Traumatic experience with Hosts in Forks WA and feckless AirBnB support

[Andrew-And-Amy2]

We are still dealing with this issue with customer support, but we had an awful experience in the remote area around Olympic national park with 2 terrible hosts.

We were looking to do some glamping in RVs in the area and planned to spend 2 nights in Port Angeles and 2 in Forks. The first host was fantastic, and it was easy to see from their reviews that they were gracious and wonderful and they made our stay in Port Angeles really great.

However in Forks we ignored some warning signs from reviews that ** was a bad host. There was a hidden fee to start with, some angry responses to reviews and then they started demanding that we switch to a different RV, but would not provide any details. We agreed to their demands despite how sketchy this was because we could see there weren't any better options. Then the night before our reservation ** simply cancelled our and gave no explanation or assistance on what to do and stopped responding to us altogether. 

AirBnB said they 'flagged' ** for this behavior but then only offered a $25 rebooking voucher. Of course by this point the already limited number of accommodations near Forks were all booked. No traditional motels or hotels were available when I called, and AirBnB itself offered only 1 poorly rated accommodation from ** that had many pieces of misinformation on it and was also more then twice as expensive as ** was.

We spent the entire morning trying to figure out what to do and decided our only choice was the poorly reviewed **. I immediately regretted pressing the reserve button because I didn't feel safe taking my family there the more I thought about it.

I tried to call AirBnB to cancel, but they would not process a cancelation because it was made the same day, and ** said the same even though I explained to him what had happened. Both hid behind their company policies and ignored our difficult circumstances caused by the previous host. They only would process a refund of the same amount as the as the origjnal host, but that meant we were out $582 for accommodations that we never used, including AirBnBs $120 fee and ** $100 cleaning fee, which neither deserve as we never used the accommodation and tried to cancel it immediately.

We feel AirBnB should protect us here and issue the refund. They should also allow us to warn other people by letting us post a review on **'s accommodations. We only had booked the ** in a moment of desperation and our only recourse is to leave him a terrible review! We deserve our money back either from the host or AirBnB, but so far both have simply shrugged of our dire situation and left us with a large bill we do not deserve to pay!

[title updated by OCM to remove names from the title, Names of Host removed due to privacy concerns -  Community Center Guidelines]

[Rachel2465]

Next time book thru VRBO and they'll offer you cancelation insurance no matter what day you book it or cancel. 

[Andrew-And-Amy2]

Thanks. That is helpful for next time, and I actually do have all good experiences from VRBO, but I'm also trying to find out what to do about this problem. I have escalated this to manager after manager and keep getting stoned with this response that it is entirely up to the host if we get a refund, not matter what the extenuated circumstances.

This leaves me feeling like AirBnB basically does not stand behind their customers and only their hosts, which is very dangerous. Guests everywhere should be wary.

[Rachel2465 · Accepted solution]

I completely agree with your statement about the refund issue...And what do we do if they complain, report, or give us a bad review for NOT refunding them at an agreed upon price?! - Airbnb must find a solution to this ongoing issue that will satisfy both the host and the guest, as well as themselves. Offering insurance when booking a reservation as a click of a button (check box) with a short, small statement that states, if they choose NOT to get the insurance, they get no refund. This leaves Airbnb and hosts a way to make MORE money for everyone involved...many guests will not select the checkbox, leaving neither us (the hosts), nor Airbnb reliable for any refunds to the guests that cancel and request them...Due to the excerpt displayed when booking. Easy... Like C'mon...

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Andrew-And-Amy2 Clearly not a great experience with Darlene but you didn't even give Vilkesh a chance. Surely that is unfair on them?

[Andrew-And-Amy2]

Why is that unfair to Vilkesh? We are the guests and if there is something that seems wrong with the way someone is communicating, it seems entirely fair that we shouldn't have to stay in a place that is making us uncomfortable.

Normally someone can charge more if they have a lot of great reviews, as that person will naturally seem safer and better tested then ones with few reviews. Vilkesh had only a single poor review, but was charging significantly more then the average booking in the area. That is why they were the only option left after Darlene cancelled on us.

Vilkesh turned out to be a terrible host. He had many things incorrect on the listing and when we started to find this out, we didn't want to stay anymore. It didn't seem safe or comfortable and was certainly not affordable either. We tried to cancel only 1 hour later and Vilkesh refused. Vilkesh would not listen to the situation that Darlene had put us in and was looking to keep $600 from us because of a momentary lapse in judgement while trying to save our vacation.

We worked with AirBnB on the issue for awhile and finally they issued the full refund, which was definitely fair here. We never stayed in Forks however, so our vacation was significantly curtailed.

[Mar125]

@Andrew-And-Amy2 

As an experienced host, let me have a wild guess why your host is cancelling you. As we all know, host doesn’t really want to cancel unless host thinks it’s absolutely necessary. 

From the way you describe your situation, i can sense that you probably had a lot of questions and refused to switch the RV per your host’s instructions. Once host sensed that guest’s uncooperative behavior, host is worried too. 

In my shop, I am scared of uncooperative guests more than messy guests. 

And please remember, hosts are usually mom and pop landlords. they have limited resources too. If you don’t cooperate, you are going to get cancelled. Airbnb can help on refund, but the rebooking assistance is usually near 0. 

don’t risk your booking on airbnb and follow your host’s instructions as long as they are not against law. 

my 2 cents as a host. 

[Andrew-And-Amy2]

Hi Mar125,

We are also experienced hosts and I think your reasoning and allowance for what Darlene has done is extremely biased and far too apologetic.

A host who cancels less then a day before arrival is really leaving their guests in a bind, period. The guest now has to perform another search to find a place to stay on extremely short notice, which is difficult and stressful and most likely will be costly. All of these things happened to us through no fault of our own in this case.

This is specific case it was even worse. The location was very remote with few options to start with, and indeed we found nothing else was still available. Also, Darlene gave no reason for cancellation, and was so opaque about it that we lost hours just trying to get more information out of her as to what was going on. We had switched the RV as she had been insisting that we do because we knew that with so little time to go we wanted to make sure the host wouldn't be angry with us. However it didn't even work, and even though we had communicated clearly every step of the way, acquiesced to her off-putting request we were left dangling in the wind with basically no other option.

This was extremely poor behavior for a host, and its shameful that we don't get to leave a review of this situation to warn other potential guests.

You are definitely not viewing the situation objectively Mar125.

Andrew & Amy

[Andrew-And-Amy2]

Wow, apparently we aren't the only ones who have been screwed by hosts in this manner, as AirBnB is updating it's cancellation policy in a way that seems to directly address the situation that we were put in!

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990?src_section=374934&c=.pi80.pkb21uaS8xLzkzODI5&euid=91b49c25-...