Scottish family ‘locked out of Airbnb and ignored by host’ during disastrous holiday

A Scottish mum’s birthday trip to Spain with her family turned into a nightmare after they were left stranded outside their Airbnb with their two dogs locked inside.

Christine Brett, 42, was hoping to enter 2024 with some positivity after sadly losing her brother to leukaemia the previous year. However, her family trip to Malaga ended in disaster.

Before flying off to the Spanish city, Christine was asked to pay a 500 Euro deposit for the Airbnb she booked and claims she was told she “wouldn’t be let in” otherwise. After reluctantly agreeing to pay and arriving at her temporary accommodation, everything seemed above board.

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Christine locked her two dogs in the apartment and headed out for the evening with her family on December 30 to mark her birthday celebrations, but upon arriving home around 11pm, they could not get into the property, reports the Mirror.

“We tried calling the host but they didn’t answer,” said Christine. “We then called Airbnb, who said they would contact they property owner and get back to us.”

Despite it being past midnight, Christine did not receive a response from Airbnb and was forced to find an alternative room for the night, leaving her dogs alone in the property.

Christine and her family travelled around and enquired at five different hotels which were all fully booked over the busy new year period before finally getting lucky and finding availability at the Only You hotel.

“The room was 600 Euros per night, but they reduced it to 400 Euros after they heard the ordeal we had been through,” said Christine. “At this point, it was two o’clock in the morning.”

The next day, Christine finally heard from the hosts, who said: “We don’t answer our phones past 8pm.” However, the host then agreed to meet Christine and her family at the accommodation, and when they did they also couldn’t get in.

While they changed the locks, Christine informed Airbnb she was no longer comfortable staying in the apartment for the rest of the trip and Airbnb, as a part of their Aircover policy, promised to find alternative accommodation.

Once again, Airbnb never called Christine back and the family felt they had no choice but to stay in the apartment for the rest of the holiday. “We were left paranoid the whole time,” said Christine.

Once back in the UK when she thought it was all over, Christine was hit with another blow. “The hosts then refused to give the deposit back, claiming we had broken things in the apartment,” Christine shared.

The hosts claimed Christine and her family broke a plate in the microwave and a parasol on the terrace. However, the 42-year-old said she never accessed the terrace.

After researching some of the reviews of the same host, Christine was unsurprised to see other people having found themselves in a similar situation, with one previous customer branding the hosts “scam artists.”

Others said they were threatened and lost their deposits as Christine lost the equivalent of £421 during the ordeal and the £337 she spent on the alternative hotel room. Airbnb only refunded her the one night where she didn’t stay in the apartment.

When Christine protested further, Airbnb sent her its policy, which she promptly sent back, highlighting the ways which they weren’t adhering to their own policy. “They didn’t seem to care,” she commented.

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“I even tried the small claims court… [But] in the end I just gave up,” she revealed. “Basically, we had to write off over 500 Euros that we lost on the deposit and the 400 Euros on the hotel, and the money we wasted on the whole holiday in the first place.”

Christine spent the entirety of January trying to come to a resolution with Airbnb, however nothing materialised. Airbnb only refunded the one night stay and at the time offered no reimbursement for the additional costs accrued or full refund of the accommodation or deposit. “I just want to warn people,” Christine stated.

An Airbnb spokesperson told the Mirror this week: “This experience did not meet our usual high standards, and we are removing this host and their listings from the platform, in line with our policies.”

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They added that now, they have “apologised to the guest, issued a full refund and reimbursed other expenses as a goodwill gesture. With 1.5 billion all time guest arrivals on Airbnb, issues are exceptionally rare.”

“If a guest feels unsafe during an active stay, they can call our 24-hour Safety Line for urgent specialist support,” they added. “Our hosting quality system identifies listings that may have failed to meet the expectations of our community.”

“Since its introduction in 2023 we’ve removed 100,000 listings that didn’t meet our high standards and we continue to evaluate every listing after each stay. In the rare event of an issue, our global Community Support team is on hand to help 24/7. In 2023, we answered 94 per cent of community support calls in English in two minutes or less.”