Airbnb FAIL avoid CALEDON, Canada ALEXANDRA

Caledon, Toronto booking: ALEXANDRA 2121 Baseline Road We booked this Airbnb on Sunday 18th Aug for period: 21st-31st August. Check-In time was from 5pm onwards, but due to immigration & customs processes we arrived at the Airbnb at 6pm directly after a 28hour flight from South Africa.

Upon arriving 6pm the host struggled to restrain around 10 dogs in living room area which were all violently barking at us and she screamed at the dogs in such a manner that we were all disturbed. We acknowledge that the house is pet friendly as we also came with pets, but the circumstances of 10 dogs was not stated in the description of this property.

As we entered, the odour of smelly dogs was appalling. The host started showing us rooms to choose from, all already occupied by long term tenants. She said she would find alternative accommodation for them. So the rooms booked to be ours was not even cleaned & it still had people in them. As far as we are aware - this is against Airbnb Host policies as we expect the space to be cleaned & ready for our booked dates. There were men sitting on the beds drinking beer in some of our rooms. This shocked our kids. This also invaded our sense of privacy & safety as we were expecting private & clean rooms ready for our stay.

This is a false representation of what the host has stated in her Airbnb description of the space being an ultimate place of peace, tranquility & rest where families can stay. Other reviews of this host has also stated that the long term tenants was a problem & not a fare reflection of how the space is advertised on airbnb.

The rooms were smelly and bedding was lying around, all dirty. The host told us the last room could not yet be shown to us as a small child was left alone in there. Eventually we did enter, and the dad was lying in the bed passed out on stomach with child watching tv. She said that these people took a chance and she would vacate them if we wanted the room. As we booked the place - It is stated that the place must be cleaned & ready for our booked & paid for stay. The space was not cleaned or vacated which goes against how the rules are stated within the advert of this space. The host did not abide in your hosting policies & we were very upset with this.

Even though we have dogs as well, The host stated that the dogs weren’t bathed in a while. This is no problem if the dogs were completely apart from our stay there, but the smell was already settled into the rooms as well, which means that the 10 dogs also influenced our stay there. This is unhygienic & unacceptable to stay in rooms which she states as being clean, but is smelly, untidy, & still occupied as we arrived. She tried to suggest to remove the dogs, but we were so tired from 28 hrs travel to be able to wait for rooms to now be cleaned.

Also we felt unsafe, as there was a lot of drinking and all were men. And we had to share bathroom and kitchen with people in drunk condition. We understand that there might have been other occupants - but the description states the condition of stay being peaceful & tranquil. In our experience it was filthy, unhygienic, & unsafe as the men were drinking & some passed out.

We asked host if we could go outside and phone airbnb customer services to make arrangements.

She went inside and we spoke on phone with customer services for very kong. They confirmed they understood and would phone host. They asked for pictures and we explained that it is difficult to go back into house with a hostile host and taking pics of men in beds is ******** and inappropriate.

They also suggested to have an agent find us alternative accommodation on Fri 23rd Aug, they were going to phone us. We were happy about the arrangement. And would find hotel room for eve of 22nd as we were very tired. We were not informed to cancel accommodation physically on app and was not aware of option. The airbnb customer service & support also did not state that we needed to cancel & I was too shocked to even think of this while we were there. As being very tired, all our energy went into finding the alternative hotel to stay at & getting to the hotel.

Customer services promised to log a complaint. But they soon after sent email that host is compliant as she is allowed dogs on her property. No agent phoned to help find other accommodation so we dis ourselves.

Ever since we have had long discussions with host and customer services on app but all feedback was that host is in the right. And she refuses ANY form of refund.

We booked for 9 eve so we suggested that as we only booked 4 dates prior to arrival, we would pay 4 nights and request refund for the rest of the booked stay. It was declined.

We only realize we could cancel on app as well on 25th which we did and asked for a small refund of only the last few evenings. This was also declined by host

If we check the listing now, it seems full except for 1 room for the period we already paid for.

After thorough searches we have found another review from Aug 2019 where guests immediately ran from property for exactly same reasons: terrible smell and long term tenants in all rooms.

Others said the felt like being in horror movie due to safety issues. And host rep**** that the smell is something other than dogs.

We are not receiving assistance from airbnb support, only replies that host is not violating standards. Pleas help with any form of refund. We have already listed all these complaint with airbnb support.

On 26 May 2016, at 4:46 PM, Annely van der Merwe <***> wrote:

Hi Lis

Hier is solank iets:

We arrived at the airbnb booked on Sunday 18th Aug for period: 21st-31st August, at 6pm. We realize book-in time was from 5pm but we had to wait 2 hrs at Toronto Pearson International toe get through immigration with our work permits.

On arriving 6pm the host struggled to restrain around 10 dogs in sitting area which were all barking at us and she screamed at the dogs in such a manner that we were all disturbed.

As we entered, the odour of smelly dogs was appalling. The host started showing us rooms to choose from, all already occupied by long term tenants. She said she woul find alternate accomodation for them. There were men sitting on the beds drinking beer. Our kids, 8yrs and 15yrs both girls were shocked.

The rooms were smelly and bedding was lying around, all dirty. The host told us the last room could not yet be shown to us as a small child was left alone in there. Eventually we did enter, and the dad was lying in the bed passed out on stomach with child watching tv. She said that these people took a chance and she would vacate them if we wanted the room.

My husband told her in a very decent way that he was really shocked and we needed to talk about the situation. That the smell was unbearable althrough house.

Host apologized that she realized the dogs had not been bathed in a long time and she would remove dogs from property. We explained that smell can not be removed easily even if you take dogs away and that we were too tired from 28 hrs travel to be able to wait for rooms to now be cleaned.

Also we felt unsafe, as there was a lot of drinking and all were men. And we had to share bathroom and kitchen with people in drunk condition.

We asked host if we could go outside and phone airbnb customer services to make arrangements.

She went inside and we spoke on phone with customer services for very kong. They confirmed they understood and would phone host. They asked for pictures and we explained that it is difficult to go back into house with a hostile host and taking pics of men in beds is ********l and inappropriate.

They also suggested to have an agent find us alternative accomodation on Fri 23rd Aug, they were going to phone us. We were happy about the arrangement. And would find hotel room for eve of 22nd as we were very tired. We were not informed to cancel accomodation physically on app and was not aware of option.

Customer services promised to log a complaint. But they soon after sent email that host is compliant as she is allowed dogs on her property. No agent phoned to help find other accomodation so we dis ourselves.

Ever since we have had long discussions with host and customer services on app but all feedback was that host is is the right. And she refuses ANY form of refund.

We booked for 9 eve so we suggested tgat as we only booked 4 dats prior to arrival, we would pay 4 nights and request refund for other night. It was declined.

We only realize we could cancel on app as well on 25th which we did and asked for a small refund of only the last few evenings. This was also declined by host

If we check the listing now, it seems full except for 1 room for the period we already paid for.

After throrough searches we have found another review from Aug 2019 where guests immediately ran from property for exactly same reasons: terrible smell and long term tenants in all rooms.

Others said the felt like being in horror movie due to safety issues. And host rep**** that the smell is something other than dogs.

We are not receiving assistance from airbnb support, only replies that host is not violating standards. Pleas help witg any form of refund. We have already listed all these complaint with airbnb support.