Dirty apartment | Airbnb defends the host who is out of town

Karina316
Level 1
Tallinn, Estonia

Dirty apartment | Airbnb defends the host who is out of town

It was disgusting. Dirty and stinky apartment, someone's **bleep** in the toilet. But Airbnb took the host's side who insists that the apartment was cleaned, althought he was out of town. 

 

First of all, I read all the revies carefully before booking. The reason was that I decided to show Prague to my mom who is 70 y.o. and who has never been there. It was her biggest dream. And I shared this with the host because it was really important for me. 

 

We arrived to the apartment at 6 pm as it was agreed with the host. The host at the very last moment informed me that he is out of town, and his mom will meet us. When we arrived, the place was a total mess. As if some company partied there and it wasn't cleaned for a long time. Dirty bed linens on the beds, trash everywhere, **bleep** in the toilet. And the smell of urine as if someone left a cat locked alone in the apartment for a week. The smell was so bad that we left the place immediately. The host's mom started to clean it and in two and something hours informed us that everything is set up and we may come back. It was alredy later than 8 pm, we were exhausted after our long trip to Prague, so we already booked a hotel nearby to get some rest and take a shower, and informed Airbnb support about the case. 

When we came back just to get our bags, we found out that one bed was made with fresh bed linens (the dirty ones were although left in the bathroom), but another bed was made with the dirty bed linens left after previous guests. It was just made to look a little nicer. But still someone slept on this bed linens I was supposed to sleep that night.

The trash bins were still full of trash left after previous guests. In the bathroom there were used toilet paper left in the trash bins, it smelled terribly as it was probably there for a long time. 

The shower were left unclean. Trash was still everywhere on the floor. 

And the smell of urine was still so strong that it wad impossible to stay more than a minute. 

We left the apartment and contacted the host immediately. He told us that he is out of town and that he will deal with that once he is back. I asked him when he is back. The next day I asked him again. He never told me when he is back to town. We contacted Airbnb support. It took me 50 minutes of waiting on the line. After I explained the situation, I was told that Airbnb will contact the host and call me back. No one called this day. They only contacted me the next evening, almost 24 hours later to tell me that they cancel my reservation according to the host's cancellation policy (the first night I didn't spent in the apartment was non-refundable, for the next 3 days I got only 50% refund).

 

I paid 250 EUR for 5 minutes of urine smell and **bleep**ty toilet. 

 

After I shared photos with Airbnb support, they told me that they can't offer me full refund because the host's mom tried to clean the apartment. Yes, she tried. But it was not cleaned properly yet, and the host violated check-in policy, ruined my mom's first expression of Prague, her biggest dream. I tried to talk to the host, I explained him what happened, I showed him pictures, but he accused me in making a mess and breaking stuff in the apartment and refused to discuss anything at all. 

 

I'm not that surprised by the host's actions, but I'm really surprised by Airbnb support's apathy. Some guy from the support is telling me that he decided not to refund me because the host's mother tried to clean the place. Tried. But failed. And I have photos of the apartment after that so called cleaning. What should I do in this case? I tried to write to support one more time but the closed the case without any comments. 

2 Replies 2
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Karina316 

Airbnb mostly is on the side of the guests when it comes to such complaints.

- You can report the listing or the host to Airbnb by using the "flag" link in it.

- you can write your experience in the review of the stay

- You can give feedback: Airbnb Feedback

 

BTW Your  profile shows you are a "Hospitality guru" ?

It also shows a review from a guest about  "dirty accomodation..."?

 

 

LaShanna0
Level 1
Macomb, MI

I just experienced something similar with my stay in Toronto Canada. I even took pics of our condo upon arrival and you know what they did??? They refunded me $19 for cleaning expense. I wish i could upload photos on here. I’m complaining to BBB. I’ve put the pics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram already. My host also requested photos of our drivers licenses prior to arrival and we were told this was normal by @@airbnb now we are complaining and he has our info.