AJ V.

Airbnb has the worst host customer service I've dealt ever dealt with. My first Airbnb customer arrived 3 hours per our agreement. Forced/begged... even used her kids as an excuse to come in early before the cleaners had even finished. She arrived with 2 small children, 2 nannies, her husband, and herself. I allowed this because I have a soft spot for children and it was my first guest through Airbnb (Plenty of guests through craigslist). I wanted it to go smoothly. What was said to be a quick stop for luggage drop off and diaper changes quickly turned into an hour of the nannies going through every drawer in the house. It took my cleaners twice as long. That night, they still washed every single towel, pillow, sheet, blanket, etc in the house. The washing machine was on for 12 hours consistently. Everything had just been washed in front of them! When they arrived there weren't even sheets on the beds! Not to mention, they hung every single article to dry on my wooden patio furniture outside. White on wood isn't a good idea right? I wake up the next morning to 80% of the windows completely open with BOTH floor AC units on. When they arrived the day before I went over the house rules verbally, one of which was, "please keep the windows closed when you run the heating/cooling systems as they will become ridiculously expensive". Her response was- "Oh this weather is perfect, we wont be using them often". The icing on the cake came when I found 3 broken crystal glasses in the dumpster and the "dry clean only" back pillows of the gray couch in the picture, washed and turned inside out on my patio furniture! I then decided I would be nice and instead of making a huge ordeal, simply print out a small list of house rules. "Use Eco friendly on washer, etc". This did not go over so well with her and she passive aggressively cancelled a reservation she had over a month in advanced! Now here's the part that makes Airbnb an awful mediator and pretty much voids any type of protection for the host. When I first set up my account, I went through thoroughly and set everything I wanted, including my cancellation setting. When I received this inquiry (my first), I recognized my cancellation policy was still set to "flexible". Frantic, I emailed the preapproved guest and told her I noticed she could cancel on me within 24 hours. I told her since this is a month in advanced I would definitely like to know if the commitment is mutual or tentative. She agreed through email she was fully committed. Longer story shorter, she sends me a message the morning after I gave her a second set of keys and the house rules list saying her child is having a hard time with the stairs so they are altering their stay. I was sent a message to "accept" or "deny" request of which I hit deny. I had turned down 6 reservations for this time slot which I held for a month. I was sent an override by airbnb with no contact from their office. When I reach out through the help center, I receive an automated response not even pertaining to my issue. When I call I am directed to the Resolution center. This morning, I receive an email rejecting my investigation stating my cancellation policy was set to flexible. NO ONE reads into the threads. I recognized this from speaking with the guy on the phone, which btw good luck finding the number on Airbnb! No one truly investigates. They read the first page and find the quickest response they can that kinda matches, all of which are prewritten and they put their names on them as if they wrote it personally. I've spent more hours reexplaining this situation than I have getting it handled. This is NOT what I signed up for and I hope everyone realizes it can happen to you very easily. I will be sticking to my own lease agreement paperwork and security deposit from now on. It's worked wonders for me through craigslist. It is not worth the extra money Airbnb takes out of my stays to be a mediator when their best interest clearly leans to one side; theirs. Especially when they mention this great insurance policy yet they are telling me they have no power once they resend the money back to the customer.