14 June 2024 , 10:50
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Brandon Li has been a user of Airbnb for around 10 years and never had a bad experience until now, when he has been stuck outside in the rain with no accommodation at 3am in the morning.
Brandon, co-founder of Power, a clinical trial browsing platform, was on the way to London from a friend's wedding in the south of France. He knew he was most likely going to be in London late, and hence purposely chose an Airbnb that allowed night check-ins.
Despite this, when Brandon's flight got delayed by three hours, he messaged the host to say they would be delayed and would not be there until 2:30am. The host informed Brandon he would need to pay a late check-in fee.
Upon arriving at the property located close to Gloucester Road Station, the San Francisco man was surprised to find he could not get into the property. After attempting to put the code the host provided, into the lockbox several times, there was no result and Brandon and his wife were left standing in the rain at 3am in the morning.
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Brandon has even been messaged by the CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky (Bloomberg via Getty Images)After messaging the host, Brandon was informed that he'd been marked as a 'no show', with the host stating: "You are not getting access to this space." Left confused as to how and when the host changed the code, as it is was a manual lockbox and would've meant someone travelling in the middle of the night to change the code, Brandon frantically booked into a nearby hotel.
Following a further conversation with the host, Brandon said: "The host admitted to changing the lockbox code before we got there... Basically they took our money hostage. It was kind of insane to me," he added.
Brandon claimed it took Airbnb a while to escalate the situation, but they eventually did - offering him a full refund, a voucher for his next stay and to also cover the costs of the alternative accommodation he had to book.
Since posting about his experience on X (formerly Twitter) his thread has received over 50 million views and Brandon has been privately messaged by other people who had the same experience with the same host. He has also received offers of free accommodation from other providers and even a message from Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, himself.
In his thread on X, Brandon questioned: "You shouldn't need to go viral just to get a resolution, I wonder how many others had to eat their costs?"
An Airbnb spokesperson said: “We were disappointed to hear about this guest's experience, and we have provided them with a full refund and a voucher, as well as offered support with reimbursement for alternative accommodation. The host has been suspended as we investigate. With over 1.5 billion all-time guest arrivals on Airbnb, issues are rare and our global Community Support team is available 24/7 to assist.
"Our ground rules for hosts make clear our expectations of hosts and we require every host to meet these standards. When we receive reports that these standards are not being met, we investigate and take action which can include removal from the platform.
"All bookings made on Airbnb come with AirCover. This means if there’s a serious issue, such as you’re unable to check-in or get into your Airbnb on arrival and your host can’t resolve the issue, we’ll help you find a similar place or give you a full refund."
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