Super Bowl guests have harrowing Airbnb experience

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- The founder of a men's clothing line associated with JJ Watt said he and his team had bad experiences in Houston this week with homes booked through Airbnb.

The team is finally working out the issue with the home rental service, but the hassle of it all is something they didn't expect to be dealing with during Super Bowl week.

Kelsey Curran with the Dallas-based company Mizzen and Main is here for Super Bowl week.

You may recognize the brand because of its famous advocate JJ Watt.

"I don't think JJ knows anything about what's going on with out AirBnb situation," Curran said.

The situation started a few days ago. She booked a home in Houston for herself and other employees to stay. The only problem: she says the homeowner didn't want to leave.

"It was something that was a little surprising at 11:15 in the evening."

They booked another home through the agency, but says the second home came with a new set of problems, including rat poison and an empty beer can.

"We found dirty towels, things on the walls, things on the couch, on the coffee table, dishes in the sink."

Mizzen and Main founder Kevin Lavelle got wind of the issues. He was scheduled to come into town the following day.

"There was urine on some of the walls and beds, vomit in some locations, it just clearly had not been cleaned," Lavelle said.

"In the very unusual event that a problem occurs, our global Trust and Safety team is on call 24/7 to help," an AirBnb statement said in part. "We provided this guest a refund and travel coupon to cover the full cost of the reservation. We work hard to make sure every guest has a great experience on Airbnb and want to make it right when things don't go as expected."

The third AirBnb? It did the trick and the folks are settling in nicely.

"I thought I was being punked. I thought there was no was this is happening twice."