How do you file a complaint against a host?

[Tammy37]

Had a confirmed booking, had already paid, then the host said he wanted $100 in cash on arrival as a surcharge.  We disagreed, but eventually cancelled, since we knew he would eventually cancel us out so he could gouge someone else.  

Because we cancelled, we have to eat the service charge.

Two questions:

1) how do we file a complaint against this host?

2) How can we petition to get the host to eat the service charge?

thanks,

Tammy

[Melanie245]

My family booked a last minute trip to Disney World for my six grandchildren.  To fit our families, we booked two Airbnb condos in the same building.  My daughters host was amazing.  My host Jair, gladly took my money, but never responded from day one of the booking.  I reached out a couple of times, but never using Airbnb for travel, I just figured I would at the very least hear from Jair the day of.  We had a 14 hour drive with three young children, I reached out by several methods email, text messaging, and phone calls throughout our day of driving - the day we were to check in.  Sadly, we reach Orlando, no response from Jair, so I called the help line for Airbnb.  Only to be on the phone with a few different people for an hour and Jair decides to cancel our reservation.  Here we were, four adults and three young children with no place to stay.  I was told to give them an hour and they would help me find a new place to stay.  Not wanting to wait another hour with a very tired crew, I was able to find a "very nice" replacement with Magic Village Resort.  Once I got settled in I began going back through "all" of Jair's reviews, many were nice, but then there have been several occasions where he has cancelled reservations a day or two before and the day of.  Please tell me - Why is this person still allowed to rent through Airbnb??  My husband and I own our own business and I would definitely not want our business to be assoicated with someone like this.  It does reflect on Airbnb.  I can honestly say, this was the first time that I have used your company and I will never take this chance again. 

[Neil104]

Hi Melanie - I am in the middle of a sticky problem with an unscrupulous host as well. Airbnb is naturally geared to favouring the host. It is completely unregulated. It won't take responsibility for host actions - even though guests actually contract with Aribnb. I work for a litigation funder - and am considering launching  class action against them by guests who have been financially disadvantaged by Airbnb's lack of accountability. Please email me with your contact details if you'd like to participate. It would be no cost to you. Please email me at [Email address hidden as per the community guidelines] - I can provide more details.

[Stephen310]

 I booked a house Down The Islands on Monos (Scott and Water) since late last year and got a price of £200 a night. I booked three nights over the Easter this year and I paid through air bnb and everything was completed. The host, Gilla Tang then contact me to ask for extra payment because she made a mistake and charged me for low season. I disagree so she backed down after many emails back and forth. I also asked to see the place before Easter and she agreed. To make the story short, it looked very attractive from outside but inside was not cleaned for a long, long time. Everything was in it's place but loaded with dirt and dust. I asked for it to be thoroughly cleaned up for our stay, but she cancelled on me through air bnb. I am disappointed mainly with air bnb because they never contacted me to hear my side of the story and to make sure that this host is good for other clients. Still waiting for them to contact me. So disappointed in this service all round. 

[Neil104]

Hi Stephen - I am in the middle of a sticky problem with an unscrupulous host as well. Airbnb is naturally geared to favouring the host. It is completely unregulated. It won't take responsibility for host actions - even though guests actually contract with Aribnb. I work for a litigation funder - and am considering launching  class action against them by guests who have been financially disadvantaged by Airbnb's lack of accountability. Please email me with your contact details if you'd like to participate. It would be no cost to you. Please email me at[Email address hidden as per the community guidelines] - I can provide more details.

[Victoria145]

[Images removed due to safety reasons] 

[Neil104]

Hi Tammy - I am in the middle of a sticky problem with an unscrupulous host as well. Airbnb is naturally geared to favouring the host. It is completely unregulated. It won't take responsibility for host actions - even though guests actually contract with Aribnb. I work for a litigation funder - and am considering launching  class action against them by guests who have been financially disadvantaged by Airbnb's lack of accountability. Please email me with your contact details if you'd like to participate. It would be no cost to you. Please email me at [Email address hidden as per the community guidelines] - I can provide more details.

[Samuel156]

Hi. I can relate to what you said. I just posted my concerns too with Airbnb. I am open to working with you on the class cation against this company. you can contact me via messenger Samuel B. Diaco or samueldiaco at hotmail. 

[Samuel156]

Airbnb refused to refund what I paid for renting a condo unit that was not suitable for rent or even for staying in it for one free night. We paid near 150 USD for three nights and I got refunded only 40 USD. I had both legal and ethical reasons to cancel upon checking in and viewing the place: (1) The only aircon in the large condo was not working properly. The host representative who checked us in advised us to just restart the aircon every-time it "dies" and it did stop within 10 minutes after we checked in. The host expected us to get up throughout the night to restart the aircon when it "dies". The host later denied what her rep told us and claimed that the aricon was working fine, although two people witnessed what the rep said. (2) The exhaust fan in the only toilet in the condo is not working. The small toilet is inside the bedroom and the door is less than two feet away from the bed. The toilet has no window or any ventilation other than the exhaust fan and the air has no way out except through the bedroom to the small window on the other side of the room! The host expected two travelling adults and a child to defecate beside their bed in a small toilet without exhaust fan, and to pay near 50 USD per night for that! Even dogs get proper air ventilation in their kennels! (3) Nauseating foul odor in the condo coming from the dirty kitchen and laundry area that has no any sort of ventilation. (4) Large metal chains and locks on cabinets that made us feel very uncomfortable with the place. (5) No mosquito screens on windows to enable us, especially with a child, to just suck it up and stay there in that hot, humid county faced with Dengue concerns. Staying there was not an option, host apologized and agreed to approve full refund but later got greedy and refused to approve the refund, and Airbnb also refused to refund and blindly pointed at "cancellation policy." That place was not suitable for rent and we were cheated by host advertisement and robbed by Airbnb. Airbnb also refused to release my review and to let me share my experience that evening at their host's unit claiming that my review violates their policy. I have repeatedly tried to resolve this dispute with Airbnb at no avail. Now I am initiating legal action against Airbnb in California and meanwhile encouraging anyone who was cheated or unfairly treated by Airbnb and its host/guests to join me the drive against Aribnb, to spread public awareness about the dreadful risks of using its services, and to regain our basic rights. To those who consider using Airbnb, avoid it and their hosts and rather stay at officially registered places, deal with professional hosts, and remain safe. I did have very good experiences with some Airbnb hosts, but I also often encountered scary and greedy hosts who just wanted to make money renting their dirty and rundown places then good luck getting your money back without going through annoying and costly battles. Use professional services like agoda and booking.com and have peace of mind. After all, you are not saving any money by using Airbnb. To those who been hurt or affected by Airbnb, please feel free to contact me and share your experiences.

[Arisara1]

May I please ask for help? My Aibnb host was rude to me in a comment after I tried to write an honest review about my stay. The host gave me five stars and commented perfect guest. I didnt not want to report them, but after my review, the host claims that my classmate and I were trying to stay past the time they allowed us to stay by having another one of us book it and said that he would report it. My classmate accidentally booked from Sat to Wednesday and didn't realize that we were checking out Thursday. I helped book one more night. I did not realize that that was over their max stay. If they suspected we were trying to do that and told use to leave, we would have done so. I ask for guidance and help because I haven't been treated by a host this way before.

[Jordan178]

filing complaint to the host 

[Ashlea3]

How do you file a complaint against the host and airbnb itself?

Very first time using this service and the host told me that I don't get charged at all until I check in, which was a lie. Then I decided to cancel my reservation and explained that the host provided misleading information to me and the support person said they would refund everything minus a cleaning fee. So I agreed. Then after "processing" the refund, the support person was like oh, nevermind we only give you 50% of what you paid sorry we can't help you so I can have someone else call you. Never heard from anyone from customer service and lost 50% of what I paid with both the host providing incorrect information and the support person. I have sent many messages asking for help and have been ignored.

[Joshua200]

I'm currently waiting for a host to let me in. Been waiting for 5 hours. I have to wait another 3.

[Leigh73]

Hi everyone  I'm a Newby on arabnb and 42 male in Australia, been staying in a room in cairns recently and I did make a mistake by not filling out my profile on here before staying at a female host, I could see she didn't want me there and had a strong impression that she had to have other males, ether by the boyfriend or another male in the house while I was there just I'm case I tried to make a move on her I also thought she might be gender selecting people to can stay there, it is illegal to do this under Australian consumer law in Australia, but I am wondering how wide spread this problem is on arabnb when it comes female hosts in Australia, it's sad for me for a Newby to pretty much forced to declare that I only choose male host on my profile just in case I make female host uncomfortable around me in their rooms for stay, cheers 

[Sarah977]

@Leigh73   It is not against airbnb policy for women who host a space in the home where they also reside to state that they only accept female guests. Nor can I believe that would be considered illegal in any country. While I realize this makes a lot of men angry, the reasons are obvious- many women have been sexually abused or at least been faced with the uncomfortable, or in some cases downright scary situation of having to fend off clearly unwelcome advances.

However, a host who wishes to be gender-specific regarding guests should clearly state this in their listing desciption. Did your host mention "females only" in her listing? 

I host a room in my home and accept both male and female guests and have had no problems whatsoever with male guests- they have always been very respectful. That said, I respect other women's prerogative to specify female guests only, if they feel uncomfortable with the alternative.

I see no reason for you to state in your profile that you only wish to book with male hosts. While I can see from your photo that you are clearly male, your name is not gender-specific, so in the future, for your own comfort level, you may just want to confirm, when requesting to book a room in a private home, that the host, if female, has no problem with you being male. 

[Miho13]

It was my first time using AirBNB but there needs to be improvements setting the guidelines and standards for the hosts, this is a  business transactions where guests pay money to stay at the host's property.  I spent the first 2 says cleaning the place in Paris starting with moldy dishwasher, bathroom, rottened bathroom counter top and few kinds of bugs that were flying around and crawing the bathroom.  Uncovered food left in the fridge which we were told not to touch.  We were told to take shoes off but the floor was so filthy I had to clean it first.

The Host came to meet with us at the check out, I was concerned about the stairs carrying 2 large suitcases, the host elegantly watched me carry down the suitcases from distance, and he also threatened me in front of my child yelling I should have been reported to the police, I have attituide problem and I should watch out for my life.

AirBNB actully got in between to let me cancel the reservation for the last 3nights out of 16 night stay with refund but it took a whole week to resolve it.  I was stressed out keeping the place safe and clean for my children.  My children's allergy to the dust flared to the maximum, but the host did not seem to care and threatened to report us to the police.

Photos should speak for itself.

Of course, no reinbursement on cleaning supplies I purchased.  I paid few thousand dollars for our 13 night stay.  The place was really **bleep**ty.  Don't I deserve some money back?really disgusting bathroom vanityi smelled something moldy in the kitchen, it was the dishwasher.Just wiping one square foot of the kitchen.That crawling bug can move around so quickly and multiplying.dental floss was left when we checked infood left int he fridge, we were told not to touch it but it was the cause of the smell.food left in the fridge