Scary Arrival
It started with the arrival. That’s how I already knew things were going to be problematic. I arrived in Lisbon at 10pm on a Sunday night. Having been to the city of cobbled streets and Pastel de Natas before, I was excited to be staying a whole month this time, ready to soak in the delights that Lisbon had to offer and scope it out as a potential place to lay down new roots.
I had booked a small studio-style apartment in the center of Lisbon for one month through AirBnB. The photos on the listing painted a picture of a spacious, light place with a modern bathroom and small kitchen. The reality, alas, has ended up very different.
Back outside the apartment, I had located the lockbox and retrieved the key from it. Excitedly I put the key in the lock and … nothing. The lock was rusted shut. I tried in vain to turn the key for 10mins without putting so much force on it that it would break, but the lock would not budge. As this was a Sunday night on a side street surrounded by bars and restaurants I was aware that I was noticeably struggling and started getting drunken men coming up to me to “offer help” getting in. Politely I declined, but knew that as a solo female with bags standing in the street at 10pm at night, this was not the most ideal situation to be in.
I tried calling the host’s number from the listing and did not get very far. The first two times whoever was on the other end of the line hung up on me. On the third try I tried to explain the problem to be told that “it’s fine, just turn it and it will open. We can come out but it will be a 50 EUR callout charge”. Exasperated, I hung up to give it one more try before resigning myself to the fact that I would have to pay 50 EUR for someone to come and let me in. Just as I was about to call the host back to say it didn’t work again, a neighbour who had been watching me struggle for the last 10mins from their window came out of his door with a can of WD-40 oil. After flooding the lock with the WD-40 and some more wiggling it finally budged and I was in! Thanking my saviour of a neighbour, I finally entered.
What greeted me was a strong smell of damp. Clearly a sign of something moldy somewhere or a lack of general ventilation. At this point however I was tired from a long day of travelling so decided I’d sleep on it.
The Broken Toilet
I awoke the next morning to the sound of running water. The toilet was in a constant state of flowing. As I very quickly and to my horror found out, this meant that the water had no time to accumulate in the tank of the toilet and hence left it unable to perform a normal flush. Having clearly had bad responses with calling, this time I messaged the host through the AirBnB messaging center to at least get something down in writing. The host, after giving a first automated reply, got back to me and advised that I should just keep pressing the flush many times over until on one of the times something would catch and the tank would fill up normally. Not exactly ideal, but it did the job for the time being.
The next week carried on without issue, and I spent most of my time away from the apartment exploring the city, so aside from the danger of a toilet that may or may not flush, I decided that I did not want the hassle of trying to find something else. The damp smell was bad, and at over $3000 for the month it’s certainly not what I expected, but the prices of other apartments in the area weren’t any lower and I didn’t think “a damp smell” was something claimable through AirBnB, so I decided to try and put up with it.
At the end of the first week I messaged the host again to ask where to put the bins out, as the narrow street had no communal bins or outside bins in sight.
Okay, just outside the front door? Seems a bit dirty, I hope they collect the rubbish regularly then, I thought, as bin bags next to the front door will start rotting rather quickly. So, that evening I placed the full rubbish bags outside the front door and waited. And I waited. And waited. In fact the bin bags ended up sitting in front of the front door for over two weeks before they disappeared. In those two weeks the smell of slowly rotting rubbish combined with the persistent damp in the apartment did not make for pleasant living. Still, I did not want to make a fuss and tried to accept the situation as best as I could.
That’s when the slugs came.
Slug Infestation
It was week 3 of my 1 month stay. I got up to have my morning shower when I saw it. A huge brown slug, slowly making its way up the glass shower door, leaving a trail of slug slime behind it. Sickened, I examined the rest of the shower room for any more unwelcome visitors and found two more slugs, one on the far wall and one on the ceiling of the apartment. Desperate to know how they got in I investigated the corners of the shower and found a crack in the wall where water from the shower had clearly been getting into the walls and acting as a front door for the slugs to come in. Following the wall around to its other side I noticed the water had also been leaking into the bedroom floor and wall, causing the paint and wood to buckle with moisture and possibly explaining the strong damp smell which had been getting worse and worse over the last 3 weeks.
I immediately messaged the host to let him know of the slugs and the damp issue. The host replied that he would send someone to look at the issue and not to worry. Two days went by. Nobody came but more slugs.
At this point I started becoming suspicious of the host “Peter” as every message I sent was met with promises of a fix or remediation, but every issue persisted without a single person turning up or trying to help. I started to look around “Peter’s” AirBnB profile to try to find a way to contact him more directly.
And that’s when I saw it.
Fake Host
Upon opening his full profile I was greeted with a much larger version of his profile picture than I could see in the tiny thumbnail on the message chats. And immediately what struck me was the picture itself was too perfect, too staged, like something out of an advert. I suspiciously wondered whether the man on the picture I’m seeing is in fact my host “Peter” himself. I did a reverse image search using Google on the image and was shocked at the result.
Starring back at me was the original, uncropped image of “Peter’s” profile picture. A generic stock photo from a stock image website of a smiling couple sitting in a cafe. This was not “Peter” at all, this whole profile was screaming of a fake. Red flags! 🚩🚩🚩
I wondered, if the profile was fake, what else did not add up in the apartment. I decided to search for things which a legal short-term apartment in Portugal (such as this AirBnB) is required to have to actually be legal. As it turned out (to nobody’s surprise), this apartment was lacking on several things allowing it to even be considered a legal listing!
Illegal Listing
Here is a breakdown from the Portugese Government on the requirements to maintain a short-term rentals license:
Requirements to maintain a short-term rentals license:
1 — Short-Term Rentals Sign: According to the short-term rentals Law, all buildings or properties that function in the short-term rental activity must be properly identified as such. They are required to have an acrylic sign on the outside of the building or apartment
2 — First Aid Kit: The first aid kit is mandatory and must always be in its best condition, so the owner or the short-term Management Company should check after all reservations what has been used and what should be replaced. It must include at least Band-Aids, Betadine, compresses, alcohol and scissors.
3 — House Rules and Important Contacts: All-important rules such as quiet hours, fire and emergency contacts or more specific information about the house/building/street (information where to put the garbage, check-in and check-out times, etc.) should be very explicit and written in 4 languages — Portuguese, English and 2 more languages at the owner’s choice.
4 — Instructions on Household Appliances: The same happens with the instruction manuals for all household appliances, which must be available for guests and written in at least 4 languages.
5 — Fire Extinguisher and Fire Blanket: Short-term rental apartments are required to have these two items, duly identified, in a place as visible as possible and accessible to any guest who may use the apartment. Important: it is not enough to buy the fire extinguisher and not think about it anymore — it must be checked by a specialized technician, certifying that it is functional.
Now, I wonder how many of these mandatory things the apartment has? Let’s see:
- ❌ Short-Term Rentals Sign : literally no sign of it anywhere.
- ❌ First Aid Kit : So there’s a sign in the bathroom clearly showing where it should be. But, underneath that sign, nothing but slug trails.
- ❌ House Rules and Important Contacts : Nope, to the point I had to ask where to put the bins out.
- ❌ Instructions on Household Applicances : Again, nothing
- ✅/❌ Fire Extinguisher and Fire Blanket : There is a fire blanket, okay, that’s half a point, and whilst it looks like there is a fire extinguisher, upon closer inspection it’s actually 3 years out of date for its last service, and the pressure reading is in the red, making it illegal. Oops.
Out of the 5 main requirements for a short-term rental license to be legal in Portugal this apartment scored 0.5 out of 5 (the fire blanket was the only thing that looked in sufficient working order).
This place then should:
- Not be legal or fit for use as rental accommodation in its current state.
- Is being rented by a host hiding their true identity under a pseudonym and stolen profile picture from the internet.
At this point I’d had enough. The issues which had been piling up the last 3 weeks had come to be far too much, and with the fact of an illegal apartment issue now coming to light I raised an official issue with AirBnB Support directly.
At least AirBnB promises AirCover which it flaunts as protecting hosts and guests from any issues during the stay. Great, right, seems like this will get sorted quickly then… wrong.
AirBnB Support Hell
AirBnB support messaged me back and very quickly it became apparent that they had not read what I had told them about all of the issues.
They focused only on the damp and mold smell in the message. Okay, I thought, I don’t care what they focus on as long as they get me out of here. I had two different customer support agents call me and message me over the day, promising to put me in a different apartment.
Initially they said I need to message a new rental host to get them to confirm an apartment is available for me to get issued a voucher to use for the re-booking. I found an apartment within 10 minutes and messaged the host to get confirmation that I could move in that day, to which he replied and kindly even sent an official invitation. Promptly I notified AirBnB Support that I had confirmed and was ready to leave…
…Three hours later, they still had not messaged back to confirm the voucher I could use to book the new apartment. I tried calling the support agents again, only to be told this time that they are looking into it and will message me back in the next half hour…
Indeed, half an hour later a message came, but it was not the message I was expecting, “we need evidence of the mold problem before they can proceed”. What. Why are you focusing on the mold and not the fact I am in an illegal listing with a broken toilet and dodgy host?! And why can you not see the pictures I sent you in the chat with my original message, outlining all of the issues and presenting all of my evidence?!
This goes back and forth for many hours. Me answering immediately and AirBnB taking several hours to respond each time.
It gets to 11pm at night and at this point I have to message the poor new host I was originally asked by AirBnB Support to message about confirming I can book a stay in his apartment, telling him that unfortunately AirBnB Support had still had not confirmed anything so I couldn’t book his place (now I look rude for not having replied for hours and then backed out of renting his place, great). I go to bed as there is nothing more that will clearly happen this evening.
The next morning I awake to a new message from AirBnB Support
Not only could they not seem to want to search the conversation I had with the “Peter” about the issue, they got my reservation date completely wrong. At this point it’s October 19th and yet they’re asking me to confirm I checked in on October 25th 🤦♀️.
I corrected AirBnB support as to the start date of my listing and got this shocking reply.
What?! You want me to make what request to my host? To stop being illegal? To correctly identify himself? To bring the builders in and fix a broken toilet, broken walls and slug infestations in the space of an afternoon coffee break? I try to ask AirBnB Support again and attempt to explain to them the gravity of the situation. All I get is a very generic, almost passive aggressive reponse from AirBnB Support and that is it. The ticket gets closed. Nothing more for me to do.
Lights Go Out and Electric Shock
The day following my rejection from AirBnB Support I am having a shower, surrendering to the fact that I will have to live out the rest of my rental with no support and I have to bite the bullet and stay in this apartment for another week, when suddenly all lights go out. Pitch black. The apartment has a small street-level window but due to the very narrow street it is on it barely gets any light through it. So I feel my way out of the shower, dry myself off and wonder what could have happened. I check the fuse box by the door and see one of the fuses labelled luz (luckily I know enough Portuguese to know this means light) is in the tripped position. I flick it up, hoping it’ll clear the problem when… BANG. There is a spark that goes through the whole fuse and gives me a nasty shock that repells my arm back and leaves it tingling! Okay, I’m not doing that again. Clearly there is a serious electrical issue going on here.
I message the host immediately telling him (is it even a him at this point? Who knows!) about what has just happened. He replies and says he’ll send a “handyman” out. To my surprise someone actually does show up (albeit 90 minutes later than promised, but it’s a start). The handyman does a few checks, flicks the fuse box and gets the same bang and shock that I got (at least I’m not going crazy). He then tells me that it’s a problem which he cannot fix, and will need to get in touch with the electrical company for.
I relay this to “Peter” and he confirms “We’ve also been informed by the handyman and we’re currently arranging with the maintenance team to follow up on this. We’ll definitely update you back once there is a confirmation from them.”.
12 hours go by. In that time I raise another new support ticket with AirBnB, this time about the electric issue and the fact I have no lights in the whole apartment. And yet both the host and AirBnB maintain radio silence.
Finally I get a call from AirBnB Support
The Carousel of Useless Support Agents
Another agent from AirBnB Support is on the line. Having clearly not read anything past one sentence of the previous messages between Me<>Support and Me<>Host I spend 10 minutes describing everything that has happened. That is, after wasting 5 minutes waiting for the agent to read their usual script of fake-empathy where they apologise that I am having a bad time and promise to give me all the help to swiftly resolve the situation. Clearly not knowing that by this point I’ve spent 5 days and numerous phone calls hearing the same script read by different agents over and over. Here’s an idea, I’d much rather you got right to the point of helping me rather than wasting a full 5 minutes of my time telling me that you’re going to help me. I digress.
After explaining the situation and the fact that it is now coming up to 24 hours without having working lights in an apartment with little natural light, the agent agrees that it is not a good situation and says he will try to get me re-booked into a new AirBnB. I point out to him that it is coming up to 10pm at night in Lisbon and that I don’t think any new host will accept a last minute booking at 10pm at night. He agrees and promises to talk with his manager in the next few hours and get back to me before the morning with a resolution for the following day. Usually this would get my hopes up, but I have now had that same promise given to me by two previous agents several days ago for the other issues that had come up prior to the lights, both of which either fell silent or then U-turned [harder than the current UK government] on the promises. I go to sleep, dreaming dreams of an apartment free of issues…
When I awake I’m greeted with a message from the host! Apparently the real electrician is coming today (they didn’t want to pay for a real one the first time it seems so they sent their poor handyman to get electrocuted by the fuse box instead). It seems he has a busy schedule and can only come between 1pm-2pm. Alright, I guess my schedule for lunch will go on hold today too.
The electrician finally arrives at 3pm and gets to work. After about half an hour of taking the fuse box apart and going around the apartment he finds the issue. It seems the huge amount of damp was too much for one of the bathroom lights and it short circuited. He removes the light and promptly leaves. I check the bathroom to see his “fix”. Where the light once was, there is now just a hole in the ceiling with an unscrewed light fitting dangling down above the toilet. I guess it does the job, but having exposed live circuitry dangling above my head when I’m on the toilet is a touch concerning, better not get up too quick. At least I now have lights in the apartment again after spending over 36 hours in darkness.
Around this time I finally get a reply from AirBnB again. No, it’s not yesterday’s agent telling me they’ve found a new apartment for me that’s ready to move into. Instead it’s another automated message telling me that someone else will take over the support ticket. And herein lies on the biggest issues I’ve faced these last 5 days. I have had AirBnB support agents tell me that “their shift is ending” and that “someone else is getting assigned to my case” countlessly! Well no, actually I can count it, it’s been 8 (so far). Eight different times have I been told that either due to an agent’s shift ending or for some other reason a new agent was being assigned to my ticket. Six of those times were over chat and two of them over the phone. It seems nobody actually wants to take ownership of anything. They spend most of the time telling you things will happen without anything actually happening. I’ve been told four separate times that I will get assistance with re-booking a new AirBnB, then the same thing happens every time. The support messages stop for the next 10 hours, and when they come back it’s someone new who knows nothing about the promise of helping me find a new apartment and the process starts again. I searched for new apartments as per their request, I’ve contacted new hosts as per their request and forwarded the invitations new hosts have sent me to AirBnB Support as per their request to show them an apartment is available. And every time nothing actually happens, AirBnB Support fall silent for half a day (making everything I’ve searched for and arranged fall through) and then a new message appears assigning a new agent to my ticket.
So here we are, this has been the state of a nightmare listing. It started with minor issues and transpired into an apartment that is illegal as a short-term rental with several major issues and that should never have been on AirBnB in the first place in its current state.
AirBnB Support proved beyond useless and it seems I will get no support and will have to sit out this booking as a lesson learned in how not to do customer support.
Whilst I’m not holding out any hope for a resolution given the shocking responses by both host and AirBnB, I am writing this to warn others wanting to use AirBnB who might have been attracted by the marketing AirBnB have put out on their “Support” and “AirCover” promises. It is a lie and a false promise. Unfortunately it is a reality which will only transpire at the time where you’re forced to rely on it the most.
AirBnB might seem like they care, they might seem like they have processes and teams in place to take care of you but they do not. Their call center and support center staff are an outsourced company in the Phillipines who do not care about you, who do not bother reading your issues and cases and who do not care if you are in danger.
If anybody from AirBnB wants to get in touch to provide a true resolution for this, you can reach me on julia@airbnbhorrorstory.anonaddy.com
