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

[Sarah977]

@Vanessa1287  Can you explain a bit more what the situation is? It really sounds like you replied to an ad you found somewhere other than the Airbnb site and it was a total scam, not an Airbnb listing. 

When you book an Airbnb, you pay through the Airbnb site with the payment method you have on file with them. A guest never wires money directly to the host. 

If this was a scam, you unfortunately won't be able to get your money back.

Can you post the link to this listing, so we can have a look?

[Ali40]

I started a Twitter account specifically to contact Airbnbhelp when needed. They have always been very helpful on Twitter 

[Neil104]

 Hi Alex - sounds like you've had a bad experience with Airbnb? I am in the middle of a sticky problem with an unscrupulous host. 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] - I can provide more details.

[Email address hidden as per the community guidelines]

[Neomi0]

I would like info on this. I am trying to get a refund as a guest because the host listed the property illegally and Air BNB will not give me a refund. I would like to sue also. 

[Kirstie13]

I too would like to complain about a host. We left the apartment in good order as he said in his review and he would be happy to have us stay again. That is not what I am upset about. We accidentally took the key and posted it back to the unit as soon as we realised and before we got on a train to travel to Rome. This is not what I have problem with him mentioning either, that's fine because we rectified it as soon as it happened. 

What I am extremely angry and upset about is the comment at the beginning of his review. It was extremely arrogant, rude and completely unnecessary. 

He said that we aren't familiar with modern communication. That is not the fact as I have a university degree in the use of the technology he was referring to. Arrogance is never an acceptable quality. 

This is the first time we have stayed in an Airbnb and we'll never book again. I have paid over $500 to be insulted. The checking in process showed little regard for us, very disappointed.

"My response"

We do understand the communication of today thank you. It was difficult to get messages from the host regarding access to the apartment who posted a video using a video codec converter that is unfamiliar in our country. I had to download a codec converter in order to be able to open the video that was sent to us just a couple of days before we arrived in Paris. I would suggest that the host use a more universal carrier service for the video. I am travelling though Europe thousands of miles from home and trying not to use to much bandwidth and data. I would suggest that video is not the best way to convey the home access information. Standing out the front of the house trying to download a video when there was no data access available made the experience less than enjoyable.

[Rick225]

Im trying to do the same its ****** hard work, I left a nice review she did the opposite and lied.

So I reported her nothing has happened!

The only way I have found is to leave general host feed back.

There is no complaints procedure that I can find

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[Anonymous]

Hi Rick, I'm facing the same situation. I've left a generally good review but the host lied. We even cleaned all the trash as we have baby's diapers and washed the quilt cover with out left over detergent so that we don't have to bring home but the host claimed that we left the apartment unusually dirty and messy. 

Prior to the booking, we asked some questions which help us to decide whether this is a suitable apartment for our young kids. and few days prior to check in, we did ask direction from the train station to the apartment etc. Total messages sent to the host from prior booking to informing the host we were checking out were only 24 messages from me but the host claimed that I sent him/her 10-20 messages a day regardless day or night. We are from different time zone so my day may be his night but I never expect the host to immediately reply.

Worst of all, the host claimed that there was an elevator in the listing but when I checked with him/her again prior to check in, the host informed that during check in and out we cannot use the elevator as there's a key to it and that's it, no instructions as to how to use it. There were also missing items like shampoo in the apartment, and the host limited us to 2 washings for 3 nights stay. Informed the host that there's no body shampoo as per listing and only 1 men shampoo (which was not suitable for 1yo, 3yo & 5yo), he/she admitted that the previous tenant had overused it and will refund 2euro to us but never did.

Did you end up with any response from AirBnB?

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous   Really, you sent 24 messages to the host prior to booking???? I can't imagine any host wouldn't find that unbelievably demanding, rather crazy, and completely disrespectful of their time. Every time another question popped into your head you sent another message? Why not just sit down, organize you thoughts and send all the info you want to know in one or 2 messages. Honestly, if a guest sent me 24 messages, or even more than 4, I'd cancel their reservation.

Limited you to 2 washes for a 3 day stay? Most hosts would consider 1 load of laundry a week to be reasonable.

You want some special shampoo for your kids, that's up to you to bring, not the host to cater to your every wish.

Honestly, Joanne, you sound like the kind of entitled, demanding guest no one would want to host. It's an Airbnb, not a 5 star hotel with concierge service.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sara, I only sent 4 messages & 1 reminder (as the host didn’t reply after more than 24 hours) so total 5 messages (over 3 days) to the host prior to booking because I need to know if the apartment was near to any public transport and whether they have baby amenities.

upon booking, I sent another few messages to check if the exact direction from the the train station as I needed to arrange the transport since I was travelling with 3 young kids. As the host told me although things were listed, I need to make the necessary request if I need baby crib and high chair as the host will need to rent from elsewhere so I sent a message to request for high chair and told her I don’t need a crib so she doesn’t need to spend extra to rent. I also asked if detergent was provided, otherwise I will bring my own. 

I did ask the host if she can accommodate early check in by 1-2 hours as the baby may need her afternoon nap but she kept sending me reminder that I need to pay for an additional night so I have informed her that we don’t find it necessary to pay for an additional night. If she can not accommodate early check in, that’s fine and we will be there by 3pm the check in time.

upon check in I sent a text to her to say we were there already as per her request. We didn’t know how to use the detergent capsules provided as we were not familiar with such capsules and we didn’t want to do something wrong which will spoil the machine so I asked her how to use. Her immediate response was asking me to google it myself. We informed her that there’s no shampoo provided so she asked me to look for it myself. When I found one men hair shampoo and no soap or body shampoo, I let her know and she said the previous tenant had overused and she will refund me €2. she’s busy with another tenant for broken pipe and will only able to reply tomorrow. So I didn’t disturb her anymore

A day before check check out I texted her again to ask about the check out procedure as the instructions stated in the apartment with the keysafe password was not the same as the check in one so I needed to confirm it beforehand which was the correct one.

right before we left, I sent her another message to say we are leaving and thank u for her hosting us.

all in total I sent her 24 messages, including thank you, have a nice day and goodbye after every reply. Is this really overboard and annoying?

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous   Yes, 24 messages would be really overboard and annoying. It's nice that you sent a message when you checked in and again when when you left, and that you said thanks, and it's reasonable to want to know what to expect in terms of how far you would be from public transport, especially when travelling with 3 little kids, but 24 messages for a 3 day stay is pretty excessive.

I know the young texting generation has a habit of sending one line texts, one after the other, instead of just asking everything in one text. It's a pretty annoying way to communicate to those who don't operate like that. I hate it when people do that to me. I'm just composing a reply and 3 more text messages form the same person, one sentence each, come in. Drives me batty.

Yes, the host should have made sure to check the listing to make sure there was soap and shampoo and whatever else she says she provides, as well as left instructions for the laundry pods.  But you could have and gone and gotten some soap yourself, considering that she had already gone out of her way to accomodate what you needed arranged for the kids and spent a bunch of time answering your messages.

It does sound like the host may have not made things clear (was there a house manual?) and that you were trying to do the right thing, but it also seems like you had a lot of demands, expected a lot, needed a lot of hand-holding, constantly bombarded the host with messages about every little thing and didn't cut her the least amount of slack on anything. Both hosts and guests need to be not so picky about every little thing and concentrate on the positive. Otherwise you should just book hotels.

And something you should know about Airbnbs- you say you washed the quilt- guests should never wash anything of the host's, like bedding or towels, unless instructed to do so. Most hosts prefer to deal with the laundry themselves, as they may need to pre-treat something that might stain, whereas the guest might just throw it in the machine on hot water, making the stains impossible to ever get out and the stuff then needs to be thrown away. If you spill something on the bedding, or get some blood or food on them, you should let the host know right away so they can let you know what they'd like you to do with it. Guests have been upset to find that they are expected to pay for ruined bedding, but that might have been avoided had they let the host know at the time.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sara, my bad for composing “thank you” “goodbye” “have a nice day” messages in a separate message instead of composing them in the same message when I asked any questions. We did get ourselves the detergent and shampoo after we found out they ain’t provided or sufficient. My messages to the host on these were just to notify the host and hopefully she doesn’t blame us for using it up when they ain’t there in the first place but I didn’t think she will take it so negatively. 

Theres no house manual in this apartment u like the other 2 we stayed prior to this in the same trip, this was the last stop for us. As the only notice/guide/house rules found in the apartment was contradicted to what was provided in Airbnb, we of course have to check with her. The same keysafe for check in and out has different passwords given to us and after checking with her, the one found in the apartment was the wrong one.

i don’t think we were demanding, and we certainly did not expect a hotel standard kind of accommodation. We were just asking things stated in the listing and we never asked for anything extra except if it was possible to allow early check in. If that’s not possible we were okay with it.

unlike the previous 2 apartments we stayed in the same trip where we cleared the trash as requested by the respective hosts, although there’s no requirement to clean the bins, before we left the apartment we cleared everything and washed some of the quilt covers with our extra/leftover detergents to ease the host’s job (though we paid for cleaning fees) as a token of appreciation. We made sure everything was in good order just like when we checked in but the host had made up stories saying we messed things up. I didn’t expect her to give 5* review, everyone is entitled to give their honest opinion but I didn’t expect the host to make up untrue story  just because we didn’t want to pay for that additional night to check in less than 1 hour earlier than the official check in time. 

[Anonymous]

There’s no stains on anything. My bad for washing before asking as we always change everything at home for hygiene purpose after our guest left so we applied the same standard. We didn’t understand the words on the machine but we googled it (in English) to make sure we didn’t use the wrong function.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sara, I’m not asking for special shampoo but at the very least body shampoo or soap because it was listed. We did bring along children shampoo. I’m just informing her that there’s no shampoo but I didn’t demand for anything. I even told her that we will sort that out ourselves but just informing her in case she needs to do the needful for her next tenant. 

[Gary484]

l would differently not stay with you, have some consideration.

[Kenneth12]

@Kirstie13 :  sorry to hear this happened.  Video is OK as supplementary material,  but should not be used as a primary material.   Primary materials should be good old plain text. 🙂

Hope you'll give ABB another chance,  not every host is that poor!