Has a company treated you unfairly? Our consumer champion is ready to help you. Click to contact her here.
My family decided to organize a get-together in the run up to Christmas, and we found an Airbnb that cost £1,250 for three nights. The host had “superhost” status and it looked beautiful in the photos.
However, when we arrived on December 18 with a party consisting of three children and a number of disabled adults, we were shocked. Contrary to the pristine looking photos it was advertised with online, the place was absolutely filthy.
We immediately did a walk-through and documented any issues we encountered. There were 65 different issues, all of which we photographed.
Our observation was that the place was more run down and less well equipped than advertised. For example, there were cracked toilet seats and no cutlery provided, even though the main draw of the place was a huge open kitchen with self-catering facilities.
The floor tiles were cracked and there was a large hole in the wooden floor, which was potentially dangerous for the children.
Clearly this house could not have been cleaned after the last guest as there was dust, dirt and crumbs everywhere. Someone had left a load of cherry stems all over the stairs. The garden was littered with cigarette butts and there were full ashtrays lying around, as if someone had thrown a party.
Some of our discoveries were downright nauseating. We found feces and stains on all toilets, unwiped high chairs smeared with food, food caked on the ceiling of the microwave, stains and hair on the bedding and rubbish in all bins, including used feminine hygiene products.
We even found a pair of dirty men’s pants in the bottom of a closet.
We immediately contacted the host, a property management company. It was not helpful and we could only speak to a manager via text. It offered a “re-cleaning” of the property, which was laughable as it had clearly not been touched in the first place.
Unsatisfied with this response, we then contacted Airbnb and provided all our documentation. After this, we were repeatedly told since the evening of December 18 that someone would call back in an hour, and that it had been “escalated to a supervisor.”
But no one ever called us back, and we had to call again and again. Airbnb informed us that if there was no contact with the host within an hour, we would move to a new property. However, the next day arrived and this never happened.
In the meantime, we had to make a decision about what to do. We decided to stay and clean up the place as best we could. However, sleeping on dirty sheets was very uncomfortable, so most of us slept on couches. One person even resorted to napping on a footstool.
Because of all this, I’m afraid to say that many tears were shed during what should have been such a special time for all of us.
After midnight the next day, Airbnb forwarded us photos provided by the host as proof that the property had been cleaned. They said the photos were “time stamped” and proved the property must have been cleaned prior to our arrival.
However, they showed the bathrooms and bedrooms from afar, and the timestamps must have been adjusted. I know this because the toilet seats in the photos were dark gray, but in my photos from the 18th they were white.
I sent back photos of each bathroom in the same style as they were forwarded to us. I also took close up photos of each individual toilet.
Incredibly, the host seemed to accuse us of somehow causing the mess ourselves. We arrived at 4:30pm on December 18, which should have been answered by the property’s Ring doorbell.
When we first contacted the host with the 65 photos we had taken, it was 5:09 PM, meaning we had only been in the property for 39 minutes.
Far from the relaxing holiday we expected, this trip was absolutely terrible. Can you help?
UB, via email
You expected a weekend full of wholesome family fun in a beautifully renovated and well-equipped mansion, but unfortunately that never materialized.
What you got instead for the princely sum of £1,250 was the opportunity to patrol filthy rooms and gardens, document dust and count crumbs, photograph toilets and inspect a stranger’s boxer shorts, only to be told to get that it must have been your family that caused the mess. you were in the building in the first 39 minutes.
Honestly, talk about taking the cookie.
You were so upset about it that your daughter took over communicating with me. She was also the one who contacted Airbnb and tried to contact the host.
She sent me the images the host sent to prove the house had been cleaned, which Airbnb said were ‘time stamped’.
However, some images seemed to match those in the live listing. As you say, they showed a toilet with a gray seat. The photos you took on December 18 showed that this particular toilet had a white seat, suggesting that at least some of the host’s images were actually historical and therefore proved nothing as to whether the property was cleaned up.
Airbnb said another image of the toilet with a white toilet seat was sent by the host, but they didn’t share it with me and couldn’t confirm if it was timestamped.
The only other possibility is that you have planned for this situation by purchasing and installing white toilet seats on site, scattering crumbs, cigarette butts, dust, cherry stems and men’s pants, and smearing food all over the kitchen so that it looks filthy upon arrival.
The latter is clearly extremely far-fetched, and I don’t believe for a second that you did this.
Still, you felt that Airbnb and the host felt that you and your family were causing the mess, and this was further confirmed by a sarcastic response to the negative review you left online suggesting that you were looking for a free stay .
This struck me as very inappropriate behavior on the part of the host.
It also sounds as if you have been let down by Airbnb on this occasion, as Airbnb has failed to fully investigate the issue at the heart of this case and provide your family with alternative accommodation.
However, I am pleased to say that following my involvement, Airbnb has provided you with a full refund for your stay as a “gesture of goodwill” while it investigates the matter further. It also appears that the host has lost its ‘superhost’ status, although its listing is still live.
An Airbnb spokesperson said: “We were disappointed to hear about this experience and have given the guest a full refund.
“In the rare event of an issue, guests are protected by AirCover for free with every booking and our global community support team is available 24/7 to help.”