I'm afraid my host will blame me for previous damages

[Ingrid661]

Hi, I'm having a bad experience with my host. The apartment was insanely dirty when I arrived, he disputed it, I involved airbnb and then the host argued with me. I had to clean it myself and chose to stay because the host refused to clean anymore and refused to give me a refund. I didn't want to loose all that money. 

Now that I'm leaving soon, I'm afraid that he will demand money from me or claim that I've damaged the apartment. It's pretty shabby and there are a lot of broken and dirty things here and there. I didn't take any pictures when I arrived because it's a bit much.... and now I don't know how to protect myself in case he blames me. Should I contact airbnb directly and share my worries? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ingrid661 My only suggestions to not worry about what might happen. Wait until it happens and then start worrying. Life is too short to worry about what maybe

[Colleen253]

@Ingrid661 You would do well to read the Airbnb guest refund policy so you are familiar with how things work should you have an issue with your stay. 

You say you involved Airbnb, but didn’t say what they advised you to do. At the very least, you should be entitled to a refund of the cleaning fee, so try putting in a claim for that. If the host makes a claim against you, you can dispute it. Airbnb will become involved again. Do leave a review detailing your issues. 

[Ingrid661]

Thank you. Yes well airbnb was helpful but the host definitely "won". I got a compensation of basically just $10 for the cleaning. I will also post a review once I leave.

[Louise0]

I'm curious.  To involve Airbnb in a cleaning dispute you're required to take and submit photos, yet you state "I didn't take any pictures when I arrived because it's a bit much.... ".  How is that possible?  And why is it 

"a bit much" to take a few photos?  It takes a minute at most.

[Ingrid661]

No, what I meant is that I didn't take pictures of all the things that are shabby and broken (i.e. a door frame, spots of paint on the couch, etc) because that's just a part of the apartment and that wasn't a problem for me. Anyways I didn't see all of it at first. So it would be a bit much to even think to take pictures of every little thing - I would never start off an airbnb-stay  worried that the host will blame me, but now after his very unreasonable behavior, I am.
But I most definitely took pictures of the dirt (there was spaghetti in the shower!) and used that in the dialog with airbnb.