Christina Rakitzis

Review of Airbnb

Words cannot begin to describe my dissapointment w...

Words cannot begin to describe my dissapointment with my recent experience with Airbnb. Recently my girlfriend and I went on a trip to New York city for a weekend only to find we booked an appartment from a proffesional SCAM artist. I paid $511.00 american currency. The Airbnb we stayed at was listed as a PRIVATE APARTMENT, which we later found out, was not. Instead, much to our surprise, what we got PRIVATE ROOM. There were 5 other guests alongside us, all under the same impression. Within the Airbnb there were empty used syringes underneath the sinks. There was no toilet paper for the group of people staying within the vicinity, our bedroom did not have a lock, therefore our belongings were out in the open for anyone to be able to take. There were no blinds for our bedroom window, allowing the individuals from the other apartments to be able look through along with more cleanliness troubles. When finding out the other guests were being scammed we spoke to them, explaining our situation and they themselves told us anyone who has come in this Airbnb has fallen within the same trap. They used the words hostile or revolving door describing the place. Furthermore, the host would use different names, emails and addresses to each guest so no individual would have the same trace of her. Prior, to calling my credit card company, we believed we could resolve this situation between the host and Airbnb. One of the representatives of Airbnb, guided us towards the best possible resolution being to cancel the reservation for the remaining two nights we had left in the city, resulting in getting at least get 50% of our money back. We proceeded with that recommendation and got a hotel room, however, now we are not able to go back and see that reservation with the address and listing the host provided us with because the trip was canceled, therefore we had no proof our reservation. Calling Airbnb when we were back in the city to further explain the situation hoping we could possibly try ONCE more to get reinbursted, there was no proof of our stay in New York. Even when calling my credit card company they also needed proof of the trip, which we could not provide for them. This is another faulty and inadequate way of handling the situation, because there now NO PROOF of our staying. I believe this was also planned so we had no ruling against them. The following day, we spoke again to Airbnb to see where our problem was situated and they explained if we gave them a receipt of our hotel they would be able to reimburse our spending for the hotel, for the time being of the investigation. Furthermore, we were told because we spent LESS money on a hotel than what we spent on the Airbnb we would not get any reimbursement for the hotel either. As one can see, this has not only been extremely frustrating, we have spent more money and time dealing with very inadequate people than actually enjoying our stay. The host scammed us alongside many individuals, whom we have their contact information if needed to proceed with legal actions towards this fraud. As stated above, the host provide each group of guests with different names, addresses, and emails. We have pictures of conversations with the host giving us the correct address , as well as pictures of the gruesome Airbnb itself.
Overall, this has been the WORST experience I have ever had with Airbnb and I am extremely dissapointed with how poorly they have treated an unhappy customer. Instead of supporting us through this situation, Airbnb has fully supported the scamming host of the listing. I am sure this has not been the fist time something like this has happend to other Airbnb customers, and I'm sure it won't be the last. SHAME on you Airbnb.