Landlord disappeared with deposit

[Mohmed1]

I have used Airbnb for a few days stay in a flat in London. Before arrival the landlord asked for £350 as a deposit, but clearly stated in the message that the deposit is for breaking house rules regarding having additional guests or neighbours complaining about noise, none of which has happened. In the message the landlord said the deposit is not for damages (although no damages caused either).

The deposit was supposed to be refunded 1 to 2 working days from checkout, but it has been almost 2 weeks with daily messages to airbnb and to the landlord with no success. Today we received a message from airbnb saying the deposit is with the landlord and they can do nothing about it and that I need to negotiate with him to get it back, and they simply closed the resolution case.

I was shocked honestly when airbnb said the money is in the landlord bank account, as I made the payment through www.airbnb.com/resolutions. I thought the deposit (as is typically the case) is kept securely with a third party.

I of course know that the landlord is trying to punish me because I left a review on their listed. The reason for that is I booked the place for our honeymoon and I messaged the landlord asking if the place is suitable for the occasion. They said yes, but when we arrived I found the place is in a basement underground with damp smell and lots of noise from the street above, plus a load of other issues with the listing. All of which is of course omitted from the listing description.

I have asked airbnb to reopen the case and do their job to mediate between me and the landlord to get my money back. The landlord's only excuse for the delay is that they are waiting for the cleaner to go and check the flat, but why do they need to check the flat when the deposit is only for additional guests and noise during the stay anyway.

For £1500 for 4 nights I would have expected a better experience and I really trusted Airbnb platform to be safe and secure which is obviously not the case. The first disappointment is with the landlord attitude but the main one is with the lack of support I have seen from airbnb. Now I have to spend my own time for almost 2 weeks and go through all of this stress to get my own money back which in my view completely unfair!

[Anonymous]

@Mohmed1  In hindsight, it would have been wise to wait until the dodgy deposit was returned before posting that bad review. Wiser yet to have never agreed to it in the first place. Now, the host is all but guaranteed to find a reason to keep your money. 

Unfortunately, as you've learned, Airbnb is still the wild west - it doesn't vet its users or inspect its properties, so the only thing you really have to go on is the reputation earned through reviews. If things went down as you described, I'd be very surprised if this listing was backed up by lots of great reviews. But with new listings, this kind of stuff happens all the time.

[Mohmed1]

@Anonymous  Hi Andrew, completely agree. It was actually my own mistake as the first message I got when writing the review was that it will not be shared with the landlord until after 14 days, however as I was clicking the send button I noticed it goes first to the landlord. 

I usually use another property booking. platform and this is one of very few times I use Airbnb. My wife was adamant that we get a flat so was sort of forced down this route. 

It is still surprising to see this happen on airbnb platform with them being in business all these years.

You are also spot on on the reviews point and as a new property there was only one review, we still took the punt which I admit wasn't a smart move!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mohmed1 just a small correction. Your review doesn't go to the landlord until he/she has reviewed you. As you don't appear to have any reviews then the landlord will not have seen your review yet.

[Mohmed1]

@Mike-And-Jane0 thanks a lot for the clarification, I didn't know that. I assume they just anticipated the review after all the messages and complains while we were there. 

Lesson learnt is never take a risk and stay somewhere that doesn't have lots of good reviews. In future I'll probably steer away from Airbnb all together unless I have to. 

[Sarah977]

@Mohmed1  Your review doesn't get sent to the host. If only one party submits a review, that review will be published 14 days after check-out and that ends the review window. . If both parties leave a review, they will be published as soon as they are both submitted.

Neither guests nor host can see the other's review until they are made public- reviews are blind, and at that point, neither can leave a review.

[Mohmed1]

@Sarah977 there was a message to leave a note to host or sonething like that. It appears as I was posting my public review and I think my review was also sent in a message to the host. Maybe it was my mistake as I was using my phone, but probably thry got the review. 

[Mohmed1]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies. Just a quick update. I have been contacted by Airbnb and was promised I'll get the refund. I am not sure if this post did the trick or if it was just a coincidence. Considering all the calls and messages over the past two weeks with no success, I'm tempted to believe this post helped my case.

Hope no one else has the honeymoon from hell I had because of this Airbnb stay. Stay safe everybody.

[Sarah977]

@Mohmed1  No, Airbnb doesn't monitor posts here, and they certainly wouldn't have acted so swiftly on something posted only 5 hours ago. Your case just finally worked its way through the system.

It sounds as if this listing may have been a property-managed place? Those are the ones that guests seem to have the most problems with, especially in getting security deposits returned.

There is really no reason to stay away from Airbnb, as long as the place has a history of good reviews, you thoroughly read all the listing info, and send an Inquiry message first if you have any questions and to get a good sense of the host before committing to a booking.

And hands-on hosts listings, where hosts tend to have a more personal stake in being good to guests and presenting a nice property, as opposed to listings run by property managers, are better bets as far as being treated well and fairly.

Yes, there is a place when you go to review, to send private feedback to the host. I'm not sure if that gets sent as soon as you write it, or not until the reviews are published. If you want to make sure the public and private parts don't get confused, or sent before your review is published, send private feedback in the message stream you already have with the host, not through the review form.

[Mohmed1]

@Sarah977 You are spot on about the agency vs private landlords. I only discovered it is an agent run property after I checked in, although in the advert it had the name and photo of a person so I thought it was private. Anyhow we live and learn. 

Lucky escape this time I will hopefully get my money back. We just need to be careful in future. Thank you 😊 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mohmed1 Properties with no reviews can be ok - We all started out with no reviews after all. The important thing is, if there are no reviews, is to make contact with the host and strike up a conversation about their listing. That way you will lessen the risk of a bad stay.

[Sarah977]

@Mohmed1  Yes, sometimes it's hard to know, if the property-managed listings are actually under the home-owner's profile, rather than the manager's. But if the property managers have a lot of listings, you can see that if you click on the host's profile photo, which will take you to their profile page, where all their listings will be visible, as well as all their reviews for all their properties.

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977  Unless something has changed recently, the private feedback is only visible when the review is published. The host gets notified by email that the guest reviewed them, but they can't see what the guest actually wrote until either they submit a reciprocal review or the 14 day window closes.

@Mohmed1  I'm glad to hear you've gotten your case resolved. Hopefully now that you know what to look out for, you'll have lots of great experiences in the future. You didn't ask for marriage advice (and congrats, BTW) but life is so short, and those times when you share disappointments and hardships with the person you love are still times to be cherished. In the grand scheme of things, the honeymoon where everything goes wrong is perfect because you're in love with the person you went through it with, and you come home with an entertaining travel story to add to your repertoire. Now that the sting of lost money is gone, have a good laugh together at what a farce it was, and get busy planning your next adventure together!

[Mohmed1]

@Anonymous thanks for the kind words and the advice. Much appreciated. 😊

[Mohmed1]

The landlord just left me a negative review that is full of false claims. They said I made a fuss because I wanted a discount which absolutely not true. Why would I ask for a discount after I paid in advance and checked in.

Also all of my comments are backed up by photos and messages from the landlord. 

Any advice on how to challenge this review with airbnb.

I have also noticed that airbnb has rewritten my review removing all the specific details and leaving only generic comment that I was not happy with the stay.

They deleted the fact that the flat is in a basement, the windows are painted over and can't be opened and the place smells of damp. Also the photos are not the same as per the listing. Is airbnb allowed to rewrite the reviews in this way?