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Ask HN: Has anyone had a dispute resolved by Airbnb?

8 points by dazc ↗ HN
I recently rented an apartment via Airbnb, the host was an agent - not the owner.

At the end of my stay we agreed an extension of a few weeks but outside of Airbnb.

There was, however, a dispute about the figure agreed which I refused to accept.

I offered to pay an extra day via Airbnb at the published rate with a view to leaving the next day. The agent said this wasn't possible and I either accept the deal or go now. It was 8.30 pm.

I left the property after the agent agreed the house was in order and there was nothing left to discuss.

After leaving the agent posted some offensive and questionable messages to me on whattsapp.

At the same time I received notification that he had just left a review.

My reputation on Airbnb is, thus far, very good and I don't want this damaged.

I have informed Airbnb about the incident and to know his review will be malicious. I have requested it should not be published.

They have told me to submit my own review. Both reviews will be in the public domain as soon as I do this. (They have confirmed this).

So my option now is to post a defensive review and hope for the best.

Has anyone experienced anything similar and what was the outcome?

8 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 26.5 ms ] thread
Gustomaximus
I had an experience where the host moved apartment on me to a downgraded one. Nothing significant but a bit smaller and lost the balcony/view. Also the apartment clearly hadn't been cleaned e.g. hair in the bed.

It was the first time I'd had a negative experience on Airbnb. I contacted them and expected a strong response. Nope, crickets. I dont think they really care which is surprising for the modern service focused unicorn.

Since then unless there is a significant price differential, I'm back to hotels. And they are one of 2 businesses I happily tell people to avoid.

gt2
Same, any issue I had resolved (several) with AirBNB was done by credit card dispute or directly with the host. If you tell the host the issue they will change the reservation and let you leave with a refund, or they will make a payment through Airbnb to you to compensate. Always go through the platform so things are recorded to avoid later dispute of agreements.
gt2
Used to be the case that if you didn’t leave a review then the other didn’t get posted to yours. In any case I recommend negotiating with the host to something agreeable to both. You can threaten a bad review or Airbnb complaint if they won’t listen to reason.
theossuary
I had a pretty terrible experience with AirBnB the last time I went to California. Place was nothing like the pictures, dirty, and I rented the entire apartment but was told that their roommate may stop by unexpectedly for his things. To top it all off I had to go lie to their housing office to get a key to the apartment and leave behind collateral.

Thankfully AirBnB was able to refund me 100% and I went and found a hotel for the week. I guess it was easier for them because the renter in this case already agreed to refund me when I discussed it with them though. I can't imagine how hard it'd be for Airbnb to figure out who was right/wrong otherwise.

astrodev
Airbnb doesn't really provide customer support in relation to off-site issues - even if as in my case it involves the host asking for extra payment in cash in direct violation of AirBNB's terms. When you pay hundreds of dollars in fees, you assume they would help, but they are nothing more than a classified site with a payment processing system built-in.

It works well once you have adjusted your expectations. Unfortunately, for many of us, this happens through an incident like yours.

shakkhar
> At the end of my stay we agreed an extension of a few weeks but outside of Airbnb.

You should not have done this. I know it is tempting because Airbnb fees are so high, but don't do it in the future.

As for the question in your title - yes I did have dispute resolved by Airbnb. During my last UK trip there was a dispute with one of the hosts, so I had to leave early. The host refused to refund, but I called Airbnb and they promptly gave me a refund for the remaining days. No problem whatsoever.

Give them a call, send them the "offensive and questionable" messages on Whatsapp and ask for the review to be removed. It might take a while to get hold of a real human on the other end, but once you do it should not be difficult if you have a case.

dazc
I understand I should not have done this but my point was that the damaging review has nothing to do with my 10 day 'official stay'.

The appt was available to rent locally via the same agent. From my point of view, I wasn't breaking any terms since my airbnb stay had ended.

The malicious review is part of a story the agent is telling the owner so he doesn't look bad. The dispute arose from the money he was adding for himself - the owner likely knew nothing about this.

I have asked airbnb not to publish the review, I haven't asked them to do anything else.

stephenr
I tried to use AirBnB twice (for the same stay!)

First one the host cancelled my confirmed booking a day before we arrived because they had some family emergency or something. Airbnb agreed that the host cancelled the booking and refunded the charge on my card.

I found another place, they charged my card and then said "oh please add your Facebook info so we can confirm your booking". I don't use Facebook. Their support suggested I could "just make a video explaining who you are and why you want this place " and upload it for the host to consider.

Fuck you, fuck you very much.

When I finally got ahold of a person on the phone (I had to call international to get them) they claimed they couldn't speed up my card charge cancelation "because the bank doesn't believe we want to refund your money".

No - you're just a bunch of shits who won't accept that banks have specific practices to handle same-day credit card refunds - otherwise you wait for the charge hold to "time out" without being claimed.

Never again.