While staying at a Airbnb rental in Ithaca, NY from June 19th 2016 to July 5th 2016 I started developing a severe skin rush on my face, neck, back, arms and legs. As you have seen from the pictures, my body that day became quickly covered with about 100 to 200 red spots that were painful and itchy. The red spots on my skin soon became blisters, forming a red liquid inside.
That same day I had to seek urgent medical attention. The doctor told me it was probably due to bedbugs, so I decided to do a visual inspection of the bed in the room where I was staying. By just removing the sheets from the bed in the room I immediately noticed the presence of several dozens of live Bedbugs and (as you can see from the pictures I took that same day of these insects and which I submitted to Airbnb) many of them were fully grown and developed adults.
As soon as I realised that my room was infested by bedbugs, I informed the host, who called a pest control company and I then contacted also Airbnb to inform them of the situation. In the following days, Airbnb cancelled my reservation and provided me with a new accommodation in Ithaca for the rest of my stay. I also had to sanitise all my clothes and personal belonging and get rid of several of my items which could not be sanitised in this process or which were too severely damaged by the bedbug infestation because I feared to spread the insects somewhere else.
On the insurance policies page, Airbnb says that it does not provide insurance coverage neither compensation for damage or injuries for bedbug infestation. Also, since Airbnb simply canceled my reservation, I was not able to leave any comment on the host or the rental, and I know for a fact that he is still renting rooms in his apartment.
I think those policies are unfair, since I was not allowed to receive compensation and I was not even able to comment on the host to let other people know about the risk in booking at this place. I think Airbnb should change this policy.
