One Katy family said their planned stay at an Airbnb nearly turned into them living on the streets after their host was caught breaking the rules by letting them stay in the unit.
Annie Wisdom and her husband have their hands full with three children, including an 18-month old boy.
The couple has been in the process of building their dream home and thought they had found the perfect solution to the one-month gap before they could move into their new home. “I relied on [Airbnb] to check all the dots and cross all the t’s,” Wisdom said. “We are building a house, and so, we only had about a month left to our close date. My husband and I found the perfect Airbnb.”“It was right down the street from where we were building, it was close to the daycare and it had room for three kids,” Wisdom said.“I asked the [staff], ‘Hey where are our your packages? I’m trying to find mine. And she said, ‘Oh, okay.
“Any of those types of services, they should request a copy of the person’s lease or proof of ownership. It shouldn’t be up to the consumer to determine if I’m allowed to stay here or not,” Wisdom said.“Airbnb hosts certify that they will follow local laws and regulations when they accept our Terms of Service. The Wisdoms did the right thing by calling our 24/7 community support team right away, and as a result, they were quickly refunded in full. The listing was removed in early February.
Wisdom said she hopes there is accountability and that more renters and rentees are aware so that what happened to her doesn’t happen to them.