Warning About Air-bnb property Manager in Brisbane

[Rita359]

Hello fellow Brisbane hosts,

I have had a very bad experience with an Airbnb property manager, called And Chill and would like to warn other Brisbane hosts to keep away from them. I signed the contract with them in December 2017 and later on in March 2018 I got an income statement from them that wasn't even half of their quote and even much less than apartment usuall rental income so, I decided to cancel the contract  . When I got the apartment key back from them , I realised that they had taken some items of my furnished apartment which after a lot of follow up they accepted and said they will return the items and now after almost 1.5 month after contract cancellation in spit of a lot of correspondance they haven't paid any money to me and even haven't returned the taken items .

I would appreciate if anyone here can  advice me how I can lodge a complain against them ?

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Rita359 Get yourself a lawyer and sue them! Next time avoid dealing with property managers and try to take care of your Airbnb business by yourself.I am sure you will be surprise on how much more cash you can earn by yourself.Good luck!!!

[Rita359]

Thanks Oomesh,this experience with Air-bnb was so bad that I decided just to go with real state.

[Helen3]

@Rita359

What sort of references did you take up with fellow hosts before uses the services of this property management company? 

I don't how it works in Australia, but in the UK, you wouldn't need a lawyer,  you could take them to the small claims court to recover any outstanding monies and compensation for the furniture.

Do you have something similar in Australia?

[Rita359]

Not sure Helen, that's why I put this warning here to learn if there is any thing like that in Australia. 

But thanks for mentioning that ;I will ask about having such court here in Australia.

[Rita359]

NEW UPDATE as of April 15th:

In Dec2017 Air-bnb And Chill company gave me a quote of average of $1000 income per week and the rent of the unit is $600 per week. Finally after all those follow ups, today on 15th of April, they paid $1300 for January, February and first week of March 2018. They charged me $880 at the beginning for administration set-up and all the bills had to be paid by me which only for Electricity I got bill of $220 and still have to pay rest f the bills plus they haven’t still returned items that they took from my apartment. Please be careful about them; they won’t even answer your calls when you find issues with them.

[Romeo26]

Did they give you quote of average $1000 A WEEK and they ended up pay you $1300 for 9 WEEKS? How come? May I ask where is your unit in Brisbane?

[Artemis-and-Albert0]

Hi Rita,

I am very sorry to hear your story.  We had a similar experience with them, Brisbane owners be warned.

luckily we kept a very close eye on their listing and was contacting them every day to ask them why they were pricing our property so low, they broke the contract with us after running it with rediculous pricing for a months,

‘I can tell you that we can earn about 80% of the predicted income as owner managers, they just didn’t manage it properly in Brisbane.

They have no appreciation of the real cost to owners.

[Artemis-and-Albert0]

We were happy to break the contract at any cost so we accepted their offer and was willing to let go of our income for a month or so, but we were fully booked after we took our property back and we priced properly for our market.

they seems to have taken on many properties in Brisbane now and charging the same rediculous pricing to attract bookings, my guests is they lose the property contracts when the owners realize the real cost three months later, then they just take up mew properties.   

So Brisbane owners be warned. Don’t use them.

[Rita359]

Artemis & Albert happy to hear that you found out about their fraud business soon. Unfortunately I trusted them a bit too long; couldn’t believe scams like their business can happen even here in Australia. They never returned items that they took from my apartment neither paid the least money that they said they will. I hope our posts at least help other people not to fall into the trouble that we experienced and be more careful about Air-bnb businesses.

[Artemis-and-Albert0]

Did you follow up with them?

we did get money owed to us, it was not much, but they did end our relationship relatively professionally.

I kept the whole business professional.

they were responsive when I follow things up with them.

[Artemis-and-Albert0]

I did get their attention by blogging about our experiences in linked in.

I didn’t name their business, but I believe they could see the consequence of not being professional with us.

I commented on one of their articles, this might have got their attention.

as a company that operates in the digital economy, their reputation online is important to them.

so maybe you cabin try to follow this up with them again. It is all about good negotiation in the end : )

[Rita359]

I have raised the issue with their own remaining statement and taken items a few times and every time I get a reply back that soon we are going to fix the issue and return the items but after 2 months nothing has happened yet; I am not sure they are serious for returning the items and fixing the statement. I will follow that again and will update you if I got anything back from these people. 

[Rita359]

I have raised the issue with their own remaining statement and taken items a few times and every time I get a reply back that soon we are going to fix the issue and return the items but after 2 months nothing has happened yet; I am not sure they are serious for returning items and fixing the statement.

[Arto0]

I engaged Andchill Property Management to turn my apartment into an airbnb property.

I can not say one good thing about my experience with Andchill airbnb property management. They promised the world and delivered nothing of what they said they would do.

They say that they will manage the property professionally, ensuring that you can just chill while they do all the hard work. The reality is something different.

First up I paid $8,000 for them to furnish my apartment. I was really underwhelmed with their furnishing job. There was only one bedside table and lamp in each bedroom, and no art work on lounge room walls. They put in the cheapest Smart TV that I wasn't able to connect to Netflix. The TV did not even have a cord to enable it to connect to the aerial. I had to purchase that myself. I complained about there not being bedside tables and lamps beside the beds and they said sorry too bad, budget was spent. I just thought it was not good enough and I said i was happy to buy the extra tables and lamps myself. Then they lie to me and say that they got it from a direct importer but if I go to Freedom I could find similar. I then happen to stumble onto the bedside tables at Kmart for $19 a piece, and the lamps $12 each. I found all the other cheap furnishings at Kmart also.

They promised also to screen for the best guests. They do not screen at all. They let in anyone. I had so many complaints from the other residents in the apartment block on the standard of guests they were allowing in - causing havoc, parties all night, etc.

They promised professional cleaners that would make everything spick and span. What a joke. One third of the reviews for my property complained about the cleaning saying it was disgusting. There were so many bad reviews airbnb pulled the listing.

Then I just had enough of andchill and decide to cancel my contract. They empty out all the furniture and appliances I paid for and then left the place a complete mess. I had installed new carpet which was completely trashed. There were also items of mine removed from the apartment - a hall runner mat and a glass feature in the ensuite had been removed. The wall of the second bedroom was damaged with shelving they had put in and then taken out - and no attempt to repair the wall.

And to top it off they lost 2 full sets of keys! I never got the keys back from them. The keys are restricted keys that cost $165 a set to replace. After 3 and a half months of complaining I still do not have the keys back and they are refusing to compensate me for the damage to the carpet and the bedroom wall. 

I recommend everyone stay well clear of this company. They made my attempt at turning my apartment into an airbnb a very stressful affair and a complete nightmare.