This is a perfect example of a host not being on the property during the length of the visitors’ stay. No acknowledgement of the risks involved for the host. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for you.
I’d say 3/4s of hosts are not on their property during the guests’ stay.
But either way, I had staff check people in and check them out, so I’m not sure what your point is?
The guests that broke the sofa bed were there for one night. How much would you expect me to be there? Perhaps I should have shared one of their beds just to be sure they didn’t do anything wrong?
And that is why I don’t use google. Not specifically about AirBNB though. Is that your actual property? ON duckduckgo, airBNB doesnt come up at all but neither does shalom.com.
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I deleted my AirBNB app and avoid them like the plague for same reason- they are mostly just another booking platform with nothing to do with the original AirBNB concept, but not as good and with unique disadvantages.
Caveat- this is just my experience and no doubt there are many owners who are providing a brilliant experience in their one room/granny flat.
Knowing the host makes it awkward when something is wrong
Most of them have been precious
- look after our precious special property and don’t make a sound
- I have never never had anyone say the bath is full of someone else’s hair before my ex-husband must have used it I told him not to!
- Indignant denials
- No we weren’t in the main house so you couldn’t find us about the broken stove because we were at the folk festival sorry we didn’t mention that
Other people’s shoes and clothes in the cupboard no room for my things
AirBNB hard to use brings up places in wrong place 100 km from where I want to be
Can’t see where it is until after book - that’s the worst
Non refundable booking fee unlike booking.com
Reviews are not always accurate- it’s harder to be honest if you have met the host and they are a nice person
I agree with helping the owner when at all possible, avoid the big corporations and contact owner directly to book
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I lived next door to an Airbnb ‘party house’ in Burradoo, Southern Highlands NSW, where guests on several occasions would be rowdy until the early hours. Police were ‘too busy’ to deal with the situation. When complaining to the owners in Sydney, their reply was that I was making it up. So absentee hosts can be unaware or unconcerned about the neighbourhood. And what has happened to the Australian sense of ‘community’? The Airbnb model destroys it. That’s my point; it’s nothing to do with checking in and out.
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Our property was on 400 acres of land and more than 1km from the nearest neighbours.
We still had great neighbours (some of which I employed for cleaning/gardening etc.) which did their best to keep an eye on what was going on.
We also had 4 CCTV cameras externally, and we took copies of guests’ drivers licenses and a $500 security bond (except when they rented with AirBNB grrrr) so we did everything we could to keep on lid on things.
But AirBNB sided with virtually every guest when there was an issue.
So if an owner asked me whether to involve AirBNB with their business I would say no, expect perhaps when you’re starting out.
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BTW, I think you’ll find that it’s parenting (or the lack of it) and social media that has destroyed the Australian sense of community.
We know nearly all of the neighbours in our street in the suburb of Ashwood in Melbourne, so we’re doing our bit.
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shalom.com was just a hypothetical website name that I came up with to illustrate the fact that AirBNB hijacked searches for my property name on Google.
I’d prefer not to say my property name of this forum as I’m still in mourning about Daniel Andrews killing my business.
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BTW I’m using DuckDuckGo too. I love it!
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That’s when you ring the hosts when the noise is going on, at whatever time, the later in the night the better. Or early morning if that’s the case. That’s how I got the message through to a builder about his subbies. Rang him when they woke us. Didn’t happen again.
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I think the initial idea was good. I have used it a couple of times but only after thoroughly checking reviews.
I own a holiday house, complete with cheese grater. We often get compliments on how we have thought of everything, how clean it is etc. It is because we use it ourselves and we want and get repeat bookings. We live in another state and it is managed by a small town holiday booking agency . I believe they are considering possible Air BnB activity.
At the moment our place only comes up on their website and also STAYZ. Stayz allows reviews while the holiday agency doesn’t. I wish I didn’t have to let it out at all and we have said that we would rather go without tenants than have dodgy ones. Our agent really looks after us and has refused to rebook some people who treated it badly. I personally don’t want to stay with other people in a house unless it is completely self contained and I think most are the same unless it is a grand old B and B mansion of note
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Our niece, in Los Angeles had established an Airbnb but eventually ceased operation due to bad behaviour by ‘‘guests’’ and costs associated with the contract with “Air”.
My wife and I had booked London accommodation, in early2019, for eight nights but were unable to stay due to Covid 18 travel restrictions. Contacted property manager, in London, by email seeking a credit, not a refund. No reply so after four weeks tried ringing. No response. Second email got a reply, about six weeks later stating the matter would be referred to the property managers finance manager. No reply to that. Two further emails from me, still seeking a credit as we still wish to visit the UK… no reply. Contacted QANTAS as the reservation was made via the QANTAS Airbnb site and was told they have no responsibility and I should contact the property manager, which, by the way, is a company still maintaining their website. Tried one more email…no reply. Gave up. Lost $Aus1200.00.
Never again. Book direct through the property owner. Much better as we had done this for other locations in UK and no problems at all with credit or refund.
As stated in previous reply, use Airbnb site for reference only. Then go direct.
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This assumes the host can be contacted by phone at all times. The host next door to us could not be contacted the way you suggest. We exchanged text messages next morning, and all they did was argue, even when I pointed out another neighbour had on one occasion rung the police. Although it was set up with the best of intentions, Airbnb is a flawed business model. As seen on this blog, it’s exploited by hosts who set out to make a profit at the expense of the neighbourhood, and irresponsible tenants who quickly disappear.
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I had accommodation booked and paid for in Paris for last year. I had asked the host prior to making the booking in late Jan/early Feb if there was a pandemic would he refund if we couldn’t travel. He said yes. Fast forward to flights cancelled by airlines and I contact host. I initiatique cancellation, he agreed to full refund. AirBnB made it happen.
You may find it is the host/property manager being the pest and not the company.
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Text messages how? If you can text there usually is the ability to video or audio call.
How about ‘block this number’ mode? He didn’t want to talk. His daughter was the one booking in the guests. He was also ripping off the ATO and I’m not going into details as to how I discovered this. One morning I found our plum tree had been stripped of fruit (none had fallen on the ground). This I put down to the squatter who crept in and out certain mid-week nights (phantom footsteps on the gravel) because the house was usually empty then. (Must’ve got key cut from one of the cleaners). I could go on, but I reiterate: Airbnb creates a platform for exploitation. So, NayA, I’ve gone from ripe plums to the bad apple owner. How’s that for keeping a metaphor going?
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Have you tried making a phone call to a millennial? An inconvenience is the word I think they’d use …
Was it Granite Belt by any chance
Same situation happened to us. We were told we would get a refund because of Covid but when we wanted to cancel due to gov restrictions, the property manager will not honour this refund. Gold Coast Qld Bnb.
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