I have been hosting for 7 or 8 months now and I have had about 60 sets of guests. Amongst that I have had one bad guest and one further guest that I probably wouldn’t have back. That’s a pretty good strike rate. Like anything you have to be a little savvy and learn by experience. I have made about 4 or 5000 pounds from my spare room and its been a god send. The rules of the game are simple as a host: Be the kind of person that others appreciate. Look at guests reviews and use some intuition. If you are unsure, ask questions before committing. Always remember that this is quite easy money. If you make £100 from a stay and someone breaks a couple of glasses – do the maths. Lose the maximize profit mindset. Airbnb manages 90% of the tourism industry headaches for you. I have worked in the travel industry booking travel and accommodation. This is so easy. Noone is there for ever. Handle it. I would suggest that people who cant deal with airbnb will have problems elsewhere in life.
Author Archives: Ed
Photographic deception
24 mm lenses are used for landscapes but not to describe reality or give an impression of how a room or apartment looks like hence majority of pictures in this site are outright deceiving as we experienced two times. It is indeed a short term vision to depict homes like that: surely most of the guests will have a wry feeling about the actual experience but be patient about it because “the host was so nice and after all, it was the site who orders the way it s being shot”.
AirBnB refused to publish my negative review
We stayed in an AirBnB flat in Istanbul for a week in Nov 2014. The host, Ercan, was in-hospitable. He informed us we were not welcome, and that we were cramping his style.He gave us a key the to external door. It didn’t work. We were forced to depend on other building residents for entry. The host stole my digital camera & transportation pass. Flat was supposed to have wifi and internet access. It didn’t. Was supposed to be walking distance to Blue Mosque. It wasn’t. I sent a truthful but negative review to AirBnB. They refused to publish it because the host failed to send a corresponding review re his experience as our host. — On the other hand, we spend an additional 3 days at another Istanbul flat and the Hostess, her home, and other guests were wonderful.
Start Class Action Lawsuit – The People vs Airbnb, Loss of funds
Back to back proof that airbnb is corrupt and cares less about hosts. They should be sued for stealing hosts money. As far as I’m concerned without protection for own livelihood aka NO HOST protection on airbnb terms; thereby, using their site is a gamble at best. Be prepared to pay full rent for guests who bail or cancel. Is it that hard to imagine fake guests who never check-in, find a reason to find you in violation, then airbnb gets their fee no matter what. Imagine this corporate fraud on a global scale. CAUTION: Airbnb sides with guests, everytime regardless of their violations to hosts or policies since they bring the money. So airbnb sees it as lets not make the money mad but screw the hosts who take the chance and lose rent since the calendar is blocked or too late for anyone else on airbnb to have interest in the listing on time not to lose money. You will in turn pay rent to landlord or your mortgage thinking you have a booking then they cancel before showing up.
Waiting in the cold for a host that did not turn up
I booked three weeks of a room in London way in advance. Yesterday, I turned up there as the host said I can check it a 8 pm. Yes, it was late, and I did not like it very much because it was in Greater London, and took a long time to get there. Then when I arrived there, right on time, nobody was there. So I waited, it was very unpleasant, also very cold, and I felt unsafe (am female, and when you are not in one of the busy areas of London at night, it is not a good experience at all). A bit after one hour of waiting, I was too scared, and decided to look for another accommodation, so it took me over an hour to get into the centre of London (also cost me lots of money travelling there and back again). The host THEN contacted me (as I left a note in the letter box). Said she got held up by traffic (which is a joke because she also used the buses, like me, and there were NO issues, hardly any traffic in that area at all). And now she does not want to refund me my money.
at Artist’s Ditmas Pk 5 bedroom house
Here are the basics.
We made a reservation on AirBnB for a place in Brooklyn back in January for Thanksgiving 2014
The owner of that place cancelled in October due to neighbor issues.
A Customer Support Rep (Piper) Recommended a house at
407 Rugby Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11226, United States
Confirmation Code: 85XFA4
The house is advertised to handle 16+ people , 5 bedrooms.
When we showed up, we immediately realized the house could not safely handle anywhere near the 10 guests. We had paid $7000 for 8 nights and were very disappointed. The list of unlivable things about this house includes. Mold Everywhere, Ceiling falling in, Very Bad Odor, Very Cold, No Closets. No real Beds. The Unsafe issues include no railing , tiny steps , 4 foot head room to go down steps. No Fire Alarms. No windows downstairs.
The Case Manager Rae, told me to take pictures and list all the problems, in order to get us a full refund. We left in less than 20 minutes to book rooms at a hotel. No AirBnB houses were available in Brooklyn.
Even though we sent the pictures and a long list of the problems with the house. We only received a little over half our money back.
Once the case was closed we weren’t even allowed to post a review to warn others of this disaster, even though AirBnB was keeping over $2500 of a house they had recommended.
They LOOT Hosts
We are a host that have several properties with them (more than 45). We have 5 star reviews and have always taken care of the guests. Once a fraud couple who just wanted to spend the night (as they were not getting anything else) stayed and next day just moved out without telling anyone.
After 1 day we got a mail from airbnb center and after all our feedback and good reviews they did not pay us.
they suck big time!!!
Robbery and no help from Airbnb
I had two guests visiting who informed me that they wanted to leave at 4 am. I said OK, I asked them to leave the keys on a table and I didn’t come to let them out because it was really early. I did that many times with other guests before. So those girls forgot to close the door when they left, someone was passing by, saw the house empty with doors wide open and robbed my house. I have tried to contact Airbnb 4 times, sent them 4 emails requesting at least a full name of the guest that I could fill the police report… They didn’t bother to respond any of my emails. And it would be impossible to get refund from Airbnb because of their tricky terms and conditions (you can find a lot information on that in other posts around the internet). I wish that Airbnb alternatives woud become stronger, I would change immediately.