First of all, I was very hesitant to book an airbnb with only one other review. However, it was last minute, the listing looked beautiful, it was a great deal, and I decided to give it a chance.
After I booked it, I hadn’t received the check-in code like I had been told I would. I had to call the property manager and luckily I was able to get it from the friendly receptionist.
So far, so good. We had a good stay, no problems. I did however notice that there is no way to lock the balcony doors, so I didn’t quite feel 100% safe but told myself it was Kauai and I had nothing to worry about.
The problem came 3 days after we checked out. We received a bill for “unreasonable and unforeseen damage” to the property. The owner and the housekeeper had falsified much information of damage that we had left. Even going as far as saying we “broke into the locked closet,” stained pepperoni on towels (we are vegan), scattered 50+ hard candy all over the floor (at no point during our stay did anybody have hard candy), took items from the kitchen, broke items in the kitchen (a soap dispenser that we used throughout the whole stay, it never broke while we were there), amongst other things.
Of course, there’s no photographs for any of those things. The housekeeper does however provide a photo of black marks on the stairs (probably where my brother hit his luggage walking down the stairs). There’s no dent or damage. It’s the kind of mark you erase with a magic eraser.
The housekeeper was upset we put all the glass decorations away in the closet. We did that out of consideration that we had a 3 year old who might break it. She left a report saying we dirtied the entryway rug, and provided a photo of the rug, absent of any actual stains.
What in the world? Yes it got wet and a little muddy when we walked in from a tropical rainstorm. I didn’t realize I would have to pay an additional $200 on top of the $425 cleaning fee I already paid for her to do that.
Be prepared to be charged for any minor inconvenience you might give them.
I know this host is new and has very unreasonable expectations of renters to come in and not touch anything. Literally, her housekeeper said “we ignored the note not to use these items”… there was NO note for us to not use anything!
Please get real or take your listing off Airbnb if you don’t know how to deal with normal wear-and-tear of renting your property, or of renters using the items you left out and provided for the unit.
I’ve been using this app for 7 years and rented 30+ properties never without an issue. I always clean up after we leave, even when I can easily just rent a hotel and not bother with cleaning. But I prefer to support small business and people, and am always aware and considerate of the fact that it’s someone’s home.
I had even recommended this rental and shared it with someone to consider for their future trip but I would not recommend it to anyone after this experience!
Sheesh!!!