I've never come across a company that deals with complaints so badly, they just fob you off and then close the message thread. If you call them they tell you you have to send a message on the website, send you some gibberish reply that doesn't answer any of your questions and makes no sense and then close the thread again. They refused to give me any formal complaint procedure or ombudsman details even though I repeatedly and specifically asked for them during a call that lasted half an hour. How can a company the size of Airbnb behave like this?!?
They sent me a mentally ill alcoholic guest who after checkout proceeded to move to a spare room in the house and continue living there for several days. Initially we didn't even know she was there because she just stayed locked in the room and never came out. When we eventually gained access with police and social services we discovered she had urinated, deficated and vomited in the room and bed. Obviously the bedding and mattress/pillows/duvet had to be thrown out and replaced and the room thoroughly cleaned as well as the other guest compensated (who unsurprisingly cancelled and checked out early). I only claimed for the material cost of replacing the items using cheap replacements from Primark, a local bed shop and eBay (about £250 total) but airbnb said that because another guest had already checked in to the original room that the problem guest was in that they could not offer me a refund "to protect the guest and the host"... What?? That doesn't even make any sense. We have a police report so there's no question who is to blame! Every attempt to contact them they just fob you off and hope you will go away, which obviously makes me more determined to make sure as many people know about it as possible 😉
They're a shoddy company and they clearly do not really check out the people they are sending to your home because they really don't care if you have a problem as long as they can charge both the host and the guest a commission on the booking. The more guests they send to a host, the more money airbnb make so they lower their basic checking standard so that anybody can basically come and then take no responsibilty if there's a problem.
I'm slowly moving back to renting to tenants instead because although I receive more money in the summer months than a basic rental, I receive less in the winter and it's really is not worth the huge amount of extra work involved when it becomes very clear that the illusion of the host guarantee and the £500 deposit I have placed on the listing are worth nothing in reality
