‘An Airbnb owner wrote a nasty review of my daughter when she complained'
An Airbnb owner wrote a scathing takedown of a young woman after she left a review complaining about faulty air conditioning which took days to fix. The Times reported that the womana nd three friends stayed in an apartment in Cala d'Or, Mallorca and were left sweltering after being unable to reach the owner.
The girl's mum said: 'My daughter and three friends have used Airbnb for four years and received glowing reviews from owners after their stays until this summer, when they rented an apartment in Cala d'Or, Mallorca. When they arrived, the air-conditioning didn't work. The owner couldn't be contacted after 4pm, so my daughter rang Airbnb. It was finally fixed after two sweaty nights, plus long calls to the Airbnb helpline, and Airbnb agreed to a partial refund.'
However there were more problems with the fusebox tripping - and after the refund the owner wrote a review back -a ccusing them of lying, leaving the apartment in a terrible state, advising people not to rent to that customer. The mum said: 'Later, the electricity kept tripping and the owner accused them of lying about this to get more money back.
"Worse still, after they left a fair, balanced review, they were shocked to see the owner's retaliatory review, falsely claiming they had damaged the apartment and left it very dirty, advising other owners to 'proceed with caution' if asked to rent to them. There was no damage to the property and they actually left it cleaner than it had been when they arrived.
'Fortunately they had taken photos, but despite this, Airbnb refused to remove the defamatory review. Then came the £109 phone bill. Airbnb had given my daughter a US customer service number with no warning and she assumed it was included in her roaming. Despite screenshots, she has been told she doesn't 'fit the criteria' for reimbursement. I am appalled about the way my daughter has been treated and it feels morally wrong to let it go.'
An Airbnb spokesperson said: 'We were disappointed to hear about this experience and want to make it right. We have fully refunded the guest and removed the review as per our policies. While calls to Airbnb's customer service are typically free to use, this guest was charged due to human error and we have offered to reimburse them in full. All bookings come with AirCover, meaning in the rare event of an issue that the host can't resolve, we'll help guests find a similar place or give them a refund.' The apartment is no longer listed on the site.
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