Best way to deal with very loud AirBNB room? (as a guest)

Steven198
Level 2
New Jersey, United States

Best way to deal with very loud AirBNB room? (as a guest)

Hello,
I'm posting this because I hope this helps hosts adapt to the evolving future of AirBNB and also to request help on what I can do.  To clarify, I have been a veteran airBNB guest with good reviews all around.  I'm always very quiet, leave thank you notes, generous reviews for good stays, etc.

 

However, I am currently in a horrible noise situation in Tirana that I never encountered in all of my bookings.  I'm okay with some night time noise because I have advanced noise masking technology (Bose sleep buds).  Before I booked I made it very clear that I will be using the space to work from home.

After I arrived, I found out that I only get water pressure 3 times a day...which I was willing to compromise and accept.  But the worst is that the windows are not sealed and there's a busy intersection that has constant honking and sirens going off all day, and even has marching drummers with trumpeters!  This was all within the first 12 days of staying!  It is preventing me from getting any work done because it physically hurts my ears to wear earplugs 24 hours a day and unreasonable to expect a guest to do this.  Not to mention impossible because I would need time to recharge them constantly.  

 I feel that both of these issues should have been disclosed before I arrived, especially when it's a long term stay and I made it clear that I'd be working remotely from the airBNB.  


The jarring noise is even starting to affect my mental health badly and I'm desperate to move, but can only do so if my refund is ensured.  This is a long-term stay, so the cancellation policy is "no refund after 30 days of cancelling".

 

I told my host and he keeps passing me off to airBNB support, which I have been in contact with for almost week already.   I told him that I tried my best to adapt, offered him a week's notice, and even offered to help advertise his place in expat groups.   I'm afraid that my host will not agree to override the long-term cancellation policy. 

 

On the other hand, I'm extremely thankful for airBNB's continuous support in being a mediator to my host.  I know I can get better prices on rent if I book outside of airbnb, but as a consumer it is valuable enough to me to pay extra for hosts to err on the side of generosity. And also for AirBNB 's help in rectifying/refunding serious This is especially reasonable  for superhosts and for long-term stays.   So, if a host neglects to clarify that there's water issues and daytime noise that makes remote work impossible (i.e. Zoom calls, constant distractions), then the host is just asking for trouble imo.

I already found a new airBNB that I want to move into asap. But I cannot afford it if I need to pay an entire 30 days due to the cancellation policy.  I also don't know how much longer I can bear to live in my current airbnb, where I constantly going to cafes to work/eat to get some peace.  Should I just move out asap? Or wait for airBNB to finish mediating with the host, in hopes that he will agree to shorten the checkout date and override the cancellation policy?

12 Replies 12

@Steven198    Hosts who want to make sure their guests are the best possible fit for optimal reviews would be well advised to disclose potential for noise in their listings. However, what you describe is the typical noise one would expect on a busy inner-city street with a bit of Balkan flair. This does not fall into the category of "travel issues" that would merit a refund against the host's will. A guest who is sensitive to noise bears most of the responsibility for researching the location and asking the appropriate questions before committing to a long-term stay, especially if they intend to repurpose the holiday rental as a home-office.

 

Very few people who have been forced to work remotely during the pandemic find that a home happens to offer ideal conditions for work, so your daily annoyances are no worse than par for the course. Airbnb has no good reason to override the terms of your contract, so your best options would be either to try to reach an agreeable compromise with a booking alteration request , or strive for a better way to adapt your work day to the reality of your environment like all the rest of us have done.

Angelica-Y-Jorge0
Level 10
Mazatlán, Mexico

@Steven198 I once had this issue in an apartment I rented many years ago. I had a piece of solid wood cut to size at the hardware store so I could set it in the window tightly and sealed the cracks with duct tape. It did not block out all the noise but significantly reduced it. Just an affordable idea if you have no other options.

 

I do think you may have a refund case with Airbnb with the water issues not being disclosed. I would focus on that.

Jorge
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Steven198  You come across as a decent, reasonable person. As far as the noise issue, I agree with Andrew- there is some responsibility on the part of a guest to research the location of a listing. If you see it is on a main thoroughfare in a city, you can assume it will be noisy. And whenever a guest has special requirements, such as working from home and needing a relatively quiet place to do so, inquiry messages to the host before committing to a booking are in order, letting them know what your needs are and making sure the listing will be a good choice for you. 

 

Yes, it's a good idea for hosts to mention anything that could be a negative for guests, but it's not always easy to foresee all the things guests could find objectionable. And if the host is used to that level of noise, they might not even really hear it anymore themselves, it just seems normal to them.

We may say something and make assumptions about how the other person takes it. You assume that saying you work from home would automatically tell the host that you require relative quiet.  But that might never occur to the host.

 

It's like when hosts complain that they ask guests to clean up after themselves before checking out but the guest left the garbage bag inside. If a host just gives some generic request, the guest  might not have the same concept of what that means as the host does. If the host wants guests to take the garbage out to the dumpster, they need to specify that.

 

If it's really just a matter of plugging gaps around the window, that's a pretty easy fix. I have no idea what's available in the area, but hardware stores sell weatherstripping that can be stuffed in the gaps, and maybe you could suggest that to the host. Even old rags from strips of cloth can be pushed in with a non-sharp tool.

 

Regarding the water pressure- am I right in assuming that you still have water when the pressure is low, it just doesn't come gushing out? There are many places in the world like that, it's an infrastructure issue, not something a host has control over. Probably all the homes in the area are like that.

Where I live in Mexico, they only send me water a couple times a week, which goes into my cistern and then pumped up to a holding tank on the roof. So there is never strong pressure, as the system works on gravity feed.

 

Thise who travel outside their home countries need to be adaptable to things not working the way they should.

 

Be careful about offering your host things like promotions in exchange for a refund- that is essentially extortion, which is against Airbnb terms of service.

Much better to try to work something out with the host.

 

I realize that booking long term is much cheaper than by the night, but if I were a guest looking for a long term booking, I'd probably just book a night or two in a few possibilities first, to assess whether it works for me, before committing to a long term booking with its attendant cancellation policy.

 

@Sarah977   All you say is wise and true. And that's also a very fair point about adjusting expectations to the location. Clean running water itself is not an amenity you can take for granted in much of the world, but water pressure? What on earth are you doing in Albania?

Steven198
Level 2
New Jersey, United States

Do you have any advice on how to research the area beyond asking the host for the specific address?  AirBNB does not give guests the ability to view the exact location for privacy reasons for the host.   I did look at the neighborhood and it did not look like it was located at a busy intersection based on the randomized map location.

@Steven198 I would just ask the host. Ask them if it's on a busy road or near a major intersection if they haven't provided that info. It doesn't hurt to shoot them some extra questions: a good host shouldn't mind. 

@Steven198  It's true that most hosts won't give out the exact address until after a booking is confirmed, for security reasons. So this a specific question you would have to ask the host before booking- not the exact address, but whether it is on a busy street, if it is in a noisy area, and hopefully they would be truthful. It isn't in a host's best interest to misrepresent their place and then end up with unhappy guests.

 

But you indicate that this is a remote host who seems not to even know what things are like at his rental, which is problematic.

 

Re the water- where I live, not everyone has the water system I have- older homes rely on the city water pressure to get water to the house, and as it doesn't flow all day, they may not have water sometimes. Maybe this is the case at your place. 

 

But I agree that this isn't okay, to have zero water for much of the day. It could be dealt with by filling buckets so you always have water to use, (I wouldn't consider this too onerous or inconvenient myself) but it is definitely something the host should let guests know in his listing info, and if he is unaware of the issue, that's no excuse. I'd be trying to get out of the rest of this booking on the basis of the water issue rather than the noise, as noise is subjective and lack of water isn't. It would be classified as a missing amenity.

 

Maybe the host would be open to refunding a portion of the second month you owe, rather than all of it, as a compromise? 

 

 

Steven198
Level 2
New Jersey, United States

Re: water pressure. No, if it's not within the timeframe, I do not have running water.  I checked other airBNB in the city and they did not have this problem either.

Dimitar27
Level 10
Sofia, Bulgaria

@Steven198...If you mean Tirana, Albania...I've been there many times and I'm going to strongly advise that you go and see the place, where you want to move, with your own eyes, before you book it.

That's all I  can say about this city...

Steven198
Level 2
New Jersey, United States

Thanks for the tip and yes, I did with the new airbnb.  Unfortunately that was not possible with my current one.

Steven198
Level 2
New Jersey, United States

I should have also added that the host also lives in my home country, but manages all communication for the listing.  So, to be fair, it seemed like he just simply was not very familiar with the area nor the water issue until I brought it up.

@Steven198  In all fairness, the water issue only occupies one sentence in your 8-paragraph post, so it didn't come across as your primary topic of concern. Anyway, inconsistent water access is not the same thing as no water; hosts in much of the world would not be able to use Airbnb if they had to refund guests for irregularities in their location's public infrastructure. You know that Airbnb slogan "live like a local"? Well, the downside of this is that locals have to deal with all the local hassles of everyday life that their locality entails, and an Airbnb listing in a residential building is not going to be magically shielded from those. 

 

As for research - well, hindsight is 20/20, but if you know you have a particular sensitivity about something, it's really best to go the extra mile to make sure it's accounted for.  Asking lots of questions isn't guaranteed to get honest answers, but if a host is tipped off in the request process that a long-term guest is going to be unhappy with the circumstances, they'd usually rather decline the booking than field lots of complaints and a bad review later.


Speaking of which, what did you glean from the reviews prior guests left about this place?  If the apartment's noise level is genuinely unbearable to the average person's sensitivities, I'd be very surprised if no previous review had made mention of this.  Reading all the reviews is also a form of research, of course.