Traveling just like everything else has changed considerably during this pandemic. Not only has airlines changed for the worse, and hotels have become expensive. Hotels are having problems hiring personnel to keep up with their services. What‘s a travel fiend like myself to do? Flying this summer was out, so I took several driving vacations. Two of the vacations I stayed at an Airbnb.
One was in Rhode Island and the other was in the Hamptons. Needless to say both these areas are in their high seasons, so Airbnb was financially more reasonable. The rental in Rhode Island was a whole house for my family and visiting friend. In full disclosure we stayed at the same house last year. We loved the location and enjoyed the private beach
Two of the bedrooms have full sized beds, which can only accommodate a single person comfortably. Knowing this we brought along a blow up mattress, since two people were to share that room. Unfortunately, the one full sized bed had a broken frame. Two people now had to sleep on the blow up mattress, which kept deflating. We had to buy another one, and Gerry rigged the frame on the full sized bed. Two things I never had to do when staying at a hotel. The owner was informed about this issue and he did offer to pay for the new blow up mattress, but we didn‘t accept the money. We would have preferred not to waste our vacation time dealing with this.
Another problem we encountered, which made sleeping on the floor icky was a carpenter ant infestation. When we informed the owner about the problem he personally sprayed twice. It seemed apparent that he needed professional extermination service. Part of the wood deck was coming up and a swarm was around the door frame. Since renting your property as an Airbnb is all about making money, if owners think they can fix something themselves then they will. Since it‘s hard to fix everything you need to know about a house. It‘s probable that problems are likely to pop up during an Airbnb stay.
As usual I was asked to leave a review. As my readers know I do not have a problem expressing myself in writing. I do have a problem with the owner rating the traveler which is counter productive for Airbnb. So if the review is negative, the owner in turn gives the traveler a negative review. I communicated my concerns through a private message, but wrote about the location and beach in my review. My point being that reviews may not be exactly complete or truthful.
The Hamptons Airbnb
When we arrived at the Airbnb, well we were more than a little concerned. The pictures above are what we saw. To sum up the description it was a broken up junkyard. Not what we were picturing for our Hamptons vacation. This vacation was just my friend, her three pound dog and myself.When we got inside, the owner informed us that the previous renters were there for a month and left a mess. He was still straightening up when we arrived at 4 pm. My friend who was shell shocked left for a lengthy walk with her mini pup. I stayed and took on a supervisory position to keep the owner focused. At the same time I was checking for other accommodations on my phone. There was little available and what was available was extremely expensive. I already had $1400, invested in this ramshackle for our five day stay.
I was reflecting on the pictures I saw of this place and there barely was a resemblance. I continued supervising, which included replacing a broken shower door with a curtain, replacing the broken lock, once again Gerry rigging the broken bed frame and sending the owner out to get pillows of which there was none. This made me wonder if there was such a mess, why didn‘t the owner hire a cleaning service? Of course this cost money and my lesson learned from my last Airbnb experience, is if the owner thinks they could fix something they will, no matter how poor the results.
My friend returned and we had no choice but to make do. The property on the other hand was down right dangerous. Just leaving the apartment I tripped on the uneven steps. The fortunate part of this “vacation ” was we were visiting a friend who lives in the Hamptons, so most of our time would be spent at her place. The condition of this rental begs the question how much oversight does Airbnb have on its advertised properties?
As it turns out there are no regulating bodies for Airbnb. Some geographic areas don‘t allow Airbnbs, but if it‘s a house who is monitoring that? If it‘s an apartment building or complex, possibly if there are complaints someone might put an end to it. Just hope it‘s not during your proposed stay. The bottom line is your Airbnb stay may not be legal, or accurately advertised.
In my situation if I chose to cancel once I saw the hot mess I signed on for, it would be up to the owner to refund me. This occurrence is unlikely and as I stated earlier there was no acceptable replacement. Another issue is had I hurt myself on those broken steps that would fall on the owners insurance. Did you see those pictures, I strongly doubt he had appropriate coverage. By the way if anything gets stolen at the Airbnb you’re staying at, it is unlikely that the owner’s coverage would cover your loss. You can‘t even be sure that the insurance company is aware that the property is being used as an Airbnb. Airbnbs might be your choice, although remember that the savings in cost may be putting you in a risky situation that you do not want during your travels. WTH
If you have a problem with Airbnb, here is a site that might help you.
elliott.org – run by Christopher Elliott which is a nonprofit travel advocacy site. He has advice on many travel issues.
