Category Archives: Airbnb Guest Stories

These are real, uncensored stories from Airbnb Guests.  We encourage our site visitors to read and share their Airbnb Guest Stories to help warn others of the dangers of using Airbnb, and consider using alternative options in the sharing economy.

Beware of Airbnb’s Cancellation Policy

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Airbnb is great as long as nothing goes wrong. But the whole process is too complex for nothing to go wrong. In our case we were not able to travel to our booking in Yosemite National Park because of a national weather service advisory about a winter storm which clearly mentioned “not to travel unless in a emergency”. When we contacted Airbnb they suggested that we need to first cancel the booking and then claim a refund under their extenuating circumstances policy. After we cancelled the booking we filed a claim. The entire customer service experience was horrible. First of all, Airbnb could only be reached by email, which was slow. It took almost three days for Airbnb to reach a conclusion: they will not refund a single penny. When I asked for an escalation, a blunt email arrived stating that this was their final decision and they would not entertain any further communication.

Airbnb Changed my Review to Favor Host

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Unless I have very bad recall of what I submitted, Airbnb edited my review to eliminate part of my comment about the “value” being over priced for what turned out to be the conditions of the lodging, and Airbnb upgraded the rating I provided in response to their question about “value”. Airbnb also upgraded my “cleanliness” rating from 4 to 4.5 stars. I have been unable to discover any method to communicate with Airbnb about this concern. Ten minutes after I submitted my review, I thought of something that would be a useful addition to my review for future customers, but there is no way to amend or augment the review after it is posted.

Airbnb London Hell: Host Refuses to Cancel

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I had booked an apartment with Isable and Hyder in London. I had made my booking at the end of October and paid three months in advance (all emails and payments are well recorded and can be provided if needed). Prior to making our journey to the apartment, we had contacted the host in the morning to reconfirm the booking and ensure everything went smoothly. The host had confirmed on several occasions that the apartment was ready for us. This was confirmed on the evening of December 28th, the next morning, and while we were on our way to the apartment.

When we arrived the consigner informed us that there was someone in the apartment we had booked. We tried to contact the host on several occasions and did not get any response from her; she avoided taking our calls. We finally managed to get ahold of the host, who then tried to relocate us to another apartment, which was much smaller in size, dirty and quite disgusting, and without a working shower, heathers, cooker or oven (recorded in photographs above). We informed the host that we would not be able to stay in such an apartment and she asked us to cancel our booking without any refund or compensation for the trouble they had caused us. However, we informed them we would be willing to take another apartment, similar to the one we had booked, but this was unavailable. The host then informed us they would compensate us £100, which was very insignificant, and an insult to the damage caused. We refused to cancel the booking and went through the process of a booking a hotel in the same area, which cost much more. At 7:02 PM the host decided to cancel the booking and a refund of £1041 was made to our PayPal account. However we had spent a lot of time and money in planning our five-day trip: £100 in household shopping including fruits and vegetables, £28.67 for our Uber from Harrow to Saint Edmund’s Terrace, £8.98 to Forset Court, and £25.24 back to Harrow. Our hotel booking is now £510 per night for three people and we are staying a total of five nights, totaling £2,550.

Airbnb Party House Open for Business

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So a few weeks ago I made a reservation in Oistins, Barbados for an employee of mine. I was staying nearby (at a resort). We checked in with the host and even though it was smaller than expected, had no air conditioning, and shared a bathroom between three guests, we decided it could work. Upon unloading the car we realized we had forgotten to ask the host about the wifi password. I stepped out onto the back deck to find the host rolling up a joint in front of the other two female guests. Being that this was a business trip and that I was putting my own employee in this situation made me very uncomfortable. I discussed what I had just seen with my employee, and she assured me that as long as the other guests were civil it wouldn’t be an issue. As long as no males were on the property she felt relatively safe and secure locked in her room. She had a working phone, a way to call me if she felt the need. So the next morning I went to pick up my employee and you could just tell it had been a long night. The other guests stayed up until 5:00 AM partying, yelling at each other, banging on the windows, having guys over, drinking, eventually vomiting, and dry heaving until sunrise. It was not the sort of environment you would want to be in professionally. When you have to be up early and on camera all day, this room obviously wasn’t going to work out.

I called the host, explained the situation, and told him I was going to have to move my employee to ensure she was rested and ready to go to work. He understood but was apparently more concerned with the other guests? If I’m renting out rooms from my house I want to take care of the people that take care of my place. That was not the case here. So we agreed that he would refund half of the reservation and since that moment I haven’t been able to get in touch with the host. I told him if he executed the refund process quickly I wouldn’t make a big deal, wouldn’t contact Airbnb, and wouldn’t leave a nasty review even though he was owed one for sure. A week went by and still nothing, so I escalated the refund to Airbnb management. They said they would be in touch. A few days later (on Christmas morning at 10:00 AM) I finally received an email from Airbnb saying the case was resolved, and my request for a refund had been denied. They couldn’t reach the host to verify my cancellation so they dismissed my claim. Long story short? Airbnb doesn’t care. They only care about making money, so guests should document everything. I told the customer service representative it would have been dangerous and ignorant of me to take a picture of my host smoking a joint on the deck. This was unbelievably bad customer service; to call it so would be a joke. Do yourself a favor: buck up and pay for a hotel to take the stress out of your next stay.

Noisy Dog: Not What We Expected From Airbnb

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I wish we had been told the next door neighbour had a barking dog. We could not sit out in the back as the dog stood at the fence constantly barking. Opening the back door or having a conversation inside set the dog off early one morning. I opened the door and it barked so much. I tried to make it stop, but it woke up the other guests into house. I went to the clothesline and it stood looking over the fence constantly barking. When we first arrived we tried talking to it; usually dogs want to know you but there’s no way the owner tried to tell us how stressful it is being around it. It’s a bloody cattle dog – he has no idea how cruel he is to it. Paying money for a retreat, being rounded up by a cattle dog, and then having to clean the fridge, washing machine, a lint filter full of animal hair, and an unusable BBQ full of cockroaches made it one week of misery. From the last Airbnb, I know there are different hygiene standards but this place did not meet mine. Walking in to find caked stains in the fridge wasn’t a good start, the dog didn’t stop barking, and the host insulted my 19-year-old daughter asking her many kids she had.

Paris Host Trying to Steal Security Deposit

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My bad luck began when I found a really charming apartment in Paris on Airbnb and cancelled my hotel at booking.com. Apparently my host was very sweet, but time and again proved to be greedy. She demanded money for everything including early check in, a crib, and even an extra sofa bed which was listed in the property details already. Anyway, I paid and stayed there. I left yesterday and she knew I was in Paris for few more hours after check out and didn’t contact me at all. Now she opened a request for damaged goods demanding 500 euros. And what she listed doesn’t even exist in her apartment. Now she says her maid took pictures which she hasn’t shared yet, but reading stories here I’m not very optimistic. Should I block my credit card already? I have another booking coming up with Airbnb in two days for which I have already paid in advance. I’m not sure what to do.

Cancelled Bahamas Reservation, Could Not Request Refund

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We booked a reservation for our Christmas vacation in the Bahamas three months in advance. I requested the host send me the agreement and instructions on how to get into the house no fewer than either times. He would not send it. The day before we were to fly from Michigan to the Bahamas, he cancelled (I highly suspect he rented it for much more money or a longer period of time). We could not find another place on the island. We had to pay to rebook our airfare and cancel deposits for fishing and diving trips. We lost $1500 and could not even contact Airbnb to request any type of resolution.

Host Didn’t Deliver on Property and Refuses Refund

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It was my first time booking a place on Airbnb and I thought everything was so simple and easy. I made a reservation for seven nights over Christmas. The reservation was confirmed by Airbnb and I was sent contact information for the host. On the day of arrival I still hadn’t heard from my host so I tried to contact him without any luck. I finally got through to his phone and his first words were that I couldn’t have made a reservation because the room was already booked for three months, something that was apparently Airbnb’s fault, not his. Anyway, he wasn’t even in the same city but said to give him some time (this was after 4:00 PM local time on the day I was to check in) and he’d make something work. He called me back about an hour later and said that the room was available and that as long as I got to the house by 6:00 PM someone with a key would meet me there. Perfect, I thought.

I arrived at the property by 5:30 PM and the people there (there were two students) had no clue what I was talking about. Obviously, the host hadn’t contacted them. The house was dirty and the room for rent was barren; the bed wasn’t even made up. I told the host, over text, that I wasn’t impressed but I would still take the room if they could get it ready for a guest. The host decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and suggested I find somewhere else. I thought, “Could I find something at the last minute on the night i want to check in?” I did, but my problems with the host continued to grow. I asked for a refund and the idiot just repeated what his policy said, even though he never even delivered on his accommodation promise (availability and readiness for use). I’ve submitted a complaint and now have to wait for the host to get back to me before Airbnb will step in. There’s got to be more protection for guests when hosts misrepresent themselves and their property. I want all of my money back and this idiot to be blacklisted by Airbnb so no one else has the pleasure of dealing with such a corrupt person.

Airbnb Made it Impossible for me to Book

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I’m not really an Airbnb guest nor do I intend to ever be one in the future. I recently tried for literally two hours to book one of their properties. I was repeatedly asked to verify my phone number and email, which I did without a problem. They also asked for a photo. I’m thinking: “What? Who do they think they are?” But I sent one in. Then they wanted a copy of my last credit statement. This is after providing verification several times and spending hours doing so. This was the final straw. I have done business for years with both VRBO and Homeaway, without needing to provide pictures and credit card statements. To verify our credit card, all they needed to do is run it. Ultimately, we made other arrangements, through a competitor. The end result? Airbnb lost a potential customer who uses similar services 2-3 months a year and the associated rental fees, but most importantly, the host lost the chance to book their property. We will do business where the process is simple and our platinum credit card is honored. It was pretty poor customer service. I hope this isn’t a publicly traded company because with this business model, they probably don’t have much time left before bankruptcy.