They offered $25 discount of next booking I just chose to go else where

We had a terrible experience with AirBnB, too. Our host in Spain accused us of infesting her home with bed bugs. Complete fabrication! I refused to give in to her claim and let it go to AirBnB for resolution. After many phone calls and emails, AirBnB finally sent me an email stating we were in no way responsible and gave me a gift voucher. Four days later I received a second email stating we WERE responsible and they withdrew $584 from my credit card.

Long story short, I contacted two news outlets in Minneapolis. Both of them picked up the story. When the reporter contacted AirBnB for a comment before the story was going to air, they suddenly paid attention. My money they took for my host's bogus claim was back in my account immediately. After doing so, AirBnB asked the news station not to run the story. The news station still ran the story.

I will NEVER use AirBnB again. HORRIBLE customer service... no hotel chain would treat their guests like they do.

We had a similiar problem. We had additional people staying in one of our properties and notified airbnb. No one got back to us for a week. We kept calling and airbnb would not let us speak to anyone regarding the matter. It was unprofessional, our property could have been burning down yet no one may have got back to us for another week. Issue was never resolved in my favor with the extra persons staying at our property.

We didn't even get to that point. Found accommodation we liked but hosts have up to 24 hours to accept or decline, while your money is on hold. Lost 48 hours with more than $400 on hold looking for a place in Sydney, with the few remaining hotels booking out. Disaster. Never do it again.

We had a horrible experience with Airbnb. First, the "host" cancelled on us weeks after we had made and paid for the reservation. Then Airbnb who promised we would get a full refund (we have not), would help us find new lodging (they did not), and would give us a $200.00 coupon towards a replacement of equal or greater value (which they did not). And Customer Service was rude both on the phone and on their app for several days. And then they simply wrote "the case is closed". Really?

I'm a professional woman who does quite a lot of traveling (in non-pandemic times). I have never experienced anything like this and will not be using them again.

I am both a host and a user and these are the simple facts:
For guests.
- properties are not vetted and may not even exist
- estimated 30% of my clientèle come from bad airbnb experiences
- host / guest communication is not encourage which makes twice as difficult to work and often fails. Ie. Entry details and times are often a nightmare.
- You have to pay total upfront, but hosts get money after you leave. That cash is sitting in Airbnb bank accounts - however i have never seen a "internationally trust fund that shows they are not using this for cashflow which is very dubious and dangerous.
- Your risk factor is 3-4 more times higher. If you dont like the property they just refund you, however its a mission, and you have to find new accommodation at last minute which is sometimes impossible.
- host have an incentive to cancel last minute when they get a better deal. You are not guaranteed a similar place for that time. Dont ever book at peak period, unless you can make good contact with the host, but still thats a issue.
- Hygiene issue are not checked or there are no basic level they run by.
- Review do help, but also so many guests are subjective both ways.
- legal issues, they do not comply to with real estate laws and i have had several guests which want to book short term for a year. This is illegal in many countries and gives the guests no rights. Guest who book short term have very little rights, the law is cumbersome and has not evolved to cover you in most countries. You also dont have details tax/company number of who you are dealing with.
- try to google the person/name of place/address directly. As a host I need to communicate all my details to my guests. I am happy to pay the airbnb fee, but its critical for me to communicate to get the experience right.
- There are always additional fees like cleaning and bond. When using airbnb I never got my bond back, although host was very happy. It became to difficult to get back.
- There system charge in local currency/ US dollars for 1 person and can be very confusing. Ie. Is it US$ or Au$ - there is a big difference.
As a Host:
- because of the anonymity and i cannot charge a bond directly, my guests from airbnb are much worse, and leave the place in a much worse state than my direct guests.
- I don't give bad references for bad guests as they will just give bad references back. So I just dont give them a reference. This does not help other hosts.
- payment is slow, and guest have often left before you are paid.
- I would say 8/10 times, there are always more guests than booked into the property. Once I had 4 guests, 14 stayed. Parties etc.
- we cannot email our guest to give them all the entry details. When I add attachments - nothing goes through.
Its would be a better system if more transparent, and like some other sites, hotels, etc you pay on arrival. Paying total upfront is not acceptable practice. I would say 90% of there business is cash management and earning interest on your cash. Service and accommodation is secondary.

Had you stayed in a reputable and real hotel i. E. Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, or even a privately owned actual hotel or B&B and had a bad experience the management or owner would want to hear about it. Depending upon the severity of the experience you would be compensated in some way. With AirBnB it's a roll of the dice. You could have a great experience or a not so great experience. For the most part AirBnB and the hosts they have are not actual hotels. They are merely playing hotel.

I could say that you were lucky to even get a representative in person. I wasn't so fortunate, only got canned email messages that didn't help. However, it sounds like your rep wasn't helpful either, and unpleasant besides! I was traveling, never able to complete my application for the room I wanted, and finally gave up. That didn't stop airbnb from charging my credit card, even tho they didn't help me apply! They did later delete the charge, but I was shocked at such poor business practices.

I now stay at Motel 6, not fancy, but clean, reasonably priced, and my dog comes with me. You can call them and make a reservation on the phone with a real live person. Never had a problem with them. I even stayed at Lake Tahoe this summer, at the height of the tourist season, for $69 a night. Amazing!

My bad experience with one host was not reflected on the website and its reviews. It continued to be as suspicious as before, yet our experience was, in retrospect like it turned out to be.
I can understand that AirBnb does not want to limit its hosts, from whom they earn a living, so why should they shoot their own foot? Yet, for guests, this creates a Pandora box of uncertainty, if a problem rises. I've been less enthusiastic of AirBnb after this recent trip, even though my next host was excellent. So it can be a hit or miss. The concept is good, but better from the guest spending, if AirBnb is tight, yet fair, on the host.

Airbnb is complicated to use. Hostels are cheap, some very good as people reviews 100 % satisfaction as I stayed in Berlin. 20 bucks a nite, no tax and no service fee. Beds are comfy and friendly guests and staffs. You can get your own room too. I stayed at Minimal hostel in Berlin. Very happy and comfortable sleep. See online reviews. Same with santa monica California and Tokyo-japan.

In true form, Airbnb resolves hosts problems by just deleting the their account with the push of a button. This is why guests should book directly with the hosts instead of going through a middleman such as airbnb.

I couldn't figure out how to call airbnb after our poor experience, but the host said they would not budge anyway. It seemed like a great idea (and we had some good experiences) but the customer service from airbnb ruined it. I will not be using them again.

I don't have nothing to do with airbnb, i avoid them like the plague...

Unfortunately, yes. While I adore hosting, and love my guests, air bnb communication and customer service leaves MUCH to be desired. Every time I have had to rely on them it was a horrible experience and usually ended with ME having to figure out how to solve the issue AND my response rate, or something similar, being affected negatively.

Yes we had the same bad experience with them. Would never use again which is a shame as the place we stayed was great