10 day stay with no hot water - now host is trying to charge us?!

[Beth4447]

Hi,

I recently stayed in an apartment in Malaga for 10 days. The apartment was immactulate and we had no complaints until we went to shower the following day and realised there was no hot water. Like nothing, ice cold was the only option for showers. We immediately contacted the host who said he would send someone round to fix it.

The engineer came and said it was a 'known issue' with our property and that it 'always happens'. He was unable to fix the problem, we complained around 6 times to the host as by day 7 it was getting quite tedious. Each time he assured us it would be fixed the next day but it was never rectified.

Before we checked out we decided to contact Air BnB for some advice on a partial refund as the listing wasn't cheap and we didn't think we should be paying £2000+ when we couldn't even shower/wash the dishes properly. Around an hour after we left the host whatsapped us saying he was returning our £500 security deposit as everything looked fine.  Then, assumingly as soon as he saw our air bnb complaint he came up with a list of damages?!

He is trying to say we chipped the kitchen counter - which we most definitely did not do as they looked like some sort of solid granite. He's now trying to keep our £500 deposit PLUS charge us an extra £800 for a new kitchen counter?! 

This has really upset me because I made sure the property was in a good clean condition when we left. After receiving the Air Bnb notification requesting us to pay £800 he whatsapped me saying to ignore it as he's trying to get Air BnB to pay for the damages. It all seems really dodgy and unfair. I have asked him to prove that the chip wasn't there before we arrived and obviously he cant. 

We have taken the hot water issue through the Air BnB resolution centre and they have said he is refusing to give any form of refund - surely they can do more than this? isn't the point of a resolution centre to help RESOLVE issues. Not just back down as soon as the host says no? 

I can't beleive they are now trying to charge us for damages we didn't do just out of spite of us complaining about having no hot water for 10 days. 

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Beth

[Emiel1]

@Beth4447 

-  "the host whatsapped us saying he was returning our £500 security deposit as everything looked fine"

If it is a private host it is not allowed to charge a security deposit outside Airbnb !

- The host at least needs to proof the "damage" to the kitchen counter. The story "no you but Airbnb should pay for the damage" is weird and Airbnb will dispute the claim if you report this to them.

- Is the communication about the hot water all on the airbnb message system ?

Why did you not contacted Airbnb during your stay (in the first days after it was clear the host did not resolve it) about the hot water issue ?

[Harry394]

Hi Emiel,

I wasnt aware that they couldnt charge a security deposity out of Air BnB, they have basically robbed us of £500. Is this still the case if it is a 'company' listing? it was ViVi homes in case anyone was curious

I'm in the process of reporting it all to AirBnB, again. Hopefully they can try and do something about it because he's left us a really awful review saying we left food in the beds?! (very strange, I can assure there was 0 food in the beds).

So we were reluctant to contact AirBnB at first because we didn't want to annoy him given he'd taken £500 in cash from us. He's now completely lied in the review of us saying we didnt 'turn the water on'. This is definitely also not the case and we have texts from the site engineer which prove this isnt the case and that the water was an ongoing problem.

It really is such a mess, and a real shame. I'd honestly say it's one of the nicer AirBnB's I've ever stayed at but just shows money can't buy you class. I think from now on I'll stick to Hotels.

[Mark116]

@Beth4447   Airbnb doesn't charge a real security deposit, so unless you paid this in cash or otherwise paid it directly to the host off the platform, then it should be fine.  Is this a professional property management company, that might be the only way they could have actually charged the security deposit.

If this host illegally took a security deposit, this will help you get a refund.  Although generally, Airbnb does not like to refund when guests choose to stay at a property where issues have been noted but not fixed.  But, Airbnb will often refund if a listed amenity is not available.  So, on this I would say it the luck of the draw of what type of CS rep you get and how they apply the rules.  You can close an existing case that was decided against you and just call back and talk to another rep.

You will want to keep repeating that a basic amenity was unavailable, that you did notify the host within 24 hours and that you only stayed because the host repeatedly said it would be fixed the next day...but you will need to be able to document this...if you did it all on whatsapp and nothing saved....you may not get a refund.

[Mark116]

Now I see that out of 9 reviews 3 are negative.