I booked three nights at an Airbnb. The place was nice, and the host was nice. The place looked like the one in the pictures, which is rare these days. Everything was great until about ten minutes into my stay, when all of the sudden the whole apartment started to shake. I thought it was an earthquake, grabbed my wallet, and ran out the door… it stopped. I went back inside, again.
It was a strange noise coming out of one wall, so I listened closely and started hearing an engine; it was an elevator, which was attached to the wall of the bedroom. Every time anyone in the building would catch an elevator, the wall literally shook, and the noise was incredible. Not to mention when people got out on my floor and slammed the prison-like mesh door, then the main cast-iron doors. This happened through the night every few minutes.
Needless to say, I woke up ready to cancel the remainder of my two nights. I tried to log into my account, and saw Airbnb had “suspended” it. I called them and was told the “issue will be escalated.”
About five weeks ago, Airbnb refused to charge a perfectly good credit card, blaming me and my bank, only to find out it was an issue on Airbnb’s side. Five weeks and 11 phone calls after “escalating” the issue, no one got back to me. I called them, again and again – nothing. I asked for them to cancel the booking. I was locked in the apartment, and could not get through to the owner, literally being imprisoned, because the lock did not work.
After five hours, I got myself out, locked the door, and made another six phone calls to Airbnb. They had “tried” to contact the host, but did not suceed? I got in touch with the host. He was cool about it, said he was sorry it did not work out, and he would refund me. However, Airbnb refused to cancel the reservation, because my account was suspended. There was no explanation as to why, no timeline when it would be free and when someone would contact me.
I got the same run around about “escalating” the issue and other BS. To this day – five months later – no Airbnb representative has contacted me. We sent emails and received no response. My credit card company declined the charges. I am trying to sue the billion-dollar company. What an awful, horrible business. Do not book with them. Support local businesses, support sustainable living by not forcing normal people out due to short-term speculative apartment renting. I learned that the hard way.