Sue G.

We've booked several places with Airbnb as we travel around Australia, some have been good, some bad and some downright ugly. The good speak for themselves... but if you are unlucky enough to turn up to one place like we did which was filthy, then dealing with the host and the customer service can be a nightmare. In our case, the whole apartment was filthy, so much so, we did not want to stay the night. It would have taken an army of cleaners to fix this, but apparently you are supposed to give the host time to do so before you ask for a refund. Our host got particularly snarky and in the end we left it to Airbnb to negotiate a refund for the 3 days we booked. Luckily, we had photos to prove a point. Anyway, we didn't get all of it back but at least some was refunded. As others have said, Airbnb make sure they cancel your booking and then you cannot write a review, warning others. Bad practice.
The second gripe I have with Airbnb is that we chose a place and asked to book for 10 nights. On the advertised page, it stated the night rate was $111 per night and for a week $700. They add on a cleaning fee of $50 plus $119 booking fee. When we were quoted, the price came out much higher than the total we anticipated. We queried this with the owner, who explained it was Airbnb pricing policy and we were charged more because the rates are higher in December. There was no info on the webpage to that effect. She accepted our booking so we were unable to cancel, so we asked why she wouldn't honour the $700 a week fee? She offered $50 by way of resolving the issue. My point being (and I took this up with Airbnb customer service) is that if a price is stated on the page advertising the cost at $700 that should be the price you pay. There is no mention of 'hidden extras'... but apparently according to Airbnb, the host can decide what they will charge and you have to suck it up, or not... but try getting out of a booking! Most other sites are transparent and you can see the daily, weekly or seasonal rate before booking... with Airbnb you cannot. Be warned... this site is not very user friendly. When things are good, then you might enjoy the experience, but on the whole, when things go bad, it can get damn ugly!