Airbnb

I have a listing on airbnb and saw that they offered free photography sessions and put in a request for it. I was contacted by a photographer to set up an appointment. The home is our vacation home and is hours away from my actual residence so careful planning was required. I made certain accommodations for the trip and we scheduled it for Sunday at 10am. I contacted Zoe that morning at 7am to give her the gate code to be able to enter the residence and did not receive a response until 9:30am saying that she will simply not be making the appointment. No explanation was given and was only given less than an hours notice. I understand that it is a free service but the money spent on travel and cleaning total to over $400. I contacted airbnb and waited 30 minutes on hold just to get a rep to tell me she is going to forward my issue to another department and they will call me back. I still have not received a call back. I doubt any action will be taken toward the extremely unprofessional photographer, for anyone looking to request this service please beware.

I chatted an Airbnb rep to find out why guests could not reserve my listing after I canceled on a guest for that particular weekend. (I now know, of course, that is your punishment for canceling.) My issue was that I put my ad live but forgot to set certain dates (Mardi Gras weekend; I am in New Orleans) at higher rates. Almost instantly, someone booked the Friday and Saturday of Mardi Gras at the regular rate. So basically, I was a brand new user and made a mistake and was hoping Airbnb would at least allow me to list the place for Mardi Gras weekend, to that same user at the correct rate, or to someone else.

The conversation was pretty brief, but she did take the opportunity to lecture me on business ethics:

Kat: Airbnb has a policy of only wanting people who are serious about keeping reservations to agree. We cannot bend the rules just to make money. Are you still with me?

Me: Yes I'm just trying to figure out how they hired such an unfriendly person to be a customer service agent.

Kat: I'm friendly enough sir, you just don't like the answer.

Kat: We cannot waive the penalties in this case because the pricing was not what you wanted. It's not fair to the guests you cancelled on.

Not fair to the guests... what about not fair to me? It's fricken Mardi Gras weekend! If I had accidentally priced my place at $1.00 when I meant to price it at $100.00, would it be "not fair" for the guest not to get the place for $1.00? It's called making a mistake, a**holes!

Thanks for listening.

My wife booked an AirBnB in SF on her phone app... It was her first time ever using the system/service and did not see that the property owner had cats... My wife is an asthmatic and is triggered by cats... So she canceled the reservation, only to find that not only had AirBnB taken and processed the deposit, but the amount of the entire weeks rental. My wife called, AirBnB and found that their Customer Service beyond "non-existant", but just plain rude... 1.The CS agent was from the philipeans and did not understand or have a command of the English language... 2. Only could read from her script and 3. When we asked for a Supervisor, were put on hold (and this is no exaggeration) over 40 minutes and still no one came on the line... Instead we called Paypal, explained the situation and they offered to lodge a complaint that would require a 100% refund, and if AirBnB only gave a "partial refund", Paypal (through their customer satisfaction guarantee) would replace the missing balance... So, if you are going to use this defective system, always book through Paypal... your only customer service friend!

Host Beware!

Do you have a vacation home that you are considering renting out to guests? Have you considered using Airbnb to find guests? If so, host beware!

We have been hosts with Airbnb for two years, achieving Superhost status and enjoying guests from all over the world. We felt comfortable sharing our home due to Airbnbs $1.000.00 Host Guarantee: Your peace of mind is priceless. So we dont charge for it. Every booking on Airbnb is protected by our Host Guarantee at no additional cost to you. Sleep easy.

We thought they meant it. When we submitted a claim on June 19,2017 with pictures of the damage (an exterior wall had been sprayed with some kind of a substance in the shape of a face) and estimates for its repair, we expected reimbursement. We didnt even get a response until July 4,2017 and that response simply said someone would be in touch. We sent the documentation again. On July 17, almost a month after the claim, we heard from Airbnb. They asked for documentation of the damage and a picture of the wall before it had been damaged. Needless to say, we dont take pictures of every wall between guests so we were unable to provide the required documentation.

We are ending our relationship with Airbnb and will not be reimbursed for the damage. We hope we can at least, help others avoid a similar situation.

Having used Airbnb on 4 occasions, I have been impressed not only with the hosts but with the customer service of Airbnb when our last apartment wasn't up to scratch. We booked an apartment in New York and was told by the host the day before that cockroaches had appeared in the bathroom and that she was getting rid of them. Having backpacked before, I was used to this in hot climates, so a couple in the bathroom wasn't an issue. 2 days after our arrival, there were many in the bath and under the bed, so we told the host. She was amazing and offered a full refund. I didn't even have to contact Airbnb as they had been informed and sent the refund straight to us, not only that, but as we had to move into a hotel for the remaining 3 nights (which was considerably more expensive), Airbnb offered to pay the difference and were very good in answering our questions via email whilst we were travelling. Massive thanks to Emilee F at Airbnb, who sorted all this out for us.
We will definitely use Airbnb again.

Just finished reviewing a host yesterday, there are 3 parts to the review, part 1) what you liked most about your stay part2) what you didn't like about your stay part3) what improvements can the host make to raise your satisfaction. All of the part 2 and 3 get deleted from the review and only what you LIKED gets shown leaving dangerous, critical faults hidden for the future guests to decide. They say they pride themselves for transparency and free speech and it is ironic they dismiss the very motto they preach. Every false accusation and statement from the host gets to be shown though and they when you write to them to delete or edit they say it does not violate their review policy and is the 'perceived personal experience of the host' although you have written communication airbnb proof for its falsehood. The host can also change its cancellation and extra fee policy after the booking from easy to strict forcing to loose most to all of your money or just stay! The pictures can be including pool and other amenities and they don't disclose their closure and not having access to fitness room. This is fraudulent business and unethical. Will never book from this site again and will tell all my friends to never do either.

I booked a room through airbnb. My reservation was confirmed, and the money immediately debited from my account. I received an email from the property owner stating I would need to cancel my reservation due to restrictions still in place because of COVID-19. She stated I would need to be the one who cancelled in order for her to avoid a cancellation fee. The companies cancellation policy states the customer can cancel within 48 hours of booking and get a 100% refund. I sent the request to cancel and received a message that stated my request to cancel was sent to the property owner. That request was sent within the 48 hour window. The following day, I received a message from the property owner stating I did it incorrectly and if she accepted my request she would be penalized. When I again attempted to cancel my reservation the way the property owner requested, it was then outside of the 48 hour window and they kept a $65 fee. I attempted to contact customer service and they were absolutely no help, and refused to give me a refund. I will never book with them again

As a host I will funnel as much business to VRBO as possible and any other competitors that comes along with Airbnb's inequitable treatment of hosts. Guest clearly manipulated the COVID policy on the day of check in after trying other excuses to try to get out of the reservation the day before. We as hosts offered to split the cost of the last minute cancellation and offer a 50% refund even though our cancellation policy states no refunds. After the some back and forth with the guest she comes up with the COVID excuse for someone not in her traveling party. She calls Airbnb and Airbnb cancelled the reservation and provided a full refund without due process or considering the facts. Also forget about your deposit from guests with Airbnb if they damage something. It is almost impossible with Airbnb to claim damage against a guest whereas VRBO has an insurance policy option that the guest pre-pays for and thus their is no friction when accidental damage occurs and you go to claim that damage. Terrible experience, terrible policies, all around with regards to hosts when it comes to Airbnb.

Nothing but terrible experiences with Airbnb and their "services." To say the least this company has poor customer service and does not take any responsibility for any mishaps that occur at their venues. They don't care about their customers whatsoever or the fact that the places they post on their site could be a scam. They don't check out any of the venues they post on their site to see if they are legit and meet their standards. I recently stayed in an Airbnb that was evicted and then got thrown out of because I was told I was trespassing and staying there illegally after booking and paying for the place a month in advance. Customer service didn't take any responsibility for the fact that this place was a bogus rental on their site and even went so far as to say that that wasn't their fault or their problem. I was on the phone with them for over 2 hours and transferred to 5 different people trying to get my refund while also attempting to figure out another place to stay since I was now homeless for the night (which they also didn't give a sh** about). Makes me wonder how many other places they post up online that aren't safe to stay at either or if they even care. Never staying at another Airbnb and I wouldn't be surprised is they find a lawsuit coming their way soon.

I have been a host for 10 years for my property on Maui. I was a "Super Host" for most of those years with an average of 4.9 stars. I only had 1 issue with guests that had been smoking pot in the condo and the cleaners had to take everything to the dry cleaners to have cleaned. When I complained and ask for the guests to pay I got no support from Air bnb. For my other location on a lake in Canada when the guests that had already spent 5 days there were forced to evacuate because of a forest fire Air bnb refunded the entire amount and I got zero! I recently as a guest went to Italy, Swizterland and France and we stayed a 7 Airbnb locations. Five of them were good or great. Two of them were F######## dumps. We had to go and buy bedsheets at one of them as we refused to sleep on what they provided. We received $0.00 when we complained. So as of now we are no longer hosting or are we going to be using the service as guests. So from my point of view there was no support for me as a host or a guest.

We stayed in Prague for 5 days, Lake Como for 3, Pistoia for 4 and Greve in Chianti for 4 with very good accommodations via AirBnb. The apartments were as described and the hosts met us every time. The communication with AirBnb and the hosts was excellent.

Our last apartment in Rome didn't work out as well as the others. The host met us and was helpful but his toilet would not function properly. He fixed it once but the second time it stopped up and would not flush was too much for us and we left for a hotel. The host offered other accommodations but we were done.

My real disappointment is with AirBnb. They pestered us as soon as we left one city for reviews. We did them. It was easy to be positive. Their tease is that we could read our hosts' review of us once we completed our reviews. We really had little concern for our hosts reviews of us but we did read them with no surprises. My wife and I are in our sixties so we are not much trouble. However the last review was half positive (our host did try and we liked the apartment next to the Vatican) but the plumbing failures were too much for us and a negative narrative in the review. AND it has not been published a week after I wrote it. The positive reviews that I wrote were published quickly. I hesitated to write a negative review but i felt I owe more to my fellow travelers than to my host. I am disappointed in AirBnb for not publishing my review quickly!

Refund policy means nothing had to cancel 3wks before booking due to a Heart Transplant date change and provided documented evidence, paid £344 and never got a penny back! AVOID!

Horrible experience. First of all worst customer service ever and they are not helpful at all.
We had to cancel our reservation due to some work related issues. Before canceling we called host and explained her and asked if its ok to cancel the reservation at all. She was nice and explained us that her cancellation policy is moderate and we will not get Taxes and cleaning fees(around $60) back. And we will get some amount directly from Airbnb and some we'll have to request to her through. So we did exactly what she said.
We paid $282 total and at the time of cancellation we got $107 immediately from airbnb(as she told us) and we got the option to request $114 from the host(as she told us). But we never got the $114 back. She made so many stories that she really wants to give our refund but she never got any refund request from airbnb. And Airbnb people said the host isn't responding to their calls or emails and they cannot process refund without Host's confirmation.
So long story short after talking to her and airbnb for a week they got back to us saying that Host has refused to refund any amount and they can not do anything!
We have all the emails and text messages from her and Airbnb but we never thought you can fraud people openly.
FYI the dates we cancelled someone else booked those dates(we saw the comments from the Guests).
Lesson learned for $175 that don't ever use Airbnb again. Rather pay little extra for some decent hotel.

They canceled my reservation the morning of the day I showed up. Got into Orlando to go to Disney world with my family, showed up to the condo at 9pm. They said I didn't have a reservation. When I went to show them my email confirmation, I saw an email cancelling my reservation that was sent while we were on the plane. After being on hold for an hour waiting for resolution, the condos we were supposed to stay at came up with another place for us. I never got any other explanation except that the host we were booked with violated terms of use. Arriving at a destination with your family and not having a reservation when you think you have one is the biggest nightmare of taking a vacation and I will NEVER USE AIRBNB AGAIN.

As a host, you have better options like Vrbo, that strike a balance between supporting both hosts and guests. Airbnb is arbitrary, high-handed, unresponsive, and completely uncaring that its host support is the worst in the industry.

Our most recent example...we have an apartment in a complex with a pool. The pool is under renovation. The information that the pool is under renovation, and the dates it is expected to be out of service, are clearly disclosed in our listing. We had a guest book and fail to read or fail to pay attention to that information. They complained to Airbnb and we were informed that they would issue a 20% issue and that "our approval was not required." In other words, it didn't matter what we said or that the information was disclosed in advance, they weren't listening and they didn't care.

So if you have a listing on a noisy road and disclose that it's on a noisy road then a guest complains that it's on a noisy road, Airbnb will arbitrarily refund them, ignoring and overruling any objection you may make that you informed guests the property is on a noisy road. If you have a listing where the elevator is being replaced and you disclose it's being replaced, then a guest complains the elevator is out of service, Airbnb will ignore anything you say and simply refund the guest.

Seriously, go with Vrbo instead. Both guests and hosts rate Vrbo far more highly than they do Airbnb.

My host decided to cancel my reservations 9 days prior to my stay in order to extend another customer's stay. What is airbnb doing to protect its users like me who are booking through them? Nothing. They offered me $15.00 extra on top of a full refund to help re-book another airbnb place (basically bribing me to continue to use their service) or just refund all my money back into my credit card. They left "host cancelled" on the host's page, charge the host a cancellation fee of $50.00 that benefits airbnb and drop the super host. The worst part was that I wasn't able to leave a review of the host that cancelled on me, rather they let the host explain why they cancelled on the renter, which doesn't make sense because the host will obviously lie which is pretty much a one sided story being told.

My host asked me to cancel twice so she can keep her super host status and not be charge with the cancellation fee. On top of it all, if i had agree, I wouldn't have got my refund. I feel like not being able to leave a honest review of the host and why the host cancelled on me leaves a questionable area in the whole business. Reviews are meant to be helpful in both ways, so Consumers can make a choice base on their opinions. But I guess after all, it is a business, so they only want the good reviews to be posted.