Airbnb

I have been a faithful Airbnb customer since 2016. I have booked multiple homes every year since then. I have recommended Airbnb to so many people because up until this 2020 I've had a great experience. Unfortunately, since 2020 the quality of the hosts and homes as well as the Customer Service has gone down tremendously. Hosts are allowed to make very strict policies, write misleading posts about their locations, and completely ignore you before, during, and after your stay. Customer Service has been outsourced and there isn't any real or helpful management if you have an issue before or during your stay and customer loyalty doesn't really matter. Unfortunately, this will be my last year trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. There really isn't a benefit to booking with Airbnb instead of a hotel or rental property anymore.

If you decide to book - please carefully read the hosts cancellation policy. Customer Service will not help you at all if the hosts policy is ridiculously strict - no matter how far away your reservation is.

Airbnb has no customer support, I recently rented a las vegas condo which was a filthy property with many hazards like carpet tacks sticing out of carpet, broken door stops with jagged edges, exposed wiring, attic open to bedroom with bug issues, the list goes on. I communicated with the host, one Jewel Taylor through Airbnb' s wesite & the host agreed to return the cleaning fee of $150. After we left the property the host refused to return cleaning fee & Airbnb respinded too bad, aa we did not contact them in the first 24 hours, we tried but there website could not accept complaints due to technology problems, how convenient,. I had been using Airbnb for the last year without problems, we won't be using them in the future, VRBO & Homeaway do a much better job.

Be aware that this company doesn't protect you as a consumer from fraud nor situations you may find yourself. It is a true gamble when you make a house reservation with Airbnb. Pictures don't always reflect what you may find. If the house is great and the host is great, it is a great deal. However, Airbnb will not refund you if you arrive at a house and find rugged, dusty, and stained linen at the house and the host refusing to correct the situation in any way.

We found ourselves in that second case and had to find a hotel late at night after dealing with the host and her husband for over 2 hours. We didn't touch anything in the house, so no cleaning was even needed. Airbnb withheld the cost of 3 nights and would refuse to refund a remainder without much of explanation what policy it states the amount they decide to withhold. According to their employees, they don't require the house have newish linens, only reasonably clean! House also was on drying well, so the water usage was very limited and unacceptable. Toilet flushes were also highly suggested to limit in the house due to water limitations.

I began using this site in 2012 and initially found it good value for money because it was starting up and the fees charged in addition to the rental fees were reasonable. However, I've just finished a 5 month trip through South and North America and have terminated my account because of the many issues I encountered. The number of substandard accommodation we stayed in was appalling - no due diligence appears to be done by the site to ensure a reasonable standard or cleanliness, let alone value for money. Hosts varied from great to don't give a damn (other than getting the money). Prices charged were high, particularly when I compared the price for the same property listed on the airbnb site and another site (like booking.com). And, the icing on the cake, airbnb showed no ability to comply with its own publication guidelines, allowing false and defamatory comments to be posted on its site and failing to address the issue when it was raised. I spoke to a host who had once listed on airbnb and now used another site because she found the fees charged by airbnb to be steep and the customer service also non-existent. The site double dips, charging both hosts and renters hefty fees and offering neither any support nor service. Hosts, find another site to advertise on (like VRBO or Stayz). Renters, do your due diligence - check if the property is listed elsewhere, as it will likely be cheaper, and check tripadvisor for property reviews - better yet, use kayak or another booking engine to find what you are looking for.

I purchased several thousands of dollars worth of gift cards on Amazon. Every time I try to book something with airbnb I get an error code 500, if you look online this is a issue that they have with a lot of accounts. It's not the same issue with the gift cards not getting applied to the account. I was able to apply them to my account and I now have over $1,900 worth of credit in my account that I can't use. I actually needed to stay in another city for a medical treatment for cancer, I made them aware of my situation and nothing. All they can tell me is that they are working on it and this has been the only response for over 6 weeks now. I have had to pay for a hotel instead and have been asking for a refund of my gift cards and they finally agreed to last week which as not happened, they have currently stopped responding to my emails. I have contacted Amazon and they can do nothing about it. It looks like I will have to take airbnb to court and hope that I get my money back. I have attached photos of what happens when I try to book. Please don't lose your money buying these gift cards.

Booked an AirBnB near Cambridge, paid for it and received a receipt. Everything seemed fine until we went to book in at about 3 pm. The house was deserted and closed up and we had nowhere to stay. Luckily, we were able to find an alternative but at a higher cost and not so convenient for our purposes. We had to drive for about 40 minutes to get to the place we had found as an alternative.
We have been told by the host that the listing was supposed to have been removed from their site as she had moved away a few weeks before.
Getting in touch with AirBnB is extremely difficult as it can only be done by phone with an hour long wait or by online chat. In either case, we were told that the case would need to handled by someone higher up who would get back to us. This has happened three time so far and it is now 2 weeks later and no sign of a call back and no sign of my money being returned.
AirBnB seems to be one of those organisations which runs fine as long as they do not have to provide customer care or satisfaction.
Really annoyed about this.

Why is this company still in business? I used them one time and won't use them again. I don't have to go into detail with all the terrible reviews before me. Wish I had read this first.

I just stayed at 2 airbnb places in France (my first airbnb experiences), and I have to say that the pictures are pretty misleading, not only about the size but about the newness/cleanliness of the places. One place we stayed in was tiny and pretty old (it had cockroaches, the toilet gurgled every 20 minutes and sounded like it was going to explode!, the bathroom smelled of something unidentifiable but definitely gross, and the water heater was over the kitchen sink and leaked constantly into the sink.). But the pictures taken by airbnb photographers made it look like a large and new/clean place. The reviews were numerous and all positive (which makes me feel like airbnb deletes negative reviews because this place was definitely more than disappointing. And then when we went to our second airbnb place in another city (already booked, or else we would not have used them again), many of the same things happened (place much smaller than in pictures, not new or clean like in pictures, many issues like no curtain on window, smelled like mildew, tiny, many things didn't work in the apt.) I would not use airbnb again as my experience is that the pictures and reviews are not accurate, highly misleading. Buyer beware!

I have signed up my place with AirBB, first clients and since 2 months I'm waiting for my payment. AirBB claims that they made the payment but they didn't gave me any prove and I don't have cent from them in my account!

As a host I have been disappointed that there is absolutely NO customer service at Airbnb. There are dozens of websites like this one, yelp and airbnbhell that tell you all of the reasons to avoid airbnb. But having used Airbnb while traveling a few time I have been from pleasantly pleased to horrified at the disgusting conditions. Worse if you have an issue with a place there is no one at airbnb to help.

My most recent stay involved finding a hidden camera in our room, with children no less. Then to add insult to injury there was no response for days through email from Airbnb. Now a week later airbnb customer service has responded saying "sorry for any inconvenience"

Then a day later they just cancelled my account.

Calling them on the phone led to 20 minutes of wait time to have a foreign customer service agent simply say, we can't help you get a refund because you no longer have an account with Airbnb and then they hung up on me.

Sad excuse for a company in the "hospitality" industry

AirBNB denied paying a substantiated claim of property damage of a little over $3500. 00 from one of their guests staying in our duplex suite. The rules were no smoking, no pets and no more than 6 guests. These guests destroyed our duplex. They punched and broke glass of entry door. Smoked, had 3 dogs which one bled being in heat, as well as stole and damaged furniture. A neighbor told us they had over 15 people in the rental. AirBNB claims they have a host guarantee for property damage. We filed a police report, took pictures of all the damages, got invoices, quotes, receipts of things that either needed to be cleaned or damaged that needed to be replaced. We submitted to AirBNB all valid proof and they closed the case out with a $279 reimbursement and stated they mediated this. This is unacceptable because we are well over that amount and have already paid out $2500 to fix these damages. I am filing a complaint due to AirBNB not screening their guests as well as false advertisement of their host guarantee. We are super host and this is how AirBNB takes care of us. Beware and stay away from this company!

I used this service and found the listing for the property excellent and the reviews were nearly five stars. So, I booked. What I found in my experience was something less than five stars, and some improvements were needed like replacing a 13 year old worn out mattress and providing a kitchen with workable not rusty and etched pots and pans. There were other problems. When I contacted Airbnb and the host I was provided about an 80 percent refund. Even after I told them I was settled with the case, my 2 star review was removed by Airbnb because they felt is was retaliatory. I disagree. I provided constructive feedback to the host to improve his property. What I discovered from my experience is that the reviews overstate the property because Airbnb removes negative ones it finds in its words to be retaliatory. I was a new customer with naïve eyes. Beware folks the reviews are slanted strongly towards the positive, and Airbnb and the host are more in pecuniary alignment than with their customers. Beware too how pictures do not tell the full story. You might see a kitchen, but what is exactly in the cupboards.

We have just used Airbnb for the first time and it will be the last. The apartment we reserved in Boxford, MA was a disgusting hellhole. There was feces all over the toilet seat, the bathroom sink and shower had permanent stains and were disgusting. The carpet was stained and the whole place smelled awful.
The front door and entryway were filthy and covered with mildew and dirt.
The fee for 1 month was $1504. Airbnb refunded me $316 out of the $1504 because the place was dirty. They kept the rest. We stayed in a hotel the whole time even though it cost us $600 more for the month and did not spend one night in the filthy apartment.
Stay away from Airbnb!

As an airbnb user I have come to see that Airbnb is 100% about making money, not responsible hosting.

- Reviews are unreliable, they are only published if both parties make a review so if either party suspects they will get a bad review they simply don't make one.

- In Ecuador, where we host, permission must be obtained from the local authorities to rent or offer hospitality, which means they must adhere to certain standards and pay yearly fees and taxes and are accountable if guests have any complaints.
Airbnb take no responsibility to ensure their listings are legal and continue to list properties that have been reported as illegal all over Ecuador, these properties are mostly run by expat retirees looking for a little extra income. In the meantime, due to the enormous success of Airbnb they are putting local legitimate business's out of business

- Their cancellation policies are ineffective, as a small business we rely upon and work hard to keep our rentals occupied and consequently chose a strict cancellation policy, yet our guests were able to cancel their reservation ONE DAY before the start of the second month of their reservation and even though the house was left like a pig-sty and things were stolen we were unable to give a review because the reservation was cancelled! And even if we had been able to make the review it would not have been published if they had not made a counter review.

Came to the Tampa, FL area for a 3 week stay for over $2,200. On first getting there the place was dirty, windows overs with old dog prints from animals, old smelly cloths left in washer, dog waste all over the place. Owner stated the place was just clean. A couple days in, cockroaches were found in the kitchen. But that was only the start. The enclosed fence fell down, the shower hose broke. The owner ordered a new shower head, that we had to install, along with a new filter for the A/C. Owner said she would replace fence or make a temporary fix so we could have our animals a place to run without worry. She never showed up. She called pest control and they stated the cockroaches were due to bad conditions in the home and old food. And it was only going to get worse. These were German cockroaches not the palmetto ones. They continued to get worse and got into the fridge and to our children's bed. We had to eat out bc it was so bad and eventually left over a week early because of the conditions. The owner stated the place was trashed before us and said nothing until the cockroaches started to come out. Upon leaving we cleaned and found old beer that dried up under the couch and beer bottle tops and confetti stocked to the floor. The owners reply that she has lived there with the cockroach's for a long period of time before and had no problem. They ca kids are running by they carry diseases and made me sick while there. AirBnB stated they have no policy about cockroaches and could only give us a refund of $8.30 for one night! Absolutely ridiculous!

I had a 2-day stay in an apartment, cleaning services included. After I left, the cleaning crew broke a mirror at its basis, probably hitting it with a vacuum cleaner, as it looks from the picture I received. The host claimed that I broke the mirror, sending the picture as proof. I appealed to AirBnb, but I didn't take pictures of the apartment before leaving, so technically I couldn't prove it wasn't me. It was the word of the host against mine. AirBnb charged me 200€ to compensate the host.

AirBnb refused to explained their decision. I called their support several times. Every time the person I had on the phone said he couldn't understand the decision, they were looking into it and I should get refunded. But nothing happened. There's never any followup. Every time I called back, I had to reexplain everything.

It looks to me that AirBnb cares about their hosts, but really don't care about their guests. I don't feel like using the platform again anytime soon!