Houst, formerly known as Airsorted

[Matthew1056]

Hi all prospective hosts!

Just wanted to make everyone aware that the company 'airsorted' has commenced a rebrand as 'Houst'.

Don't want anyone else to make the mistake of using them to manage your bookings.

Make sure you have a look at 'airsorted' feedback in the discussion rooms first!

Matt

[Susan17]

Ah! Many of the big professional and commercial mega-host operators do love a good "rebrand" @Matthew1056! As soon as they accumulate too many shocking reviews to be hidden anymore, and an irreparably bad reputation, their *bleep* track records get conveniently "disappeared", and it's time for a shiny new rebrand, a glossy new image and a fresh new start, courtesy of the millions of $/€/£/¥ that their property tycoon and speculator sugar daddies have poured into them. The tried and tested method of all the biggest and best players, who have tons of inconvenient dirt and embarrassing feedback that needs brushing under the carpet (Only problem is, the service of the facelifted outfits, rarely improves at all, despite their hugely costly Operation Transformations) 

Let's remind ourselves of Houst's (formerly Airsorted's) track record before their rebrand... hopefully,, these posts below might save a few hosts from getting ripped off by Houst/Airsorted, like so many of their previous clients. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Has-anyone-used-Airsorted/td-p/129148

[Tim3685]

THE WORST!!!   

They are awful.  Just spent three nights in London at one of their properties.  First thing, we walk through the door and owners mail sitting right there - clear violation of GDPR Data protection.  Then to the master bedroom where the bed isn't even made and the mattress is covered with stains - they later said these were no health issue...  How they know I have no idea.  But the pictures tell all.  Go to make the bed and the bundle of sheets has no fitted bottom sheet.  Go to laundry room and HOLY SHEET it is full of previous tenants dirty bedding.  DISGUSTING.  Only wish we had read up on this before.  They offered HALF the cleaning fee back.  So let me get this straight...  Apartment not ready.  Bedding missing.  Further found out fridge was iced up and coffee machine not working.  And they want to give HALF???? the cleaning fee.  Then they upped it to the full cleaning fee.  $70 on a $2000 rental.  I would NEVER rent through them again and there was only one reason they changed their name - to escape their sheety reputation.  NEVER USED HOUST.  Repeat....  NEVER USE HOUST.  Or whatever iteration they decide to adopt to continue to escape their sheety reputation....

[Tim3685]

UPDATE:

As noted above, initially a laughable "half the cleaning fee" was offered. After days of back and forth which saw somewhat inappropriate insinuations by Houst, the compensation was increased, first to the "full cleaning fee" and subsequently, today, after much pushing, to 1/3 of one night's stay plus the cleaning fee.
Throughout the process the team were polite but never really accepted full responsibility nor compensated appropriately.
We made what we felt were reasonable expected compensation requests based on the state and usability of the unit, but these were declined.

[Wale148]

@Tim3685 Please what do you advise on someone trying to buy franchise with them and they offered to be giving me property to be managing base on paying £10000 to be parners.thanks.**

**[E-mail address & phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Janire2]

Terrible Experience!!

Avoid this company at all costs. Their customer service is terrible. Neither myself or my tenants could ever get hold of anyone. I tried the phones, chat service and email. It usually takes days to get a response.

Their property management is awful too.
They left guests without electricity on two occasions, they don’t bother checking the property is in good condition after the guests leave, there is damage on my property made by guests they did not reported at the time and that they don’t want to fix. I only found out about the damage through other guest who complained about it, brand new couch totally ruined and stained, broken toilet and sink, wall pictures fallen from the wall, and a long etc...
I also found lots of my things missing, like cushions, decorations and kitchen stuff

Also the cleansing fees are too expensive at £75??? To Find guests complaining about the flat not being properly clean

I'm currently finishing my contract with them, well see...

And the last thing, when you leave.. they “kindly” request that you remove the lockbox they installed and it’s up to you to return it or they give you the option of having the maintenance team remove it for a standard callout fee (approximately 48GBP). Alternatively, you can purchase the lockbox from them for 20GBP and this amount will be withheld from the return of your deposit.

Once the lockbox and linen have been returned, they will start to process the refund of your deposit and 2 months later I still haven’t received my deposit back


Don't make the same mistake I did. Please avoid!!!!

I really had the worst experience ever

[Tim3685]

They are awful.  Just spent three nights in London at one of their properties.  First thing, we walk through the door and owners mail sitting right there - clear violation of GDPR Data protection.  Then to the master bedroom where the bed isn't even made and the mattress is covered with stains - they later said these were no health issue...  How they know I have no idea.  But the pictures tell all.  Go to make the bed and the bundle of sheets has no fitted bottom sheet.  Go to laundry room and HOLY SHEET it is full of previous tenants dirty bedding.  DISGUSTING.  Only wish we had read up on this before.  They offered HALF the cleaning fee back.  So let me get this straight...  Apartment not ready.  Bedding missing.  Further found out fridge was iced up and coffee machine not working.  And they want to give HALF???? the cleaning fee.  Then they upped it to the full cleaning fee.  $70 on a $2000 rental.  I would NEVER rent through them again and there was only one reason they changed their name - to escape their sheety reputation.  NEVER USED HOUST.  Repeat....  NEVER USE HOUST.  Or whatever iteration they decide to adopt to continue to escape their sheety reputation....  AWFUL!!!

[Helen3]

Hello @Tim3685 

Sorry to hear of your awful experience staying in my home city. 

For future reference if the host doesn't resolve issues at the listing ie send someone over with replacement linens and to fix fridge etc you should follow the advice on your booking confirmation and contact Airbnb. @Tim3685 

They could have cancelled penalty free and helped you find alternative accommodation.

Hopefully you left an honest reviews to warn your fellow guests.

Personally I never book a listing that's managed by large scale management companies. 

[Tim3685]

Thanks for this @Helen3 . 

We booked through Hotels.com and once they collected our payment, we never heard from them again, only Houst. 

I have tried reaching out to Hotels.com since we rteturned  but they have not responded.  

Sadly the review is accurate, if a little tongue in cheek with trying to make a little humour out of the pretty awful situation. 

We booked months ago as we had fairly specific needs and didn't want to find ourselves stuck for space. 

I did not know they would look at rebooking us - to be honest, since Houst took the lead in communicating, I figured they would act better in compensating or finding alternate arrangements. 

In fact, in earlier emails on the first day or so, they indicated they would be compensating for the first night, but, in hindsight, I suspect that was to keep us from looking elsewhere  and them losing the booking.  

Good to know for the future. 

Thanks again for all the advice - I know we won't be using Houst again for sure!!!

[Wale148]

Hello @Janire2  hope this message meets you well.please am about yo start franchise investement of £10000 with this company so am just doing my research ups and downs to know if its ok to go ahewd on that or not as they promise me many properties thereafter. ** 

**[E-mail address & phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Bhumika]

Hi @Wale148 , Hope you're doing well! I am Bhumika, a Community Manager for this forum. How is everything going for your listing?

Unfortunately, I had to remove your phone number and email address from some comments. Due to safety concerns, we refrain from allowing members to share their email addresses or contact information as per the Community Center Guidelines on our public forum.

However, I would recommend you share such personal or contact information with each other/other Hosts by going into their profile and clicking on the send message button, in order to keep your personal details safe. 

Thank you for your kind understanding on this one! 🌻

Kind regards,

Bhumika

[Carey75]

Has anyone lodged a complaint about them on Airnb and if not how do I do this? I'm in UK, and spent most waking hours babysitting them over the last few months and correcting their errors. I've had soiled linen left in the house, no Covid protocol from cleaners, ridiculous and contradictory guest messaging, lost bookings, lack of communication, and most recently when I said I was leaving, they blocked my Airbnb calender for a month and refused to return my keys! Would be interested to hear feedback from other Hosts and advice .

[Helen3]

Hi @Carey75 

sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the company you chose to help you manage your STR business.

However it’s nothing to do with Airbnb or any other listing company about which suppliers you decided to use. 

all STR calendars are blocked this month in the UK due to our lockdown.

if they broke the terms of your contract you can look at a claim in the small claims court if you can prove financial costs. 

[Geoff498]

Hi Carey. I’m using Houst to let my flat in Brighton and after a few ok years with them their service had dropped badly this year. I am constantly managing them, sorting cleaner errors, chasing late payouts etc. And their staff are constantly changing (always a bad sign). I just wondered if you stuck with them or found any decent alternative? Thanks, Geoff. 

[Tim3685]

They are awful.  Just spent three nights in London at one of their properties.  First thing, we walk through the door and owners mail sitting right there - clear violation of GDPR Data protection.  Then to the master bedroom where the bed isn't even made and the mattress is covered with stains - they later said these were no health issue...  How they know I have no idea.  But the pictures tell all.  Go to make the bed and the bundle of sheets has no fitted bottom sheet.  Go to laundry room and HOLY SHEET it is full of previous tenants dirty bedding.  DISGUSTING.  Only wish we had read up on this before.  They offered HALF the cleaning fee back.  So let me get this straight...  Apartment not ready.  Bedding missing.  Further found out fridge was iced up and coffee machine not working.  And they want to give HALF???? the cleaning fee.  Then they upped it to the full cleaning fee.  $70 on a $2000 rental.  I would NEVER rent through them again and there was only one reason they changed their name - to escape their sheety reputation.  NEVER USED HOUST.  Repeat....  NEVER USE HOUST.  Or whatever iteration they decide to adopt to continue to escape their sheety reputation....