URGENT HELP NEEDED! Regarding a recent Air BNB experience

[Jack470]

Me and my friends recently stayed with PML services in London, we paid the full amount for a 2 night stay.

Within 5 hours of being there the power suddenly went off. We tried to contact the host/PML Services that same night however no luck (which was expected as it was late at night). First thing in the morning (still no power) we tried to contact the host and after countless attempts we eventually did. They promised us an electrician would be out within an hour to fix the issue, the promised us a full refund and they also promised us no check out time. 

Midday STILL NO power, no electrical, no nothing, they were not answering our calls, avoiding us basically. So we took it upon our selfs to get this fixed, looked at the meter and it says they had 4p on the card (there was no card in there for us to top it up).

So an Air BnB company with multiple properties cant pay their electricity.....

Sunday midday, still NO POWER!!!

FOR 2 WHOLE DAYS AML Services left us with out electricity, no hot water, no TV, no fridge, no cooker, no power no nothing. They abandoned us, refused to help, told us a string of lies and now wont even give us our money back.

Is there anything we can do to help us get our money back? 

FYI i would highly avoid staying or dealing with PML services, never experienced such a bunch cowboys in my life!!1

[Anonymous]

@Jack470  PML Services is not an Airbnb company. It's a property management firm that lists apartments on Airbnb as well as a lot of other websites. While the properties appear genuine, several of them are among the most poorly rated by guests of any I've ever seen on Airbnb.

In other words, your experience tracks pretty closely with hundreds of appalling reviews - in addition to host cancellations. Apartments being repeatedly called unsafe, left completely uncleaned between guests, looking nothing like the photos, and in otherwise horrific condition. Seriously, I've never seen so many extreme negative reviews on one profile without it being deleted by Airbnb:  https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/159068368

Your window of time for getting a refund from Airbnb may have already closed, since you evidently chose to complete the stay. Airbnb's guest refund policy (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/544/ ) will grant you a full refund if you report your travel issue to Airbnb within 24 hours of your checkin, or a partial refund if the issue comes up later in your stay. It does not have a provision for refunds if you choose to complete your stay, so now you have to contend with more complicated processes.

If your correspondence with the host occurred within the Airbnb messenger, and you kept evidence that the facilities weren't usable, follow this procedure:

1. Go to airbnb.com/resolutions, select the booking, and click "Request money from host."

2. Complete the request for a refund of your room cost.

3. While awaiting a response, contact Airbnb to report the host for their negligence in the matter, thus beginning a paper trail. Be sure to mention the dozens of recent reviews describing unlivable conditions in the homes.

If PML refuses a refund, your case will be escalated to Airbnb and you may be asked to provide supporting evidence. It might take months - customer service seems to be critically backed up these days - and your claim may be denied on the basis that you completed the stay rather than leaving the property. In my opinion, you deserve some compensation because your choice not to leave was based on the deception that the electricity would be repaired. But in the future, if your host fails to resolve an issue in a reasonable amount of time, you should contact Airbnb right away and get re-housed. And also, be sure to look carefully at the host's reviews - including for other properties - before you place a booking. When it seems to good to be true, it probably is.