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Airbnb

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Overview

Airbnb has a rating of 1.6 stars from 2,081 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Airbnb most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and full refund problems. Airbnb ranks 456th among Hotels sites.

  • Service
    555
  • Value
    511
  • Shipping
    174
  • Returns
    285
  • Quality
    464
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 17.5%
Positive
7
Neutral
2
Negative
31
845
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How would you rate Airbnb?
Top Positive Review

“Luxury Redefined with Airbnb Luxe”

SOUMYA RANJAN B.
4/23/24

My experience with Airbnb Luxe was nothing short of extraordinary. From the moment I stepped into my luxurious villa, I was greeted with unparalleled comfort and elegance. Every detail, from the stunning architecture to the impeccable interior design, was thoughtfully curated to create a truly unforgettable experience. The amenities, from private pools to personal chefs, exceeded my expectations and made me feel like royalty. Moreover, the concierge service was exceptional, catering to my every need and ensuring a seamless stay from start to finish. Airbnb Luxe has redefined luxury travel for me, and I can't wait to indulge in another unforgettable experience.

Top Critical Review

“Worst Experience Ever!”

Amanda N.
8/31/24

Airbnb has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with in my life. No support when things go wrong. I didn't feel safe at a place I rented and check in or stay there. They will not refund the full amount. Was promised a $300 refund, then only give $200. The reservation costed $423. I will never book through them again! This has been a nightmare!

Reviews (2,081)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

air bnb (114) credit card (133) cancellation policy (78) phone number (63) customer service (489)
Thumbnail of user sharont487
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 11th, 2020

Unable to use my Airbnb reservations due to the fires. I simply cannot get to the accommodations because of the fires. No way to cancel without losing everything and no way to talk to anyone. I will never use Airbnb again. I can only assume that if the accommodations burn before my check in date, I will never be able to get a refund. I will never use Airbnb again.

Thumbnail of user awath
Australia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 9th, 2020

We booked a place through Airbnb in US. Once we arrived booking was canceled, I was on the phone for hours with 6 different operators, no support no help to the point that I was forced to book a hotel by myself.Don't risk your good time with Airbnb.

Thumbnail of user dmitryi1
New York
1 review
5 helpful votes
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July 24th, 2015

I booked an apartment in NYC for 21 day. Upon arrival I found that the place was dirty and in not livable condition. I canceled my reservation immediately even though I didn't have a place to go. Later on Airbnb refunded only 42% and stated that the rest of the amount is completely up to host. It was obvious that the host didn't want to refund. End of story. I lost money, had to find a place to stay and had no help from Airbnb at all. I wish I would read more reviews here before booked the apartment. Booking through Airbnb gives you a good chance to lose your money and ruin your vacation.

Thumbnail of user donaldf23
Illinois
1 review
3 helpful votes
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September 25th, 2016

While the reservation process was seamless, the follow experience with the web site was horrible. We left an item at the apartment where we stayed and asked the host to send it to us and that we would gladly reimburse him. Well, when I got the request for payment I followed the directions, only to be told 'money could not be accepted.' I tried this several times, getting the same message, so I waited a day thinking the web site was malfunctioning. The following day I tried to make payment only to be told that I had to respond to the 'original' claim. I finally called the Airbnb customer service (had to do a Google search for their phone number since it wasn't anywhere on their web page) and explained my frustration. Customer service was excellent and sent me a link, which finally allowed me to make payment. I may try Airbnb again, and if I experience the same issues I will delete their app and never use them again.

Thumbnail of user sherryl6
RU
1 review
3 helpful votes
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April 2nd, 2013

According to our host, Airbnb was all calls, photographer, bugging them, trying to get things set up, available, available, available... But at soon as he had a question or problem, they were unreachable. What's worse, after asking for our info, confirmations and MONEY WEEKS IN ADVANCE, we were in our vacation home (Europe) for 9 days when our host informed us that he still hadn't been paid! Airbnb kept the money & didn't pay it out to him until we emailed, emailed & finally called their emergency number. This company is a SCAM. Stay away for your own sake. Our host was finally paid, but only after much persistence and frustration on all our parts.
This company is untrustworthy.

Thumbnail of user kaitlinr2
Ohio
1 review
2 helpful votes
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February 16th, 2017

We had to find a place to stay last minute due to weather/travel changes and the Airbnb platform is very difficult to use in a hurry from your phone and HIDES significant charges and fees... the concept is great (attempting to trust in humans) but the surprise charges are severely disappointing

Thumbnail of user hdoe
Maryland
1 review
0 helpful votes
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August 15th, 2023
Verified purchase

I rented a place in Centroamerica. The place looked great, but when I get there, it was not possible even to reach the property. A lot of drinking neighbors were around the property with fully noisy music. Parking there was also complicated because the place was the end of a long narrow street surrounded by crowded houses with risk someone could park further in the street and let the car lock in place for hours. I just left area in a hurry, and asked for cancelation, but a rude host denied, and incredibly airbnb backed the guy. According with airbnb, in this case the host cannot control the place surroundings, that means if you rent a place that you just find at arrival is surrounded by hot volcano lava, then that is OK and you just lost the money because the host does not have any control of the property surroundings. An absolutely ridiculous airbnb policy. Avoid airbnb at any cost! The risk doesn't outweigh any money saving there.

Tip for consumers:
No

Products used:
renting a place

Service
Value
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user jennief3
Georgia
1 review
4 helpful votes
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January 10th, 2014

I am a host and have not received my payout from Airbnb. Airbnb is supposed to send the hosts payout 24 hours after a guest checks in. I had two guests check in to my house (my primary residence) on Sunday Jan. 5th. It is now Jan. 10th and I have still not received my payout. My guests are still in my house! Airbnb is holding the payment that they received from my guest of almost $1100.

I have called every day since Monday the 6th and have not heard back or received resolution from anyone at Airbnb. I'm a long time host and guest and this is how they treat me?!

Thumbnail of user clarec99
Mississippi
1 review
0 helpful votes
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January 25th, 2022

Lauren refused to give me a refund when my kids had Covid over New Years! She told me I would get refund but she lied! Airbnb had to refund my money! Lauren said since I didn't have Covid I couldn't get refund! My kids had Covid! What did she want me to do? Leave them at home by themselves? Don't rent from her!

Tip for consumers:
Don't rent from Lauren tarmac lodge gatlinburg

Products used:
None

Service
Thumbnail of user batoula
California
1 review
0 helpful votes
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January 22nd, 2020

Outrageous charges for cancellation
I have made a reservation on Airbnb for summer of 2020. My plans did not work and I have decided to cancel in in January of 2020 (months in advance). They subtracted $120 (about 14 percent) of my deposit. I have complained with Airbnb and they said that they did mention a service fee! 1- NO Where during my reservation they mentioned a subtraction of 14% from my money.
2- They say that this is my third time canceling, they are going to charge me! I have made reservation hundreds times and canceled in other plate form such as home exchange and Expedia and so on and NEVER been charged for a cancellation months before the trip! They choose an arbitrary number and choose to charge me!

It is truly stealing my money and outrageous. NO wonder they have such a low rating. I am for sure NOT going to use their site ever again.

Thumbnail of user shalishal
North Carolina
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 16th, 2023

Air bnb randomly canceled my reservation I had booked for a family trip for months now, then I have been unable to book any other reservations. Now all of a sudden my account is deleted? I've been apart of air bnb for years and I've never had any issues with this company or app. This is truly disheartening.

Tip for consumers:
Just be Careful

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user davidp1890
California
3 reviews
8 helpful votes
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April 19th, 2020

Air BnB is a terrible company. Even though they are allowing some cancellations due to Covid-19, they are not allowing others. It depends on the dates of your stay. You have no say. Plus, we booked a stay in Boston well before the virus. The property owners canceled it without warning leaving us without a room. Awful! You will fare much better booking with a legitimate hotel. You will have the ability to cancel or change and have a much better idea of what you will get. We booked our Boston stay to save money. It is totally not worth it. Skip Air BnB... stay in a well known hotel instead.

Thumbnail of user stepheni40
New York
3 reviews
6 helpful votes
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March 5th, 2018

I've been traveling with a friend of mine and we decided to use Airbnb to rent a place in Rome as we stayed there for a couple of nights. For the price I paid - the flat was good and we couldn't ask for more.
The service is also fine, the host was quite nice and pleasant.

Thumbnail of user airbnbu
Germany
1 review
8 helpful votes
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May 15th, 2016

The Idea is great but the company is $#*!. The listing mostly are beautified and nobody can guarantee what you get and when you ask for a refund you need to waste 2 days just by clarifying why and what.

The customer service sucks. The line was disconnected many times and no one called me back. I asked to cancel my reservation and they said they will get back to me within 24 hours but that doesn't happen and I lost money from that.

I highly don't recommend this company and the system they are using.

Another think is the reviews system of Airbnb is confusing where if you were good or bad the other person would write the opposite review and deceive others.

DECEIVING SYSTEM AND TEAM.

Thumbnail of user karenh2660
Arizona
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 11th, 2021

Stay was July 3-7 2021 Oceanside CA. Listed as a "Entire Guest House" " you will have the whole house to yourself. " Property was actually 3 rooms attached to the main house... Air B & B does certainly not check the property before allowing them to host. All 3 of these rooms were loaded with ants. All over my make up, hair brush, bath tub. Towels shoes and some clothes. Near the coffee maker, Room with a closet/mini frig loaded with these same ants. We are not mainly interested in a refund, but would like for no one else to. End up here. Trying to get help from Air B & B is impossible. We would have gladly moved to hotel but nothing available due to Julu 4th Holiday.

Tip for consumers:
Be sure to ask questions.

Products used:
Hi Karen: we are excited to host you 7/3-7/7/21.
Your reservation has been confirmed.
Please let us know if you have any special requests prior to check in or if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user lacya7
Florida
1 review
7 helpful votes
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July 13th, 2017

I would give 0 stars if I could. My first rental canceled within a month of the trip. Then the "case manager" who was supossed to help me continually made the process more difficult. I couldn't even get to her supervisor or anyone that could or wanted to help me. I'd NEVER use Airbnb again no matter what this place ends up being like. A hotel is just so much easier and had service that actually aims to help their customers unlike Arlene. Overall not worth the effort, book a hotel online.

Thumbnail of user jasonc249
California
3 reviews
6 helpful votes
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March 21st, 2018

Sometimes good sometimes bad depends on the host host, algorithims are all messed up, people lie, etc hosts are penalized for not keeping a certain rating, so hosts continually reminds you of this, guests that have 1 negative rating can not set many of the l hosts listings leading to gentrification.
I think Airbnb should be illigal. You cant buy a house and advertise it as a hotel. Zoning laws exists to prevent this, it's unfair to those without homes as well as business owners. Nowadays you book an air bnb home and it's realy an apartment some college kids are renting out, and business travelers have more money than the city folk do and price becomes so astronomically high one to one has to work 2 jobs 15 hours a day just to afford a roof for the night, hell you cant even buy a house real estate moguls are now even in for the steal. I wonder how Donald trump would feel about his hotel industry was in jeopardy because of it. Hotels exist so travelers do not displace citizens.?

Thumbnail of user jeffs99
Arizona
2 reviews
22 helpful votes
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March 11th, 2016

Than the guest.
Recently, I was looking for a place specifically in Scottsdale. I ended up 25 miles away on the other side of PHX. OK. I could have looked closer at the map, however I would still consider this a "bait and switch" tactic.
There's no direct way to speak to the owners prior to renting. It feels creepy and espionage like. Only through texts in which the phone number changes each text. It's hard to get a feel of a place or the owner without speaking at times.
Airbnb asked for your social security number in order to become a member. This is way out of line in this day and age. They aren't a bank or any other financial institution.

The apartment was advertised for $65/night. I ended up shelling out $93/night. More bait and switch.
It was hardly worth the $65.

In my future I'm boycotting the site.

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/

Thumbnail of user gordonb199
Oregon
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
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January 21st, 2022

AirBNB refuses to implement a keyword search filter that would enable prospective renters to narrow down search results. For example if you want to search for a romantic stay in Seattle, you get to click through 300+ properties and manually read each description. AirBNB already has a similar search implemented on user reviews (so their dev team obviously know how to code a simple keyword search) and they used to have a similar search for properties but removed it. This is VERY basic website functionality so I don't see how its removal and omission is just an oversight. I suspect they are intentionally making customers click through every property so they can inflate the click statistics on properties and justify higher fees on those that list with AirBNB. Shame on you AirBNB!

Tip for consumers:
Class action lawsuit by property owners seems warranted.

Products used:
Renting condo

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user kandir2
Pennsylvania
2 reviews
2 helpful votes
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April 15th, 2017

I don't really understand all of the bad reviews. First Airbnb tells you of any cancellation policies so it is clear going in if you have to cancel you may not get a full refund depending on the policy. I have used it once to stay at a great place in Cabareta, Dominican Republic at a place called Casa Luna. The hosts went above and beyond in being great host family to my bf and me. We had a great time and would never have met them if we hadn't used the service. I would recommend using this site and I will use it again.

Thumbnail of user weisiy
Texas
1 review
1 helpful vote
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December 8th, 2022

Time to ditch airbnb
Trip Report
Post is awaiting moderator approval.
This post is currently awaiting approval by the moderators of r/digitalnomad before it can appear in the subreddit.
I have used airbnb for 16 times. I am suing airbnb and refuting charges this time.

1: stupid 30 days policy for long-term stay, how are you gonna find out if the property is fit until you get there. Mine is filthy and not livable but I still need to pay 30 days.

2: try to push customers away by declining aircover

3: use overseas customer support for bad customer care

4: charge fees even for cancellation

Purely unethical, money driven, lack of customer support, liars for their own aircover policy.

Tip for consumers:
dont use Airbnb for long term stay.

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user adriana38
Romania
1 review
1 helpful vote
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September 15th, 2013

So far my airbnb experience has been a good one.My first trip was in Copenhagen, I was a bit worried after the host said she coudn't rent the flat anymore and had to cancel my trip a few weeks before my arrival.So I contacted airbnb live chat and they gave me extra 50 euros to find another apartment.My second trip was in Budapest then a whole week in Paris, all of these experiences without any single problem. I always check for good reviews and verify the area where the flat is located. Some areas arent that safe.My next trip will be in Bruxelles in september, and Im glad I used airbnb instead of hotels, saving a lot of euros and found a large and great apartment near the city center. Always use the airbnb chat section and do not accept sending the moneys via other ways.

Thumbnail of user johnb4686
Illinois
1 review
23 helpful votes
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April 13th, 2020

I will never use Air BNB again after my recent experience. We had booked a trip to NY back in the fall which obviously isn't happening now due to COVID. We were told no refund would be issued (even though the host agreed in direct messages that we would be refunded) unless you're check in date was between April-May 31. So we are stuck eating the $500+ for a trip we can't even go on. Avoid Air BnB and their negative customer service any way possible.

Thumbnail of user mikes3980
Italy
1 review
0 helpful votes
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August 20th, 2022

I have lost a lot of money of late. AirBnB posts a policy that states if the home is not what the advertisement states you get your money back and they will find you a place of equal or better value.

They did neither and I lost most of my money stolen from the owner and AirBnB just kept feeding me lines
And sending me new teleworking in the form of the AirBnB Ambassador!

They also sent me back 2 bookings from the same area that looked so similar - I thought I had made a glitch and didn't pay so I booked 2 places for the same week.

Clearly my mistake but they allowed the owner to profit over €600 for 50% cancelation fees.

This system is flawed and the service is terrible for money recovery.

Products used:
Weekly rentals

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user matth1430
Idaho
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
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October 13th, 2015

Lots of security issues on the backend side when I was trying to figure out why the site wasn't allowing me to book. As a web programmer, this site is the most fragile, unsecure site I have seen. It needs a lot of work; do not put your personal information in there!

No customer service, they try to use their community members to answer questions and no one knows anything. I ended up trying to book a place for the past 3 hours with no luck, regardless of browser or various techniques.

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