Don’t try to live off AirBnB (my painful experience trying to cancel an internetless reservation)
Note: This incident happened October 2016. I had written this draft and forgotten to publish it, but a recent article on CNBC about AirBnB’s poor customer service reminded me how frustrating dealing with AirBnB’s customer service was, and that monopoly-like corporations need to be held accountable for their insufferable customer service.
This is my painful experience trying to cancel a 30-day $1,607 AirBnB reservation that lacked internet, had a smelly mattress, wasn’t even the same room pictured in the listing, and was hosted by a shady character that dismissed my concerns as “lies”. But first, some context:
After 3 years in my mediocre fifth floor walkup apartment in Manhattan I wanted a change of scenery, but dreaded the thought of having to suffer through the excruciating NYC apartment hunting process again and having to commit a whole year to a rental lease on an unfurnished overpriced shoebox with a broker’s fee and a roommate of questionable compatibility.
So I thought — why not embrace 21st century technology and live off AirBnB? I was planning to digital nomad anyways, so I figured I might as well get started.
I spent the following month in an excellent sublet (found via a Facebook group), and then the next couple months in a total of 4 AirBnB reservations, all while working a full-time day job.
The first two AirBnB reservations (10 days and 30 days) were fantastic, but the third was terrible and lacked internet, a dealbreaker for me as a software engineer who makes his living off the internet.
The first morning of my AirBnB reservation, I contacted AirBnB telling them that I’d like to cancel my 30 day reservation primarily because of the lack of internet. It ended up taking 3 full days of fighting tooth and nail to get my money back (an eternity when you’re unhappy with your accommodation, spent $1,607 on the reservation, and working a day job). And if it weren’t for the fact that I hadn’t been misplaced into a different room from the one pictured in the listing, I likely wouldn’t have gotten any refund at all.
Due to this stressful experience and the lack of reasonably priced AirBnB accommodations in Manhattan (due in part to their steep 6–12% service fees), I decided to abandon the idea of living off AirBnB. This is the story of my exhausting experience trying to get out of a 30-day AirBnB reservation after finding out it didn’t have internet.
30 Day Reservation (36th St / 9th Ave)
$1,607 ($1,488 + $119 Service Fee)
The bedroom was in a 5 bed / 2 bath unit on the 5th floor of a walkup. I knew it wouldn’t be anything glamorous, but I thought it’d be manageable for a month (the minimum booking length for this listing).
First Night
On the first night I realized there was no internet. As someone who relies on the internet to make a living, this was going to be a dealbreaker, so I contacted my AirBnB host asking how to obtain internet access, to which I didn’t get a response. Then I called the super, who told me that there was no internet, and that I should talk to my roommates because they might have something set up. The next morning I ran into one of the roommates — a young man from China — who told me there was no internet.
The bed smelled disgusting, so sleeping that first night was very uncomfortable. I got the sheets washed at the laundromat only to discover that the rancid smell was actually coming from the mattress.
Those were the main dealbreakers, but overall the apartment was pretty shabby, lacking basic amenities like toilet paper in the bathrooms. The entire 5 bedroom apartment along with the 4 bedroom apartment next to it was being rented out on AirBnB. Aside from that one guy I met, I had no idea who my roommates were or what they looked like. I didn’t feel particularly safe leaving my belongings in my room.
Trying to cancel my reservation from AirBnB
Day 1 (Monday)
10am on the morning after my first night, I called AirBnB telling them I’d like to cancel my reservation due to the lack of internet and the unbearable odor emanating from the mattress. I was assigned a case manager (who I’d never have the opportunity to speak to on the phone again) who told me he’d try to work it out with my host (who still hadn’t responded to my inquiry about the lack of internet).
When I told my case manager that there was no internet, he told me that internet wasn’t explicitly listed as an amenity. Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed that. Like running water and functional lights, I had assumed that any 30-day sublet in NYC would come with internet, or if not that there’d be a big red message before checkout warning me that there was no internet (after all, this is NYC, not North Korea). Also the UI doesn’t exactly make it obvious — requiring you to click “More” to actually find that info (see screenshot).
But I realized that if you expand the listing description and scroll all the way to the bottom, the host wrote:
“Utilities included except Wi-Fi. Easy setup to get internet from internet provider Time Warner Cable. Monthly rates range from $25-$50 depending on speed needs.”
Time Warner doesn’t actually have short-term month-to-month internet plans. I would’ve had to sign an annual contract and set up a time to let the Time Warner guy come visit the apartment and install the modem and router. Quite a commitment for a one month sublet.
I brought this up to my case manager, who told me that this made it a “grey area”. Regarding the odor emanating from the mattress, he told me to document it, to which I replied that there was no way to document a smell, to which he responded “yea…right”.
I later received an email from my case manager telling me that they had scheduled a call with my host at 4pm. Not exactly the urgency I was hoping for given that if I was going to be able to leave this place, I’d need to find another room ASAP, but at least there was a definite time set.
I never received a response from AirBnB that day. I repeatedly called AirBnB throughout the day, each time having to wait on hold for 15–30 minutes to actually get to a human. Although each representative seemed to sympathize with my situation, they each told me that they couldn’t do anything because only my assigned case manager was authorized to work on my account. When I asked to speak to my case manager, they all told me that that wasn’t possible and that my case manager would contact me when he is ready.
Meanwhile I told my host that I’d like to cancel my reservation, and he simply accused me of lying, ignoring all my subsequent followups (see screenshot).
The host did make the effort to leave me a voicemail telling me to call Time Warner and set up the internet myself. (Apparently this white guy named Tom has an Indian accent and goes by the name CoCo on his travels according to his AirBnB reviews)
Later in the day when I got back to the apartment, the door next to my bedroom was wide open. I peaked in and noticed that that was the bedroom with the white tiles that had been pictured in my original listing. My assigned room was clearly a different room from the one that had been pictured.
Day 2 (Tuesday)
The next day at 1pm I finally received an update from my case manager:
“Unfortunately, per our previous correspondence, as well as what information was shared with you via other agents that you’ve spoken to, we won’t be able to provide a refund for this reservation unless documentation is provided and your host is given the opportunity to resolve the issues you’re experiencing. Leaving the listing does not change these terms and we will be sticking by our original statements.
At this point in time, we will be unable to refund you for the reservation as you are requesting, and I recommend reaching your host to discuss this further.”
I was floored. I had documented in detail the numerous problems with the listing and my failed attempts to resolve this with my host culminating in him accusing me of lying, and all I got was this generic auto-generated response.
Another representative had told me to provide as many pictures as possible, so I immediately sent over all the pictures I had taken the night before, emphasizing the fact that the room was different from the one pictured in the listing and that the host was being unprofessional and unresponsive.
At 4:17pm I received the following response:
“Thanks for providing the photos in your email. I’ve reviewed your case further after comparing your photos to the ones in the listing.
Unfortunately, the floor tiles being different and the curtain not being on the dresser do not warrant a refund of the amount you are requesting, and the other concerns you mentioned have not been documented and we are unable to pursue them.
If you would like, we are able to refund you $100 of the total amount you’ve booked for, but as I have mentioned in my previous email, we will not be pursuing this case further unless adequate documentation can be provided.
If my offer for the $100 refund is not accepted in the next 24 hours, we will close this case with no furhter follow-up.”
A $100 exploding offer for a $1,607 reservation felt like an insult. The 24 hour expiration bit was particularly shady.
It was also a Tuesday, and my case manager didn’t work on Wednesdays and Thursdays (makes one wonder why they assigned this case manager to me).
I called AirBnB multiple times after that, waiting on hold for 30 minutes while at work because I needed to know where I was going to sleep that night. After insisting on speaking to a supervisor, I was told that the supervisor was busy but would contact me later.
I received an email from the supervisor at 5:19pm who told me she was busy that night but that her hours were 4:30pm-1am EST and that I could schedule a call as soon as she got in tomorrow. The next day was the equivalent of her Friday because she had Thursdays and Fridays off.
Luckily the third or so representative I spoke to that night, Linda, actually seemed genuinely interested in helping me rather than just telling me they couldn’t do anything because they weren’t my assigned case manager. She looked through my case and assured me that it would be reexamined because my room was clearly different from the room pictured in the listing. She couldn’t overturn my case because she wasn’t my case manager, but she’d tell my supervisor I needed a call as early as possible, and offered me the choice of either a refund for that night ($48) or reimbursement up to $150 for a hotel. Unfortunately the cheapest hotel I could find was about $400, so I slept on a friend’s couch.
Day 3 (Wednesday, the start of my case manager’s weekend)
Around 4:45pm I received a call from the supervisor who told me she’d look over the case and offered me a $100 AirBnB voucher. She told me that it would help my case if my reservation was cancelled, and asked for my permission to cancel it. I rushed home to move out my suitcase, and then gave her permission cancel it.
At 11pm I received an email stating that I’d be refunded for 29 nights (since I had slept there the first night), but that the service fee ($119) wasn’t refundable.
In the end I ended up getting the refund, but only because my room was different from the one pictured in the listing. The lack of internet and the mattress’s rancid odor would not have qualified me for a cancellation.
It most definitely wasn’t worth the hassle and stress. Each phone call required me to wait on hold for 15–30 minutes, and most of the representatives weren’t able to help and didn’t respect the urgency of the situation. It’s one thing to have to go through something like this to return a faulty electronics device, but your housing situation for the night — especially while you’re working a full-time job — is a completely different level of stress.
AirBnB’s customer service strategy seems to be to wear you out until you no longer have the energy to keep fighting. It disgusts me that they were expecting me to stay there for another 29 days in an apartment I had legitimate reason to be dissatisfied with.
I’ve had nothing but positive experiences renting short-term on AirBnB, but I would recommend seriously thinking twice before booking long-term on AirBnB. If you have any issues with your living accommodations (eg. unbearably slow internet), you’re going to have to fight a long hard battle to cancel your reservation and get any of your money back.
And although it should be a given in this day and age in any modern city, don’t forget to make sure that the listing has WiFi.
I spent the weekend in an AirBnB reservation in downtown Brooklyn before moving into a month-to-month sublet in a co-op in midtown Manhattan. I’m subletting around again, but not via AirBnB until they get their act together.
