AirbnbReviews 2,092

I just had my first bad experience when my host canceled a reservation I booked months ago for a place near the beach the week of 4th of July. Just be aware that when this happens to you, you only get the exact amount you paid back as a refund. They will give you a credit of 10% of what you paid toward another AirBnB location IF you can find another place on AirBnB, but maybe your experience would be like mine, where 2 weeks before the 4th of July, the only (one!) other place available in the area is 4x the price of what I rented. Even the hotel room I was able to find is more than 2x the price.
It does not make a difference whether the cancellation policy is strict or flexible, that policy only applies to guests, not the host. They have assured me that the host did have some serious personal reason for having to take her place down, and it's not just because she wanted to stay in a great place on the beach that week.
I'm not going to trash AirBnB because I've had a few successful stays with great hosts and places that turned out to be exactly what was described. Also, their customer service is good. When this type of thing happens, it's a bit lame that you can't talk to someone by phone, but the email back and forth has been prompt and informative, and they kindly gave me a coupon toward a future rental in the next year since the 10% credit policy wouldn't apply.

From the friendly greeting by Raymond, the property manager, the welcome basket with fresh coffee, tea, sunscreen and tequila to the quality bedding and towels, these were all ingredients essential to making our stay a memorable one... for all the right reasons!

First and last time! I will never use airbnb again. We were scammed with an apartment we thought we were renting in New York. It was extremely dirty and not as described. Airbnb does not appear to screen their host homes. Our host accused me of lying and taking photos of the room after we dirtied it ourselves. Airbnb worked with me as I tried to get a full refund but in the end they got the final say and only gave us part of our money back. It cost us over $400.00 to stay one night in a tiny room with only room for three and we rented for four. Two of us had to sleep on the floor as the bunk bed was not safe to sleep under nor was it accessible as it was so close to the wall. We could have stayed in a nice hotel for that price. There were many inconveniences including key issues which ended up keeping us locked out of our room and having to walk to an off site place to sort it out. We contacted Airbnb with full details of our experience and photos and still were sadly ripped off. I'm sure there are great hosts and those are what get the great reviews but renters beware because Airbnb does not have strict or hgh standards regarding who can host.

This place must write their own reviews. This is the worst place to arrange a stay in Quito. They come on as though they are there to provide a great place - but that ends once you arrive. If there is a problem - they ignore you or won't get back to you. Much better places to stay than here - a total ripoff and Air BNB - as usual - doesn't care enough to resolve issues.

I am new to Airbnb and I made a mistake which could have cost me a lot of money. Carl in Saratoga Springs, NY who has a WALK TO SPAC listings responded quickly and was extremely helpful and non-judgemental. I have read numerous horror stories about Airbnb but any company that attracts the like of Carl cannot be all bad. He restored my faith in both the company and the process. Going forward I look forward to the day I can report back that Carl's hospitality matches his efficiency and decency.

6-6-2015- Postmortem - this airbnb is a poorly run money grabbin unresponsive website. If you aren't uber tech savvy don't bother, this site is run by people behind the electrons with no interest in being accountable or responsive. You book & you don't know it, you contact them and they can't be called or emailed, they give you the biz & runaround by being unapproachable. Verifying who you are without any ability to respond or ask questions is unacceptable to me, maybe not others…. Approach this airbnb.com web site at your own risk!

Airbnb is actively allowing scammers to be verified on their website showing properties for rental! I have lost £1,044 due to this and Airbnb have not help recuperate these funds whatsoever! When speaking with Airbnb they have said it is not their fault that scammers are on their website and actively scamming people. If Airbnb are not doing anything to police their own site how can anyone be safe? This company is unwilling to take any responsibility nor perform reviews to prevent this from happening.

When looking at a property photos were advertised showing the property and stating to email first to get a quicker response on their profile and photos. During the sign up process I no pop ups were ever seen waring you of these dangers, though Instant Book was! Everything was their to part with your money not protect it!

Working in Fraud and Payments I am one which can spot these scammers a mile off though if I can be scammed it shows how easily anyone else can!

After contacting the Fraud Team and Police they have advised that this is aiding money laundering!

Airbnb when will you listen and actually protect your customers?

I booked a one night stay in a one bedroom apartment in Sacramento and had to cancel because two guests that we're going to split the cost of the apartment were unable to attend. So I cancelled. I paid $142 for the entire night and once I cancelled I only recived $35 back (this all happened within a 10 minute window when I submitted my payment and suddenly had to cancel) the rest of the $107 went to the Host, and Airbnb took $15. I contacted the host asking what to do to get the rest of my money back and she "acted" like she didn't know what I could do so I called customer service and they told me all of that money goes to her! I was furious because once I informed her that I was aware that she pocketed MY $92 her answer was "since I booked the place it went off the site when other users could have been looking to stay" which I understand but then she agrees to give me half, $46. So I gladly accept. She alerts me that she submitted the $46 dollars but to this day I have not received it! I was open and honest with her about the situation and kindly explained to her money is very important to me since I am a college student and am only working part time. I'm not saying everyone out there is like this but first impressions are the most important! I will NEVER use this site again and believe I will spread the word to family and friends to not go near this site!

You are all better off getting a hotel! At least you can get your FULL refund back!

If you're in the LA area, do not rent from Erick R. Through Airbnb! (1383 Hauser Blvd Appartment 8 Los Angeles, CA *******) I should have known from the beginning it was not going to be a good trip because the host was unresponsive until I contacted Airbnb and let them know he had not reached out with check in instructions.

I don't need much but expect the place to be clean. It was not. I came in from a red eye and was hoping to get some shut eye before a packed trip. My trip was only 5 days but each day was filled so I really did not have time to spare. First off, the parking is gated but off a busy street, meaning you have to stop traffic, open the gate, run back into your car, and park. When I first parked, the creepy neighbor downstairs peeked one eye out from behind the curtain to see who was in their lot. That's cool. I'm not easily scared.

When I got upstairs, there were hairs everywhere when I lifted the sheets. Hairs of all sorts included pubic hairs! When I texted the host, he said there were replacement sheets in the closet. I unfolded the supposedly clean sheets and there was a huge brown stain in the corner with a few splattered spots.

Furthermore, outside noise was extremely loud. I could hear their neighbors walking around in their homes, using the bathrooms, talking on the phones.

First, I tried cancelling online. The host said he could not honor my request because he was losing money. I got on the phone with Airbnb and told the situation. I told them I already went ahead and made reservations with a hotel bc I could not waste more time with surprises. I explained this to the host as well and expressed my intense disappointment.

Anyways, I get home to review the listing to find that I wasn't allowed to because I had canceled it! What a scam! The Airbnb rep said next time I should read the reviews (which I did). So, that makes me think... what about all those people that arrived, hated it, and canceled because they found pubs in their sheet too?! I would never know because they weren't allowed to review.

DO NOT USE AIRBNB! No traveler protection whatsoever. They tried to take the remaining 50% of the nights I canceled!

I had a 2 months reservation for Romania, the host seemed friendly and understanding, and everything was going great and shiny. Just until the moment I had to cancel my trip, because just 1 week before the flight my passport got stolen.

To be honest, when I filed for refund and applied for extenuating circumstances, I didn't expect much. Just "hey, it can't do any harm, right?" attitude.

You can imagine my surprise, when one of the support team guys contacted me and went through length to get all the details of the situation and give me the best deal possible!

As a result, I had a partial refund AND a voucher for the next trip. But, most importantly, Taylor was incredibly HUMAN in understanding the situation and her actual support.

You could feel that you are not talking to some automated response human machine on the other side of the globe. That's what was really precious.

Thank you, guys, I will definitely travel with you again!

This was my first time using airbnb and I will never use it again and never recommend it to anyone! I had a long term reservation (originally supposed to be 5 months) but experienced problem after problem.
1) My reservation was a long term and during it I occasionally traveled to other cities in the country for a few days, but would leave the majority of my stuff at the place I was staying in, thinking it would be safe. While I was gone, my host had put up a second listing of the apartment (which was two bedrooms, mine and hers) and rented out MY room to other travelers. She packed up all my stuff and would rent the room out to other people when I wasn't there. I only found out because I came back early one time, all my stuff was still packed up (taken out of the closet and shoved into my suitcase) and someone had forgot their slippers in my room.
2) I contacted airbnb about how I could move out without the cancellation policy being enforced, and they told me to just put in a request to alter the reservation and then I wouldn't be stuck paying the 30 day fee for not giving notice. Later that month I was charged $400 from airbnb and they told me it was because my host enforced her cancellation policy and they couldn't refund me the money even though they gave me misleading information.
Basically, airbnb gave me wrong information and I was penalized for it. They scam you out of your money! And to top it off I was living with a crazy person for almost 3 months!
Never use airbnb!

I am so upset. We put our house back on AirBnB because we enjoyed the nice people we met. Over the last two weeks we have lost three customers because the website, especially the payment system wouldn't work effectively (it could have been four customers but one had the sense to contact me privately). I spent an hour on on the phone this morning with their Customer Service (the number BTW is not on their website and I had to google it) and they said that they had fixed the problem. The CSR - who was extremely polite - said it was some sort of incompatibility between the e-mail I have on AirBnB and the e-mail on PayPal. He also said that he would send out an e-mail to my potential customers stating that it was AirBnB's fault not mine. Well the problem was not fixed and we lost another customer who got so frazzled she decided to stay in a hotel.

This is unforgivable. I did a lot of work and shopping to get the place ready for the guests and I am out of pocket by about $1,000.

Beware if you host or use AirBnB services.

Renee Jones

This is outrageous. For company valued at 10 billion dollars, I would think that they would care for their customer and acknowledge the obvious programming error that your computer system doesn't accept the coupon on your booking site. Also, that no one has the power to over ride "the system" to credit my coupon is not credible. Someone has that ability, who is that person?
I am no longer in your "community", as it is clear that your company's objective is purely monetary and takes no heed at all to valid complaints.
I intend to take my complaint further.