Airbnb 4+

I’m sorry but this has been something that’s bothered me since the start of the pandemic and I am not an “anti-masker” or a “conspiracy theorist” so I was grateful for the additional precautions, until I learned there were no additional precautions. As a company, you are fantastic to your hosts but are horrible to the guests. We have no recourse, are rarely believed over the host and truth be told, I feel like there never should’ve had to be a massive hike in cleaning fees (unless you’re honest about it and tell the guests it’s for the “host” putting themselves at risk by hosting and having to clean up afterwards and not telling us it’s for “deeper cleaning protocols”. Also most places in the US are fully open again which means this ridiculous hike in fees needs to be dropped and furthermore you should expect your hosts to be deep cleaning between each and every guest. The reason I know about the fees and why they were instituted is because I clean Airb&b houses for a few ppl when I can and for who I can…and for the record I always deep clean in between guests. It’s called good hygiene and keeping those people safe and healthy and that’s what you as a complete should strive for and expect from your hosts (not give them a cash prize for possibly doing it.

Recently stayed with a host that was very clearly defrauding us. They staged “damage” that occurred from our stay but had faked the damage themselves after we had left. A deep dive into the host’s reviews ended up revealing a pattern of similar behaviour and other scams. After trying to claim over $800 in damages for a window blind that had been taken off the track, we tried to resolve the issue with Airbnb, showing that we had made the host aware of issues that we did find present (there was a tear in the couch and the dryer wasn’t functioning) but this damage was not us. We also showed them the multiple other instances of shady business the host had done. Airbnb originally claimed that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to find us responsible but they were going to reimburse the host themselves and close the matter. Fast forward a few days later and now Airbnb is claiming we are fully responsible and need to reimburse them for the money they sent the host. The lack of consistency and what honestly just seems like trying to make back their money in spite of lack of clear evidence shows they can be just as shady as the hosts they collect their fees from. Airbnb had become a platform where this stuff is permitted as long as they get their cut, and the customer is left to pick up the bill. I unfortunately can’t trust their service team to have my back, so I won’t be using their services again.