AirBnB abandons guest in unsafe living conditions

[Kim1116]

My boyfriend and I are about to be homeless in 36 hours...long story short:

We booked an Airbnb for 1 month and it was filthy when we showed up. This Airbnb is within a community so the owner had us call her cleaners who also did a terrible job. My boyfriend got sick within 2 days of being at the place due to the filth.

The owner blew off his sickness to some extent and sent us a Swiffer and a vacuum. My boyfriend and I then cleaned the entire place, the cobwebs, the vents, the floors, counters, etc. then my boyfriend found the air filter which clearly hasn't been changed in over a year covered in dark black thick filth. 

The next day, after having cleaned the entire house, the floor was immediately dirty again. We found that it must be the A/C unit pumping filth into the house which is why we both couldn't breathe.

We reached out to AirBnB and they moved us to a new place for 1 week, saying they would have an assigned Case Manager reach out to us...no one ever did. We've been calling back and forth with Airbnb at least 3 times within the week and no one will give us any answers, they never refunded us, never gave us a Case Manager, and they had us hang on to our keys for the other place we moved from...and now we have to move out the day after tomorrow from this new place.

Has someone experienced this before? What do we do? We also don't have a home right now since we're traveling and using Airbnb. We've budgeted staying here for the month and they never even refunded us so we can't just buy another place for the rest of the month. Any advice is greatly appreciated. 

[Amy38]

Go on twitter and Facebook with your story...abnb will bend over backwards not to have such a story go public....you should get all your money back....I hope you took photos.

i would call the  health dept. of the town too.

[Kim1116]

Thank you so much Amy. We have been using Airbnb since 2005 and my boyfriend's account has over 40+ positive reviews. For being such a loyal customer, it's disappointing that Airbnb just doesn't care about us. I really appreciate your advice and we most definitely took many photos.

[Kim1116]

Now it will be 24 hours until we're homeless...hey Amy, do you know what/who we should be tagging on Twitter and Facebook? Are there specific places we should be posting this like in a certain group on Facebook or something? I'd really love your advice. Thank you so much.

[Yadira22]

Hi @Kim1116 

I am sorry this happened to you. 

@Laura_C could you help Kim and her boyfriend.

thanks,

Yadira 🙂

[Laura_C]

Hi there,

Thanks for the mention @Yadira22 . Yes @Kim1116 , could you please send me a private message and we can have a look at this together,

Laura

[Kath9]

@Kim1116, how awful for you. The amazing thing is that mostly we read stories on here about guests who have done the wrong thing (trashed houses, etc) then complained and got a refund, much to the host's complete horror. I can't believe that in your situation, the place really was uninhabitable, yet they are not refunding you immediately! What kind of reviews did this place have? It sounds like it needs to be delisted immediately. If you haven't done so already, put in a request for a refund through the resolution centre. Keep calling Airbnb and demand that the owners refund you, and like @Amy38 says, go to the media if you have to. Good luck and keep us posted as to what happens. Maybe a kindhearted Arizona host will put you up until you get it sorted. 

[Kim1116]

@Kath0 That's terrible to hear that only the most treacherous people are getting refunded and priority...we called Airbnb and spoke to them a few more times yesterday and their answer is still "We don't know what's going on. We can't answer any of your questions. All I can do is "escalate" the situation and hope that someone reaches out to you." He was like "at least you're in a cleaner, better place now right?" And we said "Um yea except for the fact that we're going to be homeless Wednesday morning (which is now in 24 hours...)" He had no idea what to say.

They still haven't refunded us. They still never gave us a Case Manager. No one has called us at all. We're constantly calling them. And at this point, we're going to call one more time today and if no resolution has happened, I guess we'll have to be those rude terrible people to blow up social media about a company who we've been loyal customers to for the past 10+ years. 

Also @Kath9 the inhabitable place we stayed at had 9 positive reviews. Give Us Good Luck World! 

[Linda-And-Richard0]

Hi @Kim1116 In what city are you renting?