Airbnb

I can't even begin to describe what I think of the entire air bnb concept. It is very unsafe and I would highly advise against booking with them. We had booked through them a couple of times and its never really been that great but it was acceptable and we understood the risks when booking. However, this time it was just not acceptable. We booked early in September our two weeks trip to Tasmania. The last stop would be 4 nights in Hobart over New Years Eve. We booked a lovely cottage and rested in the knowledge that we did well as we booked early on and the trip was all sorted. Late October the Host cancelled our booking for some personal reason. Now we still have't found any alternative accommodation as its all booked out now over the busy period and airbnb has done nothing but apologised and given us our money back. There is no security in this system and I will never ever use this company again!
We have used websites like stayz a lot and this has never happened before.

Whenever I travel I always use this site! Each time I can find here great apartment at a reasonable price. Yes, the service is not perfect and has it's breaches but still I have never had a bad experience with them.

Be careful with this person! I rented the house from for the week of july 4th, my family and i live in connecticut and we realized that the whole week it was going to rain a lot! A huge storm. I paid for the house on a Friday and on Saturday When we were about to leave I realized about the storm. I quickly wrote to then with a request to change the days and this thief stole 1700 dollars from me! She saying that she could not make change and not refund anything! Beware of these people! They stole the savings we had to celebrate my son's birthday. One day they will pay for having stolen our money and airbnb did nothing about it! Enjoy our money!

I thought this was a great resource until my most recent experience in which the crazy homeowner wanted to charge us $700 for what she claimed was cigarette smoke damage. My husband smoked 50 feet away from the house and all the windows were closed yet she claims all the linens, drapes, etc were ruined and it would cost $700. AirBnb apparently did not need any proof from her about this and charged my card $200 (unbeknownst to me until I reviewed my credit card statement). I cancelled my account. I can find better deals and service elsewhere.

Have been both a host and guest and have only had good experiences with AirBnB. From a guest p. O. v., the chance to holiday in your chosen destination for longer plus you get to know a native is fantastic. Sometimes you are staying with someone else but you don't have to. Alternatively, you can rent a completely self contained space, too, and have all the comforts of home for less than a hotel. I understand they do have insurance and have given me only good customer service on occasion when I've needed it. As a host, no problems so far either.

What a hassle. They saved my cc from a previous booking. As I was exploring places for another trip I hit continue and much to my surprise I was charged and booked. They call it immediate booking or some nonsense. I booked for a Saturday arrival on Wednesday morning so was out of the 5 day cancellation policy. Owner/host never got back to me. If I had booked a hotel I could gave just cancelled within 24 hours. Have been on the phone for hours... not worth it at all. Plus between cleaning fees and admin fees you're better off at a hotel where you gave full service. Bad experience.

Book through Airbnb if you don't mind having your reservation (for the international trip you booked 7 months prior) cancelled unilaterally by the host 3 weeks before your arrival. An Airbnb customer rep will respond to your concerns with the utmost respect by kindly reminding you that they are "just the middle man who takes your money."

At the very least, avoid this host (Frederic C): https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/*******

Pay the extra money and stay at a hotel- at least a hotel won't cancel your reservation at the last minute, leaving you scrambling to find a place to stay. Our apartment was $345/night- now the only apartments available in the area where we planned to stay are $500+/night.

If you're thinking about using Airbnb for your next vacation rental, I would advise against it. As a Veteran and senior citizen, I feel the host of the rental is more in the business of collecting money than providing a service.
We made a reservation for a rental in AZ city (hosts Leon and Michele) and had to cancel two days later. Our credit card was charged the entire amount ($3000) even though we never spent a night there.
In our opinion, neither Airbnb nor the hosts can be trusted to treat potential customers fairly.
If I could give zero stars I would have

Last week we booked a penthouse at San Roque. I was in touch with the host and spoke on the telephone 30 minutes before our arrival. When we arrived she was not there and refused to answer her phone. We waited and then contacted Airbnb who tried to contact Petra without success. They refunded our money but after 5 hours drive and by then it was dark we had to find alternative accommodation. Ok. BUT. They are STILL advertising this penthouse with Petra being labelled as a Superhost! Criminal way to treat people after sitting on our money since September

They don't deserve even one star. We booked a fully furnished apartment in Hollywood Boulevard for our vacation. Our booking was from May 13-May 19. We'd booked one month before we were due to arrive in Los Angeles. We received several confirmation emails, and then suddenly, less than 24 hours before we were supposed to arrive in LA, we received an email saying that our reservation had been cancelled. I spent the following night, searching as hard as I could for a replacement reservation, this was very difficult as we had only a day's notice. My husband and I are hard working doctors from Sydney Australia, this was a terrible occurrence to happen on our holiday

I have been part of the Airbnb community for 8 years and a Superhost. In the last 6 months, it has been an absolute nightmare! I have NOT received notifications of requests to book, lost bookings and status as a result. All except one or two attempts (of about 20) to message or phone them have been impossible - you cannot get through - if you do, the line is bad or the accents are so strong, you have to ask for the message to be relayed 100 x - and still get no help. They have closed my message threads without any acknowledgement of even having read my pleas for help. I am utterly appalled right now.

This is a scam company!
Charged credit card in February, then 6 hrs before check in-time on 15 April cancelled booking during major holiday, when everything was sold out and prices tripled for last minute bookings.
Host said is not their fault, Airbnb help center said something was mixed up! They were useless and did not help at all.
Fact is that they charged credit card for booking, used money for 2 months, then cancelled booking and offered to refund credit card booking amount.
During Easter had to pay 50 Euro more for new accomodation, which was very far from city center and spent several hours to find new accomodation, because everything was sold out and prices tripled.
Will never use airbnb company and will tell everyone at online communities to avoid this dishonest company.

I rented an apartment in June, 2015 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California through
Airbnb. The host cancelled 48 hours before I was to occupy. The host tried to move me to another apartment which I found out is against company policy. Airbnb's solution? A refund and then a 10% discount if I would rent another apartment. A whole whopping $110. The apartments offered were not comparable to what I had rented. I believe Airbnb should have found me a place equal to or better than I had rented and eaten any additional cost. Instead, they left 3 women, 3000 miles from home stranded. After the fact, customer service contacted me and wanted to know how they could do a better job! Really?

Updated 9-29-2021. After careful considerating AirBnb decided my negative property review did in fact conform to their standards and chose to publish it after initially denying it.

I stayed at a place that was much worse than advertised. Dirty, poorly furnished, none of the promised amenities. There were few reviews in the past 2 years, prior to that there were a handful of positive reviews. There were NO negative reviews for this run down bait and switch property which is rather odd.

My review was unbiased, honest and factual, stating all the problems with no opinion at all.

I was finally told after several back and forth messages with AirBnb customer service that my review was removed because it was "irrelevant".

Yeah ok

AirBnB claims that they will reimburse hosts for damage done by guests. However, in three years I have only submitted one claim, with documentation, and in four months it has not been paid. The customer service department cannot even see the claim documentation or handling, and says that the claims department will contact me, but they do not. I am at least 12 calls in, and several discussions with supervisors, but they have no information or authority and I may as well talk to a potted plant. If I did not have so many positive guest reviews, I would change companies. If anyone is starting as a host, I suggest using a different service.