AIRBNB is a scam?

[Jason2040]

To say I am disappointed, would be a total understatement. To be honest, I have told anyone who will listen, never to use AIRBNB. The customer service we experience was embarrassing, and truth be told, i don't expect anyone to read this, so this is probably a waste of time and energy. But everyone on social media will hear this story.

We got an airbnb in South Miami for a 40th birthday trip. We checked in on Thursday 2/09 in the late afternoon. After getting into the house, we had a few drinks to unwind from the long travels and get ready for our night out. We didn't cook, or shower, got our lives together and left for dinner and activities. We arrived home late so all but myself decided to shower in the morning. I took a shower and went to bed. We woke around 7am Friday morning, which happened to be the Host 40th Birthday.

He took a shower and immediately noticed toilet was making a bubbling noise, however it wasn't doing anything, so didn't think much of it. Our guest was in the other bathroom and took a shower following the host, we heard her yell so we asked her if she was okay, she stated the water was flooding in the shower going all over the floor. We figured a clogged drain and told her to wrap it up and use the other bathroom going forward.

The bathroom that was open, I went to use bathroom, as soon as I flushed a bubbling noise started and it was like a volcano went off. Feces started to come up in the toilet, feces that were NOT mine. There was a plunger next to toilet, so the HOST who again was his birthday, helped to plunge because I was disgusted. To no avail, it was not helping, the bathtub/shower started to arise with FECES!! Again, NOT OUR OWN! It was coming up from everywhere. The kitchen sink, the bathrooms, the tubs/showers. We were legitimately dealing with other peoples feces, which is a huge BIOHAZARD!!!

I told the Host to call the owner of the Airbnb, the owner eventually got back to us, and was trying to find us a plumber. At this time we were not willing to stay in a house covered in feces. We called Airbnb for help and everything went to crap, no pun attended.

We were upset, was language used that shouldn't have been? Yes of course, but anyone is dealing with other peoples feces would be just as upset. We weren't able to take showers, or use the bathroom. In a moment of weakness we decided to ask our duplex neighbors who were also airbnbing, if we could please use their restroom, unfortunately, they were in same position, they had a bad flood/back up. But they were checking out at 10am so they didn't "care" so to speak.

Airbnb customer service reps, hung up on us a total of 5x. They did not wish to help us fix the situation. They asked us to hang around till they could figure it out, asking to call us back multiple times. With time passing each time past when they said they would call back, so we'd call again. ALL we wanted was to be put into a new place. We didn't feel we should have to pay or do anything other than pack our bags and go to next place. Simple right? NO. The customer service rep, wanted us to wait.

WE WERE IN A BIOHAZARDOUS situation. Something extremely dangerous and disgusting. But did anyone with AIRBNB Care? Nope. They made that very clear.

We packed our stuff and left, we needed to use the bathroom. We went to near by restaurant. All while waiting for Airbnb to help.

As we were leaving guess who showed up?!? The new guest for the airbnb next to ours, whose check in was 10am, they were there earlier, we explained they shouldn't go into the house, there was NO way it was cleaned as we just watched the previous guest leave. They didn't even try to clean before allowing new guest into the home. How incredibly disgusting. The house in whole should have been shut down and deep cleaned by professionals. Which I can assure was not done.

We spent from 7:30 am till 1pm looking for resolutions. We had to pay for ANOTHER airbnb! Because we had no further options. And were only offered a 20% discount... a laughable discount. We paid an additional $509 for airbnb plus new host wanted another $95 to be able to get us in early, since we hadn't been able to get ready or shower. We spent half a day trying to get help with this situation.

We had reservations for activities that got canceled because we were dealing with this issue. We weren't able to get dressed or showered. It was a complete disaster.

Each and Every rep we worked with didn't care. The last rep tried his best.

We were told we would have a supervisor call us. Then we got told it could be 72 hours before we heard from one... WHAT?!? 72 Hours!

That was on Friday 2/10, it is now Thursday 2/16 and guess what?! WE HAVE NEVER HEARD FROM ANYONE FROM AIRBNB!!!

I have a big following on many social media platforms, with many friends who were there with us, with the same, everyone will know this story. And I can assure you, none of our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors will ever use AIRBNB!!

We will be discussing this with the proper people to see what our options are, because truth be told, we should have been given our money back, we shouldn't have had to pay for another house. You should be ashamed of your customer service. You should be ashamed you allowed guest to deal with a situation with NO resolution.

So I ask, is there anything that you are willing to do to help rectify this situation???

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jason2040 I suspect you didn't endear yourself to customer support if you were rude to them. They are probably paid a minimum wage in their country and are certainly not paid to take abuse from guests or hosts.

Yes you had a bad experience - Plumbing does go wrong from time to time but you do seem particularly wound up with the situation.

Presumably you have your money back from the first place and have left a suitable review for the host? If not then do contact customer support again but please be polite with them.

[Jason2040]

Particularly wound up? We had no bathrooms to use! We had to go find restrooms to clean ourselves, 6 of us, 1 a cancer patient. We had another night to go and no where to stay, the owner could not fix in time. 

this qualifies as a experience issue. It was a health hazard. Feces coming up out of the toilet and bathtub. We should have been directed to a new place to go to without having to pay an additional day. We got 1 night refunded but that doesn’t make up bc I still had to pay again so really I didn’t get any money back and paid $95 extra just for early access to clean ourselves. 

**[Inappropriate content removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Mark116]

@Jason2040  It sounds like a terrible experience, but I think you have an unrealistic idea of what Airbnb can accomplish.  They can't just move you to another Airbnb in a matter of a few minutes,  since all the Airbnb's are independently managed.  They can try and help with relocation, and shoud have done, but still the hosts have to be contacted and the booking put through.

I'm not at all surprised that Airbnb reps hung up on you though, their customer service is notoriously random and terrible.

It is also true that sometimes the host can't do anything, if the entire septic system backs up, it is what it is, all they can do is call a plumber to address it, which almost certainly, as you found out, can't be done in a matter of a couple of hours.  Although if they allowed access to the other unit without it having been cleaned they don't sound like good hosts to begin wtih.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Jason2040 ,

I understand your disappointment, especially when you intended to have a good time with your family on a birthday trip. 

Please be assured that I have raised this with the team and helped them notice your concerns. I hope you get to hear from them soon.

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Fred13]

"Airbnb customer service reps, hung up on us a total of 5x." ~If~ they did I wonder why. Also it would be interesting to know if this place is also advertised with other booking agencies, considering you took so much offense with Airbnb and now even embarking in a personal vendetta against just them.

Granted a very disgusting experience but I got the same vibes @Mike-And-Jane0 did. And yes, Airbnb probably could stand to comb its inventory of host with a finer comb, especially nowadays; I am sure that will happen soon. But xxxx does happen, no punt intended. And yes, most of us here also are in agreement their CS Department could stand an upgrade.