HousingAnywhere

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.

Scam service. Bait and switch. The apartment they advertised was fake. Staged nice for photos. After the 2000 euro was paid, the apartment looked completely different. Old, dirty and ripped bed, toilet not working, power outages daily, fridge power went out randomly so food went rotten. No air conditioning in bedroom, air unit in main room broken and works randomly. There were no utensils, not even a bottle or can opener. No proper cooking items. Not even salt or letter. No dish rags. The microwave blows any power in apartment.
Nice furnishings in photos were all missing, no coffee maker as shown in photos. No carpet. Bed / pillow coverings. The wash machine does not work. The toilet flush handle is broken.
The building entrance is dirty and not safe. The main door is always open in a busy street.
If you are a non smoker, you should know the apartment door is located right in front of the buildings smoking area. Chairs and ashtrays around the apartment entrance door. See TikTok video.
HousingAnywhere misrepresents apartments. Once they get your commission, their service or communication stops. The are hyenas.
Stay away. Read the multiple poor ratings on legitimate websites.

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!

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.

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

Rented an apartment in Athens, Greece.
The advertisement showed the room as the following:

3 housemates (mixed)
Private room in apartment
Truly amazing 4 bedroom spacious flat
Private balcony

The 'apartment' was dirty, had broken amenities, but more importantly, was not an apartment, but a room within a hostel, where all other rooms made use of the shared facilities. The room itself was pretty dirty but not unbearable, but the hostel was loud and unhygienic. A thumping techno wakeup at 7am on a Wednesday morning was the final straw in my case.

My experience was a blatant misrepresentation which has now been backed up by Housinganywhere, as they have used their liberal cancellation policy to side with the advertiser - requesting I provide proof of the number of people in the accommodation (despite the violation of privacy regulations) in my one day on the property, only so that the advertiser's claim of '3 occupants' falls in line with the original advert.
Have had to start legal proceedings on this matter.

Housinganywhere have shown a complete disregard for truthful advertising and tenancy rights, and I would strongly advise against renting a property through them unless all possible due diligence has been conducted on the property you plan to stay in.

Including the following in anticipation of Housinganywhere response - as was done on another advisor site.

I did not say you were a real estate agency, but as a platform that 'claims to use online resources to research listings' to authenticate properties - it's evident in this case that you have failed to do so, hence my warning about due diligence.

I also addressed those terms directly to the advertiser who claimed it was not a hostel, when a few Google searches for the term 'Acropolis View Dream, Athens', shows it most certainly is - and I have messages on record which he explains 'it can get quite loud, I did see mosquitos' etc etc.

You apologize for the inconvenience, but an apology doesn't help me recover a month's worst of lost accommodation fees (which go to the misrepresentative advertiser), or the other fees and trouble I had to go to in order to find an alternative accommodation, hence the legal proceedings which I am discussing with your colleague, or trying to at least without response.

Go with Spotahome or AirBNB instead.

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:

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.

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!

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

Payment methods on housinganywhere.com discriminates against residents in Portugal. They have bank payments for Poland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands etc.but not for Portugal. They insist on credit cards. My credit card is maxed out because I used it for my first months rent. I don't have time to pay the card down to use it for the deposit.(It take 5-10 days for payment to post on credit card) I move in in 3 days. I have asked the landlord if I my make a direct deposit, but have not heard back from her yet. They have also removed SEPA from their service. None of their payment methods work for me. It has been extremely hard to find a way to make first months rent payment. Come on housinganywhere add debit cards.we live in the computer age.

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.