Airbnb

I have tried to use this service three different times. Each time I was trying to find accommodations that were near a specific address. And each time I was required to fill out the information before I could see the address of the site. By the time I had filled in the information and had gotten to the address, I had already booked without realizing it; and even if you try to cancel immediately you are still charged the "service fees". I will NEVER use this service again! I found a hotel that was approximately the same rate and I know I won't have any trouble changing the reservation if necessary.

Two days before my travel date, Airbnb canceled my reservation because of a past offense in the background check. Ive been renting from different hosts for a year, given and received positive reviews, never had complaints from hosts, and never had issues with them. Even though I got a refund, I still have to scramble to find a place to stay at the last minute. I did not attempt to contact Airbnb because Ive read that they give no help or response to people whose accounts they deactivated or banned. Airbnb say they dont discriminate, but they judge people by their past. An offense 10 years ago will get you banned. Its only a matter of time.

My girlfriend and I have had a room booked through Airbnb for the better part of two months or so. Imagine our shock when I had received an email from the host stating that the reservation had been cancelled. No reason, no explanation, just cancelled. You would imagine that a company would require its hosts to at least explain the reasoning behind their actions, but not all companies are Airbnb. To add insult to injury, Airbnb credited us $29 to go toward another booking. This seems like a fair gesture, if the reservation wouldn't have been cancelled literally at the last minute, that is. This left us with either having to pay a highly inflated price on a last minute option or choosing somewhere that wasn't particularly appealing to either of us. I took the refund. Airbnb is a failed experiment. You can't even contact them through email to express your displeasure. Save yourself a headache and just book a hotel.

Great experience. Had an issue with a host on my 2nd booking. Airbnb immediately intervened and made an honest and fair decision. Completely trustworthy company. Without them, I could have been scammed out of thousands of dollars!

When searching Airbnb for a Pet Friendly, Whole House place to stay in Nashville TN, do not select 1109 Pennock Avenue/Jared as the owner. I made this mistake- a week before my trip, I wanted to confirm it was ok to bring my dog. Suddenly my dog was too big, couldn't bark, etc. so the refund process begins. The host tells me if he requests the refund it'll "ding his account" so he asks me to submit the cancellation and promised I'd get the full refund minus the 10% cancellation. Two days ago Jared stated he sent the additional $400 on top of the $550 already refunded... he promised and outright lied about sending it. After my one and only Airbnb experience, I highly recommend you do not go this route. When I select pet friendly and whole house, I expect only homes with this criteria will show and this was not the case so they misrepresent properties. One word: fraud.

Short version - heading out the door for stay booked thru Airbnb. Son has accident, we have to take him to the emergency room. No chance to make the trip. Try to rebook, Airbnb says host's policies prevent rebookings and refunds, even in emergencies. $500 lost. Might be host's policy, but Airbnb can force its own policies or make exceptions if it wants.

Host of another property told us we had to book for four nights minimum because it's Airbnb's policy on short-notice bookings. It's obvious that Airbnb will let anyone list on the site and has no desire to protect consumers.

I agree with this person. When you can't deal directly with the owner it makes you vulnerable to many fraudulent aspects. Many of these people are just dishonest about their properties. They call them luxury when the building is fifty or sixty years old, the concrete is cracking etc. The front web page for the property shows some low price, then when you click on it, suddenly the price changes. There are many extra fees that aren't listed and suddenly you're asked to pay far more than you originally were told. I won't book through these sites ever again. BBcanada.com has the best web site I've ever seen for booking a room anywhere across Canada. You can contact the owner directly, ask for more pictures, ask the questions you want answers to not what the website wants you to answer. Someone needs to open a site like that in USA and Mexico. I'd book through them any day and I don't have to pay a $30.00 fee to the website. MUCH BETTER SYSTEM!

1. Prices is not what u seen on screen. The price you see on screen is just a scam to get you click the booking button. Price jumps all the times. They charge too high with their service fee.
2. I booked a room for more than 28 days and the return policy was medium on the post's website, even when I click into the "read more" tab, it leads directly to the medium policy. But it was not medium return policy. Booking with more than 28 days is strict policy.

We had a problem as the host's apartment was disgraceful. The shower didn't work and as per Airbnb's Guest Refund policy we should be due a full refund but they have refused. We only stayed there for a few hours and left at 8pm to find alternative accommodation and Airbnb turned their backs on us. Stick to hotels. They are better and in the long run cheaper. If you have problems you are covered by ATOL but with Airbnb you have no chance. We've lost so much money now and I would never use this company ever again. This was the first time I've used them and will be the last time.

Utterly disgraceful company. We have been burned twice. We were stuck with absolutely nowhere to stay after a 7hr drive with kids and unable to get hold of anyone for over 12hours. Airbnb could literally not care less. I just wish I'd read all the reviews. You are not protected with Airbnb.

We live in a culdesac of 5 houses. Two are now full time AirBnB's. One is owner occupied and that host is a great neighbor. The other is investor. There's been an issue with trespassing guests. Owner occupied, direct contact and understanding about this issue. Investor host became hostile. Fast forward to a gram and a half of crystal meth found in front of the investor property. Called the sheriffs department to collect it. Contact the host (the only way to do so is having an Airbnb account and using contact host option) to let the host know significant drugs were located in front of the house possibly by the cleaners. The hosts response has been threat of harassment lawsuit, being reported to local law enforcement, etc. AirBnB just gives lip service. No one is actually helping normal people who own their houses. We are going to go full on opposition.

Our family had planned a vacation, only to find the COVID restrictions made it impossible to follow through. We applied for a refund on their website within the stipulated date(s), only to be informed we would not get a full refund, but could use all of our funds if we allowed a credit to be applied towards future stays. Given this misinformation, we took the credit. Later we learned this was not the case with regards to getting a full refund. Now we're told we're ineligible for a refund since we've got the credit. I do not believe this company is legitimately conducting business and that a class-action lawsuit will be coming in the very near future.

Aweful user experience in website! Lots of glitches impacted negatively our experience while we naviguate on your website, so annoying!
- Map (search functionality)
- Mobile app: "verify your identity", but never received an email, button stay loading)...

I booked a holiday to Adelaide which was unfortunately cancelled due to a Covid outbreak and legally we couldn't travel. Air bnb did not do ANYTHING to help me when my host charged me $1,200 cancellation fee even though this was two weeks in advance. They allowed the host to block me so I couldn't contact them. They left me personally liable for that amount of money. I booked a replacement with booking.com as I could no longer afford an air bnb. They were great and allowed full cancellation up to 24 hours prior to staying. My advice, use booking.com, air bnb and my most made more money off charging me a cancellation than they would have done if I went. Disgraceful. 0

Every facility has exceeded my expectations and been a great value, otherwise I would have used a hotel.
All the guests that have stayed in our RV have left it clean and they have been nice people and a joy to meet.

The unit was farther out than stated for one, if you want seclusion its a good place.the unit i stayed in had a bad fish or shrimp smell with lots of nats flying around, a busted tv screen and no heat... tried to get some compansation for that and no more response... wont ever stay there again. No more airbnb for me. Dave

My wife and I were forced to evacuate the Tampa area due to a mandatory evacuation order. My wife booked in Atlanta, but after talking with several friends, we leared that travel back from Georgia after a storm can cause massive delays (12-24 hours) with several people running out of gas on the highways. This could be deadly for our infant, so we cancelled our booking after talking with the owner and rebooked in a safer area of Florida. The owner of the unit refunded us all but the first night, which was reasonable, but AirBnB kept their entire fee as per their "partial cancellation policy". The customer service agent was rude and when I asked to speak to her supervisor, she said "sure, but she is going to say the same thing". We have been longtime customers and will gladly take our business elsewhere in the future.

I booked my trip through Airbnb with a promise of an answer about an issue within 24 hours and I'm now going on day four with no answers. I have made a decision to dispute the entire charge to my bank and I will never use Airbnb again I would urge each person to do the same

Their company policy states that for some extenuating circumstances you may cancel penalty free for a full refund. You are not able to confirm that you will receive the full refund before you cancel you are told to cancel, then contact them for review. I canceled over a month ago due to rioting and looting in my destination city which is covered in their policy as civil/political unrest that makes you feel unsafe. After fighting with them for over a month they claim because the host won't respond to them they are unable to give me a refund. So they just stole my money and they don't care that their company policy states I should get it back. They are thieves and I will never give them another penny!

6-6-2015- Postmortem - this airbnb is a poorly run money grabbin unresponsive website. If you aren't uber tech savvy don't bother, this site is run by people behind the electrons with no interest in being accountable or responsive. You book & you don't know it, you contact them and they can't be called or emailed, they give you the biz & runaround by being unapproachable. Verifying who you are without any ability to respond or ask questions is unacceptable to me, maybe not others…. Approach this airbnb.com web site at your own risk!

UPDATE: One week passed and I never received a response/update from Airbnb or from the host. I received the refund I was seeking only after I disputed the charge on AMEX and they got in touch with Airbnb. Original post below:

I'm contesting a "cleaning fee" and an "extra charge per person" fee. The apartment wasn't clean and we didn't stay (I accidentally booked a shared not a private) so I'm only contesting the two charges previously listed. Airbnb encourages you to try and work it out with the renter. I'm not getting anywhere with him. Now I've seen that my credit card has been billed the full amount. I'm not feeling confident that Airbnb is going to get back to me. Especially after reading all of these reviews. I don't think that this is worth booking with Airbnb. If something goes wrong, you're screwed!

Our Airbnb flooded on the fourth through our stay and they initially agreed (representative named Jamyla) to refund me for the unused nights, then days later said they could not because I "hadn't contacted then within 24 hours of checkin in". This is absurd because the flooding occurred 3 days after this time limit, so essentially they are saying that if there is no problem within the first day that they are off the hook. They also gave me their verbal word (recorded on phone conversation) to refund the remaining nights and then reneged. I used to love Airbnb, but they are apparently now become fraudulent so I will never use them again. I cannot recommend against using them more strongly—if something goes wrong with your reservation you will not be helped!

Airbnb discourages you from looking at properties ahead of time. As a first time traveler with a pet I didn't know what quesetions to ask so after paying for a full month I ended up only staying one night because the logistics for getting my pup out to potty were not manageable. The host made sure I got my rental costs back, but Airbnb kept $200 in fees which were calculated based on the original month long stay. In otherwords they got 4 times as much as the host for absolutely nothing.