Let me preface by saying this. Our service dogs are medical equipment, and per ADA federal law are required to be accepted into public housing such as Airbnb.
My friends and I (four in total) rented this Airbnb for one week while visiting California and unfortunately were not welcomed.
Airbnb policy states that those with service animals do not have to state that they will be bringing said animals, however it is encouraged for open communication. Unfortunately do to prior discrimination, we chose not to disclose that we would be bringing our service animals. Once we arrived, we brought our dogs inside and were immediately bombarded with text messages stating “we could not have dogs in the house”. Our dogs were clearly marked as service animals, and after attempts to explain our situation, we were belittled and threatened with an extra cleaning charges if we stayed. Airbnb policy also states that homeowners cannot issue additional cleaning fees for a service animal, and we referred to those policies. Due to the unpleasant responses we were receiving from the homeowners, we seized communication for the remainder of the trip.
The house itself was okay, however as the trip progressed we noticed more issues, mainly with the kitchen. Half of the outlets in the kitchen did not work, the lighting for that room stopped working entirely, and there were only three forks in the drawers for us to use. Because of the previous interactions, we feared more retaliation, so we did not communicate the issues with the kitchen to the homeowners during our stay.
The most unpleasant part of the stay was the “walking on eggshells” feeling we experienced. Our service dogs make it possible for us to travel, and the overwhelming stress resulted in multiple medical episodes that could’ve been prevented had the homeowners been more accepting. We made sure we left the house extremely clean, including lint rolling the entire space to ensure we were not leaving any dog hair behind, and the dogs caused no damage or disturbances. We also made sure to take photos of the space once we left incase of further issues.
The belittlement and overall unsettling tension because of our medical equipment is why I’m rating one star. The disabled community already faces enough discrimination in day to day life, and it’s frustrating that we continued to have to deal with it on vacation.