4 ms·

I would have called Airbnb as soon as I found there was an issue and made them book me in somewhere else. You are paying a service fee to them for a reason.

by fyfy18 8y ago

wlesieutre 8y ago
They should have called the fire marshal. Airbnb support is probably one step up from Google's in terms of reaching a satisfactory solution for customers. The fire marshal won't get you your money back, but they'll ruin a host's day if they're renting out a space without smoke detectors.
- DoubleGlazing 8y ago
  Oh we did, and the owner of the building ended up in the press for a multitude of reasons a few weeks after we had our stay.
  - wlesieutre 8y ago
    Glad to hear it, you may have saved someone from having a pretty bad time with that. Basically every line of fire codes were written in response to people burning to death, so I have very little tolerance for landlords messing around.
DoubleGlazing 8y ago
The problem is that's when you arrive to your rented property late on a Friday night with two tired and cranky children, you just want to make the best of a bad situation. I know AirBnB have an emergency number, but they themselves state on their website that all they will do in a situation like the above is to try and book you in to another AirBnB property or offer you a refund. I think a lot of AirBnB customers have lower expectations of the service compared to what they would expect when booking into a hotel and AirBnB benefits greatly from this. After all the AirB part of their name stands for air bed, the whole business was founded on the concept of customers accepting lower standards for a lower price. Now that AirBnB has grown into a quality property rental service it really needs to up it's game in terms of vetting it's hosts and dealing with questionable situations.
sedatk 8y ago
“called” as if AirBnb has any means of phone access.
- rickyc091 8y ago
  I second this. It's not easy to call Airbnb if you're international. Even if you end up finding the number and reaching them, you're placed on hold waiting for a representative.
JadeNB 8y ago
> I would have called Airbnb as soon as I found there was an issue and made them book me in somewhere else. You are paying a service fee to them for a reason. DoubleGlazing said: > > We did of course raise concerns with AirBnB about the first two and left a negative review for the third. AirBnB did not care and crucially it did not seem to have an effect on the ratings of these properties. That just does not seem right. Of course you can say that DoubleGlazing should have insisted, but, from my own experience, I agree that, if AirBnb doesn't feel like doing anything, then they won't do anything; and that any remedies to force them into action will, at best, take effect only too late (e.g., it's no good getting a response in a week if the residence is uninhabitable today).

I would have called Airbnb as soon as I found there was an issue and made them book me in somewhere else. You are paying a service fee to them for a reason.

by fyfy18 8y ago

I would have called Airbnb as soon as I found there was an issue and made them book me in somewhere else. You are paying a service fee to them for a reason.

wlesieutre 8y ago

They should have called the fire marshal. Airbnb support is probably one step up from Google's in terms of reaching a satisfactory solution for customers. The fire marshal won't get you your money back, but they'll ruin a host's day if they're renting out a space without smoke detectors.

DoubleGlazing 8y ago
Oh we did, and the owner of the building ended up in the press for a multitude of reasons a few weeks after we had our stay.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  Glad to hear it, you may have saved someone from having a pretty bad time with that. Basically every line of fire codes were written in response to people burning to death, so I have very little tolerance for landlords messing around.

DoubleGlazing 8y ago

The problem is that's when you arrive to your rented property late on a Friday night with two tired and cranky children, you just want to make the best of a bad situation. I know AirBnB have an emergency number, but they themselves state on their website that all they will do in a situation like the above is to try and book you in to another AirBnB property or offer you a refund. I think a lot of AirBnB customers have lower expectations of the service compared to what they would expect when booking into a hotel and AirBnB benefits greatly from this. After all the AirB part of their name stands for air bed, the whole business was founded on the concept of customers accepting lower standards for a lower price. Now that AirBnB has grown into a quality property rental service it really needs to up it's game in terms of vetting it's hosts and dealing with questionable situations.

sedatk 8y ago

“called” as if AirBnb has any means of phone access.

rickyc091 8y ago
I second this. It's not easy to call Airbnb if you're international. Even if you end up finding the number and reaching them, you're placed on hold waiting for a representative.

JadeNB 8y ago

> I would have called Airbnb as soon as I found there was an issue and made them book me in somewhere else. You are paying a service fee to them for a reason. DoubleGlazing said: > > We did of course raise concerns with AirBnB about the first two and left a negative review for the third. AirBnB did not care and crucially it did not seem to have an effect on the ratings of these properties. That just does not seem right. Of course you can say that DoubleGlazing should have insisted, but, from my own experience, I agree that, if AirBnb doesn't feel like doing anything, then they won't do anything; and that any remedies to force them into action will, at best, take effect only too late (e.g., it's no good getting a response in a week if the residence is uninhabitable today).