I booked two Airbnb rentals by accident. Can I get a refund?
No one needs more than one vacation rental in Paris at a time. So how did Virginia Wong end up booking not one but two accidental Airbnb rentals in the City of Lights?
VACATION RENTAL PROBLEMS AND SCAMS
These are the real-life stories of travelers who have encountered dramatic and expensive vacation rental problems or scams and asked our consumer advocacy team for help. From bad hosts to outright scammers and everything in between, we tell the real-life experiences of vacation rental guests and Consumer Rescue’s efforts to fix their problems.
An Airbnb nightmare: Am I looking at blood stains in the bed?
Koji Kawana and his family were looking forward to an exciting five days in New York City. The group had a tight schedule with plenty of activities planned. What they hadn’t planned for is the Airbnb nightmare that was about to confront them.
Now Kawana wants to know: Shouldn’t Airbnb refund him for this nightmare of a vacation rental?
A filthy vacation rental is not my thing! How do I get a refund?
When an Airbnb host directs Andrea Walker to use the service elevator in the building where she is renting an apartment, she’s slightly suspicious. However, when she opens the door to the unit, she knows she definitely won’t be staying. The Airbnb host apologizes for the state of the filthy vacation rental and quickly agrees to a refund.
So why does the host later tell Airbnb that Walker spent the whole weekend at the property?
Why is this Airbnb host asking me to sneak into the property?
What if you traveled halfway around the world only to find the vacation rental you booked on Airbnb is likely illegal? That’s the situation that confronted Alex Tarce when he tried to check into his Tokyo rental, and the host asked him to sneak in behind the doorman’s back.
What’s going on here?
I lost $1,721 in the “TripAdvisor” long term rental scam!
TripAdvisor is not in the business of long term rentals, so if you come across one on the site, it’s surely a scam. But first-time apartment hunter, Haley Cline was unaware of this fact.
When a friendly “TripAdvisor-approved owner” emailed her about a spectacularly discounted year-long rental, no alarm bells went off. The scam only came into focus after Cline sent her initial $1,721 deposit via Bitcoin to the online predator.
My vacation rental host won’t refund my security deposit. Is this a scam?
Can a vacation rental host refuse to refund your security deposit — no questions asked? I discovered the answer from one unreasonable VRBO host is, “Yes, I can.”
I have news for her: No, she can’t.
This story is another in our file of outrageous tales of travelers being fleeced by vacation rental hosts and franchise hotels alike. These owners are helping themselves to hundreds and even thousands of dollars of their guests’ money with little to no justification. And unfortunately, the cases are piling up at an alarming rate.
Is this legal? Here is the most excessive Airbnb cleaning fee ever!
James Parker just got hit with the most excessive cleaning fee I’ve ever seen as a consumer advocate. Soon after checking out of his recent Airbnb rental, the owner sent him a $1,470 bill to clean up the mess she says his family made.
But what mess was she really cleaning up?
This vacation rental had no working toilet! Will Airbnb refund this family?
It goes without saying that a vacation rental in the heart of London should come with a working toilet. And, of course, if your Airbnb doesn’t have one, you should get a refund. Right?
Unfortunately, Airbnb guest Karen Morris just found out that not everyone agrees with that basic premise.
Hackers stole $34,250 from this Airbnb host. How did this happen?
Airbnb host Nancy Isa recently got a terrible shock when she discovered hackers had broken into her payout account. Unfortunately, by the time she noticed something was wrong, Airbnb had been making regular payments to the scammers – for five months.
In total, the hackers stole $34,250 from Nancy’s Airbnb host account.
Then things went from bad to worse. With all that money on the line, Nancy contacted the listing giant in a panic. She was hoping for some calming reassurance that all was not lost. Instead, Airbnb immediately locked the host out of her own account and then went radio silent.
That’s when Nancy reached out to the Consumer Rescue team. She’s hoping we can convince Airbnb to give back her access to her host account – and her $34,250.
But after six months, is that possible?
Why did a worried Airbnb host ask me to pretend not to be a guest?
If your Airbnb host asks you to pretend not to be a guest during your stay, would you?
That’s the odd situation that confronted Josephine Avina last July when her family planned a short trip. But pretending not to be guests wasn’t the only thing the Airbnb host wanted the Avinas to do. She also expected them to be OK with living in the remnants of a bachelorette party held the night before.
