We have been falsely accused by our host of our dog fouling the carpet in their home gym and a replacement carpet being needed.
It was us who flagged that there were old urine stains all over their home gym and sent them pictures, our dog at this point hadn't even been down to the basement where the gym is as the stairs were too steep for her and we had them blocked as a precaution. We notified the host after a few days of staying here once we noticed, as we hadn't been using the gym. The host apologised and organised a carpet clean. This happed on December 1st, on December 20th we check out. Fast forward to January when we return for our second stay and after a few days we get a notification requesting £1000 in damages.
The next door neighbours clean and manage the property so we immediately go over and ask what its about. They assure us he's just claiming insurance and not charging us. We return and state oh this must be a mistake I think you're trying to claim the insurance? He then proceeds to say he gave us a hefty discount and that he can't also swallow the cost of dogs fouling his carpet. We are utterly stunned.
It has since gone to mediation and they have sided with the host and said we have to pay. The next door neighbours were initially really nice and kept saying don't worry it's just insurance we know it wasn't you but have now changed their tune. When we advised we are indeed being charged they snapped "I've told him it's not you there isn't anything else I can do, I don't know what you want us to do about it"
It's been such a stressful stay and we really don't know what to do. I think he knew the damage was there all along and is just trying to make some money.
Anyone have any advice please? I let Airbnb know I was a host myself before so am very respectful of rules, we also spent around £10K in 4/5 month long stays last year between home moves, all with our dog. All with glowing reviews and not a single dispute. It doesn't seem to count for anything.
