Airbnb

Places I've stayed. 1) Charming place full of the owners stuff, clothes, debris, but nice view. 2) swill hole in NYC empty with bed, moldy toilet and empty apartment (got money back 3) house in Pan handle, full of owners stuff and she asked us why we moved stuff off the bureau 4) Greenwich Villiage- could not get in the tub- just horrid 2nd floor with tub that could not be access by 9" access point. 5) Barrington, RI - Charming home - fully of owners stuff, dirty in poor repair, dangerous, including glass falling out of windows. On the other hand, I have listed my pristine Florida condo on Air BnB too.

Now, the prices are so high, it is not worth the discomfort and dealing with the mess.

You really need to do your homework before staying at an Air BnB. You won't get much help from them, the reviews are biased towards the positive and you can't actually talk to owners before you book, so you have to read between the lines. Hotels are looking better and better to me.

Airbnb is a wonderful company with great ideas. However, sometimes people can become frustrated especially when dealing with people across various time zones. Travel is a messy business. That being said, most of the problems come from the hosts, and not Airbnb itself. For example, my first experience with the company involved my host canceling just days before my arrival, based on the status on my age (Airbnb standards state you have to be 18+, however she wanted 21+)... Obviously I was frustrated. She had my money and wouldn't let me stay in her home. Airbnb quickly cleared the air, refunded me my money, and gave me 20% off plus an additional $100 for reparations and funds for my next booking. Often times its easy to blame the whole, when really it is simply the disorganization and miscommunication between host and guest. I encourage everyone to use Airbnb and support locals!

Watch Airbnb in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS1BsUi0MKA

I booked a beautiful place in Fort Collins, Colorado for a relaxing weekend. The listing did not have any exterior pics but now I know why. When I arrived, the rental was in the middle of a junkyard. Old boats, RVs, ladders, trash cansyou name it. I complained to the host who refused to refund me. I then complained to Airbnb who also refused to refund me. I got a curt message from Airbnb that because I appeared mad, they weren't going to help me out. I ended up filing a dispute with my credit card company and the Attorney General. I'm still out that money but at least there's a record of Airbnb's lack of quality control and complete lack of customer service.

Airbnb claims to have "aircover" which is suppose to, "Provide protection from host cancellations". My host cancelled my confirmed booking (that I made months before) within 30 days of my arrival date with no explanation. I called Airbnb Customer Service and they could do nothing to help me. The host did refund my deposit but that was it. Customer Service than sent me 3 alternative places.
#1. Dates weren't available
#2. Was the same place that cancelled my reservation and the host wouldn't let them rebook my reservation.
#3. Looked like a dump and was 40 minutes away.
Unfortunately because this location is near a popular lake in the Summer, I have no hope of finding another place to stay at any price this late in the game.

I paid and rented the place months in advance, two days before the trip I try to contact the renter true Airbnb but he didn't answer. I arrive at the place and the host was not there, contacted Airbnb and they provided the phone number of the renter, it was an answer machine. Call Airbnb to solve the problem and was transfer to a special team that I have to wait 30 minutes, for her to tel me she was going to contact the renter and get his story, I may just get my money Bach but I will have to pay my taxi números times and a hotel for a lot more because I didn't do the reservation in advance. It was not clear if they will reimburse my taxi and hotel and maybe they will let me do another booking on my own, instead of focusing on my trip. This may happen to you.

I wrote an honest review about a property but AIRBNB protected host and removed my review. I had no heat on a freezing night but AIRBNB did not care because they had already collected their commission. I provided all the evidence but they simply rejected all of it and sided with Host simply because they made their money and there is zero customer service. In short, you are on your own if you had a bad experience then you will never get your money back. AIRBNB is more like a scam.

I will be writing bad reviews about an experience i had with airbnb in every platform i can find. Because of covid my friends and i had to cancel a trip to brazil back in January. When we called to canceled we were promised $927 back and only received $200. After many calls and headaches showing them proof of what we were promised we didn't get anything. We called talk to a few representatives, some of them really rude and without my concern case was closed and lost a lot of money. For sure i wont be using airbnb after this horrible experience. If i would of know i was losing all this money we would of moved the dates instead but didn't get that option either. A business shouldn't be run like this and specially if the customer had the proof

I get it, there is strict cancellation guidelines to Airbnb's. However, if you cancel and give them over a months notice due to family illness, I would think that they could give you a full refund. However, that is not the case after my experience. The problem is they refused to even talk with me about it and told me it was against guidelines. I could not even get the host "Gary" to get me a "full"refund as he pointed the finger at them. I will never purchase from them again and hope people take in consideration of how much sticklers they truly are. This was to Vegas at the Wyndam and I should have really known.
This is where it was at and the host Gary:

Sep 6-8 · 2 BR Lockoff Wyndham Grand Desert Las Vegas

Gary
Clearwater, Florida, United States
On Airbnb since 2016
You should receive this money in your account for this reservation within 5-7 business days.

I cancelled 7 weeks in advance due to COVID. I asked host to please refund my $800. She said she couldn't that Airbnb would have to approve which is a lie. When I asked if she re-rented the unit could she then refund. She said no, she had stopped posting the unit For rent because she had no where to live. Airbnb did nothing. So she is keeping my $800 because she can. When I tried to delete my account Airbnb required a copy of my passport. Never using this company again.

Be Careful they are scammers, no picture is true, bad reviews are removed!
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/*******?euid=b2b944b5-0035-bf8b-a435-b708b0dc3e54 - this is the advertisement.
And this is the reality: Basement, noisy, broken lights, no working stove, old microwave, dirty apartment, exposed wires, dark, bar outside and graffiti! Who knows how to complain? And they REMOVE bad reviews immediately ( we have seen one disappear in front of our eyes) and refuse to refund. They provide professional photographers to the owners - look at ours, it is a basement with no lights but you won't tell. What a bunch of liars... Can anyone tell me if there is a way to complain to the better business bureau?

Horrible horrible horrible!

The host didnt even show up to the key handover, but send his mum who was 30mins late, leaving us standing in the rain. I guess the hosts knows why, clients are probably less likely to get angry at his mum then if he turned up himself.

The next surprise was that we werent able to access the booked room, but were told we have to move into another one. After 3 of 6 nights we were contacted again and told we have to move to another place, at that point we simply booked a hotel!

SUPER BAD HOST! Name is: Jason, in Hong Kong, Email: *******@yahoo.com // *******8833

I booked a home outside of Orlando Fl for the 4th of July. When I booked my trip the last day of checkin was not on the sum total, when I realized the error, of course the house was already booked for the day I needed to add. Simple human error, Airbnb and the homeowner is unwilling to give a refund of my deposit since the days needed for my family are now unavailable, 3 months in advance! That is plenty of time for the home to be rebooked by another family, no customer service at all! Will avoid Airbnb with my future planning.

Terrible! Don't use this app. The HOSTS on here make it unbearable to stay, they lie about what's actually available and after you have spent over 1500 for a vacation but leave 2 hours after checking in airbnb ALLOWS the host to give you what they feel back. I stayed 2 hours in a disgusting home spent 1500 and the host ANDREW told airbnb he was only refunding 450.00 of the full cost! Airbnb LET HIM. And completely left me without ANY OTHER ACCOMMODATIONS!

I 'requested' my long weekend stay with a host I had previously spoken too, sadly they had forgotten to amend the times that their B&B would be available and the dates I chose were not up for grabs. Therefore, even if your request is denied Air B&B IMMEDIATELY take your money and 'HOLD' it for up to 7 days (I'm on day 6 and the money is not in my bank). They claim that they 'release' the money immediately when this happens and that it is up to the bank to get the funds back to you. Sorry, but I contacted my bank and no. It has nothing to do with the bank returning the money, it's because Air B&B TOOK money without even providing any service. So I am without the use of my £200+ now. Please be aware of this happening to you before booking and if possible contact the hosts privately before booking through the website. Certainly not worth the hassle. If you do not receive any service you should not have to pay a thing... or have your money 'on hold' for ANY length of time.

I work at a resort and I'm so freaking tired of having your guests coming to our front desk with no idea how to enter their unit and even its location. We feel so useless because we have no control of those condos and it's impossible to reach out to you. In this past week I've had the same stupid problem with 6 of your guests and it's infuriating. GIVE. THEM. THE. FREAKING. INFO. Or at least have a good customer service system.

And for the ones that might be reading this, DON'T BOOK WITH THIRD PARTIES. Always go directly with the hotel/resort and you'll be saving a lot of your time and energy.

"I wish I could give you a 0 but since it's not possible, I'll give a 1"

We tried to book a property in AK 3x with 3 different dates and each time the property calendar showed the dates were available. Each time we got the autoresponder notice that those dates were not available even though they show available on the calendar. I am a vacation home owner and use VRBO (not so great either) to list my home, but at least my calendar functions and I can be reached by prospective guests. (The owner eventually stated that the calendar function had a "glitch.") Airbnb needs to provide a way to communicate with the owner in situations like this. I had thought of switching my property to Airbnb but will never do so now. Nor will I ever book another property through Airbnb.

Airbnb works for some folks, but god forbid you have any problems setting up a rental. Techincal glitches are met with friendly telephone agents who assure you the problem is solved ( if you can even find their number! You have to google search it. Not offered on theor web site). But you quickly learn it has not been solved... and round and round you will go with these people. It is maddening. The right hand doesnt knoe what the left hand is doing at airbnb. Very sloppy.

Horrible experience with Airbnb. We've had about 5 instances with airbnb where the guests brought extra guests to the place. They book for 1 or 2 guests, then there's 3, 5, 8 guests coming in. We have video footage, took screenshots of these and we filed a claim with airbnb. Airbnb denied all claims saying that all these video footage is not enough evidence that the guests had extra guests! Our listing clearly states that no extra guests are allowed, they will be charged fees for these and Airbnb just denied it! If that wasn't proof there were extra guests, I don't know what proof they think is valid! Aibnb contact me about this *******@gmail.com