AirBnB is like a no-recourse Paypal for random third parties of unknown psychological stability. You do not contract with AirBnB. I recommend staying well away from them.
I have my own horror story, involving an overflowing toilet and hysterical accusations from the host.
We noticed the toilet was backed up in the bowl in the morning and alerted the host. The person the host sent round to look at it found some kind of cosmetic wipe, then the host leapt the conclusion that we were at fault, thinking they were nappy wipes. We were not at fault; we use laundered reusable cotton wipes. In any case, this lead her to not fix the problem!
In the evening, after we came back to the apartment, the toilet started overflowing when the apartment upstairs flushed. Then the apartment upstairs had a shower; water was coming up out of our shower, out of the toilet, flooding out of the bathroom, into the living area. We had a toddler, and toilet water started flooding into his bedroom too.
After some heated phone conversations, the apartment upstairs was determined to be the problem (she was flushing cosmetic wipes), and still the host was incredibly nasty, because we weren't grateful enough that it was cleaned up late at night.
I deleted my AirBnB account after this experience.
Indeed you do. I was a host for several years, and there is NO direct contract between the host and the guest. The host has a contract with Airbnb, and the guest has a contract with Airbnb. This is why hosts need to enforce the "no third party bookings" rule because if something goes wrong Airbnb will not honour their "insurance" and the host cannot even get the guests contact details out oof Airbnb due to "privacy".
Many hosts send guests a contract to sign and insist on getting government issued identification (I refused to accept bookings from guests whose account image was a child, a pet, or a sunset) for each and every person entering the property.
Note that I didn't allow instant bookings, and would only accept requests after the guest had confirmed they had read the listing fully, read the house rules and understood the refund policy. The house rules were basically "no parties, no smoking, no pets, no third-party bookings".
The practical upshot is you give your money to AirBnB, it's not coming back, no matter how dreadful an experience you have. You have to go after the host.
Here's the thing: the host doesn't get any of the guest's money until 24 hours after the booking begins (basically after the guest's ability to cancel during the first 24 hours has passed).
The host's payment from Airbnb does not include fees and taxes that guests need to pay that Airbnb keeps (and passes on when required) and it doesn't include the fees and taxes that hosts need to pay that Airbnb keeps (and passes on when required). So completely refunding guests full payment can mean a host is deep out of pocket.
I have my own horror story, involving an overflowing toilet and hysterical accusations from the host.
We noticed the toilet was backed up in the bowl in the morning and alerted the host. The person the host sent round to look at it found some kind of cosmetic wipe, then the host leapt the conclusion that we were at fault, thinking they were nappy wipes. We were not at fault; we use laundered reusable cotton wipes. In any case, this lead her to not fix the problem!
In the evening, after we came back to the apartment, the toilet started overflowing when the apartment upstairs flushed. Then the apartment upstairs had a shower; water was coming up out of our shower, out of the toilet, flooding out of the bathroom, into the living area. We had a toddler, and toilet water started flooding into his bedroom too.
After some heated phone conversations, the apartment upstairs was determined to be the problem (she was flushing cosmetic wipes), and still the host was incredibly nasty, because we weren't grateful enough that it was cleaned up late at night.
I deleted my AirBnB account after this experience.
It's not worth the risk. Not once.