u/arcanition

Link to VOD

It's under an hour and a half so it's not too long, but it's absolutely awkward and hilarious the entire time. I hope they do another stream together, maybe a cooking stream or something!

Just got back from a 7-night stay in an Airbnb and I’m honestly just… exhausted. We paid over $1500 CAD and the whole experience was a disaster. Noticing on the 6th day that the Airbnb you paid over $1500 to stay in has a smoke detector that's been expired for over a year was alarming, especially since we couldn't find another available Airbnb in the city close to our budget that we could move to.

The host's listing is titled "Tranquil" and mentions "private" 6 times including "private bathroom", but:

• The smoke detector was over a year expired. It literally had a sticker saying "Replace by 2025" and it is currently May 2026. The area we stayed in also shows that it has fines of up to $50,000 for short-term rentals with safety issues like expired smoke detectors. We noticed this on the 6th day, looked for alternate Airbnb's we could swap to, but the cheapest available one was almost triple our budget so we were unable to. We felt uncomfortable complaining to the host about this as we didn't want to be retaliated against and they couldn't do anything about an expired smoke detector at 5:30pm the day before we check-out. So we reported this (along with the other things) to Airbnb immediately after checking out the next day.

• The bathroom and shower had completely transparent windows facing a public sidewalk with no privacy or blinds/covers. My girlfriend was seen by strangers while she was using the shower.

• We were woken up every single morning at 7:30am by the host family upstairs, which I used a sound meter to measure from where we slept, and it peaked at 87 decibels, that's like a garbage disposal next to you at 7:30am while you're trying to sleep. The host messaged us DURING the stay saying they had a small kid making the noise, we replied complaining about the noise, they said they would try to keep it down but it only got louder in future mornings. Every single morning after we replied to the host's message about the noise (confirming it was disturbing us sleeping) was louder. I have screenshots from a sound meter showing 85-87 decibels of noise around 7:30am on 5 different days.

• Many things in the Airbnb weren't maintained remotely (in addition to the smoke detector obviously). There was no plunger or garbage bags, we had to go Uber to/from a store to buy those. The smart lock to enter the Airbnb wasn't charged, so one night it locked us out until we researched and found a workaround to use the low-battery lock.

I sent 16 photos of everything to the host with a partial refund request, total radio silence. Airbnb finally stepped in, but they’re only offering a $300 CAD discount. That means the host keeps over 80% of our money for an absolutely awful stay with a safety hazard. We tried to find another place, we really did, but it was a very busy city and near a weekend there was nothing available.

We tried escalating the refund amount, but Airbnb refused and replied:

>The amount was calculated based on our standard AirCover for guests policy. A key factor in these reviews is the timing of the report. According to the host, the only issue brought to their attention during the stay was the noise. Our policy generally requires that guests notify the host of habitable or safety issues (like the smoke detector or the lack of a plunger) during the stay to give them a "right to cure" or fix the problem immediately.

I understand their response, but again we've never had to (nor do I think we should need to) specifically check all the safety features of an Airbnb like smoke detector expiry dates, we noticed it on the 6th day, less than 24 hours from checkout with no other housing options available. Several of these issues (charging the smart lock, replacing an expired smoke detector, replacing windows or installing blinds) wouldn't have even been possible for the host to fix before we had to check out. Additionally, we didn't feel comfortable confronting a host about a major legal safety violation while we were still staying in their basement, especially with no backup plan, and did not want to risk being kicked out by the host complaining about a problem that they couldn't resolve before we had to leave. What "right to cure" could an Airbnb host like this have for an expired smoke detector that we found on the 6th day? Our group discussed it when we discovered it and the consensus amongst everyone was "what can the host do? They'll just say they didn't know and will replace it with a new one as soon as they can." The host couldn't go back in time and ensure a legal/safe Airbnb for the first 6 days.

I completely understand the "Right to Cure" is designed to protect hosts from minor, fixable mistakes, but it shouldn't be a "Get Out of Jail Free" card for negligent hosts breaking the law. Am I being unreasonable, or should I just take the 19% discount and delete the app? I feel like I’m being gaslit by the "support" team for something that has a $50,000 potential fine.