Weird stain on sink that randomly appeared - What happens now? [Europe]

[u/Soso_13]

Hi! I stayed in a Airbnb and everything went fine apart from a weird smell that came from the bathroom. It smelt like thermal baths do (it was near a city known for its baths). I thought nothing of it and we did extensive cleaning. Some things were left unclean by the host but nothing too bad so we didn't notify the host and my review was positive.

We left yesterday and the host just wrote to me about a weird purple stain or more 3 little stains near the sink (same material). The thing is that I didn't do anything to it. Nothing was spilled (no makeup or cleaning product (apart from the one they left that we used when cleaning). They think it is ink from a pencil but I hadn't brought any and had no reason to use a pencil in the bathroom. I had nothing that was even that color with me. I thought it could be linked to mineral waste or something but the host doesn't believe me. They think that I'm at fault. I can't remember if it was there in the beginning and when giving us the keys they didn't show us this bathroom. They also didn't want to check the house yesterday.

What happens now? Is it possible for Airbnb to charge me for this ? The host claims they can't remove the stain.

Thank you to anyone that answers!

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[u/pig_killer]

Someone came in and worked on the plumbing and spilled Purple Primer Glue

Bathroom + mysterious indelible purple stain = almost always this purpleglue primer shit. The host probably had someone in to do the plumbing and is foisting this damage on you. Especially if you told them about the sulfur/sewer smell in the pipes, they likely had somebody in the day you checked out.

[u/Inside_Notice_7859]

They will try to charge you and you will need to spend time proving it is not you with support.

This will take multiple hours of your time and at the end there is a chance Airbnb automatically charge your credit card. Maybe you can put a temporary lock on your credit card.

You stayed with an entitled host that is trying to nickel and dime everything. A hotel would just fix it as "cost of doing business" but Airbnbs hosts want to get all the benefits without any drawback. Most of the hosts are complete amateurs and should not be in this line of business.

This happened to me. Will never stay in an Airbnb again. So much hassle when things don't go right.

[u/Soso_13 → u/Inside_Notice_7859]

This is the first time I encounter such a problem with airbnb but I find myself feeling more anxious when staying in an Airbnb. I think I'll try the lock thing. It is just very frustrating as we really tried to do things right.

[u/Inside_Notice_7859 → u/Soso_13]

With Airbnb It is out of your control and you just need to accept that there are some (a lot) of scammy hosts. They want your money but also for you to pay all the maintenance and get thanked for the favor of letting you stay at their place.

I read on another post about a host requesting 2000$ for a plumber+new sink+extra cleaning fee because a sink was running slow.

This is just what Airbnb is nowadays. A ton of people running it as investment schemes and couldn't care less about you or being professional.

When things go well then it's all good but in 20% of stays there will be some issues and you will have to deal with the lengthy process. To me this is simply not worth it anymore and I'm trying to tell all my friends to dump this platform as well. Just go with professionals (hotels)

[u/IcyDragonFire]

Ask for a dated video proof it wasn't there at your check-in time.   

Chances are they won't be able to provide it.