dealing with building code violations as a guest

[Ryan1876]

Hello. I'm looking for some input from some well-respected hosts. I rented a home 1000 miles away that was described as a 3 bedroom and that there was also a private suite on the property that someone else was living in. The private suite and home were not adjoined and neither had access to each other. When we arrived, I discovered that one of the bedrooms was actually an office with no windows for egress requirements. The other issue was that the private suite turned out to be the garage. I contacted the host and let them know my concerns with the bedroom situation since that was also the room with the bunkbeds which 3 of my kids would use. I asked that I be refunded for the remaining nights I had so I could find another house in town which was capable of housing my family safely. I was told by the host that the property had been inspected multiple times and that there were no code violations, and thus no need for any reimbursement. I contacted Airbnb the next day hoping they would address the problem. After 2 days of discussions with them, they sided with the hosts. So the following day I contacted the county building code inspection agency and they sent an inspector out. Sure enough, the 3rd bedroom was a code violation and so was the private suite contained to the garage. What is a fair reimbursement expectation at this point? This has been a distraction for my wife and I the entire week and the hosts shouldn't be able to profit off of putting up guests in an unsafe home. I would like to think that being reimbursed for the cost of our entire vacation is in line at this point so we can take another vacation as a family distraction-free. I'd rather not pursue legal action but I will if necessary. Thoughts?

[Kt17]

I'm disturbed that nearly 3 years later, no one responded to this. Did you ever get reimbursed?

[Angela3508]

Ditto because I am now dealing with the same issue. I rented a house for a week, super nice to the owner trying to get some compensation back because it was a nightmare. Come to find out her house is against code.

[Dora109]

were you able to get any reimbursement or support?

[Dora109]

did this ever get resolved?

[Helen3]

The original post was four years ago. I highly doubt Ryan is still visiting this community @Dora109 

[Angelica630]

I am now dealing with the same crap and apparently no one wants to address the underlying issue that is Airbnb's policy enforcement. Did this ever get resolved on your end? 

[Dora109]

i got a full refund for my stay from airbnb for the host's misleading photos and descriptions....but the place is still inaccurately described, full of building code violations, and available to book 🤷‍♀️

[Telisa1]

This seems to possibly be a growing problem. My review which mentioned several code and safety violations about a recent rental property was removed. I wasn't given a chance to fix or reword my review and was threatened to be removed from the platform.

I've left positive reviews and had great experiences previously. Im mostly easy going with rental property owners, but there has been a big uptick in dishonest property offerings by properties owned by companies versus real people. I do not give multiple property owners by businesses as much grace as individuals.

I've contacted the city, municipality of the rental about code violations and reported it for inspection. Airbnb needs to step up to crackdown on bad flip investor property owners or they will lose credibility with the renter population. I'm still waiting to hear back if I will be allowed to post a review or if they will do anything about the safety concerns.

[Zheng49]

I think Airbnb is able to remove reviews which are misleading or non-factual.

What kind of safety concerns and/or code violations did you report and did you verify that they are true? 

For example, I see many basement listings in Airbnb for Toronto. If we're gonna go by egress window standards, then pretty much none of them are gonna pass the code standards. But there are so many basement listings so I wonder if they are using some kind of loophole. Perhaps if the listing doesn't list it as a bedroom then it's fine. 

These rooms just claim to be a "room", and not a bedroom per-say. I wonder if that allows it to bypass the building code  requirements etc. 

@Quincy @Bhumika @Sophia