Airbnb Host Accuses of Damages

[Penny31]

Hi Everyone.

This is the first time I'm posting here about this. I've been using Airbnb since the beginning of the year and I'm very hard on myself to make sure that I leave anywhere I've stayed perfectly cleaned and in 100% great condition. I've stayed all over Europe and I've had no problems with anyone thus far.

My most recent stay was in Czech Republic and when I left, I made sure to clean the flat and double-checked everything to make sure it was all A-ok. The host told me she couldn't come by to collect the keys, and if I'd just leave it in the mailbox downstairs, which I did and messaged her on Airbnb to let her know all was taken care of. She even left me a review saying how I left everything immaculate.

Two days later, she's messaged me that her window is broken and I was the last one there. I never even touched the windows, as it was below freezing outside, and I was the only one staying in the flat. I told her I had no idea how that could have happened, and reiterated that I never touched the windows in the flat.

This is making me really uncomfortable now, because I pride myself on how well I take care of hosts' places and I have never once even broken a plate, and this is a big accusation. She's claiming she now has to "fix" this window and I was the last person there. It's very strange, because I was nowhere near this window and I'm just gobsmacked by this turn of events. 

I want to add that she told me she couldn't meet with me on the day of my check-out and would I just lock up and leave the key in her mailbox, which I did, and wrote to tell her so as soon as I left.

What do I do to protect myself from such accusations? I actually liked the flat so much, I told her when I go back to her city in January, I'd book with her again, and told my friends about it, too. But now, I definitely would *not* stay there and will warn my friends against same, given the host is accusing me of something I didn't do. Had I done it, I absolutely would have owned up to it. Very weird turn of events and one that makes me uncomfortable with this entire Airbnb thing.

Any suggestions?

[Erik249]

Im having this problem at the moment.  I stayed a week in a pretty basic airbnb in Tulum, afetr the week was up I made a private agreement with the owner to stay a further week but it wa snot done through airbnb.

The day we left the owners employee came asking what time we are checking out, we left a few hours later.  A few days later the host brings up a dispute wanting 300 dollars, saying we stayed 3 extra days we didnt pay for, something that cant be requested through airbnb as it was not done through them.  And on top of that he is saying both his air conditioning remotes are missing, the two towels we had for our entire stay are dirty and there is a stain on the wall.

First I explained we left the day we said, he then replied that his employee saw us in the apartment 3 days later, despite the fact that I was in a completely different city, that I can prove.  He then dropped this lie and kept on about the air conditioning remotes.

The air conditioning remotes never left the apartment, one of them didnt work so was left in the bedroom the entire time and the working one was left next to the tv with the other remotes when we left.  The stain on the wall may or may not have been us and the dirty towels were definitely us.  I offered to buy him 2 new towels and some cleaning products as the place had none but he kept going on about his remotes.

I know for a fact that these remotes never left his place and he brought up the request with airbnb 10 days after our actual airbnb stay had ended.  I declined the request and messaged him saying I will only pay for 2 new towels.

Anyone know how this should play out as I am not handing over 300 dollars for two dirty towels.

[Sarah977]

@Erik249  If I were you, I would simply ignore it, including the towels. The host has to prove everything with Airbnb, which he won't be able to do. Hosts have to begin to submit paperwork and photos to Airbnb after a guest checks out and before a new guest checks in. If he keeps sending you threatening messages, block him. 

If Airbnb contacts you, which I doubt they will, tell them the host rented to you for another week past your booking dates off-platform, and that he then tried to scam you for another $300 for the claim of the missing remotes, which you had nothing to do with.

That you were only provided with 2 towels for your entire 2 week stay is ridiculous. Of course they were dirty by the end. 

[Linda108]

@Erik249   Responsible, professional hosts like @Sarah977  support good guests like yourself.  Unfortunately, there are hosts that either mis-manage their listing or are seeking to scam guests.  I see that you have over 20 reviews that are positive.  The negative review from this host is an outlier and likely will not have any impact.

However, as an experienced user of the Air BNB system, I wonder why you thought it was a good idea to operate outside the system in the first place.  If you want the protection of Air BNB, such that it is, I would recommend you play by the rules.  Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to report this host, primarily for operating outside the Air BNB terms of service.

[Amanda972]

I can understand your frustration ! I myself take pride in leaving everything spotless if not better than before I arrived. I am slight OCD with cleaning as well. I also had left a great review and stated we would be back in the future . However upon my 5 star rating and great comments in review she messaged me stating she found cigarette butts outside that were there prior to us coming gross! And no one in my family smokes, then I had asked about pets and she said they are welcome but I decided not to bring my dog due to fear of him getting out but didn’t mention that I did or did not take my dog she said there were feces in the house which was an outward lie becuase we didn’t even have an animal the house was clean upon leaving extra clean and she also said we left dirty dishes ! I was apauled ! So I quickly changed my review not even bashing her just changing to 4 stars because of her crazy accusations next time I am taking pictures of each room before leaving that was ridiculous. I kind of think her neighbor had some to do with this they were strange people who walked on to the gated property at night while we sat outside who seems high on drugs or something and stayed they wanted to show us their dog ? And let their dog take a crap in the yard and didn’t pick it up. 

[Ka-Yi0]

I am in the same situation at the moment, it is totally frustrated of being accused of breaking her induction hob after one month of my stay. which i have never use her kitchen, oh dear i even bring my own drinking water.

I regret left her a nice comment even her apt. has water leaking problem. 

how can we protect ourselves from this?.... I don't think I should use airbnb anymore....it is totally disappointing!!!!!!! 

[Rita649]

How can we get help with accusation of thief?

[Linda108]

The burden of proof is on the accuser.  If you did not steal anything, then there should be no problem for you.  Just ride it out.

[Kalyn8]

My partner and I stayed at an airbnb in Cottage Grove, Oregon. It was cheap and last minute so we didn’t mind the place was poorly represented in the ad. During the stay one of her dogs bit my partner, which he mentioned through private text to the host. After check out she proceeded to falsely accuse us of property damage for $400. A tear in the trailer wall, which had been there upon arrival. Once again we didn’t mention it, considering it was inexpensive. Shame on us right. Not to mention the mice and mold living in the trailer as well. We canceled the card on his account so no further deductions were made from his account on her behalf. Any ideas on what we should do next? I reported her account as well. It sucks people can make stuff up just cuz they’re peeved about they’re own **bleep** dog biting a guest. We even gave her a good review despite all this!

[Andrei109]

Recently, a friend who used my Airbnb account (we were meant to travel jointly, but I had to eventually cancel my part in the trip) was (3 weeks after his departure) accused of leaving an awful mess which required a 4-hour cleanup by a dedicated cleaner, as well as accusing my pal of breaking a ceiling light - tearing it out of ceiling (can you picture this: a light torn out of ceiling completely, with wires sticking out of ceiling?). This is all well and good, however: picture the context of this: the pal went off to holiday alone, as I had cancelled mine- and he had to cut the stay short (of which the 'host' was informed beforehand). As he requested to switch the remainder of unused time to next year (a lot of money, by the way!), she initially said yes. But 3 weeks after his departure she comes to me with this accusation. There's 0 evidence: it's her word against his - yet in the context of his request for an act of kidness with changing the remainder of booking days, her allegation 3 weeks after his departure looks pretty fishy! Now, this is a so-called 'Superhost' with mostly fab reviews - can Airbnb system be trusted at all? I don't think so.

Here's the host's profile: https://www.airbnb.ie/users/11258401/listings

We are not sure, but there are some reasons to believe she is the face of a large-scale shadow tax-evasion operation. As mentioned earlier, she has falsely accused my pal of having vandalised her apartment, leaving it in such an utter mess that she had to call in a maid to clean up the place for 4 hours, as well as sending me a very blurry picture of that light fitting completely wrecked: but there's nothing to say this is in that same apartment, could be any picture! Please be very careful with that particular host, as well as Airbnb at large - I will avoid Airbnb like a plague from now on: this was my first ever attempt, and already a scammer! 😞

[Sarah977]

@Andrei109  Regardless of whether this host is a scammer or not, as a first-time Airbnb user, you violated Airbnb policy from the start. 3rd party bookings are against Airbnb's Terms of Service- your friend can't book on your account, and if you booked for yourself and others on the same reservation, you, the account holder, have to be among the guests who arrive. The account under which a reservation isbooked , that account holder will be held responsible for the behavior of anyone who they book for. I'm not saying your friend caused any damages, I would have no way of knowing that, but if you ever book again, you should be aware of the 3rd party booking policy. If someone shows up for a reservation and they are not the account holder under which the booking was made, that person can be refused entry.

[Andrei109]

1) It wasn't a 3d party booking in the first place: I've booked for the two of us (THE OTHER PERSON WAS INCLUDED IN THE BOOKING - how does it make it 3d party?), but eventually my plan has changed and only the other of us could make the trip. What do you suggest in that case: my cancelling the booking at the last minute (when everything is already planned out and the other person is ready to make the trip?), seeking a refund, and then organise a new booking (again, at the last minute!), this time done by my buddy? A bit cumbersome, don't you find? If I had known, I would have done exactly that - but at the risk of more complications for the other person. 

2) The Host is a Superhost, in the business since 2014. She surely knows well the T&Cs, she knows I'm inexperienced: HOW COME SHE HAD NOT HELPED ME TO DO IT PROPERLY then? 🙂 Why are you putting all of the blame onto me (a newbie) for the broken T&Cs and not the Superhost? 🙂 As I've already said: I DID NOT IMPERSONATE ANYBODY: there were 2 of us, but only one eventually made the trip - and the host was made aware of this, ok? Why did she not help correcting me and rebook things the proper way, eh?

2) It could've been me: same scenario. Picture this: I travel myself, no T&C's broken, I cut the trip short and kindly request the host for a re-schedule of unused stay - the host agrees initially, but weeks after my departure decides to make up a false damages claim to waive the earlier promise 🙂 simple logic! like 2x2.

3) I've searched the web for similar scamming - and there is a wealth of examples of that sort: it appears to be a common practice among hosts world over! I've queried Airbnb savvies among my friends, and they've confirmed this sort of lies is a common practice among hosts. I am a landlord myself, I am of good character and so are people I choose to travel with: the gross allegations we were presented with, in the context of re-schedule request to me are just a piece of con art.

4) "Regardless of" - you wanted to say "The scamming situation notwithstanding" - not 'regardless', right? Because you can't simply 'disregard' something like that: it's a bad marketing piece you're doing for Airbnb 🙂 Just a linguistic detail, ok?.. Have a lovely weekend!

[Sarah977]

@Andrei109  I said "regardless of" because I don't believe in passing judgement on a situation I really have no knowledge of except what a stranger posts online. That wouldn't be fair to any of the parties involved. I have no first hand knowledge of whether the host is a scammer, whether your friend took wonderful care of the apartment, etc.

I do know that there are some horrible people listing on Airbnb and some unacceptable accommodations, just as there are some horrible guests. All give the platform a bad name. It's unevitable that this would happen on an international platform with millions of users. Hopefully the bad eggs get weeded out eventually through reports and bad reviews. But then there will always be more to take their place. I really don't know what can be done about that- the platform is just too huge for across-the-board quality control.

No, if you made a booking for you and your frined and you couldn't make the trip, having to go through all you mentioned above would be ludicrous. But I think contacting Airbnb and explaining the situation could have led to them just transferring the booking to your friend's account. But of course he'd have to set up an account.

What you have to understand is that 3rd party bookings can be a really bad situation for hosts. There are some guests who are so bad they get banned from the platform, then they just get a friend to book for them. Or the person who makes the booking for someone else fails to convey any of the house rules, check-in instructions, etc, so the 3rd party arrives never having read the listing info, not knowing there is a dog, when they have terrible allergies to pets, or not knowing it's a no smoking listing when they are a smoker, etc. Bad scenario for both host and guest. And because Airbnb doesn't allow 3rd party bookings except for business accounts, they won't cover a host for damages or helping to remove an objectionable guest if the host has accepted a 3rd party without the original booker present. Make sense now?

[Andrei109]

It does make sense, however, the Superhost was made aware of the change well in advance (our correspondence is on record within Airbnb messaging): she surely is aware of the T&C, yet chose pretending not to notice the breach, and it didn't occur to me either I was breaking the terms. Now the whole of blame is on me 🙂 And do you not think the Superhost might have taken advantage of this glitch on my part, to make unfounded damage claims? Otherwise, like I said: why not help correcting the mistake in the first place? It's like navigating a treacherous territory right from the start 🙂

p.s. we say 'notwithstanding', not 'regardless'. 'regardless' means disregarding...

[Sarah977]

@Andrei109  No, no, not trying to blame you. Just explaining some of the reasons why 3rd party bookings aren't good. I get that the host accepted it. And there are some experienced hosts who will accept some 3rd party bookings depending on the circumstances, like an account holder who is booking for their elderly parents who have no idea how to do online stuff.

You'd be surprised how many hosts don't know much about how a lot of Airbnb stuff works. Even Superhosts. There are posts here from hosts all the time who don't even know how to contact Airbnb or new hosts who already have a live listing and guest bookings, but have no idea how they'll get paid 🙂

[Andrei109]

In this instance I refuse to believe that though. The person (or a shady company she could be acting as the façade for, perhaps? It's a large-scale operation, with many properties, by the way - styled as a one-person business... would be nice for it to be investigated further by the local Revenue...) maliciously has taken advantage of the situation by framing me - so I choose not to give her the benefit of the doubt, sorry...

But truth be told, the whole experience has put me off the idea of any further dealings via this platform, and I sincerely, all pros & cons weighed on the scales of common sense, will not recommend it to anybody.