Resolution center enquiry

[Jay1463]

Hi all, we had a bad experience with a stay (house was filthy, mouldy walls, hair in beds, stank of smoke, things broken).

We left first thing the next morning because my child’s asthma was playing up because of the smoke smell. Host refused to refund me so I logged it with the resolution centre and that was a month ago. I  haven’t heard anything at all, is that normal? Thanks 

[Helen3]

No it’s not. Contact the case manager assigned to your case when you first raised concerns of mould and a filthy house. @Jay1463 

Did you send photo/video evidence with your original complaint when you raised it with the host and Airbnb before you left the listing. 

[Jay1463]

Okay thanks, I sent photos of everything. It was gross. How do I get in contact with anyone? I’ve logged a contact job but it was closed almost straight away. 

[Helen3]

As soon as it was closed you should have called them, sadly waiting a month is likely to make things more difficult. @Jay1463 

Use the contact numbers in the Contact Airbnb post  towards the top of the forum you are posting in. 

[Jay1463]

The case is still open, the contact request was closed quickly. I’ve emailed the press email but nobody gets back to me. Okay thanks. 

[Sarah977]

 What do you mean by "the contact request" and "the press email" ? @Jay1463

[Jay1463]

The contact email in Inbox/messages were it requests air bnb contact you and the press email was suggested in the other forum. 

[Sarah977]

I'm sorry, but you aren't being clear. I still don't understand the term "press email"- what are you referring to, exactly?  

And I also don't understand what "where it requests Airbnb contact you". When a host or a guest has an issue, they send a message outlining the issue. Then a CS rep answers the message, hopefully in a timely fashion, often not. Then you can reply to that, etc.etc. There's no place to request that Airbnb contact you.

@Jay1463 

[Jay1463]

I was told to go onto contact Airbnb, log a support job which will create a message in my inbox. So I did, which created the message but was closed down straight away.

I requested a refund which was declined, I escalated it to air bnb, which now says ‘in review with air bnb’ and has done for a month.  I have not received a message or any contact from any body from Air bnb. Is that any clearer?  Thanks 

[Sarah977]

Kinda. But I've never heard of a "contact job" or a "support job". Not sure where you're getting these terms. So you wrote a message to Airbnb support and they just closed it without answering? 

In any case, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so contact them again. A month ago when you first contacted them, the customer service was virtually non-existent, but it seems to be getting a bit better now. 

And did you ever actually cancel this reservation, or did you just leave? Because if you arrive to find a place uninhabitable, or otherwise unacceptable, the first thing to do is contact the host, then if they are unhelpful, you cancel and contact Airbnb to let them know what the issue was and request a refund.

@Jay1463 

[Jay1463]

Okay I’ll log another job and try again. I took a screenshot of it. The first is me asking for a refund for the fourth time lol. I tried to contact the host on the night but he didn’t respond and isn’t responding now. 

[Jay1463]

 

[Vacation190]

yes, you can contact support on airbnb app as well.

[Sarah977]

  You don't initiate contact with support from your Inbox. You have to go to the Help pages, follow the prompts and drop down boxes until you get to "Contact us" (you can also contact them through their Twitter account) and write your message there. When you get an answer in your Inbox from them, you then continue to communicate with them by typing a message in the box provided under their message to you and hitting Reply. 

As I tried to explain above, if you arrive to an Airbnb to find it unacceptable, the protocol is to first contact the host to tell them what's wrong and give them an opportunity to correct it. You don't message the host asking them for a refund right off the bat. There are issues that a host can and may correct- perhaps their cleaner did a poor job or unbekowst to them, never showed up, something like smoke smell can't be corrected in the moment, but some hosts have several listings and might apologize, and offer to move you to another unit, or pay for you to stay the night in a hotel while they deal with the issue. You have to at least give the host a chance.

Now if the host is unresponsive, rude, says they can't do anything about it, then the next step is that you cancel the reservation, or contact Airbnb to do it, letting them know why you are leaving and they will likely just issue you a refund right then (which may take 2 weeks to show up in your account). If you can't get ahold of Airbnb at the time, then you have to talk to them about the refund as soon as you have a chance.

What most guests don't realize is that hosts don't get paid for bookings until 24 hours after guests check in. From the time you pay for a booking, until then, Airbnb has your money, not the host. All money transactions, whether they are the booking fee, or a refund, go through Airbnb. 

Hosts can choose to refund guests by using the Resolution Center to send money, but honestly, a host who would let guests check into the sort of disgusting scenario you arrived to find are not the type of people who you should bother asking for a refund,. because they aren't the type to give one. Let Airbnb deal with refunding you.

BTW, all this info about what to do, and the order to do it in if you arrive to find a bad place, is info that is readily available to guests in the Help articles for guests on the main Airbnb site (not this forum), if only guests would bother to read that info.

Sorry you had such a bad experience, and hope it gets resolved soon. Hosts who would offer a filthy place should be banned from the platform. 

@Jay1463

@Jay1463

[Helen3]

@Jay1463  You need to just get on the phone to Airbnb as I suggested earlier.

if you didn’t follow the process advised on your booking confirmation and as advised by @Sarah977  and myself in earlier posts.

1. contact host to raise and address the issues

2. if host didn’t respond or refused to address the issues, contact Airbnb before leaving the listing, to ask them to cancel the booking and ask to obtain a refund if you could demonstrate the place was not as advertised.

you may not have a valid claim.