Multiple water issues and several smaller problems. Should we message host, leave a bad review, or file a complaint? [Guest]
Hi everyone,
My wife and I recently stayed in an Airbnb apartment in France. I’d rather not share the exact location for privacy reasons. We were the guests.
The apartment itself had a lot of potential, and we really don’t want to come across as overly picky or difficult. However, there were several issues during our stay, and I’m unsure what the fairest next step would be: message the host privately, leave a moderately negative review, or file an official complaint with Airbnb.
The biggest issue was plumbing/water-related. We had problems in three different areas:
- The shower drain was extremely slow. If we didn’t pay close attention, the shower would overflow. This happened twice.
- The drain under the bathroom sink was leaking. We ended up fixing this ourselves, but not before having to mop up the bathroom floor.
- We also found water on the kitchen floor and inside the kitchen cabinets around the kitchen tap/sink area. We cleaned this up ourselves as well.
Because of the kitchen water issue, we no longer really trusted using the kitchen sink, so we ended up washing dishes by hand in the bathroom sink instead.
To be fair to the host: after the first issue, they did offer to come and take a look. At that moment, we thought it wasn’t necessarily urgent, partly because we were out on a day trip and didn’t feel completely comfortable with someone we didn’t know entering the apartment while all our belongings were there. Also, at that point we had no reason to expect that there would be water-related problems in multiple different places.
On top of that, there were several smaller issues that would maybe be minor on their own, but together added up:
- There were only three forks.
- There was a table, but no indoor chairs, so we had to bring outdoor chairs inside.
- The front door stuck and scraped against the floor.
- The driveway was extremely steep and not suitable for larger cars.
- There was dirty laundry left behind from previous guests.
- Some kitchen utensils were not properly clean.
- The remote control for the ceiling fan was missing.
We have photos and videos of all the water issues and have already shared those with the host.
We’re not trying to get a free stay or be unreasonable, but the water problems especially felt like more than normal “small imperfections.” At the same time, the apartment wasn’t completely terrible and did have potential.
What would you do in this situation?
Would you:
- Send the host a direct message and ask for a partial refund/compensation?
- Mention everything honestly in the review but keep it balanced?
- File a formal complaint with Airbnb?
- Do some combination of the above?
Any advice from hosts or experienced guests would be appreciated.