Experience from hell

[Thalia13]

Had the most awful experience ever. First, AIRBNB let’s people sell illegally on their platform. So, beware. Some of these hosts don’t actually own the listings they post. We booked with a man named Domingo for a hotel on Miami Beach. The night before, he cancelled because he claimed there was no space. Since, it was a hotel my parents showed up and the hotel clerk told them that they DO NOT deal with Airbnb and that there should be no listing of their hotel

on their platform. Turns out this guy is selling his timeshare which is outside of the terms and that’s also why he couldn’t give us the space since he has no control over the actual availability in the hotel. To top it off they sent us to a location “by the beach” in someone’s house. It was a 40 minute drive!!! On the freeway!!! Bunch of morons. And on top of that they denied me a refund for the money I lost and they promised me a voucher which I never received. And now they claim they are closing my case because I have no grounds to complain.

[Robin4]

@Thalia13 

Thalia, on behalf of the community can I apologise for what you have been through....no guests should have to go through that. The worst aspect for us is, it tars us all with the same brush, makes all of us who try so hard to provide great experiences look incompetent.

Unfortunately every aspect of life involves a level of trust and Airbnb go to great lengths to stress all approvals must be given before a listing is published. But there are always going to be that class of person who will bypass the system for their own advantage. Unfortunately we have heard of this happening before and every time we hear of this it just gives the anti Airbnb lobby more ammunition to limit the scope of Airbnb or get it closed down.

If this person 'Domingo' still has an active listing Thalia, click the 'Report this Profile' icon you will find at the bottom of his profile page and state what happened to you. His account will be closed I can assure you of that.

I know your trust of this platform has suffered a servere blow but if you should by chance use Airbnb again at the head of the search page you will see filter boxes for dates, type of property, guests! At the end of that filter line you will note one called 'More Filters'. Scroll down to the one which says 'Superhosts' Stay with recognised hosts....and click on that. By doing that the only properties that will be displayed are those of hosts who guests have rewarded for giving great reliability and service. Superhost is not a company award, it is a guest award and hosts have to earn it, they are not automatically entitled to it.

So sorry once again, Thalia, I wish I could wave a magic wand and make it better, but I can't, all I can say is I will keep your profile on file and if ever you find yourself in my part of the world there will be a couple of nights in my listing on the house....ok

Cheers......Rob

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Thalia13 

The circumstances you experienced were really unfortunate........ and I think @Robin4 has expressed very well how upsetting it is when these few bad hosts tarnish the reputation of all hosts out there.

I am a bit curious though.........why you booked a "hotel" thru Airbnb? Hotels or timeshares are usually not the typical type of listing one can find here on Airbnb...... so the fact that you had a "hotel booking" thru this site is very surprising. 

[Robin4]

@Jessica-and-Henry0 

@Thalia13 did not realise she was booking a hotel, she booked an Airbnb listing which appeared in a property search that some unscupulous Airbnb profile holder was subletting via Airbnb. He did not have permission to sublet his tennancy!

I can understand what has happened here Jess, she had no idea the property she booked was subject to a management authority.

This host needs serverely dealing with!

Cheers......Rob

[Thalia13]

It was listed as a private property on the beach front. Once arriving at the address, it turned out to be a hotel and one that doesn’t deal with Airbnb. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Thalia13 

Ah~! Thx for the clarification. You should continue to contact Airbnb regardless of whether they closed your case.......have them open another one. The host CLEARLY misrepresented (=lied about)  the listing - you should get a full refund from Airbnb so I hope you don't give up...... like @Branka-and-Silvia0 suggest, you should try twitter. 

[Amos18]

sorry for that anyway but i belief airbnb can push for that man to be caught by the goverment. He must have provided a valid goverment identfication.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Thalia13 

if you communicated with your host, booked and paid through the system then you will be refunded in full.

Your hotel can't refund you because they would get the payment 24 hours after your check-in ( at least that's how it works with private hosts, maybe hotels have a different deal with Airbnb)

In the cancelation mail/message you received it should be written when and how much refund you will get.

Contact Airbnb CS, the best is through twitter #Airbnbhelp

[Sarah977]

@Thalia13  I'm so sorry this happened to you- yes, unfortunately there are some listings which are fraudulent and Airbnb is far too lax in dealing with this sort of thing. 

What I advise guests who have had bad experiences like you had, if you ever take a chance on Airbnb again, is to not use Instant Book- always contact the host first, exchange a few messages, to get a feel for whether this listing and host sounds good or sends up some red flags. Also read all the reviews. 

Flag this listing and contact Airbnb again and make sure they understand that this listing was misrepresented, that it isn't a private residence, but a hotel and the hotel management told you they don't deal with Airbnb at all- that the place was listed fraudulently.