Bad review

[Desi221]

I stayed at a place with some friends at the Bulgarian sea side. One of my friends got in the shower and we heard screams 5min later..turns out the glass shower door shattered because it came out of railing. She was left in the shower with glass up to her knees and cuts on her legs.When the host was informed we recieved an apology and were told that that shower was broken but they haven't had the chance to fix it yet....she then had the nerve to leave me a bad review (my only review) and didn't give back my deposit even. Claiming we destroyed the apartment ( we even washed the dishes before we left). :s

[Anonymous]

@Desi221 it's not possible for the host to "keep" a deposit via Airbnb, because Airbnb does not actually collect a deposit. What they can do is request payment for specific damages, which you can dispute.

If the host took a deposit from you outside of the site and not returned it, I'm sad to say, you've been scammed. 

I don't know whether your negative review was justified, but  you do have the opportunity to write a punlic response that will be displayed after it for future hosts to see. But since it seems you didn't write a review for the host, her word will be assumed to have more merit. 

[Desi221]

Sadly I realized this happened a few months later because I didn't check my e-mail 😞  so I couldn't reply. Guess I was scammed.

[Anonymous]

@Desi221 if you have evidence that the host demanded a payment off site, you can report it to Airbnb. But they can not recover the money for you.

In the future, if you choose to book through Airbnb again I suggest including in your request a concise explanation of why your previous review is negative. And remember that in most cases hosts are not allowed to demand payments off-site (the main exception being local taxes that should be clearly disclosed in the listing) 

[Jennifer1897]

Unfortunately it looks like you stayed quite some time ago, and when I looked at the host it appears she no longer even has properties listed. 

First, you should never pay anyone anything outside of the AirBnb platform. When you do this, you throw away any security airbnb provides. If a hosts asks you for funds outside of the site, I would let airbnb's know and request to cancel.

Second, if something like this happens, document it through airbnb, and make sure all your correspondence is done via the messenger. This provides you backing should the event escalate to a bigger problem, or claim of some sort. I have guest who often text me outside of the platform. I also have host who do so. I always make sure to re-direct them to airbnb. 

Lastly, always leave honest reviews. It looks like you did not leave one for this host. So going along with what Andrew said, it is going to reflect more negatively on you, because there is only one side to the story.  As a host, if I looked at your profile, I would probably be hesitant about accepting your request. You can also respond to negative reviews on your own profile, which will give future host a little insight as to what the situation was, and might result in them being a little more open to hosting you.