Displaced college senior Turns to Ted for $2,500 refund from Airbnb

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (KTRK) -- Cindy Watson's son got a great internship last summer in Dallas. But, since he's from The Woodlands, that meant he needed a place to stay for a few months.

His mom helped him line up an Airbnb rental for the summer and it was great for a while.

"I'm here, he's in Dallas. I'm just hoping that everyone is doing their job," his mom, Cindy Watson, told ABC13's Ted Oberg.

Days after she moved her college-aged son into a Dallas apartment for the summer, he found a notice on the door saying the landlord hadn't paid rent.

But, it wasn't her son's landlord. The family showed ABC13 receipts showing how they rented the property from Airbnb and paid thousands already.

The note meant the Airbnb host hadn't paid her rent to the landlord.

"We were catching the tail end of the eviction," Watson said.

Messages from the host and Airbnb assured them it was taken care of. Then Cindy told us, two weeks later, a notice to vacate was on the door, saying the landlord wanted more than $6,500, and they wanted the apartment empty by midnight that night.

It's a lot to deal with for a college senior just trying to impress his new internship bosses.

So Cindy raced from The Woodlands to Dallas to move him out of that apartment and into another Airbnb.

She said Airbnb told her they promised a refund would come in 10 to 14 days.

But months passed, and nothing. So, she Turned to Ted and said that's when things changed.

"I just need to know what number you called cause, Lord, I called, I emailed. They don't make it easy to get through to anyone," she said.

After waiting months - it only took days for Cindy to get her money back after she Turned to the Turn to Ted team. She got all $2,500 of it.

The rest of the summer went pretty well for her son, too.

"As a matter of fact, he got a job with them," Cindy said.

Airbnb did respond quickly to Cindy and told us in a statement, "These issues are rare, but we take them very seriously. We have removed the listing from our platform and the guest has been issued a full refund."

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