I felt I needed to try to redress the balance slightly as I am a little bewildered by the extreme negativity of these posts. I have been both an Flipkey host and Flipkey user for the past four years and based on my own experiences feel that generally, with one or two exceptions, Flipkey offers a great service to both travelers and hosts alike. HOWEVER - Flipkey can only be as good as its hosts and as good as its users.

We have stayed in Flipkey accommodation in the UK, and abroad. When my husband and I travelled across the USA, we stayed almost exclusively in Flipkey properties with host families and with the exception of one bedroom in New Orleans, were generally delighted with the quality of the accommodations, and the friendliness of the hosts. OUR LAST EXPERIENCE WAS 10 DAYS AGO.

Flipkey was a life saver on one occasion, when, due to flooding we had to make a 300 mile detour. We had to cancel the Flipkey we were heading for (the host was wonderfully understanding and refunded our monies), and when we found that every hotel and b&b in the area was fully booked with families fleeing the floods it looked as though we'd be stranded. We checked Flipkey and found a home within 3 miles - they took us in immediately just asking an hour's grace to get the room ready! And it was a lovely room too.

Even the room in New Orleans was fine - however, in the photos, the curtains to the window were drawn. We found out why when drawing them back -there was no view, just a massive air conditioning unit filling the whole window. The hosts were also quite uncommunicative - possibly because they had such a high turnover they could not be bothered to chat to ALL their guests.

As hosts, most of our guests have been lovely and often very interesting people. One or two have been less lovely and have seemed to forget that our home is not a hotel, but they were in the minority. We have an ensuite room in our house, so we are on the premises. Most Flipkey issues seem, in the main, to centre around properties where the owner is not on site.

I am puzzled by reviews that state that the host has the opportunity to vet guest reviews before they are posted. That just is not true. The system is that guests and hosts can do one review on each other. Neither can see the other review until both have been posted or if only one review is posted, until 14 days have passed. Flipkey will send reminders to guests and hosts to do these reviews during this time span.

We always review the guest straight away. In most cases, we receive a review back. We also have the opportunity to leave a public response to a review once they both appear publicly - for example, one guest review suggested that our guest accommodation just had use of a bathroom on the same floor. We were able to set the record straight in the public response (our accommodation is ensuite).

I do agree that sometimes, Flipkey seems weighted a little unfairly towards the guest - if on the extremely rare occasion we had to decline a booking for very good reasons Flipkey responded by sternly admonishing us to ensure that our details are up to date and meet guest requirements (this after declining a guest who informed us that they were terrified of dogs and might scream when they met ours! Our details state quite clearly that we have a dog that has a full run of the house).

That said, when we have needed assistance or advice, Flipkey has been quick to respond. You do have to go through a procedure before making direct contact with them that can be irritating, but I think this is almost certain because so many queries and questions are the same. When we have written with an enquiry or problem, we have pretty quickly had a response back.

Generally, we are quite happy with Flipkey and would certainly recommend it to other potential hosts and guests.

Good luck to you all - guests and hosts alike and enjoy the experience!

I used to be a host on Flipkey. My listing/apartment was very unusual in that... I rented out the bedroom of my small NYC apartment. I was doing this mainly because... I love hosting people! I love showing people around my city. And sure, the money was a nice bonus for me, but it was never the primary motivation. In fact, I only charged $60/night including breakfast, which for NYC is a real bargain.

Anyway, as a Single Female host and who would be sharing my small 1BR apartment and bathroom with 'strangers' (... I would sleep in my living room on a futon couch, behind a folding screen, with my guests in my private bedroom...), it was of PARAMOUNT importance that I know something about my guests and that I feel comfortable. But the Flipkey platform was not set up for that. My potential guests got to see my Photo, my Profile, Photos of my Home, a description of my home/neighborhood, and prior Guest Reviews (all 5-star). And what did I get to see about my guests? Nothing. No photo. No profile. No previous reviews. Nothing. So then I'd have to ask the guests for a bit of information, which at times was like 'pulling teeth'. If I didn't get a good vibe, or that the people seemed 'socially awkward' (the LAST thing I need or want in such a small apartment), I would politely decline. And for this, Flipkey PENALIZED me each time, telling me that if I didn't start ACCEPTING more total strangers into my home, and where I knew NOTHING about them, that my listing might be deleted. When I explained to Flipkey why I had to be so careful about my guests, they didn't care.

The last straw with Flipkey? I had guests from the Netherlands due to arrive to my home in NYC, and after they'd been travelling across the US in an R. V... they were due to stay in my small apartment during the HEIGHT of the COVID-19 crisis in March of 2020. I told the guests it would be best for all of us if they stayed at a DIFFERENT, LARGER apartment. The guests were rather 'nonchalant', and responded to me (via email) that they would cancel their reservation with me, and 'find a new place to stay' the next morning (the very DAY they were due to arrive in NYC). It was hard to communicate with my guests because they had no working phone in the US, and only had WiFi if in a coffeeshop, etc.

I am a VERY responsible host and a very KIND person. When I understood from my guests that they would not look for a new place to stay until the DAY of their arrival into NYC, I did not feel good about that at all. They are in a foreign country, in the middle of the coronavirus chaos. So I took it upon myself to find them a new Flipkey listing... a nice apartment, and which they would NOT have to share with anyone else. I paid with my own credit card. The new reservation cost $240 more than what they had paid to stay with me in my apartment.

I emailed my guests with ALL the information... that I booked them a new apartment... gave them the directions how to get there... the contact info of the host etc. I did the same with the host... gave him his guests contact info, when they would arrive, etc. The host understood my situation... WHY I made the reservation... that I did it to be NICE... on behalf of my guests. I then asked both the other host, as well as my guests, if we could all split the additional cost of $240... that these were unusual times. None of them responded to me. My guests did not appreciate any of my efforts.

I then called Flipkey... told them the whole story... and asked if they could do something for me... I lost $240 all because I was a responsible and kind host. Flipkey said there was 'nothing they could do'.

I then told Flipkey to cancel my account and listing. There is simply NO reason for me to continue to use them. They've always had horrid customer service, and they clearly do not care about anything than receiving their COMMISSIONS. Once they receive their commission, they are done with you, whether you are a guest or a host.

Now I just rent out my place via word-of-mouth, as well as to repeat guests from the past. I have screenshots of all my great reviews from when I hosted in the past via Airbnb, Flipkey, 9flats, etc. If you want to possibly rent from me directly, send me a note via this site, and we can discuss!

Everything seemed great - until we got to Apartment 1 "Clifton on Golden Mile" at 63 Victoria Road, Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa. (BR*******).
DO NOT EVEN THINK OF STAYING IN THIS PLACE.
This apartment was listed by Darryl and Ron Mink on Flipkey and Air B n B for R3,252.00 per night. We were charged R 6,041.00 and we have not been able to get an explanation as to why this happened nor have we had a refund. Both Flipkey and the apartment owners have been silent and completely unresponsive to our proof of this (screen shots of the adverts from both sites with exact dates of our booking) and we have not been able to get any satisfaction at all. The advertising says that this apartment sleeps 3 - that's only true if number 3 is a SMALL child - the apartment is TINY! The apartment is situated directly above and on a very busy narrow main road that is always filled with traffic and is very, very noisy. Dozens of roofless red Double Decker Free Tour buses thunder past all day blowing clouds of diesel fumes into the apartment! (keep all doors and windows closed at all times). Then there are the thousands of cars, bikes and bicycles going from Cape Town to Camps Bay and vice versa all day every day. The constant traffic and brutal noise starts soon after 6:00 am and does not stop until about 9:00 pm every day. This is not mentioned in the advertising! The advertising for this apartment states that there is on site parking - this is not true! Parking is by arrangement at a private roof top lot down the road. The advertising states that there is a TV - this is not true, there is no TV! The advertising states that the furniture is "eclectic" when in fact the furniture is old, mismatched and extremely uncomfortable! There were long black hairs all over the lounge room carpet and in both bedrooms and in the shower. Ugh! There was broken glass in the carpet in the main bedroom. The is one small air conditioning system in the main bedroom and it needs to be on 24/7 as it's the only source of air in the whole place. If you do not keep the louver shutters closed all day and all night there is NO PRIVACY in the bedroom! Just Great! The are no mirrors in the entire apartment except for a small one in the tiny bathroom. There are no electric outlets in the bathroom, so to use a hair dryer (remember to bring your own as what they have is crap) one needs to find an extension cord and plug it into another room outlet. The door handle to the main access door is broken and keeps falling on the ground. The door handle to the exterior front door should have broken off by now as it was almost off in January 2018. There is a safe in the apartment, but it is locked and cannot be used. The cooking utensils are terrible and the frying pan(s) are so scratched and stained that we had to buy a new one (and we took it with us when we left). The pantry had not been properly cleaned in ages. Whatever food we brought into the apartment we kept on the dining table. The toaster is tiny and one has to cut bread in half to get it in. The bathroom is internal and has no window - but it does have an exhaust fan that is as noisy as a jet engine but it neither sucks nor blows (so yes, it sucks!). There is no BBQ. There are no beach towels. There are no instructions as to how to use any of the appliances. There were light fittings without globes and no spare globes. Everything is the cheapest quality but the apartment is advertised as " Clifton on Golden Mile". They advertise that one can sit on the balcony, have a drink and watch the sunset. This is quite true BUT it's best to only do this if you are deaf as the noise from the continuous traffic is so loud and so constant that it's not long before you're back in doors. You can't even turn up the TV to drown out the traffic noise - there is no TV or radio. My advise would be - DO NOT STAY HERE! If you have a booking CANCEL OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. Rather stay in Cape Town or Seapoint as you have to drive around anyway and Clifton is a nightmare of constant traffic with no where to park. The owners have been Misleading and Deceptive in their advertising of this place and I now make you aware of this. Finally, there was NO ONE to greet us when we arrived and NO ONE to see us off when we left. We cleaned the place, left the keys in the apartment and left without a glance back. Our week in Clifton was memorable but for all the wrong reasons.

I booked a reservation for a home in Lake Arrowhead, CA - a very remote place, but a serene vacation spot nonetheless. I booked a property that stated in the listing "your pets will love it as well!... Feel free to let them run around in the fenced-in backyard" as I have two pets that always travel with me. After arriving late in the evening, we noticed a number of safety issues (a top stair leading to the home was rotten, an oven could not be turned off - upon inquiring the owner's assistant stated "that's just the way it is") but the worst of all is that the backyard was completely overgrown with foxtails, a plant that produces barbed seed heads that can be fatal to dogs. If yards are properly kept, foxtails do not consume an entire yard. Our dogs were covered from head to paw with hundreds of these barbed seed heads and they ran back into the home and these foxtails became embedded in the carpet of the home. We contacted the owner about this problem and she arrived intoxicated at the home and, upon seeing the gravity of the situation, stated that she does not recommend her home for us as it is not safe. The homeowner was compassionate abut the dogs - and I appreciate that. But that's where the compassion ended. We also had two small children with us on the trip who could not walk through the home because the foxtails could be embedded in their feet.

We followed every protocol listed on the website, as it was very late at night when the culmination of these safety issues came to light. We called the owner. We called FlipKey the next morning and explained the situation and told them we had to vacate the home. We asked for a refund (although we were willing to forego the amount of the night we actually had to stay) through FlipKey and they said the owner said "no". We disputed the charge with our credit card company, as the property was unsafe and unfit for consumption as advertised. We were then told that because we stayed in the property the one night we had to pay for the entire rental. There was NO OTHER PLACE TO GO. We were in a VERY remote place in California with one hotel in the city that was fully booked. Driving back home would have taken 4 hours and we had 2 small children and 5 other adults with us. Risk vs benefit is important to analyze here.

Basically, FlipKey has a VERY one-sided contract that benefits FLIPKEY - NOT property owners OR travelers. The contract is unconscionable in many ways. There is nothing practical for dispute resolution in the contract. We explained all of this, we explained that we made calls all night long to find different accommodations (and included phone call logs from our mobile phone provider bills) with photos of the problems. None of this mattered to FlipKey.

The purpose of this review is to make it known that a consumer is NOT protected when renting through FlipKey. They have a very one-sided, rigid contract that does not protect renters. We were told that they cannot be responsible for misrepresentation in an advertisement and FlipKey "takes no accountability for maintenance issues/amenities/services of a property."Basically, they only intend to act as merchant for rentals. They want all the upside, but do not want to take responsibility for bad listings.

TRAVELER BEWARE!

I booked a rental property in Wildwood, NJ with Flipkey approximately 6-8 weeks ago. I paid the initial deposit June 11 and the rest of the bill on June 29, well before the final due date in July. I was told to check in at 2pm, July 27,2017 and checkout would be 11am July 30,2017. I contacted the property manager about accessing the key to get into the rental property as recommended, the morning of July, 27. I did not receive a response until 2pm, the check in time, saying she could not get a hold of the man with the key to the rental property. I told her we would arrive at 3pm and to keep us updated. I was then told at 3pm, via text message as she was refusing to answer my phone calls, that the rental property was double booked and we would not have a place to stay and the booking was therefore cancelled. I called Flipkey to request a new property and report the problem at 3pm July 27,2017. I was told that no other properties were available in the area. I was told they would refund the rental funds once the property manager responded confirming the cancellation but she continually failed to answer my calls or Flipkey's calls until late that evening. I was also told we would have to find a hotel or other accommodations on our own and would not be reimbursed for the new accommodations.

In short:
- I paid for a rental property and was promised accommodations for 6 people for 4 days and when I arrived (after driving 5 hours) it was denied to me last minute
- I was told I would not be given a refund until the property manager responded to Flipkey which took half of a day delaying my reimbursement
- I would not be compensated for the last minute accommodations I had to make (which ended up having to be a hotel over an hour away)
- I had to spend an entire day of my vacation making phone calls and desperately searching for housing and driving another hour to a new location at which point all the food we had brought had spoiled.

I booked with Flipkey and was a responsible customer and in return my vacation was ruined and I was left to find a solution on my own with no compensation or face being homeless until I could get home. By failing to find me lodging or offering to compensate me for the last minute accommodations Flipkey and rental property managers are benefitting by double booking customers therefore ensuring they can always make money even if people cancel and then allowing paying customers to have ruined vacations.

Hosts Be Aware You can easily lose hundreds or even thousands with Flipkey / Tripadvisor

Want to list your home for short term rental on tripadvisor / flipkey? Youd better read this, based on our personal experiences. It happens time and again.

No matter what cancellation policy you have, or how confirmed a booking is, any picky or even shady guest can come in, spend nights, use all your facilities and leave without paying. The only dirty trick needed to pull, is to send an unfounded complaint saying property is not as expected, and tripadvisor / flipkey would hold back all rents a host entitled to, disregarding any cancellation policy, rental rules & facts.

Below are real events in detail.

We have been a host for years. What we offer is a private suite with its own separate entrance at our backyard garden side. It has its own kitchenette, bath, bedrooms & laundry. Our family lives upstairs.

We listed my suite on multiple websites, and get 5 star reviews from many guests. The first sentence of the property description says... private suite, in a 3-storey house...

Also we always send a greeting email to confirmed guests, saying... pathway will lead you to the walkout level entrance door, just ring the door bell & I will greet you there. In case Im away from home (or too late), Ill give you the code for a key lockbox...

It should be crystal clear to any sane person that - what we offer is a private suite on walkout level & we live upstairs.

In the afternoon of June 30,2017, a group who booked from tripadvisor arrived. We greeted them, chatted, led them into the suite & gave them the key. Later on, they asked if they can use the laundry detergent etc. in their in-suite laundry. While were telling them of course, we could see them cooking in the kitchen. Later, they asked us to show how to set up the sofa bed in the living room. We happily showed them & called it a day.

The next morning, we received an email from tripadvisor saying... the guest informing us that the property is not as their expectation, the guest has informed us that the property rented is the basement and they were not informed that the property would be shared...

Right away we tried to contact the guests, by texting to their mobile # and through tripadvisors own message system. We told them they should know thats what we offered from the beginning, based on clear descriptions & emails. And there is nothing shared, for they have totally separated entrance & every room to their own. We dont even live on same levels, and dont have to see each other at all if thats what they want. We also asked if they wanted to continue their stay or not. If not, please inform & release the dates ASAP, for its peak tourism season (Canada Day) & new guests may book any time. And we told them if someone else took any of those days once they release, well be glad to refund corresponding days rent to them even though they long passed cancellation/refund deadline.

No reply was ever received from the guests.

So all the days were still shown as booked by those guests, and couldnt be released to any potential new guest.

At the end of rent, we went down to do cleaning. Almost everything was used kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, towels, soap, toilet paper, washer & dryer... A side note, even though we clearly state and put sign on entrance saying no outdoor shoes please, multiple dirty shoeprints were on living room & bathroom floors.

But guess what, tripadvisor / flipkey not only refused to release the fund that we totally entitled to, but also tried very hard to trick / coerce us to refund those picky or even shady guests, simply due to their unfounded complaint of property is not as expected.

Our loss can be more than $1,000, for all those peak season days hold, booked, lived & not paid. Plus, it makes us feel really bad, for the tripadvisor / flipkey didnt help us at according to the policies, rules and facts. Instead, theyre obviously more interested in helping those picky or even shady deadbeats to bilk from us honest hosts.

And this is not a single isolated case.

So hosts be aware list with tripadvisor / flipkey and this can happen to you any time for any trip. Well have to raise rates on tripadvisor / flipkey, to cover this kind of situations. We dont have any similar things with guests booked from VRBO, HomeAway and Airbnb, through which we have more bookings.

I'm a was I host for flipkey/tripadvisor I sign up with them to ten my private room out to traveling guests. They was was eagerly signed me up and posted all of my photos of my place on their site. A few weeks on in a got a few confirmed booking one of them was for 3 days and the day before the reservation the woman texted me via tripadvisor asking the same question that was ask by her and co firmed almost a week back, "your ad states that you have a two bedroom one bath can you tell me if anyone less else is staying while I'm staying there" (the reply: as I answered this question before, the apt is a two bed room one bathroom I stay in One of the bed rooms as the ad states private room with shared bath) her excuse for trying to get out of the resovervation to flipkey/tripadvisor is that she didnt know that i was staying in my apartment even though she booked a private room in my apartment.
Flipkey/ tripadvisor called me to tell me that they will cancel the reservation for her on My behalf and I will have to pay a free of $150.00 for the cancellation, like what the fuc****k! Yeah! And this money will be forcefully deducted from future bookings. So this is my solution to them if you cancel this reservation for this woman and I don't get the late cancellation fees but instead have to pay a cancellation fee to flipkey/ tripadvisor please cancel all confirmed reservations and my account. They cancel the woman reservation but didn't cancel the other 3 or so reservations nor did they closed my account. Days went by and I continue to get inquires for my room from flipkey/ tripadvisor so I call customer seresvice again and ask that my account be closed and all confirmed reservations be cancel this time they advisad me that My account is closed and I will see an email confirming this. I got the email confirming the closing of my account but no confirmation of the canceled reservations so I desided to contact all of my confirmed reservations and told them that due to flipkey/tripadvisor unreasonable handling of my situation and are forcing me to pay $150. For reason way beyond my control I'll not honored any confirmed bookings I have with flipkey/tripadvisor. Even then when the vacationers demand explanations flipkey/tripadvisor Denis to disclose that they were unreasonably docking me $150. And that's the reason for the i teruption of their vacations. Flipkey/tripadvisor wants to ripoff poor people like us and ride us to the bank like a jackhorse and I wasn't along for the ride.

What follows is a factual account of our recent booking fiasco through FlipKey. I have never posted a travel review before; I am simply doing this to prevent other from falling prey to their business practices. I challenge any representative from FlipKey or parent company TripAdvisor to respond to anything I have stated here. Sorry in advance for the length of this review, but I encourage you read it in its entirety.

Next week, numerous family members from several states will be meeting for a reunion in Prescott Valley Arizona, two years in the planning. Eight months ago I learned a very large convention would be taking place at the same time, and hotel rooms would be very difficult to secure. This led to my good faith booking of a three bedroom residence for six family members through FlipKey. A deposit was made six months ago and the balance paid in full two months ago.

Approximately three weeks ago I saw the property we rented had been listed for sale three months earlier. I emailed the owner but received no response. I also tried to reach her by telephone, and was ultimate forced to pursued the matter through FlipKey.

I exchanged several emails with the help center, expressing my concerns, and had four telephone conversations with representatives at their India call center. While I was quickly connected to a representative each time, and they politely tried to assuage my concerns, they were extremely difficult to understand.

They did tell me everything was just fine and tried to reach the owner for us to have a three-way conversation. However, they were unsuccessful. A subsequent email noted they finally made contact with the owner, and that she had been locked out of her account which was why she hadnt responded to my emails. They provided another email address and phone number, both of which proved to be bogus. Apparently they did not validate these before passing them on.

Less than 10 days before our reunion, a member of the TripAdvisor Team emailed they were unable to reach the owner, but had sent a 24 hour letter before they would take further action. I was told by telephone they had a Crisis Response Team that would step in to provide a comparable, suitable booking should there be a problem with this one. The following day I received an email stating, as the owner did not respond, they would be taking... further action in this case. The representative wrote, I will now get in touch with my higher team and sort this issue for you. One of us will contact you and assist you. I would request you to give me some more time. Twelve hours later I received a rather terse email stating, I am sorry to see that your booking was cancelled and I can imagine how disappointed you must be. I have been searching for similar properties in the area to help you re-book, The message included four alternative listings the closest one being 70 miles away!

There are now no hotel rooms to be had at our reunion site and I dont know what we are going to do with our out of state relatives. This morning I called FlipKey once again and was assured a full refund had been processed. I am certain there will be no compensation for ruining our family reunion and not even token interest paid for the many months they held onto my money. I just hope this isnt just one more lie. It appears I will now have to seek a civil remedy.

Posted policy for FlipKey notes that they carefully vet all their owners. This may be true initially, but obviously there is no subsequent checking done. In our case they did nothing to verify the propertys availability, even after I told them the property was listed for sale months before.

If you are married to a particular time and city for your vacation, I strongly urge you not to consider FlipKey. This is the first time we used this service and obviously it will be the last.

I have been renting out homes for several years. I work with agents, friends, other sites etc. I have never had such a horrible experience. I started my one listing with commission, I did not want to pay $500 and not be sure of the quality or payout potential. I am glad I did not waste my money in that way.
Well inquiries we very few, I had one booking that was trying to be completed. And their website failed. This booking was hard to come by because of poor ability to communicate and navigate the website for me and the renters. Messages were delayed, we could not get or receive proper information. The client deleted their request and tried with a new inquiry. And we still had problems The booking would never move from pending status. They called costumer service because the transaction wouldn't go through. They could not get answers. I tried to call and would get booted out of the system. Multiple attempts were made by me and the renter to resolve this.
I finally tried to just have the renter call me so we could go thru the transaction again over the phone with out relay delay and website interference and not working. I was trying to book with flipkey while talking the renter thru so we both knew exactly what was going on and could try to trouble shoot. This was my only option since we both tried the website, it failed, and tried customer service and it failed. Well I then got notice my listing was removed for violating the shared contact info.
Which I did violate that, I was violating it in order to properly communicate and resolve the booking. I was not given assistance from flip key and had to take matters into my own hands. I am trying my darnedest to make this work so they make money off of me and the renter. And they disqualify me. I called a few more times, got thru, got transferred and was told I could pay $500 and rejoin but could not do commission only anymore. So their website, and customer service prove faulty and unavailable but their solution is to remove my listing, I loose my booking and can now pay $500 to resign?!?!?!?
I have no history of acting shady, no history of difficulty and their website failures and lack of customer service put me and the renter in a bind. I try to yet again resolve the issue so the booking will go thru and I am the bad guy, I am in violation. The representative I spoke to was kind but had absolutely no viable solution. He kept saying how I was in violation. No one could see how I was trying to get the booking resolved. I was trying to use the website and was getting road blocked. I was not trying to sneak away with a booking. I am very frustrated that I spent so much time and energy, I had a pending booking, and flip key ruined it all and I lost the booking, I lost that income.