Cathleen V.

My husband and I are long-time Airbnb hosts and have had, with one exception, only positive experiences as hosts. We've only been guests once, and that was somewhat negative.

I'd like to set the record straight regarding a number of complaints made by many on this review site. And then I'll offer my own positive/negative thoughts about Airbnb.

First, as a host I have spent countless hours answering questions from potential guests who DO NOT read the listings. If they'd only do that, they'd see that their questions are already answered. Yet over and over I have to repeat what I've already written in clear, precise English, with correct grammar and spelling, and with bulleted lists of the amenities offered.

Second, before posting a listing, the host must choose their own cancellation policy, from a choice of three. They range from a) allowing the guest to cancel at any time with a full refund (although I'm not certain if Airbnb charges some fee), to b) Moderate - the guest gets a refund if cancelled with five days of the arrival date, and finally c) Strict - there is no refund at all even if cancelled long before the date of arrival. Airbnb does not set the cancellation policy; the host does, and it would behoove any guest to check a host's cancellation policy BEFORE making the reservation. If you don't want to get stuck, don't reserve a place that has a strict cancellation policy. You can even set this as one of your search parameters, and you won't be shown those listings.

Some of the reviewers here obviously didn't bother to read or understand the cancellation policy of the particular accommodation they booked, and then faulted Airbnb for not returning their money. As I said, guests do not read the listings. They should.

2) Other reviewers complained about Airbnb not keeping calendars up to date. That is the full responsibility of the host. When a guest looks at a calendar for a place they're interested in, it will say clearly when the calendar was last updated. It is up to the guest to contact the host to determine if the required dates are available. Some hosts never bother to update their calendars. But that certainly isn't Airbnb's fault.

One reviewer urged guests to book a place that only has photographs done by official Airbnb photographers. That can be very misleading. I'm no photographer, but my unaltered photographs happened to come out great, so I did not use a photographer that Airbnb will supply free to hosts. And I included some long shots that give an idea of the relative space. However, our one rental experience DID use an Airbnb photographer. When we got to the apartment, it looked exactly like the photos, except for one minor detail: the apartment was a dollhouse version of the photos. The pro zoomed in on the sofa, then the kitchen, and finally the living room. There was no way of us knowing that all three were contained in one tiny space smaller than our bedroom closet. Nor did the photos, which showed a clean apartment, give us any hint of the grime imbedded on the windows and every surface that wasn't part of those photos! There was no long shot in the bathroom we couldn't tell that it wasn't big enough to lay the bath mat down flat. Claustrophobia was the name of that game.

After returning home, I wrote a balanced review of that place, with a few positive statements, but mostly negative. It was not removed, nor was another completely negative review that was posted after we'd booked it.

But I am no apologist for Airbnb, even though as hosts, the company has been mostly very good for us. Airbnb's non-existent customer service, lack of transparency, and inability to keep its website or app functional will be its undoing. It is disgraceful to have to hold the phone for up to 45 minutes before speaking to an untrained and powerless C. S. rep who has no answers and doesn't have a clue how to deal with anything. It is disgraceful that there is no way to escalate a question or problem to a supervisor, let alone anyone higher up the food chain. It is disgraceful that one has to spend half an hour before finding an email address or a phone number to reach a company whose business model is an online business only.

Our one bad experience as hosts concerned a threesome of Asian exchange students on Christmas break from a university in the midwest. I didn't realize that I could have set certain requirements for our guests in advance, because Airbnb didn't make this clear on their website until after we were in the throes of dealing with the problem. The three guests, due to limited English, misunderstood our listing and thought they were renting an unoccupied house, rather than our guest rooms. They expected us to hand over the keys and leave the house. They had been planning to sneak in four more people, plus their two unhousebroken puppies, which I had told them in advance they couldn't bring. We didn't learn this until the day after their arrival when, we found that the puppies had been left in their car overnight in the cold of winter. Second, when we called Airbnb to report them (they did bring in a fourth person - not part of the original rental - because they obviously couldn't leave HER in the car overnight), we were told that someone had just left a negative review of them. Seems they had come to us from another state (the first part of their midwinter party vacation), and totally trashed that house, leaving a trail of damage from the dogs and the seven people who were discovered occupying the place, which they had booked for three. They were supposed to stay in our home for a week, but mercifully they left as soon as we confronted them about the dogs. I guess they realized the jig was up and their plans had been thwarted. But they did manage to cancel the rest of their reservation and get a partial refund, much to our dismay. I added my own negative review to the previous host's, and they are both still there to this day, six months later. But, and this is a big but, I implored Airbnb to boot the girl who was the account holder of record off the site. These two negative reviews, and the damage they inflicted to the previous host, who lost a long-term rental from having to repair her house, should have been enough. But she's still there, and still able to cause nightmares to any host not savvy enough to read her reviews. This is a cautionary tale, and one of the many factors that I suspect will cause the downfall of Airbnb. When a company does not value customer service and the customers it serves, but values money above all else, it is doomed. Maybe later rather than sooner, but doomed nonetheless.

If you are one of the few who has read this to the end, I congratulate you. You're a rare breed, indeed!