50 customer reviews of airbnb.com
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Based on 50 reviews from Airbnb customers, company has accumulated an average rating of 1 stars, indicating that majority of customers are not satisfied with its service.
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Description: Airbnb is a marketplace for short-term vacation rentals, room rentals, apartment rentals and sublets. Home and apartment owners (or renters) pay a fee to list, market and rent their places.
Address: 888 Brannan Street, 94103
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I will also make a website airbnbscams, airbnb lies and more domain names like this. I will explain all the scams, lies, misleading, and airbnb actions in my website in depth. Because I had stayed at 28 airbnb places in 17 months. I did hours research to find a decent place in order to NOT to GET Screwed by airbnb Hosts. There are very few Honest enough host in airbnb listings, and airbnb already know all thiese scams because I have been telling them repeteadly last 17 months and yet airbnb does NOTHING to fix all these scams. Of course, If Airbnb remove all the scams, airbnb cannot Make any MONEY.
SCAMS:
1- You DO NOT KNOW where will you stay unless you book and pay. If you are not familiar with the area, you will end up very dangerous place BECAUSE even with 30 bad review, and 2.6 review score there are lots of listing still exist in airbnb. Airbnb DO NOT care if you are SAFE. They want your MONEY.
2 - Even though, there is NO BAD review, it does not mean that place is perfect BECAUSE Airbnb DELETES BAD REVIEW reviews of some host's listing to do a sweet favor, Just like airbnb case manager E. N. r, deleted my bad review about a host lying about me that I have left a dirty place, which I have recordings that show totally opposite, and I am suing them in March.
3- Shows kitchen in the list and yet 1 mini fridge, 1 microwave and a coffee maker is NOT a kitchen.
4 - Shows GYM in the listing, and some GYM is in the other building belong some other company, or apartment, or even I saw listed a gym but it is in the park!
5 - NON REFUNDABLE bookings.
6- "DO NOT TELL YOU ARE AIRBNB, JUST TELL YOU ARE A FRIEND" Scam. Yes, most of the airbnb hosts ask to me or even in their listing that I should tell any one if asks I am NOT airbnb guest. I should LIE I am their friend or relative. So, YOU ARE CHARGING ME $150 A NIGHT AND I HAVE TO LIE FOR YOU THAT I AM YOUR FRIEND! Hellooo, are you real? Then charge me $30 a night if you just want to scam your building staff, your neigbours, the tax department etc.
7 - NO REFUND if you stay there 1 night or two and fund out the host lied to you about something. Airbnb may refund you the rest of the stay if you move out, but you still MUST pay the nights you wre there JUST because a host lied to you.
8 - some time very loud another airbnb guests that will keep you all nigh up. There is NOTHING you can do.
So many that will take 10 pages. I will write all when I make my website airbnbscams.
There is a Host in Scottsdale, close by Days In around Talking stick hotel. His name starts N. He said there is a Gym, and I found out there was NEVER a gym. In his words, Days in was letting them use their gym but not anymore. Surprisingly, N. Found out the very same day I checked in that Days in does not let his airbnb guests use the gym. WOW! Really? What a coincidence! So I have told airbnb, and I only got partial refund, I have lost $357 for 1 night, uber payments, groceries, and wasted time and money.
28 place I stayed, in 3 states and 2 countries. So many lies, scams, misleading info, and more.
My only reason was the Kitchen because I like to cook, OH BOY! Dirty utensils, lack of cooking materials, tiny fridges, more and more.
They charge $50 - $250 cleaning fees, and yet I have to clean again most of the places I have stayed. As I said in the beginning, very few Honest Host.
If you DO NOT SPEND MANY HOURS to read word by word, you are screwed. So many hidden fees, such as for Jacuzzi, or 2 bedroom apartment BUT $38 for only 1 person, the second person is $16 extra per night, extra deposits and cash deposits. Resort fees, this and that AND top of all, airbn charge almost $13% -15% and yet NO REAL Help if the host is NOT agree. Airbnb only helps if the host willing to help. Other wise you are screwed by Airbnb.
NO MORE AIRBNB for me. I will continue to stay at hotels.
Our reviews are consistently good because we only rent our guest house or our guest rooms with freshly cleaned bed linens and towels, vacuumed carpeting and fully equipped kitchens and bathrooms with clean plumbing fixtures. Again, we live here. So we're not attractive to people whose hunger for privacy is for doing things they're ashamed of or fearful of being arrested for.
I agree that Airbnb seems to be trying to replace formerly one-to-one phone calls to customer support with FAQs and emails ( the endless effort to increase profits, evidently). It's also clear that 'hackers' have tried ( and maybe succeeded) to invade the email communications between hosts and prospective renters. A couple of times there have been really odd inquiries from travelers requiring inappropriate lodgings ( an inconveniently long drive from the locale of their planned activity) or asking coyly if we're "really secluded" ( or asking to negotiate lower rent - although our rates are much lower than all the local hotels and licensed, commercial bed and breakfasts.) Or asking about availability for a long period of time in which they don't state their planned travel time. (query would this be somebody looking to book our space and rent it to 3rd parties at higher prices?) So, we "deny" those requests, we don't make a reservation and then cancel it when somebody more attractive wants those dates. The former is prudent, the latter is greedy.
All that information demanded by Airbnb from hosts about their accommodations and neighborhood and rates needs to be read. People used to choosing which "they-all-look-alike" motels don't want to really compare what's on offer - just the prices.
It's so hard for some people to grasp the major differences between dealing with individual homeowners and booking a bargain-priced "special" room rate at one of the big chain hotels that look like they're always clean, because the in-house cleaners are expert at making it look like the fixtures have been cleaned and the bed linens have been changed whether or not that's actually true.
I'd like it if Airbnb would create another category for the "multi-unit" property managers in the bigger municipalities. If people are having bad experiences with them I prefer that their dubious business practices through Airbnb not be the reason that the Airbnb guests we want to accommodate are not being discouraged. The rest of us scrub our sinks and bathtubs and launder the sheets and expect to be treated respectfully by travelers as we strive to accommodate them.
I'm annoyed by the young couple who reserve one of our two guest rooms, "text message" that they can't check in before the performance they have tickets for and will not arrive until after 11:00 p.m., and then texts at 11:30p.m. That "something has come up" and they'll not arrive after all but will return to their big city home that night. Wait for it... then they want a refund because they cancelled long after the announced deadline to cancel.
That's one reason hotels cost so much more. They have to refund the last minute cancellation. Airbnb rates are lower because, in part, last minute cancellations don't get refunded.
We love Airbnb, but I hope they improve "support" access and response, and read these complaints to mean that verification procedures need simplified and improved "how-to" helps.
And in this marketplace, there is no perfect option: certainly not HomeAway and subsidiaries.
In almost five years, the Home Away group has raised their prices to homeowners and pressured us forcefully to give them access to the money collected to hold reservations and to our banking information. They "punish" owners for holding on to the process of making reservations and holding advance payments and security deposits rather than giving that whole financial aspect to Home Away. And this year they're charging a percentage of the rents to renting travelers.
So, our experience as hosts has been, we're fair and square with our guests and with Airbnb and we've been fortunate to have no problems with Airbnb guests. And very few problems with guests from word-of-mouth referral or the VRBO/HomeAway group.
Lets talk about the "Bad" guests. They ranged from irresponsible nuisances to shrewd con artists. There were the ones who broke or stole a few minor items, the ones who violated our common sense/common courtesy rules, or the ones who required "special services" but didn't want to pay for them after. The worst guests included necessary police intervention or major theft caught on CCTV cameras. There was the group of "squatters." They were wolves in sheep's clothing who came to me as short term vacation rental guests. Visualize "The Beverly Hillbillies" in a pickup truck with their dogs. They came off sweet as pie (landlord 101: beware of overly nice prospective tenants. No one is that nice! They are usually desperate people with bad credit, no job, who can't get anyone else to rent to them!) He even took on the job as handyman around the apt. Bldg. They were able to drag out their stay, doling out breadcrumbs by paying a few days at a time. When it came time for them to check out, these predators who apparently support themselves by "working the system" refused to vacate the premises screaming "permanent tenant rights" in the grand scheme of things to con me out of $13,500 in re-location fees and to be able to extend their stay for one more year under the cities rent control laws!
As if this wasn't bad enough, I also got sued by the city who extorted me for nearly $16,000 in perceived TOT fees, which ended up costing me nearly $5000 in attys fees (who took my money and resigned from the case after doing nothing) before I ended up having to pay the city nearly $10,000 in fines.
THIS IS WHAT BEING AN AIRBNB HOST COST ME. And what support did I get from airbnb?
Now lets talk about airbnb. They come off syrupy sweet, calling you an "awesome Superhost." They act like airbnb is all about "sharing space" and "making friends." If I were looking for friendship, I'd join a social club. Lets get one thing straight. It's renting out space. Real estate. Real estate is a business. Bottom line, you are in business to make money.
AIrbnb is in business to make money. They take it from both ends- their hosts and their guests. They block out parts of hosts and guests email correspondence if they suspect it includes sharing contact information. Don't let them kid you. They expect hosts and guests to trust them with total stranger connections, lodging, and finances, but they do not trust their own hosts or guests to be able to communicate with one another in fear they will get cut out of the deal.
As airbnb & their # of hosts grew during the past few years (as did their negative reviews which began popping up all over on various websites) due to their mass marketing campaign, they appeared to care less and less about their hosts and guests. The 1st big scandal I read about was the host in California whose home was totally trashed by airbnb guests. That's when airbnb came up with their "$50,000.00 host guarantee policy" to provide panicked hosts a false sense of security. Most recently was the home in Canada that was totally trashed by airbnb guests. Airbnb upped the ante to $1,000,000.00. To be eligible for that type of host coverage, I suspect the entire family would need to be brutally murdered.
I am a professional, honest, trustworthy, "to the book" type host. I never once went behind Airbnb's back to try to cut them out of their original booking commission because I believe in karma and I believe everyone is entitled to their fair share of what they contributed. Also, never once did one of my guests ever make a theft claim while staying in our rental units. That speaks volumes for my honesty and integrity.
Many guests don't realize that when they book through airbnb, all payment is handled directly by airbnb. They never allow the host to be in possession of the security deposit. So when a guest commits damage, theft, violations of rules or requires special services, I exercised my host rights and filed a claim with airbnb under the guest's security deposit. To avoid having to process claims, airbnb will attempt to discourage hosts by running you through the hoops. Think boot camp! 1st you have to go through the "Resolution request" (asking your guest to pay you.) This link is nearly impossible to find on their site. Once you have found it, filled out the form, and sent it to your guest, the guest will usually deny the damage/theft, etc., get angry that you "accused them," refuse to pay, then leave you a false negative retaliatory review.
If you don't hear back from the guest or they deny the claim, you have to mark your calendar to remember to contact airbnb to "get involved." (if you forget, you are out of luck on the claim as the deadline has expired.) In order to involve airbnb, they will require photos, witnesses, original receipts, and/or comps. As a real estate investor with multiple fully furnished properties in 3 locations in 3 states, I would have hire someone to pull dead files out of storage and spend days going through thousands of receipts through the years to find one for a towel, mug, pillow or whatever for the damaged or missing item(s) in question! Once you have completed the form & provided the "evidence" (they do not trust their hosts word, despite the fact the host trusted them to have these strangers in their home who broke/stole their personal property items!) you wait to hear back from airbnb. None of my claims were what I would consider "substantial" amounts of money. Some claims were processed, but as time went on they were either denied, reduced, or ignored. When a guest flooded my unit, I filed a claim for $2,500.00 for my out of pocket costs. This was my and only claim that came under the $1,000,000.00 Host guarantee policy. After I went through airbnb's claim "boot camp" process, they said they were only willing to pay $500 firm (20% of my claim,) Final decision, no appeal.
Shortly thereafter, with no warning they deleted all of my listings and cancelled all of my bookings for the rest of the year. They told my future guests that it was I who had cancelled their bookings, so I had angry guests contacting me not realizing the truth, that airbnb had lied to them and that I was as much an airbnb victim as they were!
I still have approx. 1/2 dozen minimal claims airbnb ignored and never paid over the past year, along with the one and only claim I filed in 6 yrs. Under the $1,000,000.00 Host guarantee claim for $2,500.00 that I was never compensated for.
If you are an airbnb host who incurred damage, theft, or unpaid claims and you would like to be paid, please contact me. Email: *******@yahoo.com
Responsible guests are always welcome! See my websites below.
Two of those times were just fine, and two were awful. What I particularly did not like, and why I'm blaming AirBnB is that it was their customer service that is awful.
I can understand, with so many listings, and so many renters, that there will be problems. But Airbnb should go out of theri way to resolve listings that are fradulent or misleading, and help the stranded customer. Instead, they have an unacceptably cavalier attitude that is not acceptable.
The first awful one was when I booked a room in Utreckt several months before a conference I was scheduled to attend. Just by co-incidence, it happened to be the exact same weekend that the world championship soccer tournament was taking place in Utrect. Neither the host nor I knew this would happen when the booking was made.
A few hours after I checked in, the host was downstairs yukking it up with his friends. He then entered my room to tell me that his uncle was sick in the hospital in Germany, he had to leave, and I did, too. So now I'm stuck in a strange town, with no place to go. I found a computer, but it was in Dutch, so I could not log on to AirBnB to see about finding another place. AirBnB takes no responsibility when the hosts leave you in a lurch. Since he cancelled, I could not write a review. AirBnB gave me a $25 credit which expired a year after it was issued, so it went to waste.
The last time I used AirBnB to book a room in Palm Springs, the room was not as it was represented. I didn't have a thermometer, but the host looked up the temperature on the internet, and she said it was 88 outside, and the room, which had no air conditioning, was hotter than outdoors. Her website said, "Do not touch the air conditioning, it is set for 82 degrees. If you want it colder, I will have to charge more." She has since removed the words "air conditioning" from her description, but it was there before. She told us that if we didn't want to sleep in that room, which was tiny and stuffy, we'd have to go somewhere else. So, 7 at night, after a day of travelling in 90+ degree weather, we have to find a hotel. I told her I would ask for my money back, and she said she would call in the morning to find out what to do.
When I got checked in to the hotel, I spend hours trying to find help on AirBnB's site. I found a resolution center, where I filled in the form, and they said they would give the host 72 hours to respond, and to wait until then. Three days later, I went back, and they said that the host accurately described the room, and would not give a refund. I've received several emails since then from AirBnB. I can't decide if they were computer generated by a program that was poorly written, of it they were written by someone who is semi-literate in English - they were rather confusing, and could not be parsed into exactly what they were saying. Some said the matter was done, a decision had been made. Others said, if you are satisfied with this, you need do nothing. I think that's the jist of the emails - as I said, the writing was very poor - missing verbs and weird sentence structure. So I wasn't sure if the matter was still open for discussion. I didn't put in everything in the form I filled out, and if there was a place to add more info, and challend the decision, I wanted to do that, but I saw no way to do that, and earlier emails had said the decision final.
Then I got an email giving me a $97 dollar credit.
I called my credit card company to cancel the charge. They give the host 90 days to respond, and then they'll make a decision. I'll come back and report what my credit card company said.
Today, I received this from the Airbnb from the guest who left long time ago without any explanation or support WHY and HOW Airbnb determine their Statements:
This is Makelle, a Case Manager with Airbnb. I'm writing to let you know that LaTonya has provided documentation consistent with exposure to bed bugs. Moving forward, we'll need your close cooperation to find a solution regarding your listing status and upcoming reservations.
I've updated the reservation to be cancelled on behalf of Airbnb so you will not receive any penalties. In order to process that refund, I've added an adjustment of ($1,104.83) to your account, which will be automatically deducted from future payouts.
We will be paying you out for the first two nights of the reservation which is $282.86.
As a precautionary measure for you and your future guests, we will be removing your listing, Soltera Retreat, from search results until we receive documentation from a certified pest control agency confirming the space is free of bed bugs, as well as the date it will be safe for guests to stay.
Here's an overview of the process moving forward:
If you can confirm the presence of bed bugs, no professional inspection will be necessary.
If you cannot confirm the presence of bed bugs, we'll need you to arrange a professional inspection, and we can cover that cost. Because of the guest's ability to provide documentation of the issue, we will need to cancel any reservations in the space that are due to take place before we receive the results of the inspection. You won't be penalized for those cancellations.
If the presence of bed bugs is confirmed (either by you or a professional inspection):
- We will need you to set up treatment as soon as possible. We can cover the cost of an inspection to verify the issue, however are unable to reimburse for the treatment of bed bugs, as they are a part of the environment. - We will need to cancel all reservations due to begin within 21 days of the confirmed treatment start date at the affected listing, to provide enough time for a complete bed bug treatment of the home. You won't be penalized for those cancellations. - Once we receive documentation of a dated inspection confirming there are no bed bugs in the space, we will reactivate your listing, and you will be welcome to accept new reservations.
- If we don't hear from you within 14 days regarding the action requested, we may need to cancel further reservations and leave your listing deactivated"
Please respond to this email at your earliest convenience to let me know if you can confirm the presence of bed bugs in your listing, or if it will be necessary to set up an inspection."
THE LOGIC here is simple:
1) The guest used my place. We talked to the guest right after the checking. We inspect the place. We have PHOTOS and VIDEOS! There was NO bed BUGS! 2) Guest Lied to Airbnb because they knew their system well and they know that AIRBNB DOES NOT INSPECT HOMES!
3) Airbnb did not even care to listen to my side and gave all the money money to the FRAUD GUEST
The question is HOW to continue business with Airbnb after this?
Thank you
After driving all night from Georgia (and the night before from Virginia) my daughter arrived there only to have to pack up and go stay with family. It was filthy and moldy. She took pictures and sent them to me and took them to my mother as well. Unfortunately she can't stay with family for long as she has a pet and my mother is allergic.
The next day he offered to put her in another apartment but I advised her not to trust that person, to have no more contact with him and to see if the family could help her find something else as she is just moving to Florida to go to school there. Instead of the person just letting it go, he refuses to refund the money and I've had to take it up with my credit card. It seems as if he has more than one place and probably is using the same pictures for all the ones he rents. Even though I tried to contact Tony&Eli by both my personal and work email, and sent him all the pictures of the apartment, he did not reply. Instead he kept trying to contact my daughter and convince her that she should move into some different apartment he had and to call a member of his family since he lives overseas currently. I did not want him harassing her as she's only 18 and hasn't had to deal with this sort of thing before.
AirBnb has been no help at all and is considering it a cancellation. Unfortunately, Airbnb also went through my daughter and did not contact me. Even though the airbnb person is in California and can only see the pictures on line they think that just because the owner offers some other place that should be ok with the renter. I don't see why a customer should have to continue to do business with someone that has bait and switch tactics and would pawn off such a place on some kid.
I will never use airbnb again and I advise anyone who does to, if possible, check out the place in person and don't rely on airbnb to help if something goes wrong. I would especially not send anyone that is inexperienced to possibly have to handle a situation such as this. They will be better off going to an Extended Stay America or Homewood Suites where the management is accountable.
If anyone is interested in more details or seeing the pictures I am more than happy to share them. Just PM me.
Their response was the following:
John, Nov 18,19:19:
Hello,
I did get your pictures and a majority of it looks like it can be scrubbed clean. I want to go through all the pictures you sent and the concerns.
I am not sure how the door frame can be fixed, it doesn't look broken but old and repainted. A lot of building and homes in Miami are older but it isn't broken.
The broken tile can be fixed and is something I can request the host have fixed while you are there if you stay. The A/C filter can be cleaned out but I agree is gross.
The floor wall boards can be wiped and the floor better swept. Can you please send me a picture of a bug if possible and a closer picture of the tile mold.
I can't tell if it is tile grout or if it is mold on the tile, either way I agree it does need to me scrubbed and mopped.
The cabinets can be bleached but look like they have water damage from years of dishes being put away and not all the way dry.
Last is the bathtub, it looks like an old tub and similar to mine. Since my building is from the 1980s the tub will get old an impossible to get all the soap scum.
It is something that can be scrubbed but not perfectly, possible cleaned with comet powder or bleached also to get rid of some stains and soap scum.
Overall I don't thank anything is bad enough for an immediate cancellation and I also need a picture to consider a vermin issue.
I appreciate your patience and hope you get a good sleep tonight, I am sorry for this issue but want to make sure I make the best decision.
Apparently scamming college kids is a business practice according to some other reviews I've read. Why anyone would be forced to live in this situation, or continue to have to do business with someone that scammed them in the first place is beyond me. Especially, when the apartment was about $1650 a month plus a pet fee of a $150. Now they are simply ignoring the problem. I have made a complaint with BBB we'll see if that helps
Update: Magically after contacting BBB they returned the money. (even though they previously denied any wrongdoing to the credit card company and had refused to refund it) However, they still sent on a message to my daughter trying to say that it wasn't really their fault. One thing that was interesting was that the owner of the place is not allowed to substitute another place without the agreement of the renter so he should have returned it immediately. Then they offered her a $75 gift certificated for another stay which we will not be using. The Florida Attorney General's office did send a letter just last week, after the fact that they would look into it and they also had suggested contacting the California Attorney General's office but as it's taken care of, there is no need.
Horrible advice from an obviously biased and inconsiderate individual.
We booked a visit to Austin a few weeks back, unaware that the following week and half there would be constant bombings taking place due to unfortunate events that took place in the City of Austin.
Airbnb has a policy that Airbnb call the Guest Refund Policy. This is supposed to come into play should the guest have any issue pursuing a refund outside of the normal cancellation policy. Now, once we got word that the bombings turned into 'trip-wire' events that were happening on residential streets we became much more reluctant to spend our brief vacation in a city that was being attacked like this. Rightfully so, I reached out four days before our stay (the moderate policy calls for a cancellation 5 days before the stay for a full refund) and politely attempted to explain our concerns hoping for some cooperation given the state of the city.
Not all of our party was on board with the trip, so I decided it would be best to cancel and revisit the city at a later time. Unfortunately, for us, the host that we got was not so understanding. Lorrie basically put a wall up, tried to politely downplay the events when communicating with me, and would then push back through the airbnb attempts to ask for a honored full refund and explained that we could not pursue the full refund because she would be unable to book the room on such short notice. This was completely lacking the consideration of the climate in Austin at the time. Please keep in mind that airbnb stated that the final say on the refund would depend on whether or not Lorrie would want to honor it. She simply had to be a decent human being understanding a human level issue and failed to do so miserably.
This explanation from her to me would be sensible and I could understand the view in any other scenario, expect for that this was an emergency situation and we would be risking our health and lives coming out to Austin simply to appease her booking. I disagreed with this and instead chose to communicate with the airbnb team. I was looking for a full refund seeing as we would not travel to Austin.
I tried to exercise the so called 'Guest Refund Policy' which is said to protect the client under these types of instances. I then launched a five day call adventure with several different agents who pushed me from queue to queue and passed me along giving me all kinds of mixed information. I was promised a full refund at one point due to my 'extraneous' circumstance and later was denied this because, "The Austin Bombings does not qualify as an emergency situation".
Being told this blew my mind and I was at a loss for words. How could this not be an emergency when neighborhoods are being evacuated and folks are dying due to explosions? I never got a solid answer on this. I was advised that airbnb goes off a of a particular list of media sources that gives them permission to decide whether or not a scenario taking place counts as legitimately "Emergency or Extraneous". I, of course, disputed this and called it ridiculous just as I will do so now in this review. To me, this sounds like a weak loophole to be able to deny people their returns.
All in all, I ended up settling for a half refund, but this was only after I had to fight tooth and nail for days over the phone and try agent after agent until I received one that was willing to hear me out long enough to investigate in detail. This should not have been such an arduous process. I am sorry to say that I will not be using airbnb any time soon.
Below is the grade for each individual agent that I spoke to while attempting pursue a refund.
Alvita - F---, The first person that I made contact with. She opened my case and apparently incorrectly because there was missing information when I called back. She was uninformed, pushed us off to the side after speaking to me TWICE and was generally unhelpful.
Halston - F----; Halston was our "assigned case agent" and he was very arrogant, unable to provide any reassurance that the client is important to the company; essentially made us feel like garbage, he is a lazy employee and should be reviewed by the company
Tiffany - C; She did okay, and tried to clarify but did not help much in making progress
Aden - B; Same as Tiffany, no progress made just a bunch of promises that didn't take place
Kai - He resolved my issue so I give him a B+, for his diligence and honesty.
Overall, this was the WORST of any customer care kind that I, or my party of 6 had ever experienced. It is unbelievable how dismissive and non-nonchalant the airbnb team was about resolving our supposed "extraneous circumstance". I will NEVER EVER recommend anyone that I care about to use any airbnb products in the future.
The whole process just stinks of a general lack of humanity and I hope you take my experience into great consideration before doing business with them.
Thank you,
- Ivan
We've got a problem with this accommodation from the first night:
1. It's impossible to sleep in this apartment because of noice. We couldn't sleep whole night. People on the street were very noisy whole night.
2. Fire alarm was beeping once every few min whole night as well. Probably because of low battery.
3. It was very sketchy area around. I had a night walk and it is scary because of a lot of weird people sitting around and walking on the street. Homeless people sleeping around. I was in elevator with one very dirty and smelly guy, like real homeless person...
There were no mentions about the noice during the night in Airbnb apartment description. And host didn't mention that it's possible to sleep here only with windows closed, what is impossible with this temperature and without Air Conditioning. Even more - in our message thread, when we ask about air conditioning, host assured us that we should be ok with provided fan and windows opened during the night.
Before deciding to find another place, we come up with 2 proposals for host to keep our good relation and try not to give host bad review:
1. Host to install portable in-room air conditioner this day so we can try to continue staying in this apartment for the rest of our days and sleep with windows closed. And host to give us refund for 1 night which we didn't sleep at all.
Or
2. Host to give is refund for all 5 nights back and we'll find some other hotel today, after we come back from our trip to Hobbiton at 5 PM.
Host's team discarded our proposals.
We fly from USA to NZ and this first night in Auckland completely ruined our next day:
- we were very sleepy and tired all day around
- we need to find new place to stay - we couldn't afford to have other nights the same
- we need to pack, move and unpack again
Also our whole vacation in NZ was really disturbed as well - we spent next 4 days negotiating with host's team about refund. At the end we didn't get full refund - Airbnb excluded 1 day stay and cleaning fee. Just want to note here that we didn't even ask about extra compensation for all those troubles.
But, as the icing on the cake, we received this message from AirBNB support team:
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I also received a report from your host about extortion which we were able to validate. Based on the supporting documentation your host submitted, you stated "We are expecting full refund ASAP. In this case we can give host good review that she takes care about customers... Please, advice...".
Due to this, we will have to remove your negative review for the host in case you leave one.
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Remember, I wrote this message after not sleeping whole night, being on the tour to Hobbitton (it was booked in advance and we couldn't cancel it) trying to understand will host accept our proposal (they didn't reply to it for some time) and trying to find new place to stay...
And this is my answer to AirBNB:
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So, I explained you my whole situation, how our vacation was partly ruined because of the incorrect host explanation of the property (she told that we don't need to have AC because opening window and use fan will solve the problem of high temperature).
And instead of trying to fix situation and prevent other customers from the same problems, you don't allow me to give this apartment and host true review?
Let me clarify something here, guys.
Firstly - this is what I mean when I say to the host:
I mean that I'm going to give my try opinion about this apartment anyway - that it's very noisy during summer because you couldn't sleep with your windows open. It probably is good during winter, when it's colder outside. But I was ready to give host good review, if I can see that she respects her customers.
And you call this "extortion"?!
Looks like for me - that she doesn't respect her customers:-(. But more sad part of this story for me is that you, as an organization (AirBNB) don't care about customers as well, but care more about your hosts. And this is very worrying me, because here, in Canada and USA all companies take real care about customers first...
Looks like AirBNB is working with some other preferences in its mind...
I waste few days from my vacation for this relocation and battle for refund and I can see, that AirBNB, as organization, doesn't care about it at all.
OK, it's up to you. But, I'll still try to leave my true review to this host and its apartment to prevent other people from my mistake. And it's up to you if you decided to delete this review. It will be your responsibility after it.
After this experience I'll never use AirBNB in future and let all my friends know about this case to prevent them from having the same mistake...
I'd like to set the record straight regarding a number of complaints made by many on this review site. And then I'll offer my own positive/negative thoughts about Airbnb.
First, as a host I have spent countless hours answering questions from potential guests who DO NOT read the listings. If they'd only do that, they'd see that their questions are already answered. Yet over and over I have to repeat what I've already written in clear, precise English, with correct grammar and spelling, and with bulleted lists of the amenities offered.
Second, before posting a listing, the host must choose their own cancellation policy, from a choice of three. Airbnb range from a) allowing the guest to cancel at any time with a full refund (although I'm not certain if Airbnb charges some fee), to b) Moderate - the guest gets a refund if cancelled with five days of the arrival date, and finally c) Strict - there is no refund at all even if cancelled long before the date of arrival. Airbnb does not set the cancellation policy; the host does, and it would behoove any guest to check a host's cancellation policy BEFORE making the reservation. If you don't want to get stuck, don't reserve a place that has a strict cancellation policy. You can even set this as one of your search parameters, and you won't be shown those listings.
Some of the reviewers here obviously didn't bother to read or understand the cancellation policy of the particular accommodation they booked, and then faulted Airbnb for not returning their money. As I said, guests do not read the listings. They should.
2) Other reviewers complained about Airbnb not keeping calendars up to date. That is the full responsibility of the host. When a guest looks at a calendar for a place they're interested in, it will say clearly when the calendar was last updated. It is up to the guest to contact the host to determine if the required dates are available. Some hosts never bother to update their calendars. But that certainly isn't Airbnb's fault.
One reviewer urged guests to book a place that only has photographs done by official Airbnb photographers. That can be very misleading. I'm no photographer, but my unaltered photographs happened to come out great, so I did not use a photographer that Airbnb will supply free to hosts. And I included some long shots that give an idea of the relative space. However, our one rental experience DID use an Airbnb photographer. When we got to the apartment, it looked exactly like the photos, except for one minor detail: the apartment was a dollhouse version of the photos. The pro zoomed in on the sofa, then the kitchen, and finally the living room. There was no way of us knowing that all three were contained in one tiny space smaller than our bedroom closet. Nor did the photos, which showed a clean apartment, give us any hint of the grime imbedded on the windows and every surface that wasn't part of those photos! There was no long shot in the bathroom we couldn't tell that it wasn't big enough to lay the bath mat down flat. Claustrophobia was the name of that game.
After returning home, I wrote a balanced review of that place, with a few positive statements, but mostly negative. It was not removed, nor was another completely negative review that was posted after we'd booked it.
But I am no apologist for Airbnb, even though as hosts, the company has been mostly very good for us. Airbnb's non-existent customer service, lack of transparency, and inability to keep its website or app functional will be its undoing. It is disgraceful to have to hold the phone for up to 45 minutes before speaking to an untrained and powerless C. S. rep who has no answers and doesn't have a clue how to deal with anything. It is disgraceful that there is no way to escalate a question or problem to a supervisor, let alone anyone higher up the food chain. It is disgraceful that one has to spend half an hour before finding an email address or a phone number to reach a company whose business model is an online business only.
Our one bad experience as hosts concerned a threesome of Asian exchange students on Christmas break from a university in the midwest. I didn't realize that I could have set certain requirements for our guests in advance, because Airbnb didn't make this clear on their website until after we were in the throes of dealing with the problem. The three guests, due to limited English, misunderstood our listing and thought they were renting an unoccupied house, rather than our guest rooms. They expected us to hand over the keys and leave the house. They had been planning to sneak in four more people, plus their two unhousebroken puppies, which I had told them in advance they couldn't bring. We didn't learn this until the day after their arrival when, we found that the puppies had been left in their car overnight in the cold of winter. Second, when we called Airbnb to report them (they did bring in a fourth person - not part of the original rental - because they obviously couldn't leave HER in the car overnight), we were told that someone had just left a negative review of them. Seems they had come to us from another state (the first part of their midwinter party vacation), and totally trashed that house, leaving a trail of damage from the dogs and the seven people who were discovered occupying the place, which they had booked for three. They were supposed to stay in our home for a week, but mercifully they left as soon as we confronted them about the dogs. I guess they realized the jig was up and their plans had been thwarted. But they did manage to cancel the rest of their reservation and get a partial refund, much to our dismay. I added my own negative review to the previous host's, and they are both still there to this day, six months later. But, and this is a big but, I implored Airbnb to boot the girl who was the account holder of record off the site. These two negative reviews, and the damage they inflicted to the previous host, who lost a long-term rental from having to repair her house, should have been enough. But she's still there, and still able to cause nightmares to any host not savvy enough to read her reviews. This is a cautionary tale, and one of the many factors that I suspect will cause the downfall of Airbnb. When a company does not value customer service and the customers it serves, but values money above all else, it is doomed. Maybe later rather than sooner, but doomed nonetheless.
If you are one of the few who has read this to the end, I congratulate you. You're a rare breed, indeed!
My wife decided to run in the 2017 New York Marathon. She invited several members of her family to join us in New York City for a family trip over the long marathon weekend. With a total of seven people in our group, we realized we needed lodging that had five bedrooms, at least two (if not three) bathrooms, was conveniently located, and affordable by everyone in our party. Thats quite a tall order, so our search began more than two months prior to the marathon weekend, at which time we booked this place through Air BnB. Subsequent communications with the host were somewhat strange, as we heard from several different people on several different occasions, and in the days just before our scheduled arrival, we were given two different house numbers as the exact location, which we also found to be rather odd. The host did, indeed, send an email to confirm the reservation on the day before our scheduled arrival.
While riding on a bus that was just a few miles away from entering Manhattan to begin our big family weekend, my wife received a phone call from someone (yet another different person) who claimed to represent the host of this lodging location. Shockingly, she was told that we could NOT check into the apartment as scheduled because there are guests in there now who refuse to leave. The man on the phone began to offer us some alternative locations that he claimed he had available, none of which were of a size, type, and location that was remotely similar to what we had reserved with them more than two months prior. Since my bus was about to go into a tunnel to enter the city, I told the caller that I did not want to discuss this on the telephone, and asked that we meet in person. He said hed call me back.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the other members of my wifes family had arrived at the bus station shortly before we did, and we all met inside the terminal and broke the bad news to them. While doing so, my wife received a text messageless than a half-hour before we were supposed to check into our reserved apartmentinforming her that our host had cancelled our reservation. Imagine: seven people standing in a bus station, all of whom had made plans months in advance and traveled from Washington D. C., Philadelphia, and Atlantic City, had arrived in New York City, only to learn that what Airbnb thought was a secured lodging arrangement no longer existed and we had no place to go. This, on a weekend when many hundreds of thousands of people were arriving for a major sporting event, making available lodging a precious commodity. Naturally, having yet to receive a return phone call from the man who telephoned less than a half-hour before, we then called Air BnB. The agent was very nice, telling us that the host had to cancel our reservation because of a gas leak, an explanation quite different than the story we heard shortly before!
Sparing you the details of the multiple, long-duration phone calls with Air BnB, the agent was eventually able to acquire for us last-minute accommodations at a house that, while lovely, was in Brooklyn, fully twelve miles from our originally-reserved mid-town Manhattan location! Air BnB graciously offered to pay for our transportation to the Brooklyn house as a bit of compensation for what we were enduring.
Picture seven peopleamong whom was my 82-year-old father-in-law with bad legs and other medical issues, and his wife who is battling the effects of ovarian cancer treatmentnow forced to take lengthy subway rides and long walks to do what they THOUGHT would have been done by easy strolls from a conveniently-located midtown Manhattan location! In addition, the added expenses in both transit times and money were significant.
Customer reviews of Air BnB lodging experiences are, for the most part, SUBJECTIVE evaluations provided by the guest traveler. However, in this particular case, my review is NOT subjective! It is OBJECTIVE and FACTUAL. Everything I have shared here is documented and can be verified by Air BnB and copies of emails, text messages, etc. Overall, the weekend began terribly and was followed by many difficult challenges that were not anticipated by everyone involved.
We suspect that the host had found guests who were willing to pay more for the lodging than we had committed, and simply cancelled our reservation in order to make more money from a different party. We cant be certain that was the case, but no other explanation seems plausible. I share this experience to warn potential Air BnB customers that this sort of situation can not be prevented, and if it does occur, you have absolutely no recourse. Air BnB may help you find other lodging, but they will not and can not compensate you for the loss of money and significant inconvenience.
Air BnB has certainly provided very good lodging experiences for millions of people, but be forewarned: there is nothing in place that can prevent an incident such as Ive just shared from happening again to other people. Unfortunately, in instances such as this, no compensation can be had, and no review of the host can be posted because the reservation was cancelled by the host and the stay never occurred. The host reneged on their commitment, and there is no way of posting feedback so that other potential guests can be forewarned.
Have been searching Airbnb for a future stay over the past month almost every other day, to stay in a city that is having a convention. Hard to find places that are reasonable and even available 6 months in advance. A host and I were having a good conversation and Airbnb gave me a deal - they changed the price on the dates of interest for me, and all I had to do was book it. I couldn't! When I went to book it, Airbnb said my original photo (that allowed 3 other bookings) was not a quality photo and they wanted a new one. I don't like having photos on line, but in order to continue, I clicked on the link to load another photo that I have on my laptop. Well, just a regular photo is not sufficient - they wanted a License, Passport or Visa.
This, from the standpoint of hacking and giving out important docs is a no-no. BUT, I did scan my license, front and back, scanned both sides and loaded it. They then wanted a photo, and it had to be loaded via their app (apparently on a smart phone) or via the browser. I don't have a smart phone and though I've had a laptop with a camera, I had never used it as I don't have a reason to and it is also a security risk.
The camera didn't want to work. After about 2 hours, I got the camera to work - I had upgraded from Win 7 to Win 10, and the drivers were not apparently good. So I found the drivers and installed. Now the camera seemed to want to work. I had the web browser/camera take a pic. After ALL this, it allowed me to continue, to book, but only got so far. They then told me that I had to redo the license because I had scanned it in Black and White. So I rescanned in color, both sides, loaded it up. Took another photo via the camera, and went ahead. Got another error indicating that the license had to be an unmodified scan/image. I had modified the area of my social security number, as again, this is a major violation of security and this is going to be stored on line where Airbnb WILL eventually get hacked. So I had to rescan the license, again in color, and this time give up my own personal security. This worked and I got to make the request to book for the dates and apparently at the price that the host and I agreed to, assuming that all is well, but it is now in the host's hands. (Though I think I have resolved my issues, past experience indicates they will not like something or another thing will come up.)
I had contacted Airbnb Customer Service when I had the issues noted above - not an easy task by the way. I explained that I had been a member for 3 years plus, had used Airbnb twice in the past, had just booked a $1000 stay last week and was now being challenged. (I was challenged a few months back, but I got an email out to customer service and she said that it was a mistake and reset things.) One of the two hosts in the past indicated that they would love to have me back as I was the cleanest person that they had rented too - also said from a small hotel I stayed in in Sri Lanka. I was on the line with the rep for about 5 mins on hold as he checked to see what could be done about not using my camera on my laptop. Problem is that most people have phones that access the internet, can text, can do photos - not my flip phone. I was told there was no way around this - so I had to go to a library, use a friends computer or find another computer/device with an internet connection where I could log into my account and take that photo.
Having ones License, Passport or Visa information stored away in a company's database is not a very re-assuring thing, especially with all the hacking that goes on. I've had a government secret clearance in the past, and we are taught to fly under the radar - photos, IDs, important social security numbers, etc. shouldn't readily be given out. I try to keep a very low profile - I have been the host of my own tv show, have appeared on tv shows/books/magazines/newspapers, etc. I don't want my information or photos floating around out there - one is asking for trouble if this info is out there at all.
If I have been using Airbnb for a few years, had good reviews, there have been no issues with payment or issues of any kind, I can't see the reason for them to demand all the info that was recently requested. This was also a timely issue - as a host had made some changes so that I could do a booking, asap.
Those using Airbnb are walking on egg shells - just waiting for them to have issues with data loss due to hacking. This important information shouldn't be in the hands of a company like this.
Later that morning, the host contacted me and I described our experience and expressed our desire to checkout and be refunded for the balance of the remaining 2 nights. He would only agree to refund us if he could re-rent the place on short notice. Otherwise, we would be responsible for the full cost of 3 nights. We did not want to take that risk and agreed to stay. The host said he would contact us at the end our stay and do his best to make things right. This made me feel comfortable.
At the end of our stay, the host did contact me. Since the remaining 2 nights were more tolerable, I requested a refund for the first night ($550). The host only wanted to pay half ($275) and we eventually agreed that he would refund $400. The host then stated that the refund would be conditional on me giving a 5-star review. I was very uncomfortable with this and offered to leave no review but the host insisted that a 5-star review would be required for a refund. Those were the terms. I struggled with this for 1 week before finally succumbing to his requirement. I did the 5-star review and requested the refund through the AirBNB website. It was denied by the host.
I then contacted AirBNB customer service. After contacting the host, Airbnb stated that the host denies any such agreement for a refund. They felt bad that they could not resolve this to my satisfaction and refunded $70 back to me as consolation.
This was not acceptable to me, and I have made repeated attempts to get further assistance from AirBNB. So far after a week, AirBNB has ignored my emails. Several calls to AirBNB have gone thru and the agent on the line promised a quick response from the case manager but still nothing. Seems to me that they will continue to stall until I finally give up.
As a final proposal, I informed Airbnb that I would forego any additional refunds on the condition that I can retract my original (extorted) 5-star review and replace it with an honest one. After no response for several days, it looks like they will not even offer this basic courtesy. Bad reviews are bad for business and it's all about the money.
AirBNB customer service tactics should be criminal.
Worst experience ever!
Our experience(s) were ok in the past, but this last one was a complete NIGHTMARE.
Customer support failed to communicate expectations, would not refund after agreeing to, we had to waste hours and hours and hours... And when we asked to speak to a supervisor, they said "oh they'll call tomorrow a X time" no call. No messages... and completely ignoring out followup messages. The support person EVEN filed a false internal report against us because she knew she'd screwed up and will now get fired.
Please, trust us on this one: AVOID AirBnB — it is NOT a good deal on price like it was in the past, the support when things go wrong will NOT care about you, at all, forget to call you back, make promises and break them literally within 24 hours. Totally incompetent. Spend an extra few $ on a hotel. You'll thank us later.
Also, to add insult to injury, AirBnB manipulates and buries negative reviews with the way their system works. Not a "community" at all. Buyer beware, seriously...
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Here's an Airbnb review that I think sums the kind of experience you can expect from the listings + Airbnb itself:
If you want a nice/ accurate place to stay, then (as a world-traveling, 5-star Airbnb Host & Guest) I encourage you to *avoid* this place. 3 reasons why…
** 3 Key Reasons Why You Should Avoid This Listing Based on Our Experience **
1 — False Advertising. — Property listing description was inaccurate. Host lied in written messages to us to convince us to book and not cancel. See examples below.
2 — Hostile Host. — Extremely rude and unprofessional. Examples below.
3 — Fraud. — After we checked out, they tried to weasel more $ out of us. Had to spend lots of time putting together evidence, so we still got a full refund. Truly unbelievable. See details below.
Details:
1 — False Advertising. —
My wife and I drove ~800 miles across the country trusting the listing (and the words of the host) that it was as described. It was not. Host told us apartment was 700-850 sqft. It was ~40% smaller, less than 480 squarefeet (we measured). It was also listed as a 1 bedroom apartment (and the photos were misleading e.g. "bedroom" photo cut-off). In fact it is a studio ("bedroom" is basically in the kitchen). We were shocked when we stepped inside.
We communicated this to the host right away after check-in. Which lead us to #2...
2 — Hostile Host (+2nd Big Lie). —
We told the host about the issue the same night we checked in. The host replied extremely emotionally and unprofessionally, and refused to refund us per our request, preferring to bill us for an extra night.
Not wanting to lose money and after not finding another decent option in the area (the host claimed it was a "good neighborhood", most businesses were closed-down, you wouldn't want to walk down the street alone at any time) so we had to stay a bit longer... We hoped it would get better—it did not. One reason is because we could not sleep ANY nights here due to constant construction (hammering), kids and dogs running, (the apartment is in the basement, you hear EVERYTHING).
We had hoped to get some great work done here, but this is not the place for that.
We politely communicated this to the host after it repeatedly happened: "Hi Harry and L., happy Sunday. Wanted to let you know it was difficult to sleep and work this morning. Sounded like banging, running, or moving furniture so wanted to let you know. Thank you."
The host was rude (again). Their answer was "the grandchildren come on the weekend and we will not apologize for that. They did not come until almost noon and we left thirty minutes after that (This was a flat lie. We were woken up well before 8am). This is a working home and many projects go on during the weekend."
Yes... That was their answer, even though we *explicitly* asked the questions when booking: "Is it noisy?"
They said no, apartment was insulated, "It should not affect you".
False—and as far as being a professional host: if something goes wrong (no listing is perfect, we've been to many worldwide), but is this the kind of service you'd want?
Finally we come to #3...
3 — Fraud. —
After things only got worse (noise+hostile host) we decided we had to leave.
The host (again) denied our request to cancel and only pay for the nights we'd booked. As a result, we had to spend lots of time going through support to get a refund.
On the day we checked-out, we video recorded and took photos of EVERYTHING in apartment because we thought the host might try to do something (and, wow, they did... more on this in a second).
We proactively cleaned the apartment, removed and folded the sheets from the bed. The apartment was left in PERFECT condition (even better than when we arrived, believe me). We went above and beyond as guests because we wanted the refund right away after checkout and to not have to deal any further with such rude, unprofessional hosts.
But what did the host do next?
First, they *covertly* updated the house rules to the apartment without notice and also increased their "cleaning fee" by 60% to $65.
They finally replied to us 12+ hours after checkout (when they were home from the early morning when we left) and after ignoring our repeated messages to confirm the refund they had agreed to. In their reply, they claimed we "permanently damaged" (Total Lie) the glass stovetop, and other absurd things (oh no they found 1 hair on the floor!...).
They were looking for any excuse to break the agreement...
In reality:
The "damage" (lie) was actually watermarks on the stove, which are easily cleaned with vinegar (which was not provided to us). Everyone who has cooked with a glasstop stove knows this.
Everything else was Sparkling clean.
We were in the right. And what they tried to do here is the definition Fraud.
Plain and simple: Fraud—because we cleaned that apartment, and thankfully, we took videos and pictures of everything as insurance.
We then sent all photos and videos (and recordings of the construction and banging etc.) to Airbnb. But their support was insanely incompetent and extremely "beyond belief' frustrating
* Side note: There were other issues other than the 3 listed here, like the wifi being very spotty, but we wanted to focus this on what YOU (the reader) would care most about (accuracy, professionalism, being able to actually sleep, etc.)
In conclusion:
Is this the kind of experience you want when spending $100's of dollars, or even $1,400+ dollars as we were?
Or are you comfortable with points #1,2, and 3?
It's your call, but I encourage you to click back and avoid this place and these hosts.
You'll thank us later.
Canada requires a negative Covid test taken within three days of your border crossing and we were both scheduled for tests on Friday the 19th for a Monday the 22nd departure.
Then, there was a sudden and alarming spike in Covid cases in the Burlington area of Vermont during the week before our trip.
On Friday the 19th, my friend, who works nights as a nurse practitioner with highest credentials in emergency medicine, was directly exposed to a hospitalized Covid patient who needed to be intubated, Her PPE mask, a halo mask (battery-operated) failed. There were also a number of other Covid patients that she was admitting to the medical center that same night. She was running around dealing with many of these patients, as the hospital was overrun with Covid patients and understaffed. My friend, a highly responsible and experienced medical professional, was the head person on duty the night she was exposed.
She wrote to me that it would be irresponsible for her to expose me and to travel, as the Covid-19 incubation period went beyond the time we would be leaving. She said she could potentially pass it to me and would need to stay home and wait for her Friday test results and then retest on Monday and also quarantine and wait for those results.
We had booked our stay at a nice 2-bdrm Airbnb apartment in Old Montreal. Since I was the one who booked the reservation through my account, I explained the situation in detail and provided proof of the two tests my friend took—on Friday and on Monday. We were refused a refund of $434—get this—because my friend's tests were not positive for Covid.
But it would have been entirely against commonly accepted guidelines for us to drive up there together and cross the border when there was that clear an exposure on Friday.
This is what I was told by a manager at Airbnb:
If we are able to secure one of the documents needed, we may be able to reconsider. The document must also be dated prior to the reservation.
1. Positive COVID-19 test (preferred)
2. Doctor's note that confirms a COVID-19 diagnosis
3. Notice from a local government stating the user has been exposed
4. Screenshot of a contact tracing app notification showing that the user has been exposed
5. Positive COVID-19 test result from a member of their household
Orders from the CDC and the State of Vermont tell us to quarantine after such a risky exposure. I sent numerous links and points of information to Airbnb. Both the host and Airbnb have given us the runaround and have (illegally, in my opinion) kept our money. I will never give them my business again and recommend that you completely steer clear of Airbnb as well.
I haven't actually made a booking with them yet (and probably never will) but my user experience on the site was pretty dire. We were looking for an apartment in Palma de Mallorca for a few days... I hope this rather long review will give potential users an overview of why Airbnb may not be as good as it seems on paper...
The very first property we considered clearly had incorrect information on the listing - ie, the title stated, and pictures showed, that it was a large 5 bed villa in what looked like an out-of-town location, BUT the 'blurb' underneath then went on to say that it was a small apartment with only 2 bedrooms and was in the centre of town. I clicked on the 'Contact host' button rather than the 'Request to book' button, since I wasn't requesting to book, I simply wanted to clarify the issue and give the host the benefit of the doubt that it was a one-off mistake. However, in my private Airbnb messages, I just got an automated reply saying ‘Declined'. How can a booking be "declined" when it was never requested in the first place? If Airbnb meant that my request for information was "declined" that's kinda even worse. It left a sour taste, ie, no personal response from the host explaining why their listing was wrong which it very, very clearly was…
A second property we were interested in looked like a large villa in a beachside location …. The response to the enquiry via the Airbnb message system requested us to contact the supposed host's "wife" via another email address (cunningly disguised to look like an offical Airbnb email) … this is a scam…. DO NOT contact anyone from Airbnb if they suggest you communicate with them directly outside of the site. I got an automated email from Airbnb about 24 hrs later saying that they had detected a potential fraud and not to contact the host again. Which is good on the one hand that they spotted this (although I noticed 3 days later the fraudulent listing was STILL up on the site) but bad in that in only our second enquiry we had come up against a scam on their website, a property that clearly didn't exist for rent (Looking back, I think the scammers had just cut-and-pasted some photos from another website).
The one saving grace was an interaction with a host on our third enquiry who seemed genuine and was very polite and responsive and lovely. Thank you Richard of "Huge Old Town Modernist Apartment" listing, you were fabulous (and the only reason I've given 2 stars rather than 1 star overall).
However, the next couple of listings we looked at – showing on the Airbnb map as being separate properties, a mile apart, and listed at different prices - BOTH HAD EXACTLY THE SAME PICTURES! I didn't bother contacting the hosts as I was fed up and disillusioned by this point.
The upshot of all this is that, honestly, you cannot completely trust the listings.
And don't necessarily be lulled into a sense of security if the property you book has great reviews. I'm sure many, many reviews are genuine, but out of curiosity after our poor experience, I briefly trawled through 60 property listings in a search of "Palma de Mallorca" – don't you think it's a little suspicious that I only found ONE review out of more than 130 individual user reviews for different properties that was less than 4.5 stars out of 5? Compare to TripAdvisor, which isn't perfect either, but at least they seem to actually allow people to post negative reviews and the customer can then take it all with a pinch of salt, read between the lines and get an overall balanced view. I cannot believe that all 60 of those Airbnb properties in Palma are SO marvellous that noone had posted a less-than-glowing review. Are they somehow blocking negative reviews from the site to make it look good? I would not be at all surprised.
Just take huge care when using Airbnb is all I'm saying, there are clearly lots of genuine hosts and happy customers, but the increasing popularity of the site has inevitably opened it up to large numbers of commercial agents looking to flog their inventory (rather than individual property owners trying to make a bit of extra cash from their beloved home, which is how Airbnb markets itself) as well as outright scammers and charlatans. Certainly the majority of listings we looked at in Palma were handled by agents, not owners, as evidenced by their multiple listings. Which makes it no different to booking with any other villa/property rental website.
It sounds like this company has become a willing victim of its own success – what started out as a great idea has been overtaken by financial greed and an inability to keep pace with the dramatic growth in terms of security and customer service. It sounds like it's become a numbers game for them – "OK, so xx percent of our customers/hosts are really dissatisfied, but there's always a bunch of others to take their place, so we don't need to worry too much about keeping the complainers happy!"
Be aware that Airbnb does not vet the properties offered, or ask for any proof of ownership such as a utility bill or whatever, they take the host's descriptions/photos at face value. And pretty much anyone can register as a host, despite all the guff about ‘verification' etc. Also be aware that your booking is not guaranteed – the host has the ability to cancel at very short notice, leaving you stranded. Plus if you have a problem, the small print on the Airbnb website (which I studied in detail) pretty much guarantees that you will have no comeback. Once you pay for your booking, they can effectively wash their hands of it and claim that it was up to you to check things out before you parted with your money.
You may get lucky and have a lovely time with Airbnb, but PLEASE at least consider the potential pitfalls, of which there are many, and go into it with your eyes very wide open.
In further fairness to the site, I could have personally researched their policies before participating in the transaction described below. I simply (and reasonably) assumed that we merely were booking a place for $X/night and would pay most or all the amount at the end of the stay. I also figured that there might have been some form of cancellation fee, but not that we were gambling roughly $1,000.
My travel (and life) partner booked a vacation a few months ago, and he advocated using air b and b; again to be fair, his experience renting places has been positive. I have not accompanied him on these trips.
The primary issues that I have with this service, which does not seem to even have a customer support email on its website, are that it collects all your money at the time of the reservation, does not allow cancellations for any reason, charges the person making the reservation a 10-percent fee on top of the 5 percent that it charges the homeowner, and does not even pay the homeowner until after the stay is complete. (I do not know if the homeowner gets the money if we do not go.)
I have no cause for complaining that my partner selected a place at the upper end of the price that we were looking to pay. I also accept the clearly stated cleaning fee, which likely will net the owner a nice profit for spending what surely will not be more than one hour of cleaning.
I would have shared concerns had I know that we had to pay the full amount at the time of the booking and that we would be paying a 10-percent fee on top of that. Not only does that make a pricey place a bad bargain, but I do not understand how air b and b can effectively assert regarding the five-percent fee to the owner that the company offers someone who rents a place for $200/night twice as much service as a homeowner who rents a place out for $100/night.
For that matter, the booker paying the 10-percent fee does not get any more service from air b and b for renting the $200 place than the $100 one.
I did express fairly strong concern to my partner on learning of the cancellation fee. I pointed out that we are out all that money in the event that weather, a mechanical problem with the plane, sickness, a family emergency, etc. requires not taking the trip, (Even the not-so-friendly airlines merely charge a large fee if we do not travel and seem to use some discretion regarding imposing that penalty.)
I also noted that we could have stayed in a nice hotel with a location that is as good as our air b and b place, good amenities, daily maid services, and other perks (and would not have required paying anything in advance and would not have charged us if we had cancelled the reservation the day before) for the same total amount that we are paying for the air b and b place.
One suggestion regarding all this is that air b and b do a better job making its policies prominent; these terms should prominently pop up when you enter search terms and should require that you affirmatively click an icon to proceed.
I was promoting the service to friends in the process of researching a place but now am more vocal in warning people against it.
The final bit of fairness to air b and b is that the service may make sense for a family or two couples traveling together who need a full kitchen and/or two or more sleeping areas. It also may make sense for a long-term stay. It definitely does not make sense for a couple or a single person traveling for a week or less.