Undisclosed aggresive doors in yard

Tania415
Level 1
Paris, France

Undisclosed aggresive doors in yard

Hi everyone,

 

My partner and I booked a month at an airbnb out in Joshua Tree as a retreat. We love the area for its peace and quiet, and have spent several months there in the past. My partner was victim to a dog (unfortunately, a pitbull) attack in the past and is pretty traumatised from the experience. When we arrived at the property not only did we have serious issues with cleanliness (this isn't the host's fault as she had trusted a cleaning company and not checked up after them), but there were also two very loud and apparently aggressive pit bulls in the yard next door. The only thing dividing the outdoor area on our side and the neighbor's yard was a thin chicken wire fence. They would peek over the top, push up against it and bark at us non-stop when we went out at night. Frankly I felt scared too, we had to rush inside every time.


We go out to this kind of desert area to get a break from our stressful city lives and to enjoy being outdoors as much as possible, especially at night when you can look at the stars. We tried for two nights but the barking was relentless and my partner was extremely anxious sitting outside, so we decided we couldn't stay for a whole month, seeing as the whole point was to sit outside and relax! That is how the listing was advertised - as a quiet, healing space. The dogs were about 30 yards away from the outdoors sitting area and obviously as it's the desert it's exposed.

We tried talking to our host about this and she seemed geniunely sorry and understanding of the fact that this was trauma-related, and that she hadn't mentioned these dogs (which she knew of) in the description. She said she understood that we needed to book a different place and that she would see what she could do about the money. Just now we contacted her again about this as we've heard nothing and she's suggesting that we cancel the booking on our end, and that if she manages to get any new bookings in, she could send us a percentage of each of those stays. No specific details. This seems super sketchy to us, and we're already in a pressed situation because we can't really afford to have booked two different 30-day stays. We feel very disappointed to have trusted that she understood the situation.

What can we possibly do? Any advice would be welcomed!

7 Replies 7
Ana1136
Level 10
Ohrid, Macedonia (FYROM)

@Tania415 You can contact Airbnb and cancel the reservation, you will probably be refunded for the unused nights.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/td-p/413245

Follow the instructions on the link above on how to contact them. 

Thank you Ana! I did contact them and they're going to try and arrange for a partial refund.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Tania415

Dogs barking at any time of the night/morning can be very disturbing and I completely understand you.

 

Regarding their behaviour  - you are strangers and they just defend their home. I would buy dog treats and give it to them, we would become friends very soon 🙂

 

If you booked for less than 28 nights then you don't have to cancel your stay, you can send her an alteration request to shorten your stay to 2-3 nights. She has to accept it.

 

But, if you booked for more than 28 nights than it's a long term reservation and other rules will apply. Check it out here https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#long-term

 

The best would be to take a photo and a video of the dogs/fence/barking and then contact Airbnb support with the evidence of the problem. Point out the dogs were not disclosed in the listing description and see what can be done.

 

 

 


@Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote:

@Tania415

 

Regarding their behaviour  - you are strangers and they just defend their home. I would buy dog treats and give it to them, we would become friends very soon 🙂

 

This is very bad advice. I usually agree with @Branka-and-Silvia0 , but do not feed someone else's animal without permission. You have no idea how the owners feel about their dogs or the AirBNB that they live next to. This could lead to great trouble. 

Agreed Susan, normally, like Branka & Silva, I would also trust dogs in general (I'm not the one who's been bitten, that's my partner), but I wouldn't feed someone else's dog - especially not one that has clearly been trained to be a guard dog. These dogs were obviously only let out at night to keep people and coyotes off the property and to be honest, although I grew up with dogs and I like them, pit bulls that bark in the way these ones did I wouldn't go anywhere near. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Quite honestly @Tania415  if I was the host I would agree to refund the rest of your stay. 

 

1. It is up to the host to monitor the cleaning company - I hope she got them to come in and re-clean

 

2. She will have known about the dogs and should disclose them in the listing, particularly if she promotes the garden as a space to relax for guests. 

 

In your situation I would contact Airbnb and say that you cannot enjoy the back garden (one of your main reasons for staying) because the neighbours dogs bark continually whenever you go out there.

 

I don't feel it is enough for the host to say she will refund you if she gets another booking.

 

By the way did any previous guests mention the barking dogs in their reviews.

 

 

Thank you for your advice! I'm in contact with Airbnb now and that seems to be their opinion too. The listing was pretty new so not a lot of reviews. Most of them seem to be have been fairly short stays so perhaps they didn't use the outdoors area much at night? These were obviously guard dogs that they only let out at night (it's probably too hot for them during the day out here too!) It had a propane fire pit that looked very much unused.