Author Archives: Rachel

Airbnb Verification Frustration!

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Hi There,

I used to use airbnb quite a lot, but now I’m being asked to “Verify ID.” There are all sorts of issues regarding the security, but reluctantly I agreed to this and tried to do so for over 2 hours.  What a nonsensical request, and pathetic piece of software that, on holiday assumes:

a) I can verify despite working on a microscopic dataphone screen

b) I have a scanner camera (I don’t)

c) That accepts only jpg not pdf so passport in pdf form is not accepted

d) After I managed to download a converter, from pdf to jpg, AirBNB site decided that B&W is not acceptable.

e) I had a backup colour pdf and managed to download a converter, from pdf to jpg, but airbnb site decided that this file was now too big

f) Managed to download a 3rd converter to make a large colour jpg smaller size

g) Airbnb site said still not acceptable… and offered no alternatives!!!!!

Crap – I will never use AirBnB again!

Airbnb collects way too much personal information!

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I wish I had never heard of Airbnb!! With all of the identify theft happening in the world, they accumulate a data base of information surpassing none. I found an apartment in Paris titled “Montmarte With Love” and was all ready to rent. I attempted to book (side note-they don’t tell you ahead of time you will be paying the currency exchange) so I put my credit card information in their data base along with remitting a copy of both sides of my driver’s license, phone number and e mail. That was not enough. They wanted a Facebook, Google or LinkedIn account. I have none because I am a professional accountant and I see SO much identity theft and what people go through that I protect my information. They offered me the option of submitting a video saying I am who I am but their web site does not work and that didn’t go through so I wasted SO much time. They would not process my info and cancelled my request. I feel bad for the host because she probably lost the best renter she could ever have! It is impossible to contact Airbnb and now my information is stored in their database. I will be going to Paris and staying at a hotel like NORMAL people do. Their web site is so convoluted and all they do is advertise. I made a horrible mistake, but that is how we learn in life!!

Student dorm rented on Airbnb, police show up!

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I rented an apartment with a friend in Washington that turned out to be a student dorm. However, we do not realize it. We paid the host’s friend the deposit and we went to buy some groceries. Basically when we came back police were there at the dorm because the neighbors showed movement in the apartment. This host had not paid rent for 4 months the monthly fee so the police took our data and we ended up sleeping in the street that night because we could not afford to pay 300$ for a night of hotel plus Airbnb did not give us anything until the next day. They did not believe our story and they gave us the money back in form of another apartment but no compensation. Awful

“Furnished” studio apartment was not furnished!

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I am English and live and work in Strasbourg, France. I sold my apartment and travelled for a few weeks, then came back to Strasbourg. I checked into a hotel and looked for an airbnb for a month while I look for somewhere more permanent. I found a place on Airbnb that advertised as a “furnished studio, city centre” and I clicked on “Reserve”. Within 24 hours my reservation was accepted and my payment taken and I arranged to meet the owner at the property so she could show me how everything worked. Fine, I thought. Then, half an hour before the appointment, while I was already on my way there, she called to say she had to cancel, because there was no bed in the apartment. I said this caused me a difficulty, because it would take a while to get the refund and I couldn’t afford to pay up for another rental right away, leaving me homeless. I met her at the property anyway, and there was no bed. She asked me if I could take delivery of a new bed on the Tuesday, the day I was to move in. I said fine. She then called me later to say that the bed would not arrive for two weeks, and she would offer me a refund of 200 euros (nearly a quarter of the total). I agreed to this, feeling I had no choice.

In the meantime I bought myself a floor mattress and some bed linen, and stayed three extra nights in the hotel while I was doing all this, which cost me much more than the 200 euros she was refunding, which in any case I had not received yet.

When I got in on the Friday, the place was empty. There was a chest of drawers and a table and chair, a fridge, hotplate and microwave, and that was it. I had to buy a plate and cup, knife and fork, saucepan and so on. I then wrote her a message to tell her all this (in addition, the paintwork was peeling off the bathroom walls, which is hardly hygienic), and her response (the latest so far) was that she had been willing to cancel, but I had refused (yes, she ought not to have accepted and had my payment taken) and that she had had no idea of the state of the place until the day she agreed to meet me there (after my payment had been taken). I took pictures as soon as I arrived there (three days after the date I had booked and paid for) but am not holding my breath for further refunds.

Is there anything I can do?

Paying $40/night to Walk on Eggshells to my Room

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Overall, I would call this an uncomfortable Airbnb experience. The host was Beverley in North Port, Florida and the room was called “It’s a large private bed and bath” Yes, it was clean, and Beverley provided 3 mini bagels plus some fruit, which was nice. The bed was super high and a bit wobbly, and the mini fridge goes off loudly for intervals in the night–but those are non-issues for a moderate/deep sleeper. However, much as I am the kind of guest who made myself scarce and basically used the room to sleep each night, I didn’t get the sense that common areas including the kitchen or living room were truly open to guests. That was one of a few unspoken rules/expectations that I encountered here, and I was walking a bit on eggshells by the end. I suggested things like the 10pm curfew could be put up front in the house rules section for everyone’s benefit. That there are children in the house REALLY changes the dynamic. I was accosted on the 2nd night by Beverley for coming home at 1am–she said her children were disrupted from their routines from asking about my whereabouts and the noise even though I tiptoed in each night. I felt bad and her children deserve to sleep, but this was something I completely didn’t anticipate. I figured if someone’s putting up her house for airbnb that they would have thought of the possibility that the guest may not follow their sleeping schedule. I didn’t pay $40/night to come home early every night on my vacation for fear of disturbing the sleep of children, and would have considered that before booking, if I knew that was an expectation.

There were other things which I won’t go into, because I don’t want to speak ill of a person who seems like an OK person, but the place just wasn’t suited for Airbnb. She did say some things that were slightly racial (I am Asian) and I talked to her about that and will give the benefit of doubt. Yes, I reached out to Beverley privately before writing this review. We talked out some things up there, but it was not an easy convo (she accused me of some things that I did not do and insinuated that her daughter had abilities to perceive when something is “wrong” with someone, and that she perceived that about me when she first saw me, which was VERY uncalled for) and there are some other things that I am leaving unsaid. I don’t think Beverly is a bad person, and I wish her well. I made one mistake which I apologized to her for, which was bringing my boyfriend in for 15 min after I had given her an estimated time frame about an hour earlier. He came later and I forgot to text her before entering the house, thinking we would just drop off the items quickly, but when we stayed a few more minutes to apply sunscreen before heading out, she had covertly entered the house and saw/heard us, and later accused me of purposely coming in the house with my bf while she went out, which was so not true. It was just a mistake on my part and I did apologize.

Conclusion: I just don’t think this was a house that was ready for prime time on Airbnb. If I could do it over, I should’ve just paid more to get a place where I could feel free to be a normal person operating on my own time and feel free walking around. I wanted to post this since it couldn’t get posted on Airbnb in time.

Read this BEFORE you pay on Airbnb!

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I was looking for accommodation via Airbnb so I completed all the verification steps as requested including email verification as well as mobile phone verification, I then got the ”pay now” message, and I paid.  I then was allowed to book a place and I have done so. Then AFTER I booked the place and AFTER I paid for the place, surprisingly I got a ”just one more” verification process is required, a Drivers Licence – message. I followed instructions, tried to upload a pic of my Drivers Licence but couldn’t, I tried (as per instructions on the screen) to place in front of the Web cam and again could not do so – for four (4) hours. So basically I lost my money.

I googled the review section of Airbnb and looks like losing money and time and being ”transferred” to another agent/department and other horror stories from Airbnb is common. With me it is only money gone to the garbage bin, oh and half a day attempting to upload a picture of the Driver’s Licence.  I am not against the DL verification, I am against asking for it AFTER the payment is done – this is where I lost my money, if the verification request had been BEFORE the payment, I would never have paid – oh and there is nobody to talk to, nobody to contact.  Smart Airbnb, tricked me into this sh@#t/  So after posting this, they suddenly got back to me with ”regarding your offline ID, our system was unable to accept it because the image you uploaded was a mirror image of the ID” Well, first of all you are missing my point, why the payment was made BEFORE completion of the verification process, payment should be the very LAST thing to do. Hasn’t your Web Master heard the term ”process flow”??  Deliberately and intentionally placing additional processes and verifications especially those that not possible to fulfill AFTER payment is done clearly indicates to me that those verification steps are there to avoid providing the services – just grab the money and run. So I was robed inside my own house in broad day light!

In regard to the process itself, well the web message was to ”place the ID in FRONT of the web cam” – and you DELIBERATELY asked me to create a mirror image – which your web ”can’t read” – in one word it’s called a ”scam”! There was NO mention or error displayed at the time stating that the problem was ”MIRROR” imaging, the only message coming up was to place the Drivers Licence in front of the Web Cam and take a shot – which I did for 4 hours continuously. SCAM SCAM SCAM!

I don’t think the Australian Government should permit this sort of Internet Scam to operate and a draft letter to key parliament members is now finished and is about to be sent – I will be requesting to outlaw Airbnb – DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH AIRBNB – THEY COULD BE FORCED TO CLOSE ANY TIME NOW!!!!!!

Young people destroy high-end Airbnb Villa!

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Airbnb cancelled my account without informing and checking with me any information posted in Facebook from a group of young people who stayed in one of my villas for one week last summer.  They just believed a group of young people who destroyed a villa during their holidays in one of my villas.  They made rave parties during their stay of 7 nights, A/C units were broken, plants in the garden were destroyed, tiles of the terrasse around the pool were broken, bedrooms doors broken. They had at the villa more than 60 people every night. When they left the damages at the villa was nearly 2000.-€ and they paid for the rent only 1500.-€, plus 300.-€ breakage deposit. We took pictures of the damages after they left and sent them the invoice for the damages, but they never paid the invoice. It was so bad that we had to move the next guests coming into the villa the following week.

Filthy Airbnb room, nightmare getting any refund!

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For our holidays in Mexico City we reserved two apartments from Airbnb. About $800 USD for 17 nights.  The dollars are gone, but the lodging was unacceptable. Neither of our apartments was ready to use when we arrived, we had to look (and pay) for other places to stay. To put it plainly – airbnb is a disaster, don’t believe the colorful pictures, the euphemistic descriptions.  Never agree to “strict” cancellation rules because if you do, you’re really trapped. After almost 24 hours of travel to reach our destination we arrived about midnight in the first apartment. The fridge and kitchen cabinets were full of left-over food packages, the wardrobes were filled with used clothes, shoes and textiles of the “host”. Hair everywhere, on kitchen and bath towels, bed linen, sofa, carpets etc… it was disgusting.  We did not even open our luggage and left the apartment immediately to look for a decent hotel. Because of the bad experience, we decided to have a look at the second apartment before moving in. The place was in a quite grubby district, the forecourt was full of construction waste and the apartment was 28 steep steps upstairs (for me an awkward challenge). None of this was mentioned at all in the description. To reach airbnb help you need a lot of time (and patience) to navigate through the site, through a lot of predefined answers only to get stuck in a dead end or circles. When you finally succeed, you should not really expect answers or support from airbnb. We have to add, to be fair, that after many arguments back and forth airbnb finally agreed to refund 270 USD.  Obviously airbnb does not invest any time or money investigating to check their “hosts”, nor pictures and descriptions, nor the guests reviews to confirm their validity.   The risk falls entirely on you, the guest!