HousingAnywhere

I booked a room at housinganywhere. The foto's and video's are looking good on forehand.
But when I arrived is was horrible. Coackroaches, broken furniture, and the everything in the kitchen was broken. At the day I arrived there was police because the landlord was roughing out al the stuff of one of my roommates. Housinganywhere is not helpful at all. You pay 150 bookingcosts for the service. But if you call them to cancell they say you had to call them earlier. Housinganywhere give you 48 hours after you moved in. I moved in the 23th of August but my contract started at the 15th, so I should have cancell the booking a week before I arrived.

So far so good. Found my flat using this platforms. The 48 hrs guarantee period is higher than what other websites offer.

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.

I would like to aware people to not use the website HousingAnywhere. I booked a room at HousingAnywhere and the agency asked me the double amount of the deposit advertised and is keeping my deposit.
Also, when I entered in the apartment there was a mold odor and I confirm with one of the tenants that the ceiling of the shower was not treated and just painted on top. There was also a linking. The Kitchen was not as showed in the pictures actually the apartment had a broken front door, utilities and appliances not safe to use and a flammable dry vent installation. Basically a not safe apartment at all.
I contacted the support team and they could not cancel even it´s advertised that is possible to cancel in the website. They are asking for pictures and information but they are not able to send a cancelation. So, I have lost all my money about 2.4K and did not stay a day in the room. I am going to look for legal advice but it´s terrible the housing situation in Amsterdam and how companies are taking advance of it.

Please make sure you don't get lured into the scam! I booked a place with the supposedly excellent advertiser "Anne 31" and all the required information were only revealed to me after the money is deducted from my account, and it turns out that the email and phone number provided on the website is not valid, and she asked me to pay a deposit of 1000+ euros on the "Medici-living" website, and it's not functioning and I can't validate my email, so I got suspicious and asked Anne why should I pay the deposit upfront and she just ignores my questions for several times, and I searched for the housing agency online and it turns out it has terrible reputation and many people didn't get their deposit back even if they left the room in perfect condition. So I changed my mind and asked the customer service on housinganywhere for help and they didn't do anything except for convincing me that the advertiser and the housing agency is legit. When I asked about the deposit, they ignored my question again. And I saw on their condition that if you make a transaction with the housing agency their "excellent advertiser" provided, they will not take any responsibility for any potential financial loss. So I made sure to keep the chatting history with their customer service staff and requested a refund within an hour after booking, I still lost 150 euros! What a scam! Please DO NOT USE HOUSINGANYWHERE, if you prefer to to get scammed :)) )

First of all, you must know that the people giving 5 stars rating got lucky with their room ad. Housing Anywhere take 25% fee on the first month of rent just to check that the landlord is real, that's it, nothing else! It doesn't give you any other guarantee, and you don't know that unless you dig in the FAQ of the website. YOU NEVER GET A REFUND IF THE FLAT DOESN'T CORRESPOND TO THE AD OR IF THE LANDLORD IS UNTRUSTWORTHY. I got scammed with a room in Madrid that was in a really bad state and by a scamish landlord who said he would keep my deposit as soon as I sign the contract and I never got a refund when I wanted to cancel my reservation within the 48h "safety cancelation period'! I am now suing the company to get my 512 back.

Absolutely do not book through housing anywhere! They don't check whether the advertiser is the landlord and has the permissions to rent a room and they don't protect from scam.
I booked a room and paid my money almost 2 months before moving to Munich, the advertiser was not answering my emails (although she was really fast when accepting my booking and my money), so I contacted HA to make sure it was no scam, they told me that I unfortunately could not cancel my booking anymore and that I should just wait for her to answer. After sending many many emails to the advertiser (because I was never given her phone number) and calling the agency I could finally speak to her and she assured me that everything was fine and she was waiting for me. I could finally relax and I was just ready to move when, less than 2 weeks before the move, I received a call from her telling me that she didn't have the permission to rent the room and that I had to find another solution (she was not the actual landlord but she was illegally subletting a room). She also informed me that Housing Anywhere told her that I should be the one contacting them about the situation. Long story short: they were trying to make it seem that I was the one cancelling the booking, so that they could keep the service fee. When I discovered their game I insisted that they would refund me fully since there was no reason to keep my money or I would sue them and I finally received the money back. However, I had to look for another solution in less than 2 weeks (which is really difficult to do in cities like Munich).
In my opinion, this situation is very bad for such an agency, not only because they should check that the advertiser actually has the permission to rent a room, but also because they should protect who trusts them with their time and money instead of trying to earn from these difficult situations. I should have asked a refund also for the sleeplessness of these two weeks and the stressed that they all have caused me.

I cannot recommend HousingAnywhere. The tenancy agreement I received imposes rules of conduct on the tenant that cannot legally be included in a tenancy agreement. I was asked to agree to a schedule of charges that would apply if I received a warning about the rules of conduct. One of the rules in the contract states, for example, that the tenant may only host visitors on five days a month and must otherwise pay 60 euros per warning and that the landlord is entitled to terminate the tenancy without notice after a warning. This cannot be enforced by a tenancy agreement and is illegal. In addition, these conditions were not even remotely described in the advertisement placed via HousingAnywhere. So I was not informed of the provisions in the tenancy agreement before booking the room and paying the first month's rent.

Furthermore, not all payments were listed in the payment summary, as an additional service fee of 100€ for the landlord was not included in it.

For these reasons, I revoked the booking a few days after receiving the contract by mail and demanded the payments back. I also reported the landlord on the website. Many phone calls and emails did not get a helpful response as I was told on the phone that I needed to email. In the email responses, they did not address the terms in the tenancy agreement and only referred to the fact that, according to HousingAnwhere, I only have one day to cancel. However, this cannot apply if you are given an illegal tenancy agreement after booking.

The landlord also did not want to pay back the first month's rent, although he still had over a month after my cancellation to re-let the room in Berlin Kreuzberg, which would certainly have been booked again within one day.

All in all, I lost 730€ (1st month's rent + service fee) and am very unhappy with the customer service. It cannot be that you have to pay so much before receiving the rental contract and that it contains illegal clauses. HousingAnywhere writes on the website that they protect you from scammers and help you, but they do not.

I believe is one of the best option for exchange students looking for a room, is easy to use, is really safe. I strongly recommend it!