dirty airbnb

[Lauryn25]

Question: 

just returned from 5 nights at an Airbnb.  It was super dusty, to the point I had to buy claritin.  Dust everywhere and hair ball dust bunnies.   Food stuck on plates in the cabinet.  Drugs left behind.  

We found an unused joint in one of the bedrooms.  I'm not sure the place had been cleaned in awhile.  Maybe just a light clean, at most.  We were travelling with our two little kids, and I'm glad they didn't find the joint.  The littlest one still puts random stuff in his mouth. 

Anyway...alerted the host since we didn't touch the drugs.(and figured he might want to get rid of it before the next family)  Told him it was the dirtiest and dustiest Airbnb I had ever been in.  Offered to send pictures.  

He sortof seemed to care, but said "he paid a lot of money for the cleaning"  and it was "a new cleaning company" and he'd look for new cleaners.   We paid $180 in a cleaning fee.

He never offered a partial cleaning refund or really anything (no discount on future stay...which we wouldn't use, but would feel like it was something).  and I would have felt like he took the problems seriously if wanted to see the pictures.   

Anyway...curious if the right way to go is to request a partial cleaning fee refund?  Or just forget that, and leave a brutally honest review?   I'm really worrying about this too much, and I'd like to move on with my life with some sort of resolution (I don't want to do nothing)

I have reached out to Airbnb multiple times, but no resolution yet.  

Any advice?

[Sarah977]

@Lauryn25  Just leave an appropriate review. When guests find a place unacceptable for some reason, Airbnb protocol is to first contact the host (it's unclear at what point you did this) to give them an opportunity to correct the issue ( most hosts would expect a guest to contact them immediately after check-in about something like this and would offer to send someone over to clean- that is what you should have expected, not a refund). If the host can't, or won't correct an issue, then it is your choice to cancel and leave, or stay and make the best if it.

But staying indicates that it was acceptable enough for you to do so. You can't stay the whole time and then expect to be refunded afterwards.

So address it in the review and move on.

[Gina1617]

@Lauryn25 Airbnb online support refunded me the cleaning fee without question when I submitted photos from a recent stay where there were sheets with old bloodstains on them and mildewed, stained pillowcases (plus very yellowed, stained pillows). It was obvious the place was not at all "well-kept" as advertised and in fact had "unhygienic conditions,", which goes against their cleanliness rules/standards (some info here but there is info that specifically defines "unhygienic" on their site; just can't locate it): https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2895/host-reliability-standards

I reported the stay (there were no other available properties for our timeframe that would accept a pet, so I ended up sleeping on the couch by the last of the 3 nights). Refunding the cleaning fee was not a big deal with photos. I asked for a refund of the service fee as well as the listing should not have been active on Airbnb but gave in and accepted a 100.00 coupon ultimately. I was worn down by not being able to find out what was being done about the conditions and now, two weeks later, the listing is still active. 

I mainly wanted to warn people about the major cleanliness issues and people with small children that there is exposed, broken glass on the property, but have no idea what is going on at this point. Will submit bad experience to the usual sites and possibly Twitter, and I did submit an honest, largely negative review, but the host hasn't reviewed me and i think there is a 14 day waiting period after submitting the review before posting. Am not sure it will be posted as I did mention the refund of the cleaning fee. There is no transparency with the process of what is done to ensure safety or cleanliness, and online support has limited capacity on what they can do (aside from offering refunds of some things.)

Anyhow, I've uploaded the worst of the photos so the community can see what are clearly considered "unhygienic conditions".

 

 

 

 

[Gina1617]

PS I agree with Sarah above that the norm is to communicate with the host--we have stayed in Airbnbs as guests many times and that has resolved any issues. In this case, however, the issues were so extreme, the host's responses to any negativity in the reviews was so accusatory as to seem, in retrospect, unreasonable, and we didn't see what could be done for a 2 or 3 night stay--Fedex new pillows and sheets?We'd just dropped our kids off at camp, the time was meant to relax, and we did not spend much time in the house, preferring to be out. I also did not want to spend hours on the phone resolving issues. 

I do agree from reading other posts on cleanliness that reviews should be heeded.  I thought the host may have had a point in his retorts to the couple of comments about cleanliness.

There were limited properties available due to COVID-inspired rush to go upstate NY, and I will be more careful next time and book earlier.

There was a huge difference in customer support pre-IPO and post-IPO, however. I'd resolved an earlier stay with much more satisfaction and more transparency.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

@Lauryn25 @Gina1617 @Sarah977 wow I don't think I could have stayed there the night, Lauryn, if it was so bad!

Did you alert the host on arrival when you noticed?

I would not have stayed but gone elsewhere.