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I’m so sorry @TaniaHardman and I agree, you did get played. It sounds like you did everything that you could do and this was a no-win situation.
What a shame that Airbnb sided so heavily with the guest, especially after you had already comped her three nights. It was a terrible place, according to her, but not so terrible that she’d actually leave. THat’s the most telling thing. It wasn’t nice enough to die in, but she managed quite well for three nights.
So sorry to hear this. Because if the place was so bad then she would not have chosen to stay for 3 nights. And the fact that she refused to have anything taken care of. Did Air say why they didn’t pay you out since she made the decision to stay?
It’s one thing for Air to want to compensate out of their own pocket, but to have you compensate her when she won’t leave is just plain wrong!!
They just said reviewing evidence they believed her to be true. End quote.
I can only say that the photos the few photos she provided I can’t prove otherwise (maybe set up, but was maybe possible). Of the 10 or so photos, 3 maybe looked valid (although grosely emphasised), the rest were a hunt for issues to validate her claims. I could explain all other photos as over-exaggeration and just plain rediculous. e.g. marks on wall were normal wear and tear on edges and small screw holes left from a fire alarm being replaced. Broken blinds (were working when I left the property - she probably didn’t know how to use it properly), photo of too many overlays on a bed (it had a foam overlay for added comfort and a mattress protector), a dusty tray she found on the very top of a high cupboard (which I didn’t know was there), but she found it because she climbed on top of the kitchen benches to take a photo of the top of the rangehood which was clean, but had some dust caught in the airflow from grease.
When I supplied all the explanations and requested again that she not be paid out, they came back and said quote “Thanks so much for your patience throughout this process. We appreciate
the time you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team. However, we have
issued our final decision for this case and we will disengage from further
discussion on this topic”.
She is a professional. She had no reviews behind her and I have many. This made no different to airbnb apparently. Probably opens a new account for each victim. Very sad that she got away with this.
They just said reviewing evidence they believed her to be true. End quote.
When I supplied all the explanations and requested again that she not be paid out, they came back and said quote “Thanks so much for your patience throughout this process. We appreciate
the time you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team. However, we have
issued our final decision for this case and we will disengage from further
discussion on this topic”.
She is a professional. She had no reviews behind her and I have many. This made no different to airbnb apparently. Probably opens a new account for each victim. Very sad that she got away with this.
This is what I find scary. If you have loads of great reviews and the guest has none, how on earth can they take their side>?
So we just went through a VERY similar situation with 2 different guests, one didn’t escalate and one did . The one Aussie escalated to the ABB meditation phase to get her 3 unstayed nights back.
She sent photos of staged dirty bathroom, it was clearly staged bc you could see wet foot prints on the floor and water splatters in the shower, so it had clearly been used. Then she sent photos of a cracked baseboard, albeit old, not dirty. Then there was the photos of our sofa bed, that is clearly described, and this particular guest and I had a convo about it before hand. She removed all the padding and linens from the sofa bed, and told ABB that’s how we presented it. She also photo’d a private area and said it was dirty. Lastly, she complained out pool was a community pool in the complex not a private pool. We never marketed as such and once again had a pre booking convo about the pool.
Once I got her accusations I systematically debunked them in my response to ABB. I used numerical points and very detailed explanations of each point. I uploaded our housekeepers invoice, proving she cleaned the day before. I also sent photos of the bed with all the bedding on it, as well as a screen shot of my ABB convo with the guest about the sofa bed and pool. Plus, photos of the ‘private’ closet with the private sign and then opened to prove it was the same closet. I also offered to refund $100 as a ‘goodwill gesture’ but ‘thought it was unfair for me to forfeit 3 nights of pay in busy season because this guest found a cheaper hotel’. ABB sided with us, and refunded the agreed upon $100USD. Well, insult to injury for the guest, the refunded 100 AUD so the guest got $73USD. 
The moral of the story is you/any host needs to treat this like a resolution center case you initiated against a guest. Be VERY detailed and articulate. Over describe what happened and why the guest is wrong. Don’t be hostile, just state the facts. I agree this is BS and we shouldn’t have to do this, but this is the world we live in and I would rather play the game than lose the $$$.
I agree @azrela, however, I have already been very detailed with ABB to no avail. I today went for the first time since returning from overseas to see what all the fuss was about. Unfortunately the property was again left very dirty by the previous guest who hasn’t followed the cleaning guidelines as requested. Anyway, I found little to be validated by her, and have taken to doing a video which I will send to airbnb to further validate my claim that she is an over the top, prima donna who wanted either a free stay or was just plain high maintenance. I think even a 5 star hotel would have had complaints from her. She wanted 5 star accommodation for a budget holiday home. 
I just hope that airbnb will listen this time round, although I suspect she has already been refunded now, so its a win for her either way. Quite frankly, its not even the money that I want, its justice for what I know to be right.
Yeh, makes no credible sense at all. But they did!!
Well, when you shoot the video I hope you zoom in on the places where she had to climb on chairs and counters in order to photograph some dust. And Air needs to be addressing why it was okay for her to refuse to have your cleaner clean anything she wished.
So did Air pay you out anything? If so, are they saying they will deduct money from your future payouts? Typically if guest calls Air to claim property is not as advertised - then Air will refund them or help them to find another place. I am really disturbed by the fact that the guest continued to stay in your place - did she really tell Air the reason she couldn’t find a place was because your place had no internet? Yet - you don’t advertise internet? So why didn’t she have Air look for a place for her?
When she refused to allow your cleaner to clean anything, and said she was going to stay somewhere else - did anyone tell her how to lock up and try to arrange to get the key from her, or change the electronic lock?
I hope you keep pushing the issue and take screen shots of the amenities where it shows you do not offer internet, see if you can find any reviews where people talk about how comfy the bed padding is, and anything else that will negate her claims.
@cabinhost. I received this generic email twice. Once before on 17th Oct,after Air claims the case over and then again after I received a different email asking if I was not happy then I needed to respond within 24 hours, which I did, then I received the same email on 18th again. Its all crap.
This
is an automated system message.
Hi
Tania,
It’s
been just over a day since reviewed your case. If your case is resolved, no
further action is needed from you.
If
you still need assistance from , please reply to this email within the next 24
hours. Otherwise, you’ll need to open a new case in our Help Center to reach a member of our team.
Thanks,
The Airbnb Team
Ben
S, Oct 18, 07:55 PDT:
Hello
Tania,
Thanks
so much for your patience throughout this process. We appreciate the time
you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team. However, we have issued our
final decision for this case and we will disengage from further discussion on
this topic.
We’re
truly passionate about providing our community of hosts and guests with the
best possible traveling experience. I’m really sorry that this hasn’t been the
case here. Just know that we’re always working to improve our products and
policies, and even when we aren’t able to accommodate requests, we absolutely
value our users’ feedback. As a customer of Airbnb, your voice is both powerful
and essential and I’ll be sure to pass your thoughts on to the right team.
Thank
you for your cooperation during the mediation process and for your valued time
and contribution.
Ben S
Then I got this yesterday
I don’t think for a nano-second Airbnb believed her, or they didn’t realized the hustle going on and the type of mean-spirited human trash they were dealing with. They see this everyday, thousands of times. It is a common hustle.
Because of social media, this type of person has an open, could-be-dangerous public platform available to them in today’s world. If she didn’t get her way at your expense, she would have gone into a bad-publicity campaign against Airbnb via the usual platforms (Facebook, Trip Advisory,etc). Remember, there is also a multitude of media outlets stepping over each other dying for juicy angles to attack anything that can easily be painted as the ‘oppressor’ (Airbnb), with the individual always being the ‘victim’ (guest), to sell themselves as the ‘noble defender’ (media).
For the above reality, some individuals can get away with murder and companies who think no difference than you or I at the individual human level, choose to placate even to such garbage to lessen the potential bad-publicity ‘cost’. Always count on the potentially loudest wheel to get greased first, in this new social-media world.
Good luck.
Well said! Sadly, I agreed with your latter comments about ABNB selling out this host for their own sake even though they knew the pesky guest was taking them for a ride, very disappointing given the owners of ABNB are Now millionaires, no sorry, billionaires. It would have hurt less and cost the host a lot less time and mental energy to just have the $780 stolen out of her purse than second guess herself and deal with this drama.
Some people are scum, please don’t lose the faith, write it off to the cost of doing business if you can and hope for some nice guests who do yoga and drink camomile tea and only think peaceful thoughts for the next year.
It would have hurt less and cost the host a lot less time and mental
energy to just have the $780 stolen out of her purse than second guess
herself and deal with this drama.
Absolutely right Emily. I am now fighting based on principal, not the money. I went through the place thoroughly yesterday and have found very little claim to anything. A zoomed in picture of dirt somewhere can easily be made look far worse than it is. I do claim to own a couple of issues, but have explained them, yet the rest just seems bogus. I will send the footage to bnb when I collate it together, as there is a lot. I will let the forum know how it pans, but alas, I suspect, based on their recent response, I am the loser in this. Even if I am fortunate to get them to agree with me, the damage is now done and they can hardly go back and say, hey, we now disagree and want our money back. They have enough that they can loose a bit.
If Airbnb didn’t believe her, then why are they continuing to withhold further funds from me and allow that rubbish review to stay up and state that no further correspondence will be entered into .
Sounds to be like they are on her side.
They are ‘siding’ with her no doubt, I doubt they honestly believe her. I am suggesting the cold-blooded ~business~ (and maybe even colder legal) reasons why they are, which yes can be heartless. Sometimes is not a nice world.
@Emily You look at it in human terms, as I would also. Jeesh, it wouldn’t have kill them to split the difference or reach a more equitable compromise. 
Moving forward I would take back anything I claimed (if possible). Tell them that she planted every single bit of dirt herself. Fight fire with fire. Did you already say if you have reached out to Air on Twitter or Facebook? Some have reported getting much better response that way…maybe someone higher will review your case. And maybe they can explain why she can stay and then be entitled for a refund out of your pocket.
Just recently I made a post wondering if Air is forcing hosts to bear the risk of a credit chargeback. They used to claim that once you receive your payout - Air will eat the cost of chargeback. This is why I wonder in cases like yours…where Air just says “case is close” - if the guest has threatened a chargeback, so they just gave guest a refund.
There just aren’t any protections for hosts anymore. None. According to your story (and stories of other posters) - the 24 hr. to report a property as misadvertised is meaningless. Guests can now stay, complain later and get refunded. Then it is just taken out of your future earnings.
No chargebacks really aren’t an issue for Airbnb hosts. Airbnb always cover them.
Trust me if it was an issue we would know about it by now; people are very good at complaining.
That’s what Air tells us and wants us to believe. How would you know if Air always covers them? They tell me that story but I just don’t believe it.
I asked an Air rep. just within this past month if during a dispute we would be told if the guest filed a chargeback. Her reply was “no…that is private information that we will not tell our hosts.” So basically we hosts will never truly understand the real reasons why Air is siding with a story and forcing the host to give back the money.
The type of guest to go around staging dirt, etc. is exactly the type of guest who files chargebacks after they have received their services, or at the minimum they threaten to do so.
I’d know because someone would come in here or in the community centre and say; there’s been a chargeback problem. Chargebacks are a regular occurrence that don’t just occur when booking on sites like Airbnb. They are part of taking credit card payments and any vendor who takes credit card also has to deal with chargebacks. My guess is there’s some sort of industry insurance against them…