Before this experience my record was perfect because we really looked after the places we rented from the hosts, I still have 2 bookings with Airbnb - maybe should just cancel them and advise people not to use this platform...or maybe I am in the wrong but cannot see it.
The host messaged me after his malicious money request was refused,
“Men you are pigs!!! Not honest and not respectful You don’t deserve to be welcome in any place and leave it like you did, I hope someday you will be caught before leaving by an owner!! Life will pay you back I am not worry....”
Of course I reported this abuse, the latest communication from Airbnb reads like this,
“Hello Ken,
I already read this message from Bxxxx, and I can understand your feeling. But our Policy content is not considering this message as a violation, no insult, no discrimination. You are offended, I understood that, but there is nothing I can do here.”
ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Now the whole story (or nightmare):
We rented a flat in France, the communication with host was OK. Fast forward to the end of trip, needed to leave with our two kids at 6am to catch the bus, so I had some toasts around 5:30 and used one plate, a couple of glasses for milk, ate one more banana, kids and missus wanted to eat something later, so I just washed these and put them in the dish rack by the sink, banana skin in the bin. Both dish washers and bin were emptied the night before. The host didn't provide bedsheet or pillow case, so we bought the disposable ones from village shop, we left them as-is on bed, because the cleaning fee has been charged and paid beforehand and I assume emptying the bin, throwing out the disposable pillow cases and some wiping/cleaning were certainly included. All the other conditions were left as we entered the flat, before I closed the door, as usual I took pictures of all the corners in the flat to avoid any potential dispute.
We were back to the UK in the evening, got some email saying the host has left a review, there was another one with money request - which I regrettably missed when checking the inbox! So despite of various issues in the flat (I will describe later), with goodwill in mind, I still left a quite good review for the host. Then the Airbnb system showed his review -
“Never has my apartment been left in such a dirty state. The dirty bathroom, the fridge of spilled products, the table full of crumbs, soils, soiled mirrors etc”
This completely shocked me, I couldn’t believe my eyes – then when I checked the email inbox again I found the host also requested 1xx EUR for 5 HOURS of cleaning job! How many toasts would I need to eat to leave a small mountain of crumbs for hours of cleaner’s work?! That should have covered the whole table I assume.
I immediately responded to his review by leaving this reply,
“Hi Bxxxx, I just left a fairly objective/good review and now realised your unfair comment below, fortunately I took pictures when we entered and left the property just in case of dispute, thus I will use the pictures to discuss with airbnb. About the cleanliness of the flat, if the guess was supposed to clean every corner of the house when they had kids and ought to wake up at 6AM to catch the bus to station, please explain to me why you charged 'Cleaning fees £54.58' when we booked the flat? What would the cleaner do? They cannot even wipe the mirror, and properly clean the table. We took out rubbish regularly, we vacuumed the place every day, we washed the dishes every day and put them nicely in place, never had any problem with any of our hosts before. If you are expecting the guests to completely clean the place please specify in the advert and not charge them cleaning fee. Please please fix the toilet, the smell was so strong and I woke up several times one night the only realised my son didn't close the door properly, that's how strong the smell was. Thank you.”
I then submitted all my photo evidences to Airbnb customer service team, which clearly showed the clean table, living room, kitchen, hallway conditon etc. Agent M from Airbnb Trip team contacted me to see if I was willing to give part of the requested money to the host.
And this is what I responded:
“Hi Mxxx,
No problem, you can contact me at xxxxx. This is a malicious request from the host or maybe he was misled by the cleaner. It's laughable that he mentioned additional cleaning effort (we already paid cleaning fee upfront) because of the breadcrumbs on the table, you can see the picture taken when we left 🙂 It must be a small mountain of breadcrumbs on the table for the cleaner to take additional five hours to clean it. I very much regret I gave him better review (to save his face, the bathroom was awful) then found he left unfair review and requested for money. In short, I will not pay him even one penny for not even giving us a chance to discuss, BTW, he was not in the resort for the entire time and most likely not seen the place by himself when we left.”
Agent M replied,
“Hi Ken,
Thank you so much for this message.
I understand your point of view but as I explained to the host, I cannot force you to refund him as he does not have any photos or invoice which can justify the 1xx€ request so don't worry I won't follow the host in his request via the resolution center.
I am sorry to know this reservation did not go well with this host.
For next reservation, if you notice cleanliness issue, please contact us as soon as possible on this number : xxxxxxx
Indeed we can help you to find another place to stay or ask a partial refund to the host.
I thank you again for your time to reply to my message.
I wish you a nice day Ken,
Kind regards”
So far – all responses from Airbnb were neutral, based on facts (pictures I supplied), so all good. Then after some minutes – the abusive message from host arrived at my inbox!
I immediately blocked him, I didn’t shout any insults back but reported this message to Airbnb. I thought I had evidence to handle the dispute, and my basic rights in the Airbnb community should have been protected by Airbnb – how wrong I am!
I contacted the customer service team, who told me the discrimination/abuse related investigation is handled by a different team, agent T from that team did contacted me initially, I replied as below,
Hi Txxx,
Many thanks for your response.
I left my 'good' review on the flat before I found out the host made malicious request for money, which he claimed took 5 hours and more cleaning time but couldn't provide any evidence e.g. invoice, next airbnb guests check-in being delayed etc. On the contrary, I do have pictures to show the condition we left the flat with, we always took care of our guests places. …
I left the 'good' review before I found out his money request, I tried to strike a positive tone in the review, it was really trying to remind the host gently about the issues we found out in the flat, not to stop him from making business. Some of the main issues include strong sewage/waste smell in the toilet/bathroom (When I raised it with host's onsite assistant - his friend, she completely dismissed it and said she couldn't do anything), the extractor fan above stove was not working (host admitted via Airbnb message), exposing electrical wires under stove, freezer malfunction, severe mold problem under the curtain in the living room etc.
I trust your team will communicate with the host, and I am willing to provide all the evidences required. I will leave the decision of action in your hands, from my perspective, there is now no reason for me to 'save his face' after the abusing text, therefore at the minimum I'd request to remove my own review on this flat.
I have always been a good vocal to ask families and friends join Airbnb because of the excellent experience I've had with other hosts in the past, hope this incident will get resolved soon and restore my full confidence on continue using your service.
Sincerely,
”
Unfortunately, I heard nothing back, so I sent a couple of chasers via email,
‘Hi Txxx,
Thank you. So far I haven't received any further comm from both your team or the trip experience team - I can wait, but this morning I got an email from Airbnb (likely system generated) as a reminder that if I got further negative feedback from host I won't be able to travel with Airbnb again. As you could imagine even though this might be a system email but after been abused and received malicious money request, how this email upset me and my wife, because we do have other Airbnb trips booked and we are planning further trips later this year...
Please help and clarify when I could receive solid response from either teams, thanks.”
“Hi Txxx,
Could you advise any progress please? I can still see the disgusting messages the host Brice sent to me (I blocked it already, but seems only works when you click into the message). And his malicious/smearing review remains on my account, I have been patiently waiting for your investigation because I know it's gonna take time but hope you can help resolve this as soon as possible, thanks.”
The most shocking message arrived this Sunday from Agent L in Customer Experience team,
“Hello Ken,
My name is Lxxxx and I am from Airbnb Customer Experience Team. Thank you for reaching out to us. I will try and resolve your issue to the best of my abilities.
In fact, you received an email from us because you received a bad review from your last Host, Bxxxx.
But this email is not saying that you won't be able to travel with Airbnb again. Even the title of the email is "Improve your review for your next trip".
Take this email as a warning, but let this not happen again.”
So it is me instead of the host should be WARNED? And LET this - i.e. being abused for no reason and receiving malicious money request NOT HAPPEN AGAIN? HOW would I do that?
I replied to Agent L,
“'Men you are pigs!!! Not honest and not respectful You don’t deserve to be welcome in any place and leave it like you did I hope someday you will be caught before leaving by an owner!! Life will pay you back I am not worry....’
Hi, are you saying from Airbnb's perspective that even we did nothing wrong which we do have photo evidence to prove, then got insulted by host because we refused his malicious money request, but you cannot do anything about it? So we just have to swallow this in silence? Please advise in writing, many thanks.
Ken”
The reply arrived later from the agent,
“Hello Ken,
I already read this message from Bxxxx, and I can understand your feeling. But our Policy content is not considering this message as a violation, no insult, no discrimination. You are offended, I understood that, but there is nothing I can do here.“
…
…
Thank you very much for your patience reading this, maybe the host message was not abusive? Maybe we were completely wrong by not cleaning every corner of the house even we paid for the cleaning already? Maybe it is right that I couldn't even retrieve my own review after being insulted? I am confused, and don’t know how to communicate with Airbnb anymore, maybe it’s time to close it down and tell people get far away from it…
