AirbnbReviews 2,102

If I could give them a zero I would. Booked accommodation in India for April. The the virus came. Based on the hosts advice I moved the dates back only to be told because I did that no refund. I am not sure how they want me to get from Australia to India when both countries are on lockdown, I guess they want me to swim. The host is refusing to give me a refund and air b n b have been zero help. This was my first and will be my last experience with air b n b. I wish I had read all the poor reviews before I booked with them, lesson learned. Please learn from my experience and DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY, what a fraud.

At my recommendation my mom started hosting an Airbnb. The guest never paid for their reservation and Airbnb has not paid her for the stay. On top of that the guest caused almost $1000 worth of damage that AirBnb only paid about $250 towards. The rest they said they would not cover. On one reservation my mom lost the $830 they never paid her for the stay as well as $750 in damages. I'm very disappointed and will not be recommending to anyone else that they host on AirBnb. I have been a loyal Airbnb host, but it may be time to check out the competition.

The host that I was dealing with was amazing. However, try to get a refund from Airbnb when you have to cancel due to COVID-19. At the time of cancellation I was not provide with a full refund option. Likely due to my cancellation happening before they set this up. However, they did give me a travel credit with an expiry date for next year. Now I don't want to deal with them again after all this. They stated the following "I apologize for the trouble this has caused you but in this case, the refund can no longer be reversed as this is a one time refund policy.

This may not be the resolution that you've expected but rest assured Airbnb is doing its best to be favorable for all cancellation due to pandemic crisis. Hoping for your understanding."

When I asked for this to be escalated the response was" I apologize but we are following the same tools and resources. We don't have any higher escalation aside from our department."

Can someone explain what department does not have a supervisor?

Will not use Airbnb again and will advise anyone the same.

We are trying to get a refund for an apartment in Jersey City [Mod 2bed Downtown Apt- mins to NYCPath! 1st Floor] from Samantha. We made a weeklong reservation and $410 deposit in mid February. When we realized the travel restrictions would prevent us from coming in mid March, we canceled. Since then Airbnb and Samantha have tossed us back and forth claiming it is the other one's responsibility. We have not been treated fairly and are out more than $400.

I would like to start off by saying that I spoke to an amazing customer service representative to file/escalate my complaint. However, my one good experience is shadowed by my very bad experiences. I had to cancel my reservation due to the emergence of Covid-19. I was super thankful that I did not have to put my health at risk because I fell under Airbnb's extenuating circumstances policy (or so I thought). I canceled around mid March and immediately contacted customer support via messaging (the method they recommended). I called a few days later after no response. To make a long story short, I found out early April that my case had been closed without me being aware (no one had ever contacted me after I messaged about my cancellation). Of course I reopened the case because Airbnb refunded me less than 8% of what I paid in total. I found out that their policy is extremely misleading to say the least. Every time I submitted evidence/documents, the requirements of what they needed changed. After 1 week of what was a short notice to retrieve a letter from my doctor during a pandemic, my assigned representative communicated that my case was going to be closed. I believe they tried to hurry and cancel my case as retaliation of me filing a BBB case against them. When I spoke on the phone with my Airbnb representative, he wouldn't let me talk at all and he was very rude. I kept requesting to speak to someone above him to leave a complaint and to communicate my case. He kept ignoring my request. Thankfully, my doctor was able to send me the letter that day and I submitted it and was able to get a refund. DO NOT USE AIRBNB or take careful caution if you do. It is a headache to deal with their customer service and you have to call continuously to get resolution. A friend warned me about them and I didn't think I would be affected by their money over people practices. I was wrong. I strongly recommend people try to get a doctor's letter if they are dealing with refusal of a refund from cancellations due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

We used Airbnb for the first time and booked a villa for 29/02/2020-14/03/2020 but due to the coronavirus we decided not to travel as our 3-year-old son had a slight cough and a cold and we were worried about him potentially catching it. So, we had to cancel like any loving and caring parent would to ensure our young child was not put at any unnecessary risk.
We asked our host if we could change the dates and got a flat NO, so as we did ask very late in the day we asked if we could be refunded half our money back he also said NO, this would have meant a refund of over £900 and the host got to keep over £900 for a villa we never stayed at. So, we raised a dispute with Airbnb, and they were not interested in the slightest which was a complete shock and even more so as the last day of our holiday fell one night short of their cut off period for automatic refunds. We only ever asked Airbnb for half our money back as we did decide to cancel but only due to very exceptional circumstances which the CORONAVIRUS is. Airbnb were not interested one little bit and did not take into consideration the health of a 3-year-old child comes first before anything. I WOULD NEVER USE AIRBNB AGAIN they were completely unhelpful in such a worrying and uncertain time and did not care at all about a young childs health.

Air BnB is a terrible company. Even though they are allowing some cancellations due to Covid-19, they are not allowing others. It depends on the dates of your stay. You have no say. Plus, we booked a stay in Boston well before the virus. The property owners canceled it without warning leaving us without a room. Awful! You will fare much better booking with a legitimate hotel. You will have the ability to cancel or change and have a much better idea of what you will get. We booked our Boston stay to save money. It is totally not worth it. Skip Air BnB... stay in a well known hotel instead.

So I booked my reservation back in January and due to Covid-19 I have decided to cancel it. Now my check in wasn't until the middle of November so 7 months away from the check in date. This was costing me about $1100 originally. So having canceled they only are refunding me 50% of the cost because for a full refund you must cancel 48hrs after confirmation and 14 days before check in. Since it wasn't meeting both criteria I get only $600 back while they keep $500! 7 months is MORE than enough time to book someone else in the slot I had been in originally! I contacted both air bnb and my host and I'm basically being told it is my own fault at this rate. I would have better luck at a hotel to get my money back! NEVER using these people again this is an absolute joke!

Horrible experience trying to get a refund after it was promised and clearly qualified for extenuating circumstances policy during Covid19 in the epicenter of the pandemic (Seattle) at the time. Nothing left to do but dispute charges with credit card company. Good luck to anyone else in the same situation. I hope they don't try to charge the lost money to the hosts because they did not make or have any say over the policy change which promised full refunds to thousands of people which didn't materialize. Please do not take their answer to fight it out with the host. They're in a tough situation, too, not being able to get any bookings/income during this difficult time.

We have a 2 months reservation starting June 1st which is currently 1 day beyond what Airbnb covers as COVID-19 policy. Our host posted a very stringent cancellation policy which allows to be fully refunded only 48 hours after reserving. Airbnb is holding our money, not the host. However, Airbnb will NOT return your money unless the host cooperates, unless it falls within cancellation policy. Do not book with heavy cancellation policies if you cannot forsee the future. Airbnb will not back you up if you feel unsafe to travel.

Avoid... needed adequate parking... was told he had adequate parking... Alas there was not adequate parking. I was duped and they basically stole 138 bucks because I could not stay where I would have to request to come and go as I pleased. I would have to ask someone to jocky their vehicles around just to park. What a nightmare. Ripped off again... Avoid avoid avoid avoid avoid

A conference we were attending was cancelled due to Covid 19. The conference was mid June, right after the covid policy of Airbnb expires. I called to find out if we could cancel given our circumstances and I was told yes and the service person walked me through how to do it online. The full cancellation and full refund showed online after that process. Come to find out that a week later Airbnb reduced the full refund to take a service fee of over 300 dollars. Despite many calls and email exchanges to ask them to go back to that initial conversation, the managers never called me back and just hid behind the policy sending emails saying because we cancelled outside the policy we would not get refunded. I see unfortunately many of those same comments on this site. I will as a result cancel my account with them.

Airbnb customer service is as bad as it gets. I was on a trip abroad that was interrupted by COVID-19. I had booked Airbnb lodging in January and checked-in in February, 2020. I had to urgently leave the country and lodging before being trapped when the borders of the country in which I was located closed in March. Even so, Airbnb refused to provide me with a single penny of a refund for $400 in prepaid nights that I could not stay in the foreign country. Airbnb publicly posted that they want to help protect hosts /and/ guests against losses due to unforeseen circumstances. Yet their COVID "refund" policy clearly indicates that the pandemic could not be foreseen at the time that I reserved and checked in, but Airbnb refused to provide a refund. At one point, they tried to make it seem to me like it was the host's fault that I did not get a refund. Yet, Airbnb also refused to return the unearned portion of their service fee in my payment. That is dishonest.

Also, during the COVID outbreak, they would only speak to guests via messaging. But they took several days to respond via message. My "conversation" with Airbnb took nearly 2 weeks to complete, with very little opportunity provided to exchange questions or remarks. Initially, after the host refused to provide a refund, the Airbnb rep ignored my request for a review under extenuating circumstances, told me the "decision was final," and ended the message thread prematurely. To restart the conversation, I had to get back into line which took FIVE more days of waiting before a new rep responded to my request.

My case clearly fell within Airbnb's stated extenuating circumstances policy as a traveler affected by national border closures. But they ignored that. They did something else which further demonstrates their dishonesty... AFTER the COVID pandemic was announced, they wrote a NEW policy, specifically for COVID, which they used to exclude innumerable legitimate claims under their previously written extenuating circumstances policy. They are playing fast and loose with their guests' money, and in this case, the health, safety and possibly even lives of its guests. It spoke volumes to me, when in my 3 month trip with several bookings for lodging, transportation and activities, Airbnb was the ONLY provider which refused to grant me a refund. ---Of note, Airbnb has moved into the hotel arena... in my experience, small hotels have begun using Airbnb to book hotel rooms. When the guest arrives, the guest discovers the surprise situation and deals with the associated problems. The whole set up is a sham. ---For those considering using Airbnb, you should be aware that innumerable (most) hosts do not offer "breakfast," despite this being advertised Air Bed and Breakfast. People are better off going to a real bed and breakfast, or just booking with a hotel to start with.

I will never use Air BNB again after my recent experience. We had booked a trip to NY back in the fall which obviously isn't happening now due to COVID. We were told no refund would be issued (even though the host agreed in direct messages that we would be refunded) unless you're check in date was between April-May 31. So we are stuck eating the $500+ for a trip we can't even go on. Avoid Air BnB and their negative customer service any way possible.