HousingAnywhere has a rating of 1.84 stars from 177 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about HousingAnywhere most frequently mention customer service, bad experience, and month rent problems. HousingAnywhere ranks 7th among Student Travel sites.
This company responds to reviews on average within 7 days
So far so good. Found my flat using this platforms. The 48 hrs guarantee period is higher than what other websites offer.
DO NOT USE. They are refusing to refund a €960 booking fee for a reservation that was canceled within 6 hours because the reasons are "not valid." This site is a far cry from AirBnb where the tenant is protected. Anyone who has been robbed by this company, we should find each other and launch a class-action lawsuit against them. I don't see how they aren't shut down by a European consumer protection agency.
DO NOT USE. They are refusing to refund a €960 booking fee for a reservation that was canceled within 6 hours because the reasons are "not valid." This site is a far cry from AirBnb where the tenant is protected. Anyone who has been robbed by this company, we should find each other and launch a class-action lawsuit against them. I don't see how they aren't shut down by a European consumer protection agency.
Si vous avez la malchance de tomber sur un propriétaire malhonnête (dans notre cas Fabio e Barbara à Milan), Housing Anywhere ne fera rien pour vous aider. Pire encore, toutes les actions entreprises par Housing Anywhere le seront dans l'unique but de servir leur seul intérêt.
Pour un séjour de 6 mois à Milan, nous avions réservé un appartement de longue date, que nous pensions contrôlé par la plateforme Housing Anywhere. Hélas, nous avons atterri dans un taudis insalubre, misérable et mal tenu de 39 m² au lieu des 60 m² annoncés.
Nous avons bien sûr immédiatement alerté le gestionnaire de l'appartement qui n'a pas VOULU se rendre disponible pendant le délai légal d'annulation sous conditions de 48h, car celui-ci était en vacances. Ainsi, sans avoir pu le rencontrer, nous avons malgré tout fait valoir notre droit d'annulation dans les temps auprès de Housing Anywhere invoquant l'article 15.15 sur l'état d'insalubrité de l'appartement.
Dans un premier temps, nous avons reçu une fin de non recevoir de la part du site, le ménage ne rentrant pas dans les motifs d'annulation. Je tiens à préciser qu'il ne s'agissait en aucun cas d'un simple ménage mais d'auréoles de fluides corporels sur le matelas et la tête de lit en tissu, absolument tout le linge de maison et tous les tissus d'ameublement étaient souillés. Il y avait un mégot dans le lit, de la graisse coulait le long des murs de la cuisine et quasiment tout le mobilier était cassé et/ou inutilisable: par exemple, il n'y avait aucune chaise pour s'asseoir, la plaque de cuisson défectueuse était recouverte d'une autre plaque de cuisson d'appoint et le canapé coincé en mode lit au milieu du salon tenait sur 2 caisses en bois. La liste n'est pas exhaustive et toutes les preuves ont été envoyées à Housing Anywhere. A ce jour, au vu de tous ces éléments, nous ne savons toujours pas ce que Housing Anywhere entendait par appartement insalubre.
Scandalisés, nous avons fortement insisté auprès de Housing Anywhere, invoquant la seconde non conformité, soit la superficie de l'appartement que nous avions mesuré avant de partir. Grâce à la malhonnêteté du gestionnaire et de la propriétaire qui leur ont fourni un calcul fantaisiste de la superficie incluant la cave et la coursive, Housing Anywhere ne voulant probablement ne pas être plus inquiété, nous a finalement donné gain de cause, nous remboursant les frais d'agence et le premier mois de loyer et sommant la propriétaire de nous rembourser la caution s'élevant à 1 400 €. Encore une fois, pour des raisons fantaisistes et non justifiées, la propriétaire ne nous a remboursé que 940 €. Les événements se sont déroulés le 01 janvier et pour l'heure, ces personnes mal intentionnées nous sont toujours redevables de 460 €.
Si je comprends parfaitement que la caution devait nous être remboursée par la propriétaire, ce que je ne comprends pas en revanche, c'est l'absence de sanction de la part de Housing Anywhere envers la propriétaire. En effet, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, on peut encore trouver l'appartement sans aucune hygiène sur leur plateforme, affichant 46 m² alors que nous leur avons clairement prouvé qu'il n'en faisait que 39. Il y a plus grave encore, la propriétaire en question loue 13 autres appartements sur Housing Anywhere.Tout ça est incompréhensible, car étant donné les pratiques scandaleuses et le comportement agressif de ces personnes (gestionnaire et propriétaire que nous avons finalement eu l'occasion de rencontrer le 3ème jour), Housing Anywhere aurait dû prendre ses responsabilités.
En conclusion, nous laissons cet avis pour éviter à d'autres personnes de vivre la même fâcheuse expérience et espérons que les nombreuses critiques postées sur internet qui vont dans ce sens auront raison de cette plateforme qui manque de transparence, de sérieux, d'investissement, de prise de position, en un mot: malhonnête.
They've charged 200 euros but did not provide absolutely any security.
- I was denied viewing of the apartment.
- I've had to transfer a deposit **before** move-in day to some bank account that was not refundable.
- I've had to transfer a fee **before** move-in day to some bank account (illegal in the country I was moving to) that was not refundable.
- I've had to pay first month's rent **before** move-in day without having any chance to see the apartment beforehand.
- I am asked to sign a contract stating that I am moving in on the 1st day of the month, despite specifying move-in date 1 week later.
- HousingAnywhere support was unsupportive, basically telling me that it's fine that I have to transfer over 1 thousand euros, without any protection.
They provided absolutely no service, except take 200 euros from me and then give me scammy conditions.
Good day Anonymous,
We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback on your experience. We understand your concerns and would like to address them accordingly.
Firstly, we want to clarify that while physical viewings are not always necessary due to our 48-hour protection period, we understand the importance of feeling comfortable with your decision. We apologize if this process did not align with your expectations and will strive to better communicate this aspect in the future.
Regarding the deposit and fees, it's important to note that our platform operates across various jurisdictions, and deposit regulations may differ accordingly. However, it is our policy that deposits should be returned at the end of the rental period, provided there are no damages or outstanding payments.
We also want to assure you that requesting payment for the first month's rent and our service fee before move-in day is a standard practice to secure the accommodation and demonstrate reliability as a tenant. This process helps establish trust between tenants and landlords, especially considering that some of our landlords are esteemed partners who may require such measures.
Regarding the contractual agreement, we apologize for any confusion regarding the move-in date discrepancy. We will work to ensure that all contractual terms are clear and accurately reflect the agreed-upon move-in date.
In terms of support, we regret to hear that you found our assistance unsatisfactory. Our team is dedicated to providing helpful and responsive support to all users, and we apologize if this was not your experience. We take your feedback seriously and will use it to improve our services moving forward.
We value your feedback and are committed to continuously improving our platform to better serve our users. If you have any further concerns or questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us directly. Thank you for bringing these issues to our attention.
Best regards,
Curtis
Be extremely cautious before using Housing Anywhere.
We had to cancel our booking within 72 hours of placing it due to unforeseen circumstances completely out of our control. This date was more than 45 days before our requested move in date.
Housing Amywhere's strict cancellation policy refers to the Dutch Civil Code, which states that good faith must be applied to such situations as ours, however, their exceptions rule out almost every situation where good faith could and should apply.
We have subsequently lost €1848 (several months savings for our family) to Housing Anywhere and the landlord for effectively doing nothing; while they still have ample time to find a replacement.
I know that someone from Housing Anywhere will reply to my comment apologising as a form of PR damage control, but know that they have not been sympathetic to our situation.
I hate to think how they have treated other customers before us going through more stressful events and in worse-off financial positions.
My advice is to use almost any other housing booking platform (Air BnB, Spot a Home, Booking, etc) before resorting to Housing Anywhere, as their terms and conditions have far greater adoptions of the true meaning of good faith.
Good afternoon Jewelia,
Thank you for sharing your experience with Housing Anywhere, and we apologize for the inconvenience you've faced.
While we are committed to aligning with legal requirements and ensuring transparency, it's crucial to understand that personal reasons for cancellation are generally not considered valid under our terms and conditions.
We do offer a flexible cancellation policy for certain listings, but it's essential to select them prior to booking so that you can get the funds back if you have to cancel it.
We regret any misunderstanding or lack of sympathy you may have experienced. We aim to assist our users with empathy and understanding, especially during challenging times.
We appreciate your feedback and will use it to improve our services. If there's anything further we can assist you with, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Best regards,
Curtis
Das ist ein Albtraum für mich. Ich habe ein Zimmer in Hamburg bei eine Frau heißt Sandra gebucht. Nach der Buchung hat Sandra drei Tagen nicht auf meine Nachrichten reagiert. Nix.
Nach drei Tagen und nach viel Gesprächen mit dem Kundenservice hat sich endlich Sandra gemeldet und mir weitere Informationen geschickt. Überraschung! Sie hat mir einen Mietvertrag geschickt, was für ein anders Zimmer ist also kleine äs Zimmer und billiger auch aber ich sollte für das teiers Zimmer bezahlen. Außerdem soll ich extra für das Internet bezahlen aber Online war das Internet Inbegriff. Deswegen habe ich die Kundenservice um Hilfe gebeten. Und mir wurde gesagt, dass ich die Buchung stornieren kann. Nach der Stornierung habe ich ein Email bekommen dass ich gar nix zurückbekommen... total schlecht Service. Ich empfehle niemanden. Leute Vorkasse Miete ist sehr sehr doof
If I only knew for this review site before, I would save 700€ which is not even one salary in my country. Nobody will return this to me. They do not give tenants to visit place before moving-in, that's why this thing hapens. They do not even know in which conditions are apartments they advertise. Never again! Very bad experience. Waiting for weeks for theis reply and accusing me to lie...be carefull!
One of their 'most valuable' landlord has accomodation in pictures:
Useful for finding a room in a lot of places! I used it in Amsterdam and Madrid as well. On the second one I had a problem because the room was not what the person announced and they reimbursed me all my money back!
Finally I could find another place through it! Easy and much cheaper than other alternatives! Thank you Housing Anywhere!
I have a crucial warning for you, and I want to convey it in the most authentic way possible. Please, I implore you, steer clear of this particular service I had a disastrous encounter with. It may seem similar to AirBNB, but let me assure you, it's far from it. Here's my cautionary tale:
Picture this: You transfer your hard-earned money to the service, thinking you're all set after signing their contract. But hold on tight, because here comes the plot twist. Suddenly, they spring another contract on you, demanding even more money to be sent to some unknown company. Can you believe the audacity? Naturally, I refused, and you won't believe what happened next. They had the nerve to cancel my booking and make off with a staggering 1090 euros from my pocket!
Now, let me tell you, I'm in complete distress. That money was meant to cover my accommodation expenses for the entire upcoming month, and now it's all gone. I'm at a loss for what to do, and I can only imagine the endless struggle ahead to try and recover it. It seems like Anna (or perhaps a bot named Anna) finds it perfectly acceptable to leave customers high and dry, robbing them of their funds for an entire month. This kind of attitude towards clients is simply disgraceful, and this woeful brand seems to be okay with it.
Believe me when I say that I am under tremendous stress right now, and I'm begging you from the bottom of my heart, learn from my mistake. Never, and I mean never, make the mistake of booking with this service. If everything goes smoothly, you might be safe, but the moment any issue arises, mark my words, they'll treat you as if you're worthless, an insignificant individual.
I beseech you, spare yourself the agony and avoid this service at all costs. Please take my warning seriously and protect yourself from this nightmarish experience.
Initial booking turned out to be with a landlord which has numerous public complains regarding the return of the deposit. As I tried to cancel the booking (providing both evidence of customer complaints and additional requirement to pay the deposit without signed contract), Housinganywhere refused to return the fee on the basis that this is not a scam, as apartment really exists. De facto, the site that purports to protect tenants from scam is a scam itself, charging fees irrespective of the quality of listings.
Tip for consumers:
No scam protection. Just smaller scam.
Horrible experience - Took 5 weeks to contact me after they assured me 2 - 5 business days to process a refund for a booking cancellation request
Was emailed once by the so-called financial team and then told they had given my 1800€ away to the advertiser despite never staying there. Beware: they do not care one bit about contract terms and will scam you
AVOID and save your money
Tip for consumers:
SCAM COMPANY
In the beginning everything was fine, I rented a bed in a hostel via their website for 500 eur and 150 eur adminstration fee of housinganywhere. But in fact it turned out not to be as advertised. I emailed to support, where I described the reasons and attached photos to request for refund of room renting.
After a day I got a reply that my request was being processed and it would take a maximum of 2 working days. Half a month passed, I have got neither my money nor house!
I booked a room a while ago and I am moving in in a few days, however the landlord just suddenly cancelled my booking. How am I supposed to find a new place in a few days and they are not taking any responsibility. I already wasted 52 euros on the subscription and all I get are troubles. Many places on the website said room available but are actually not available. Scam your subscription fee money and not helpful at all.
Tip for consumers:
Always have a back up plan because they take no responsibility if they cancel last minute and expect to waste your subscription money.
Ho scoperto questo sito quasi per caso e subito è diventato il punto di riferimento per i miei studi all'estero. Tramite il portale in pochi passaggi si riesce ad affittare la propria stanza per brevi periodi e soprattutto se ne riesce a trovare un'altra per lo stesso periodo nel luogo dove andremo a studiare. Il servizio assistenza ti aiuta in tutti i passaggi chiamandoti nel caso avessi dei problemi a pubblicare. Superconsigliato!
Booked a room without lock and the team refuse to give a refund for the service fee despite giving them all the proof. Beware everyone it seems like they will try their best to scam the service fee. Spoke to curtis from the account team and he told me that "i have enough of your nonsense" in the phone. What kind of service is this? Bad customer service. Should really train their staff. WILL NOT RECOMMEND! IT IS A SCAM!
Very good platform, super efficient. With Housing Anywhere, I could rent my room in Lille before leaving for a year in Finland. It allowed me to have enough money to pay for my rent in Finland, and I left without worries, Housing Anywhere being a sort of "guarantee", that I needed because I couldn't give my room to a random student for a year. Few days after I posted my ad, I already had a few messages of people interested.
After a my reservation confirmed with landlord I paid first month in advance to make it robots (site policies) after 5 days 21st Feb the landlord said that they want a February rent I have to pay it since my reservation was on 1st of March. If don't they will cancel. I said it is not fare to pay for a month that already has a week left to move in. They cancel the reservation and didn't pay for any damages and funny part is that it took 24 days to refund my money not to mention more than 10 times that I called for the answer.
Overall I strongly suggest not to get involved with this site.
Little protection to tenants, gives better terms and conditions for landlords, also the banking transfer is extremely slow (4th day and landlord still hasn't received my money...) I recommend to not touch this site if you're far away and hoping for easy booking, since July 2023 housing agreement MUST be on paper in Netherlands so if you're looking for housing there, stay away from this site. If you have paid the deposit and first month they can take your money and the landlord can "kindly" return it to you but can also take it for "damage", damage for not showing up on appointment (doesn't matter if you had a seizure and woke up on floor or didn't wake up, it's the same for them) can cost you even 3k euro. Stay away.
Tip for consumers:
Stay away from this site.
Products used:
Booking housing
I just had the worst experiencie on my life buying on internet, this website will make you pay fees in two diferents websites and when you notice you are paying extra taxes in a new website and want to cancel the booking they keep the first stage fees so now im talking directly with my bank to cancel the whole transactions on this scam website.
After my stay there has been an issue of the deposit refund. Housing Anywhere states that this is not their concern and they can do nothing to aid me. More so they do not make reviews of the landlord visible on their page making it impossible to truly know if there have been prior issues with a landlord making my review and many others meaningless as well as attempting to mitigate these issues impossible
Tip for consumers:
try and request the reviews of landlords before making a booking
Products used:
service that connects tenants and landlords
Ho utilizzato questo sito per trovare casa mentre ero in Erasmus in Spagna e devo dire che, pur essendo un po' scettico inizialmente, mi sono trovato veramente bene! La casa era esattamente come me l'aspettavo! Arrivare e sapere di avere già la casa è proprio una bella cosa! Consigliato
Do not trust this website. They accept your booking and then cancel on you and do not offer refund. I am planning on going to the police, do not trust them.
This extremely unreliable and breach of contract person has now been written to for the 6th time by HousingAnywhere. Nothing happens on the part of the defaulting tenant.
Now HousingAnywhere (HA) has contacted me with the statement that I have the contract with the tenant and not with them. Therefore, they can do nothing further. However, I have the contract with the platform and now feel left alone. Unfortunately HA is so cheeky and takes their fee right away in full with the first month's rent. If a problem then arises, they are fine. I will never book or rent anything through HousingAnywhere again.
I recommend this website. It is way better than all other platforms which do no take care of their customers. Housing anywhere is the only that can guarantee security. Use it!
Be careful! There are people *******@housinganywhere offering apartments that are not even available! You pay 26€/2 weeks or 34€/1month just to contact the landlord for an apartment that has never been available. I asked customer service for a refund. All I got was an information on how to cancel my subscription. So I paid twice the subscription fee (total 60€) to contact fraudulent landlords that do not even have the apartment available and HousingAnywhere does nothing to protect customers! What a shame!
I had a contract in Iceland, I shortened my contract by a substantial amount a month and a half before my move in date. I called upwards of 10 times to housing anywhere trying to get refunded for those extra days that I would not be staying there. It should have been a simple process because the land lord said that it was completely fine on his end.
Every time I called it was always the same story. They always said "we are working on it please call back again in a few days" which I continued to do for a literal month, and then three days after my contract started I got a message from them explaining how it was too late to do anything at this point.
The worst housing site I have ever used. Especially the financial department was horrendous.
I have a long list of names of the people that made this likely my worst customer support experience I have ever had. There is not point in writing them down though, the damage is already done and I will never use housing anywhere again.
The international student housing platform for exchange and internship students
Dear Stefanie,
We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback, and we're sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with our service. Our terms and conditions are readily accessible to all users, outlining the guidelines for cancellations and refunds. While we understand your frustration regarding the cancellation of your reservation, our policies are in place to ensure fairness and consistency for all parties involved.
We strive to provide dedicated customer service to address any concerns or issues that may arise. We have thoroughly reviewed your case and have already offered compensation in accordance with our policies. However, we regret that this resolution did not meet your expectations.
We take customer feedback seriously and are continuously working to improve our services. We encourage you to reach out to our customer support team directly if you have any further questions or concerns. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention, and we remain committed to resolving it to the best of our ability.
Best regards,
Curtis