Advice on refund

[Nadia698]

Should I request a refund? In short here is what happened.

I booked a stay with someone for a month. Told me she couldn’t go down on the price (which now I see is a lie because she’s decreased the price by $15 a day). So she told me to book through Airbnb for the first month and I could sign a different contract for the next 3 months. So during the first month the oven wasn’t working and I discovered a mouse in the house. Based on the reviews seems like the oven hasn’t been working since fall of 2019. For the mouse she didn’t apologize and said it’s an old house and that’s common and brought measly traps. I had to buy my own but still couldn’t catch it. It was a small studio so being in there gave me anxiety as I seen it often.

Now here’s the tricky part. Prior to finding out all this she booked off the two months on Airbnb for me so no one could book it. About 3 days before the next month I got a good opportunity in a bigger cheaper place by someone I met at my job. I told her last minute I wasn’t gonna he staying there anymore. She told me she was disappointment as she’s losing out since she had booked the place off for me and no one else could book it.

should I request a refund still? I feel bad but I had brought food to cook in the oven that first week and it wasn’t working. You can only make stove top and microwave meals for so long for a month. I couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t plan on leaving to the point I have packages delivered there I don’t even have access to pick up. I just feel like I got finessed. 

[Sarah977]

@Nadia698  The protocol on Airbnb bookings is that if you arrive to find the place unacceptable (dirty, not as advertised, missing amenities or non-working appliances) you first notify the host (which it seems you did) to give them an opportunity to address the issue. If the host is unwilling, or says they will, but doesn't actually follow through, then you either make a decision to continue the booking and live with the problems, or you contact Airbnb and see if they can rehouse you, or at the very least, cancel the booking with a refund for unused nights so you can find another place on your own.

Continuing to stay indicates that the conditions were livable for you, and asking for a refund after the fact is wrong.

I'm not sure, when you say you clearly read in several reviews about the non-working oven, why you didn't either pass on this place if an oven was important to you, or confirm with the host before you booked, that the oven was now operational.

"A mouse" can happen anywhere and you say the host brought over traps when you mentioned it. Seeing one mouse isn't a valid reason to ask for a refund. If the place were infested with rodents, that would be a different story.

Forget about chasing a refund for a place you actually lived in for a month and just write an honest review.

As for the pricing, that's irrelevant, Hosts will often drop prices to fill unbooked dates, but that doesn't mean already booked guests get some retroactive discount.

And as far as the host having blocked 2 more months for you, which she wanted to be paid for off-platform, and then whining about those dates being blocked, that's her problem, which she shouldn't have tried to make you feel guilty about.