AirbnbReviews 2,091

We tried airbnb for the first time. We secured a Montreal downtown loft. It advertised air conditioning. When we arrived, it was +33 degrees C outside. The inside of the loft was just as hot without air circulation. The window air conditioner was blowing air, but clearly not enough to cool the place (either broken or simply not big enough unit). We called owner. Owner said it was too late to call technician. He came over with a fan. We spent one of the worst nights ever in an accommodation. We paid $235 for one night of hell. We could have gotten a decent hotel with air conditioning for this price. The issues I have with airbnb is that you have no recourse if there is an issue. If this had happened in a hotel, they would have put us up somewhere where it was cool, or they would have refunded us for our experience. Other issues is the ridiculous cleaning fee they charge. Isn't cleaning the cost of doing business? If you need to cover this cost, then build into the price. We left the place spotless except for 2 used towels and bedding. It was stated on the site that renters remove all of their garbage before they leave, wash their dishes, and if shoes are worn in the apartment, renters will be charged additionally. We were appalled when the property owner walked into the space with his shoes on. With a hotel chain, you can usually know what you are getting. If there is a problem, they will do something about it to keep your business. With airbnb, your only recourse is a bad review. We wrote to airbnb, and so far, we have received nothing back.

My first (and last) experience with airbnb was trying to book a space. The listing was reasonably priced and perfect for my travel dates. My reservation request was declined. I assumed that someone else has requested the space before me. Turns out the listing was reposted that day for $60 more a night. I was curious so posted another request for the reservation. The request was denied. I am betting the price goes up again today.
Contacted airbnb and they said they can't control it and have no repercussions for hosts that raise their prices in this manner. Good luck with that business!
The host, by the way, is "Shannon" in Las Vegas. I'd suggest you stay away.

We used airbnb to arrange what we expected to be lovely cottage accommodation for family visiting for our wedding. With less than a week to go our booking was cancelled adding huge amounts of stress - I had been recommended airbnb by a friend but wish I had read this sights in advance as had I known this could happen I not have used airbnb.

Airbnb offered an extra £100 towards another booking but with so limited notice of the cancellation any remaining accommodation in the area was either too much or unavailable.

We had a great wedding but the whole experience would have been much more pleasant had we not used airbnb. I am sure you can get great value accommodation if you are lucky but I believe that our experience shows it cannot be relied upon - please avoid our mistakes.

To all travelers who may wanna choose accommodation from airbnb, I have a bad experience to share. You can find the link of this dishonest host below.

The host requested that we should not make noise at night, so I always reminded myself and I did not make noise. However, they forgot to tell me that I could not shower after 10pm or the neighbors would be disturbed. After the host told me not to do so in the next morning, I apologized and he accepted it, and I did not do that again. And everything is fine until I left a good review on the host profile. She, the another host, accused me as a noisy guest and disrespectful of house rules, which I am furious about that. Why should I withstand this after obeying her house rules, or maybe because of her mistake to forget to tell me not to shower? Plus, she has a very bad attitude and being offensive when I asked her why she accused me in this way, such as saying 'are you normal or what', but every word I said to her is based on fact and show my kindness. I wish I can upload our conversation here so everyone here can have a clear picture.

The purpose of this post is to protect all travelers not to go for the wrong host. After all we guests deserve to have a comfortable stay, right?

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/*******

Terrible consumer service. The house we rented in Washington DC was poorly located, in a neighborhood where we didn't feel safe. Police was everywhere around the house and we couldn't walk on the streets feeling safe. The house host didn't leave one drawer or one spot where we could put our cloths and belongings. They left their stuff everywhere which really gave us the feeling that we were living in someone else's shoes for one week. We felt very uncomfortable. When we asked for partial refund, Airbnb and the owners didn't care. We were very unhappy about our first experience and will never use Airbnb again as I've heard since then that this kind of poor experience happens a lot with rentals through Airbnb.

I have been waiting for over a month for them to get me a payment for my first hosting. Some problem occurred with them sending a check and then they couldn't find it. I sent a message, it was ignored. Tried for half an hour to find any phone number, called and the issue just got passed on to someone who sends a senseless reply every two days or so. I call to complain and they say there's nothing they can do. I'm preparing to take legal action against them at this point. So incredibly frustrating!

I have to cancel my booking for October as my travel companion had a death in her family. I am trying to talk to some one live to talk about how I go about cancelling under the exceptional circumstances category as listed on your website. The booking has a 50% non refundable clause,,, pls email me with a contact that I can talk to about how i proceed... thank you
Here is an example I cant get a response from anyone... customer service is a ghost operation..

Good points:
20/25 minutes to the beach
Close to Dizengof center and lots of restaurants on King George
Good air conditionning
Good fridge
Lots of towels

Bad points
The place was DIRTY
Plugs and wiring looked like an after thought
Balcony was probably never cleaned than the appartment
BUY an INTERNET card as we did get an occasional connection ( very occasional)
We managed to get the internet reimbursed as well as $55 which was supposer to cover the cost of cleaning.
The buiding is very run down as is the appartment. OK for young people needing a place to crash. My advise: pay a little more and get a nice place.
First experience on Airbnb, unfortunately not what I expected.

In what I initially believed to be fortune to find housing in Houston through airbnb.com has turned out to be a nightmare. I had contacted a host in Houston to stay at his home for a month's stay at a rate of $640, which was a fairly good deal.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances I cancelled my reservation upon three days of stay. Not only was I slammed with the full month of rent at $640, I had to pay another $200 of fees directly to airbnb. I have tried to resolve this issue with the host, who is nothing short of unreliable and sketchy, and airbnb.com representatives, who evade my questions by citing nonsensical bureaucratic terms.

To those who are feeling even a bit doubtful of using this site, I strongly recommend going the tried and true route of booking a reservation through a hotel, or if you are staying for a longer duration, signing a lease with an established apartment.

I am thoroughly disappointed by the lack of transparency and unprofessionalism on both the host's and airbnb.com's part. Please heed my advice and don't make the same, impulsive mistake I have made.

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(As of August 22,2015)

I have just been refunded $175 from the host and $125 from airbnb for the fees. As such, I am obligated to acknowledge airbnb's part in making efforts to mitigate problems and cater to their customers, and am thoroughly impressed.

I just filed a complaint with the CA Better Business Bureau against AirBnB. After being "sold" a flat in Paris with a working elevator, I arrived with my handicapped mother to find a 4 story walk up with the elevator out of service. My mother was trapped in the flat for 2+ days until it was fixed. The host told me he would give me a refund, but I paid $2295 and he only refunded $800 ("take it or leave it" was his response). So, I took it, thinking I could file a claim with Airbnb for the rest. When I called Airbnb the representative I spoke with agreed that I should get a refund, but when they finally got around to reviewing my dispute, it was denied, the reason was that "I stayed in the flat." Apparently Airbnb's solution for their customers is for the customer to leave the flat and walk the streets looking for a new hotel last minute. If I would have done that, I am sure I would be out both the $2295 and the cost of the new hotel. What abysmal service for a travelhost website. BEWARE OF AIRBNB -- they will scam every last dollar they can until the regulators or a class action lawsuit shuts them down.

I booked a place. Turned up and owner wasnt home.
So i booked another place.
Called Airbnb to cancel the initial one as i was mucked around.
They cancelled it, but never refunded the money.
They said it is upto the owner to refund the money as there is a strict cancellation policy.
There was no regards to me as a customer and all the dliema i had to go through.
Will never use them again.

And on top of this, the owner mentioned it is a Belle Air mansion, beautiful outdoor setting like your on a yacht etc etc. None of this was true. The house was just a simply two story, with lots of junk around.

It always feels like Airbnb is trying to sell you something. The headline prices don't include the service fees and cleaning fees. And the customer service they provide is all about minimize the effort they have to provide. Rented a really dirty house that looked clean in the photos. Airbnb doesn't offer any useful recourse.

Airbnb disabled my account without any explanation back in June 2015. Well I think it was back then since I don't login into my Airbnb account that often. Anyway, I've had used my account twice since creating my account in 2014. First time when I booked an apartment in Europe and second time when I booked another apartment in the States. On both occasions, I received great reviews from the apartments owners and I wrote great reviews back about them as well. Everything was going smoothly. Two months ago, I wanted to check apartments in Europe again, but when I logged in, it prompted me with a message telling me "my account has been disabled please contact support". I contacted support thinking it was a simple mistake. However, they replied, "We've reviewed your account and determined that you have violated Airbnb's Terms of Service. As a result, we've decided it's in the best interest of our community to deactivate your account. We'll contact you if anything changes in the future, but until then, we won't be able to assist you any further with your account issues".
At first I thought it was a joke, so I replied back and asked them to elaborate on how I violated Airbnb's terms of service. No one replied to my email. I emailed them again without any reply. So I decided to go on twitter. After my first tweet, they replied and said they are going to look into my account. After few hours they sent me another email stating the following: "We regret to inform you that we'll be unable to support your account moving forward, and have exercised our discretion under our Terms of Service to disable your account(s). This decision is irreversible and will affect any duplicated or future accounts. Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the action taken against your account. Furthermore, we are not liable to you in any way with respect to disabling or canceling your account. Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We'll contact you if anything changes in the future, but until then, we won't be able to assist you any further with your account issues".
Now I started to get really angry because Airbnb is treating me unfairly. I haven't done anything wrong. And as I said before, I've only used my account twice with no problem what so ever. I think it is my right to know why my account was disabled. They just stopped replying to my emails. Very unprofessional

Like so many other reviewers who were cancelled by hosts, i had my booking in Paris cancelled one week before my stay. I must say that the AirBNB customer service rep gave me a generous credit on another booking. That booking was with a firm that managed 40 AirBNB properties. I soon found that the original concept of a host being someone who rents their home to a traveler has long been lost. When we arrived the cleaning staff had left dirty linens, etc. behind. The person who greeted us was a harried young man who hurried through the details of the place while complaining about the cleaning staff and the previous renter. We noticed that there was no soap and limited paper products. He explained that they had a small office and could not store such things and it was up to the guest to buy them on their own. Then he left us with what we found was a broken refrigerator. When we contacted him it took until the day of our departure before he arrived explaining that I was "rough" with my demands about the soap. I must mention that we paid $600 a night for the place. I don't think asking for soap makes me a "rough" guest. Seeing that AirBNB is now becoming a glorified hotel service I might as well just book a hotel in the future and not pay AirBNB a service fee.

I had renters in my small studio condo and then they decided to have two additional guests. I sent a request to airbnb.com for the renter to pay an additional amount for the two guest plus and additional security deposit as stated in the online contract. It has been 5 days and there is still no resolution or anyone available at airbnb.com to handle the matter. So in the mean time my 600 sf condo is being abused by 4 people with A MAXIMUM OF 2.

Airbnb.com representative are not proffessional and are unable to take care of any matters. I have called 5 times, its been 5 days and no word from airbnb.com. NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!