I had a disgusting Airbnb experience – ‘It had dirty utensils and a grimy shower and I only got refunded half of it’
WHEN YOU book a rental, whether it be a car, a home, or anything else, you expect to receive exactly what was advertised and what you agreed to purchase.
Unfortunately, one woman walked into her Airbnb rental and felt scammed by the host – and has subsequently slammed Airbnb for the way they allegedly handled her dispute.
“Here’s why you should never book with Airbnb ever again in my opinion,” the woman, named Yana, said at the beginning of a scathing Airbnb review she posted on TikTok.
“We booked a stay over the Thanksgiving holiday and literally moments into arriving we realized we were scammed.
“Everything in the description did not match and on top of that, it was very clear that nothing was cleaned – not even the bedsheets.”
Yana then spent two minutes describing everything that was unacceptable to her in the Airbnb and showed pictures allegedly displayed on the listing and comparative photos she took once she got there.
She showed snapshots of a stained ottoman in the living room, a TV remote that was so used that the labels on the buttons were almost completely rubbed off, a lopsided television, and patio furniture that was not screwed together.
She admitted she thought the bathroom looked “nicely renovated,” only to find hard water stains on the faucet.
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“Fast forward to the host accusing us of using the shower, which we didn’t,” Yana claimed.
“But this was so dirty that it looked like we used it.”
Moving into the bedroom, she shared a photo of a bed that had supportive slats that did not fit the frame and therefore did nothing at all.
Yana seemed to be even more surprised by her discoveries in the kitchen, which included a mask in the freezer.
“Why is there a mask in the freezer? Who put that there?” she questioned.
She also showed utensils with rust on them that were haphazardly placed in a storage bin inside of a drawer.
Yana’s frustrations spilled over into a second video, which recounted her allegedly disappointing interaction with Airbnb.
She claimed to have checked into her Airbnb on November 25 at 7.45pm and messaged Airbnb that night at 8:55pm about her concerns.
She also spoke to the Airbnb host, who told Yana she could contact the unit’s cleaning person.
They also sent her a message saying that the cleaning person “verified” that Yana and her guests had in fact used the bed and shower, which is why they looked so dirty.
“You even used the AC/Heating system to make yourself comfortable,” the host added.
Of course, Yana claimed that the bed and bathroom looked used upon arrival.
On Airbnb’s end, Yana said she spent the entire weekend talking to between six and eight representatives until she finally received some sort of answer from the company and not just a new person asking her to explain her complaints.
Yana alleged she received a resolution on November 28 at 2.59am with a message that said she would get the first night of her stay half-refunded and receive a full refund for the other nights in her reservation, as she did not stay at the Airbnb.
Yana, however, was not happy with the outcome.
She said: “We’re still requesting the full refund because we would never have stayed that first night if Airbnb answered us in the first place because essentially what they’re trying to do is make us pay for their mistake.”
“It’s [the] principle.”
She did not update her followers if she ever got the full refund, but a statement from an Airbnb spokesperson regarding the situation told The Sun: “Our community’s safety, both online and offline, is our priority, and we worked to provide support to this guest.”
The spokesperson also offered links to the site’s Guest Refund Policy and the Host Reliability Standards.
Viewers of Yana’s videos had mixed responses, with some sharing their similar stories, and others arguing that they will continue to use Airbnb because they’ve never had an issue.
There have been several Airbnb guests who have blasted the company online before.
For instance, one woman said she no longer trusted Airbnb because her rental was a mess when she arrived and had boxes and bins piled everywhere.
She claimed she was refunded 80 percent of her bill and cut her stay short.
