A family from Texas dreamed a perfect vacation in sunny California. They used Airbnb to book an apartment but found out the host was a fraud. [Courtesy of Pixabay]
Another holiday went sour booking with Airbnb. A family from Texas booked an apartment in Irvine, California for an exciting summer vacation. The parents, Chad and Stephanie Berlan, paid $1,500 on Airbnb to celebrate their daughter's high school graduations.
After a long day in southern California, the family of six returned to their rented apartment at midnight last Thursday, ready to hit the bed. To their horror, the family found the apartment lock changed with an eviction notice on the front door instead.
The family was forced to sleep in their SUV parked on the street as there was no staff residing to assist them. Stephanie Berlan said in an interview with NBC Los Angeles, "My 8-year-old son say, 'Mom did you not pay? What happened, mom?'", and tearfully added, "I don't need my son think I'm not taking care of him."
In the morning, Berlan was able to contact the apartment landlord to explain what happened and to ask the management to return her family's belongings. The family was able to get their stuff back, however, they were returned in plastic trash bags. While the family was rummaging through the plastic bags to retrieve their possessions, they had to endure humiliation as the onlookers watched them.
The person who rented the apartment out was named "Parker" on Airbnb site. He even checked with the family and asked how they were doing. After the incident, the apartment management, Berlans, and Airbnb have been trying to get a hold of him to assess the full situation in vain.
Airbnb reimbursed $1,500 Berlans spent on the apartment and offered additional $500 in credit for their next booking, but the family's trust on the company is broken beyond repair at this point, according to Chad Berlan.
Chad posted on his Facebook page the recorded video of NBC News story featuring the family ordeal and captioned, "Now THIS is why I said to watch yourself when it comes to Airbnb.... we're getting the Hell outta here and heading back!!!!"
Even though the incidents of this extreme magnitude are rare in users and incident ratio, Airbnb has been making headlines numerous times. The other incident that made news headline happened in February this year when an Airbnb host from Big Bear, California canceled the guest's reservation because she was Asian. The legal case against the host was settled earlier this week.
Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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