Airbnb

We booked a family trip to Mexico and used Airbnb for two of our family members. With only 23 days before our trip, the host cancelled. Then he re-listed his property under a different name and raised the price by 50.00 per night. Then he took advantage of the high demand over New Years and it was unavailable for us to book. We were left with no accommodation. Airbnb customer service strategy is basically to pass you off from one person to the next with no resolution. After spending thousands of dollars on airfare we learned a few lessons - buyer beware and don't take a risk with this shady business.

I posted a recent complaint about Airbnb on their facebook page, not only did they remove it. They sent me a personal message acting like they had good intentions, only to lead me to a dead end like all of their other representatives. My bank will reimburse the funds I recently wasted on an airbnb trip, but my advice to future airbnb users, please read their terms and conditions. If there are any issues with the property you're staying at, document it in videos and photos, because airbnb will not reimburse you in anyway. Their customer service is completely despicable, don't waste your time with them. Contact a lawyer and seek advice before proceeding.

Airbnb does not care if people are renting out an apartment illegally without the landlord's consent. My family rented a place (well below market value) to someone that has rented the apartment over 150 times in the past 4 years. I contacted Airbnb and they did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation. It's really disappointing to see a company with such poor ethics.

No accountability. Homeowners are much more important to Airbnb than customers. So if you have a bad experience at a location, like we did, they will side with the property owner. Even if the property listing has other complaints from guests Airbnb won't pull it and loose the revenue. Their system is corrupt. Use a strong credit card like Amex so you have a chance of disputing your issues, or book VBRO.

I paid over 100 a night for this trashy Airbnb. They only refunded me 50 even though there were missing Amenities and the conditions were unacceptable. She even listed the wrong address causing me to be on someone else's property for 20 mins with dogs barking at me and my kids. They say Aircover would take care of this but won't explain why I should get $50 when I had to stay in another hotel instead of in this trap house.

Booking was a complete nightmare. Certain amenities listed in contract will not be accessible during our stay, such as beach access from property. We specifically paid for this location because it's beachfront with direct access on a NO DRIVE beach. Asked for fair compensation for this HUGE inconvenience. We were offered $34 out of our total paid, $842 for 2 nights. Remember, Can't access beach from property! We're told to drive down to a public access location! Our concerns and disappointments have been constantly dismissed and gas lighted. We are so upset at how our trip turned out and how Airbnb and the property handled our issues. Make sure you read the fine print on BOTH contracts (airbnb and property) before you commit to any contract. Ask any and all questions prior to payment and have them put it in writing. This will be a valuable lesson learned for us. Never again.

Air Bnb exist just to make money, once you're booked, you have no protection if the place is not what it said to be, they don't inspect these places, they don't work personally with owners. We stayed at three places, all filthy. I'm in london for cancer treatments and the place we got had mites and we all got infested, the landlord said it is our responsibility to keep things clean, how is that when we don't own the mice infested bed? This could cause my death to be honest. You are better off at a hotel where there is quality control. You get what you pay for, they're not exactly cheap anyway we just wanted a kitchen, a serviced apartment would be better, hard hard lesson learned. I would not recommend airbnb to my enemy. I won't even give airbnb one star, the worst company I know.

I have used AirBnB quite a bit, initially as a guest, and more recently as a host. For those like myself who detest hotels, it is a great option when traveling. I have had nothing but positive experiences so far with the company, the hosts, and my guests.

Yes, in order to use AirBnB you do have to send them a photo of your ID, verify your email address and phone number, etc. But this is just due diligence on their part, to ensure a minimum level of safety for their hosts and their guests, and I would not use their service without these basic precautions.

Perhaps most of the AirBnB reviews here are negative because most people don't bother to seek out a reviewing site unless they have had a bad experience.

As a landlord, I just found out my tenant was using his apartment illegally for AirBnB. He is now being evicted.
I was planning on evicting him before this because his behavior has been literally insane since I rented to him towards the end of 2013.
After what I've found out about him, I cringe to think of anyone staying with him especially since he lists his studio as "family friendly". OMG.
All of you who are considering this do not know the backgrounds of these people and you're taking a great risk with your safety.

The site for hosts to set up is totally user unfriendly and there is absolutely no support. Their "help" site is useless. Nothing works like they indicate it should. There are way better rental assist sites. Don't waste your valuable time trying to make this work.

Whenever I travel I always use this site! Each time I can find here great apartment at a reasonable price. Yes, the service is not perfect and has it's breaches but still I have never had a bad experience with them.

Girl using drugs in rented Airbnb room. Police escorted her away. When I tried to leave a negative review, Airbnb threatens to remove my listings. BEWARE that they really only allow positive statements from hosts. This girl had 2 really short previous reviews. Taking my listings elsewhere as honest reviews are essential for inviting someone into my home.

I can't even begin to describe what I think of the entire air bnb concept. It is very unsafe and I would highly advise against booking with them. We had booked through them a couple of times and its never really been that great but it was acceptable and we understood the risks when booking. However, this time it was just not acceptable. We booked early in September our two weeks trip to Tasmania. The last stop would be 4 nights in Hobart over New Years Eve. We booked a lovely cottage and rested in the knowledge that we did well as we booked early on and the trip was all sorted. Late October the Host cancelled our booking for some personal reason. Now we still have't found any alternative accommodation as its all booked out now over the busy period and airbnb has done nothing but apologised and given us our money back. There is no security in this system and I will never ever use this company again!
We have used websites like stayz a lot and this has never happened before.

Book through Airbnb if you don't mind having your reservation (for the international trip you booked 7 months prior) cancelled unilaterally by the host 3 weeks before your arrival. An Airbnb customer rep will respond to your concerns with the utmost respect by kindly reminding you that they are "just the middle man who takes your money."

At the very least, avoid this host (Frederic C): https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/*******

Pay the extra money and stay at a hotel- at least a hotel won't cancel your reservation at the last minute, leaving you scrambling to find a place to stay. Our apartment was $345/night- now the only apartments available in the area where we planned to stay are $500+/night.

They don't deserve even one star. We booked a fully furnished apartment in Hollywood Boulevard for our vacation. Our booking was from May 13-May 19. We'd booked one month before we were due to arrive in Los Angeles. We received several confirmation emails, and then suddenly, less than 24 hours before we were supposed to arrive in LA, we received an email saying that our reservation had been cancelled. I spent the following night, searching as hard as I could for a replacement reservation, this was very difficult as we had only a day's notice. My husband and I are hard working doctors from Sydney Australia, this was a terrible occurrence to happen on our holiday

What a hassle. They saved my cc from a previous booking. As I was exploring places for another trip I hit continue and much to my surprise I was charged and booked. They call it immediate booking or some nonsense. I booked for a Saturday arrival on Wednesday morning so was out of the 5 day cancellation policy. Owner/host never got back to me. If I had booked a hotel I could gave just cancelled within 24 hours. Have been on the phone for hours... not worth it at all. Plus between cleaning fees and admin fees you're better off at a hotel where you gave full service. Bad experience.

Have been both a host and guest and have only had good experiences with AirBnB. From a guest p. O. v., the chance to holiday in your chosen destination for longer plus you get to know a native is fantastic. Sometimes you are staying with someone else but you don't have to. Alternatively, you can rent a completely self contained space, too, and have all the comforts of home for less than a hotel. I understand they do have insurance and have given me only good customer service on occasion when I've needed it. As a host, no problems so far either.

I thought this was a great resource until my most recent experience in which the crazy homeowner wanted to charge us $700 for what she claimed was cigarette smoke damage. My husband smoked 50 feet away from the house and all the windows were closed yet she claims all the linens, drapes, etc were ruined and it would cost $700. AirBnb apparently did not need any proof from her about this and charged my card $200 (unbeknownst to me until I reviewed my credit card statement). I cancelled my account. I can find better deals and service elsewhere.

If you're thinking about using Airbnb for your next vacation rental, I would advise against it. As a Veteran and senior citizen, I feel the host of the rental is more in the business of collecting money than providing a service.
We made a reservation for a rental in AZ city (hosts Leon and Michele) and had to cancel two days later. Our credit card was charged the entire amount ($3000) even though we never spent a night there.
In our opinion, neither Airbnb nor the hosts can be trusted to treat potential customers fairly.
If I could give zero stars I would have

Be careful with this person! I rented the house from for the week of july 4th, my family and i live in connecticut and we realized that the whole week it was going to rain a lot! A huge storm. I paid for the house on a Friday and on Saturday When we were about to leave I realized about the storm. I quickly wrote to then with a request to change the days and this thief stole 1700 dollars from me! She saying that she could not make change and not refund anything! Beware of these people! They stole the savings we had to celebrate my son's birthday. One day they will pay for having stolen our money and airbnb did nothing about it! Enjoy our money!

It's like the paid version of CouchSurfing.org - which is an incredible traveling tool in itself.

I think if you want to have a bit more privacy and more accommodations than AirBnB is the way to go.

For the host, it is an incentive because you get a small compensation from having people in your home; using your water, gas, power & sewage. Utilities add up!

-David
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/*******

Absolutely amazing, prompt, and helpful. Did everything they could to help and were very reasonable in dealing with issues when things went wrong. Had a bad experience while traveling and they made it much better.

I have been part of the Airbnb community for 8 years and a Superhost. In the last 6 months, it has been an absolute nightmare! I have NOT received notifications of requests to book, lost bookings and status as a result. All except one or two attempts (of about 20) to message or phone them have been impossible - you cannot get through - if you do, the line is bad or the accents are so strong, you have to ask for the message to be relayed 100 x - and still get no help. They have closed my message threads without any acknowledgement of even having read my pleas for help. I am utterly appalled right now.