Family shocked at state of Airbnb home and frustrated at response to plight

QMy family decided to arrange a get- together in the run- up to Christmas, and we found an Airbnb that cost £ 1,250 for three nights. The host had “superhost” status and it looked lovely in the photos. However, when we arrived with a party including three children and a number of disabled adults on Dec 18, we were horrified.

Unlike the immaculate- looking photographs used to advertise it online, the place was absolutely filthy. We immediately did a walk-through and documented all the issues we spotted. There were 65 different issues, all of which we photographed.

Our observation was that the place was more rundown and less wellequipped than advertised. For example, there were cracked toilet seats and no cutlery provided, even though the major draw of the place was a huge open-plan self-catering kitchen.

Floor tiles were cracked and there was a big hole in the wooden floor, which was potentially dangerous for the children. Clearly, this house cannot have been cleaned after the last guest, as there was dust, dirt and crumbs everywhere. Someone had left a load of cherry stalks all up the stairs. The garden was strewn with cigarette butts and full ashtrays left lying around, as if someone had been having a party.

Some of our discoveries were utterly sickening. We found faeces and stains on all the toilets, unwiped highchairs smeared with food, food caked on the ceiling of the microwave, stains and hairs on the bedding, and rubbish in all the bins including used feminine hygiene products. We even found a pair of dirty men’s pants in the bottom of a cupboard.

We immediately contacted the host, which was a property management company. It was unhelpful and would only allow us to speak with a manager via text. It offered a “re- clean” of the property, which was laughable, as it clearly hadn’t been touched in the first place.

Left unsatisfied by this response, we then contacted Airbnb and provided all our documentation. Following this, we have been repeatedly told since Dec 18 that someone would call back in an hour, and that it had been “escalated to a supervisor”. Yet no one ever called us back, and we had to ring it over and over again.

Airbnb informed us that if there was no contact from the host within an hour we would be moved to a new accommodation. However, the following day arrived and this never materialised. In the meantime, we