Really Horrible Airbnb nightmare- how do you warn others?

[Lauren2655]

I rented a property a few miles outside of Taos for a month to work quietly and remotely in Covid times. I drove from Wisconsin and when I got to the property it was so off the beaten path, I was given coordinates by the owner (who lives in Tennessee) to find it. It was still light out and I was having a difficult time finding the property. There were some paved roads, but my GPS was also telling me to go through mud roads. It had recently snowed and thawed-the entire area was a mud pit. My prius got stuck in the mud and neighbors thankfully helped me out, as the sun was setting, I was all alone and tow companies were either closed or said they didn't have the capacity to help with mud tows (which I found surprising). After I got out, the neighbors took me to a road they thought was the right one. I got stuck again and now it was dark and was totally alone. Crying, I walked in the mud to a trailer and knocked on the door. The neighbors revealed they had covid but would try and get someone to help. Thankfully, they did and I was pushed again out of the road. I decided to get a motel room and demand from the owner someone accompany me to the property in the morning, which he complied to. The next day his very nice property manager drove me to another mud road that I had to turn down to get to the property-the owner said it was paved. The mud was so thick, my car would never have made it and even the property manager said his truck was having trouble.   All during a month it was going to snow and thaw-this means I would have been stuck there, literally. I was able to get a full refund but after spending 200 on motels, probably damaging my car and not being able to rent anything else in the area affordably-I had booked this place in the summer. I'm thankful to have gotten a refund but I'm not even allowed to leave a review or warning for others? I checked the listing again-even after this incident, he still "recommends" 4WD for " bumpy, dirt" roads. That's not what this was. My prius could have handled that. I have used Airbnb for many years with mostly no issues, except for horrible customer service. This feels really shady. Anyways-I had nowhere else to get it off my chest. I'm still shaken up and have to drive down to Albuquerque where I could find an affordable place with help from a family member. 

[Francesco1366]

Absolutely not agree. It Is responsibility of Host to inform correctly!!! Are you joking? Maybe I don't understand. I can not continue this absurdity. Ok, you are right! But please stop!! @Helen350 

[Helen350]

@Francesco1366 The host DID warn of a dirt road and recommend 4WD. That is enough for normal sensible people! - If someone ignores that information, and travels in an ordinary car, meant for cities and properly surfaced highways, then that is the driver's fault! - Like driving in snow & ice; you need appropriate equipment,4WD/snow chains & the ability & confidence to  USE them. - You can't blame others if you embark on a reckless journey outside your capabilities.

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As @Anonymous pointed out, you have not hosted ANY guests on Airbnb.. so I guess you are not familiar with the Airbnb norms, & the responsibilities of guests to do their research & check a listing meets their needs before they book!

(I go skiing on a tiny club field in the Pennines in northern England. The website says the road frequently requires 4WD/chains. I have neither, & only take my tiny low slung Peugeot 107 when the snow is old & the snow on the road is melted.... IF I were to misjudge, & get stuck on a day with too much snow, that would be MY fault, not the club's fault for too mild a warning!)

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[Francesco1366]

@Helen350,

**not sensible people. As it is written here, the road was not even passable by a 4wd truck and there were mud pits which are certainly not normal in all unpaved roads. Recomendation is not a mandatory, now with the new description guests will arrive with Prius or Panda, not 4wd, 2wd Is enough! I leave you happy about.

I don't understand why I don't have to reply to your messages that I think don't even take into account what the guest wrote here. Talking about trolls is very dishonorable for you, disrespectful and offensive. Please stop. I Will reply when I prefer.

Please mods teach to this user the way to speak correctly. She has already used offensive words referring to the guest. Unacceptable. Thank you. 

In any case I respect your point of view, very happy Airbnb thought otherwise.

[Francesco1366]

@Helen350 

It seems to me that you ignore that the guest said that not even a 4wd truck could travel that road. In addition, there were mud pits that are not normal on all dirt roads and if even a 4wd truck was able to travel I don't understan how the recommendation to use a 4wd is enough.

@Andrew0 pointed out something completely irrelevant because all of this can be judged by anyone. Anyway others are agree with me. 

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**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Helen350]

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Francesco1366]

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Quincy]

Hello @Helen350 @Francesco1366, please refer to my earlier post https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/COMPULSORY-enhanced-cleaning-protocol-unrealistic-for-ma.... 

"I suggest that if you are in disagreement with each other about a certain topic, it's always best not to escalate any further into name-calling. Sometimes it's best just to cut short whatever the discussion is about, take a deep breath @Francesco1366 @Helen350 and perhaps move on to a different topic.

I trust that you both will be able to adhere to the advice above and that I will not need to jump in again."

I really hope that this is the final time that I have to jump in.

Thanks,

Quincy 

[Francesco1366]

@Quincy thank you. 

I'm not fully agree on deleting my entire message. I do not accept that my behavior is considered at the same level as those who have seriously offended me and will be denounced for this. If it cannot be said that I think it is necessary to ***** (take a tough decision about) her for the correct functioning of this community because she offended me so seriously without reasons and she has here already offended another user, please ban me. However, I will ban my self, I can't stand uncivilized behavior. No ones defended me, I'm referring on the other users.

Apart from my disagreements which I'm sure I have expressed in full compliance with the rules of civilization and this community, I thank you very much for your comment. I will take your suggestions seriously, please note my comment to wich the user replied with serious offense was written before your kind suggestion, just to bring here the user who in my opinion for what I wrote here was offending me in another post.

[Anonymous]

@Francesco1366   Your warning here is directed at hosts, and that's perfectly valid too:  if you don't want to lose your payouts due to travel issues such as guests being unable to access your property, it's best to be as thorough as possible in your descriptions.

Mine is directed more at guests:  if a listing has zero reviews, don't assume that it's been tested just because it's listed on a famous platform. You don't even know if the property really exists, or if the host has ever been inside of it, so you're taking a huge leap of faith. At some point around the age of 10, most of us learn that advertising doesn't always match reality - so if putting all your faith into an ad means you might get stranded in a mud puddle over 1,000 miles from home alone and crying, that's all the more reason to make sure the claims in the ad have been verified by other sources. Reviews, research, maps, questions - these tools are all at our disposal when we make travel decisions, and when people fail to use them it's not surprising that they make bad choices.

[Francesco1366]

An ad must correspond to the truth. This is not about advertising an ice cream. We are talking about houses where people stay, take holidays and pay in advance. It is not acceptable to justify a host because he have never been home in winter. We have to be responsible for what we are actually responsible for and don't blame the guests. 

We didn't just talk about warnings but also responsabilities. There should be no doubt that a guest could not imagine that an unpaved road where a 4wd is "recommended", sometimes becomes a rally course with mud pits not passable even by many 4wd. There should be no doubt that a host has to know if the road to his house rented on Airbnb sometimes would be better to travel it with a tank or mika hakkinen, and he has to inform the guest.

[Lauren2655]

I agree and I've learned my lesson in that sense. I will never again rent a property without an established history. 

[Francesco1366]

Perfect @Lauren2655 , according to the most comments here would be better not to rent any house because if the established history does not refer perfectly to the climatic period that you will find during your trip, you could have nasty surprises. Don't trust the recommendations too much, if an host advises not to bring children, play it safe and if you are under 50 do not book. If in the reviews nobody talks about a rainy day, bring some more umbrellas because maybe it rains at home because maybe the host has never tried the house during raining.

[Francesco1366]

@Lauren2655 

I strongly disagree with what @Helen350 wrote.

Regarding the review, contact the assistance and maybe you will be able to leave it after the one month stay is finished or after, if you haven't done it yet, the cancellation of the reservation, as already suggested by other hosts. The only way to warn other guests is to do a truthful review of what happened.

I would also like to share my experience. I admit, I'm bad and maybe I do too much of the business of the other hosts. In my area there was a house that entered the location in the city center but it instead was located over 4km from the center. This was clear from the description itself admitting the correct location and some negative comments from guests. Used to booking.com which in my experience is very keen on the correct position and thanks to my advice had corrected one, I warned Airbnb convinced that it had corrected it. The host also on another site positioned the house correctly on the map, so I shared the link of that correct advertisement to the assistance. The property has quietly remained in the incorrect location and nothing Airbnb has done to correct it. I was shocked. Airbnb should better check the listings and correct them in these cases of obvious inaccuracies. I think it already does, in my experience it has to do more.

[Sarah977]

"In that sense, he and his unfortunate guest are evenly matched in the fact that neither of them did their homework - they both made ill-informed decisions, took unwise risks, and suffered the consequences."

I agree that is exactly the case here. Both host and guest equally bear responsibility for the access issue. 

The host has apparently not been to his property in this season and circumstances, where a bumpy dirt road turns to thick mud, and it seems he wasn't made aware of that by his cleaners or whoever else deals with the property, which seems a bit odd to me. 

And the guest definitely shouldn't have assumed she could access a property which says it requires a 4WD without checking as to exactly what that meant. A Prius doesn't have 4WD, it has AWD, which isn't the same thing at all. Nor does it have high clearance. All wheel drive improves traction on slippery wet streets, it isn't meant for getting yourself out of a mud pit. That's called off-roading, which isn't an activity you take your slick city car out on.

@Lauren2655

[Francesco1366]

So why doesn't the guest know, isn't he guilty? A bizarre though. And not even the Fiat Panda 4wd can get out of a mud pit! Porsche Carrera 4, in a mud pit it disappears. If I have to get out from a mud pit to arrive at home, I must be warned. And let's realize that they don't form in all unpaved streets.