging on how nice the host was. Within a couple of hours I am sent an email saying “wasn’t going to do this, but the toilet was clogged with paper towels,” asking me for $320 for damages! There is absolutely NO way we put paper towels in the toilet. I have photos of when it clogged and after the plumber came and there are no paper towels in the either photo. I should not be held responsible for paper towels in the lines when he literally stated he has guests there every day!! Such a coincidence the plumber receipt was from Monday and he waits to send me a damage request until after I write my review! If anything I should have been asking for a refund since we could use the entire master bathroom or bedroom for over half the time we were there!!
THEN Airbnb removed my review for violating the standards saying I was retaliating! How am I retaliating by stating facts about my stay and THEN getting hit with a damage fee? This whole situation is absurd and if it isn’t corrected I will honestly probably hire an attorney on principal because guests should be able to leave a negative review of a stay without being held financially responsible for someone else’s issues!
