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.

Airbnb: Worth Complaining if Nothing is Done?

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Most horror stories centre around a cabin in the woods… mine is about an apartment in Nashville. But, same difference. Bit of background: my sister and I started planning a trip to America (we live in the UK) for her 30th birthday. Our trip gradually grew and grew as we started adding more places thinking ‘ah, that’s not far…’ and before we knew it we were travelling thousands of miles across the country. We started in New York then flew down to Washington, on to Nashville, Los Angeles, and finished in Las Vegas. Having used Airbnb many times before, we decided to make that our first search for accommodation. We went for a hotel in New York and Vegas (as it was, surprisingly, cheaper) but we booked Airbnb accommodation for Washington, Nashville and Los Angeles. Our stays in Washington and Los Angeles were fantastic; absolutely nothing to complain about. Nashville, however, is a different story…

We chose an apartment right on Broadway, in the centre of all the action so that we could get out and see as much live music as possible, as was the opportunity described in the listing – ‘immerse yourself in a world of honky-tonks where locals, musicians and the music industry executives hang.’ Live music, there was not. The bar next door to the apartment building played very loud, very bad, hip-hop music ‘til 5am. We were less than impressed. The noise, however, is not where my complaint lies…

This is the link to the listing in question. It’s called ‘MIDTOWN: BARS, MUSIC & HISTORY!!’ Blake – the owner of this apartment – had sent us an email the day before our stay was scheduled to begin saying that he would leave the key – I won’t say where, as I don’t want him to be burgled, no matter how angry I am – and to text him when we had arrived. Firstly, he failed to provide a number on which to reach him. Secondly, we both had UK mobile phones and couldn’t get a signal to ring even if we had had his number. So, we sent him a message through the Airbnb site letting him know we had checked in and asking a couple of questions… Firstly, he claimed in his listing that he had wifi… we tried to find a connection that looked like it could belong to the apartment but couldn’t. We had a look around to see if we could find a wi-fi box, but had no luck there either. Secondly, we needed to stock up on some basic supplies for the week so we asked him where the nearest shop was.

He replied some time later that day (obviously he was not that bothered about being a good host) and his response was thus: ‘Hi!!! So sorry for the delay – my phone has seemingly been without great service. We have been out at the vineyard this afternoon. For wifi use *** …’ I have omitted the wifi details because, as it turned out, Blake does not have wifi; he simply piggy-backs off the connection from the bar next door. This, in my opinion, does not constitute the provision of wifi. Glad to hear that he had had a good afternoon at the vineyard, though… We left our luggage in the apartment and went out to explore. When we initially arrived we climbed the fire escape stairs, as per Blake’s instructions, but as there was a noticeable amount of broken glass and rubbish at the rear of the building we opted to exit out of the front. Any better? Well, the main front door to the building did not lock; it didn’t even close. Not very safe and secure…

When we returned later that evening we had more time to actually have a look around. Wishing we had done so before, we discovered that the apartment was, quite frankly, filthy. A thick layer of dust covered every surface, the oven and hob (editor’s note: stovetop) clearly hadn’t been cleaned for quite some time and the bathroom… well, I have lived in student accommodation that was cleaner. The bathroom was painted black and Blake seemingly uses these black walls on which to write messages to his guests (no other welcome pack or leaflets were provided, just the graffiti). There were directions to a fried chicken joint alongside the message ‘sorry the shower is old’. ‘Old’ I can cope with. ‘Old’ is acceptable. ‘Old’ is how I would describe my parents’ 1850s cottage. ‘Old’ is not what this shower was. This shower was revolting. Neither of us even wanted to set foot in the bath tub for fear of needing another shower on exit. Not only were there hairs in the bath (a common occurrence and, admittedly, difficult to get up every single one) but the mat inside the bath which, in a past life had started out as white, was pink with grime and dirt.

Continuing on in the bathroom: the toilet, when sat on, came away from the wall. If the fear of catching a disease wasn’t enough to turn the most avid sitters into stoopers, the fear of potential drowning certainly was. The sink was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. The bathroom floor hadn’t been cleaned for a considerably long time. The only thing that we could say, with some degree of certainty, had been ‘cleaned’ prior to our arrival were the bedsheets. Bravo, Blake, you changed the bed. Although the bed cover had a giant grease stain on the top, so maybe my praise was premature… As it was rather late when we noticed all of this, we decided to grit our teeth and stay one night. Obviously, with the bar next door playing music ‘til 5am, it wasn’t a very restful night. First thing in the morning, we discussed the best action to take. As we had had no physical contact and very little virtual contact with Blake, we were very reluctant to contact him with our complaint. He certainly didn’t seem a very hands-on host and as we were two women alone in a strange city, we really didn’t fancy the thought of confronting him.

We made the decision to find somewhere else to stay and sent Blake a message explaining the situation in full and that we had decided to leave. As it was last minute and there were events on in Nashville, we struggled to find anywhere with availability so ended up paying out substantially more money for a hotel. As well as informing Blake of the whole situation, we made an official complaint to Airbnb. This is where the fun starts. The response we had from Blake: ‘Hey – so sorry that the place was not up to your standards! I certainly did clean it thoroughly. There is a wifi extender in the unit – so all works. Please make sure to cancel your reservation and I will reimburse you for days that are able to be rebooked. Again, very sorry that the place did not meet your standards!’

Standards. I will be the first to admit that I have standards. It is not, however, unreasonable to have a standard of cleanliness. I am not asking for the place to be immaculate; when you have a fast turnaround of guests it is not always going to be possible to clean every spec of dust. I am not asking for that. I am simply expecting, as a paying guest, a basic standard of cleanliness. But this apartment simply had not been cleaned, and he is now lying to us saying that it had. Airbnb responded to my complaint and requested photo evidence, which I gladly sent over. As Blake had volunteered to refund us for the days that he was able to rebook, I reiterated this to Airbnb who proceeded to cancel the reservation on our behalf to enable others to book Blake’s listing. Straight away, Airbnb refunded us their service fee as they didn’t want to ‘benefit from the uncomfortable situation.’ Isn’t that nice?

That’s really where the niceties end, unfortunately… ‘Although [the photos] do show significant dust and a messy oven, these are issues that your host may have been able to attend to had he been offered the chance. Because the cleanliness concerns aren’t egregious, I won’t be able to supply you with a mandated refund from your host aside from the cleaning fees, which I wanted to make sure you received given your predominant concerns.’ We were advised to set up a case through the Resolution Centre which is their formal route of requesting a refund. I filled this out in detail and this request went through to Blake himself, not Airbnb.

Unsurprisingly, our request was declined… ‘Jennifer – I’d like to apologize again that this apartment was not up to your standards. I can assure you that the place [is] very clean — however, as mentioned in the listing – the building is over a hundred years old and is quite creaky and aged. Airbnb is a wonder[ful] community with PLENTY of options. I hope you are able to be more selective next time and find something that meets your tastes. If you ever come back to Nashville, I will be more than happy to help recommend something. I have told Airbnb that I will refund the cleaning fee since this was the cause of your concerns. Sidenote: upon my arrival to the unit after your departure, both doors were closed and locked. The door operates as any standard door would — I’m glad you figured it out!’

To start, in my initial complaint about the cleanliness I made a point of stating ‘although we understand that the building is old and this can provide reason for cracks in walls, etc’… to make sure that he knew we weren’t complaining about the age of the building. Clearly he did not read this as he seemed to assume we were complaining about the creaks… I also added that ‘the main front door to the building does not lock or even close’ – is this not clear that I am referring to the ‘main front door to the building’ and not the apartment door? I thought so, too. So now not only is he refusing our request for a refund, he is insulting our intelligence. The added sarcasm just made my blood boil even more. Game on. Another email back to Airbnb stating my dissatisfaction in Blake’s response, his sarcastic language and our refusal to back down. I stated that we were willing to pay for the night that we stayed and also the second night as that would have been extremely difficult for him to re-let – more than reasonable, in my opinion. But the other five nights (yes, we were staying for a whole week) we wanted back.

Annoyingly, as were travelling back from America to the UK, I was unable to check my email in time before the 24 hour (yep, that’s all they give you) time limit to respond to Airbnb had expired. So, on our return I had to open a new case to enable me to continue with my complaint. I asked if Airbnb had a policy to go out and inspect a listing that had a complaint against it… ‘When it comes to hosts and listings we have multiple internal routes and tools that we use to ensure unwanted ones are removed. Once this case is closed I will be sending the details of the case and a team will be following up with them directly. This often requires additional steps from the host and does not guarantee a host’s future within our community. We do not have people go out to listings to personally inspect them but instead we go off of reviews set by past guests. I am able to search the host’s end of things and see if there is a pattern worth nothing and in this case, there was none found. The many reviews reflect that the listing worked greatly for people due to the location and there are a good amount of people who said the apartment itself was great.’

That’s not entirely true. I had another look after – something I wished I had done before – and there are several reviews that mention the cleanliness and even one guest who described the apartment in very similar words to me, and had even requested a refund only to be denied. I told them this, and their response… ‘Thanks so much for your patience throughout this process. We appreciate the time you’ve taken to share your concerns with our team. However, we have issued our final decision for this case and we will disengage from further discussion on this topic. We’re truly passionate about providing our community of hosts and guests with the best possible traveling experience. I’m really sorry that this hasn’t been the case here. Just know that we’re always working to improve our products and policies, and even when we aren’t able to accommodate requests, we absolutely value our users’ feedback. As a customer of Airbnb, your voice is both powerful and essential and I’ll be sure to pass your thoughts on to the right team.’

‘Disengage from further discussion on this topic.’ Have you ever heard such a response from supposed Customer Services? They wanted no more to do with it so they basically said ‘end of,’ ‘we’re not listening anymore.’ Needless to say I did not leave it there. I did some research and found a different email address for Airbnb and I have now written a very strongly worded complaint in the hope that a member of the management team will now be informed. Initially, my complaint had nothing to do with Airbnb; my complaint was about the host and the listing. Airbnb made my complaint about them when they disengaged themselves from the topic.

I did some further fact checking before sending off my latest complaint and found that Blake has five reviews from April meaning that he was actually able to re-let his apartment, after all. So, should we not be entitled to our money back for the nights that he re-let? He has also changed the description on his listing, adding ‘This building has not been renovated since the late 40s – so if you’re accustomed to staying at 5 star hotels… you want to keep looking as this place may not be for you!’ I may be paranoid but it feels like that comment is slightly aimed toward me?… Also, he has, without a doubt, uploaded new photographs onto the site… it sure does look cleaner. Worried much? He has also added that he will ‘be there to greet you upon your arrival…’

If he had done this for us, he could have saved us all this trouble as we would have met him initially, had a face to put to a complaint and all of this could have been dealt with a lot easier. Let’s hope he’s learned his lesson. I, myself, as well as many of my friends and family, have used Airbnb and have never had any trouble. We stayed in two other places during our trip and had absolutely no complaints, whatsoever. It seems, however, that in the event that a customer does wish to complain, they make it extremely difficult and do whatever they can to ignore your words. On my discovery of this Airbnb Hell website I felt slightly less alone in my complaint and thought that I would, as many others have, use this as a platform to get my voice heard.

Plus, as Airbnb cancelled our reservation to enable the listing to be rebooked, even though we stayed for one night our reservation was removed so we are unable to write a review. Well, this is your review. Airbnb has clearly washed its hands of this complaint, but, in my experience, a complaint should be dealt with until the complainant is reasonably satisfied with the resolution. Well, I am not reasonably satisfied. So, Airbnb, if you are reading this, what are you going to do? And for all you potential guests out there: stick to hotels.

Airbnb in Colombia: Nearly Tazed by Property Owner

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A small group of friends went to Medellín, Colombia for a quick getaway and good times. We rented the place about three weeks prior. Knowing that we wanted to party (make noise), we rented a house with no noise ordinance. The pictures appeared relatively decent. After the house was booked, it dawned on a few of us that there were really no common areas where we could hang out, which is what we wanted to do in the first place! So we emailed the host over three weeks and all she did was dissemble and evade us. When we arrived and voiced our dissatisfaction she continued to evade us. It was clear she had our money and had no intention of making us happy customers. She only paid us lip service. What was interesting was there were good reviews, which for the life of me, I still cannot understand. The breaking point for us was the fact that there was no air conditioning and the place was an oven. We found cockroaches in the kitchen and bedbugs.

We called Airbnb as per a friend’s recommendation and the customer service agent was very helpful. She did say they had an hour to rectify the issues. She did not rectify the issue and the reservation was cancelled and we were given a credit. Ok, phew! Let’s find a decent place. Well as we were packing up, some guy named Gino, who was visibly mad and speaking in perfect American English, knocked on the door, and identified himself as the owner of the building. He was with another guy and they were using walkie-talkies (strange in this day of cell phones). He told us to get out. When I noted we needed to pack our stuff, he said you have five minutes to get out. As we were preparing to leave one of the other people in the group saw a stun gun. Needless to say we hightailed it out of there and never looked back. This rental is way overpriced for Colombia: disgusting, dirty, shady, and DANGEROUS. Stay away from this rental and others run by the same people.

Most Disrespectful Airbnb Host: Nightmare in Venice Beach

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I have been staying at Airbnbs since the company started and have never come close to having an experience like the one I had in Venice Beach, California. In fact, I have never been disrespected by someone like this in my entire life, no matter what the situation was. As I travel for work, I often stay at Airbnbs across the country and I always treat every home and host better than my own or how I would expect to be treated. This house was super cute and very well decorated. It was exactly what I wanted while in Venice Beach, California until I realized how disrespectful this host and the host’s girlfriend was. On the first morning of my stay, they yelled at me for talking to a client on my cell phone outside in the backyard, which was supposed to be completely open to guests. I was interrupted by the host telling me that he has to make a call and that if I am going to be talking on my phone I have to do so inside my studio. I went inside to finish my conversation and then left to go to a coffee shop and work where I wouldn’t get in trouble for being on the phone.

I WAS EVICTED AT 3:30AM FOR NOTHING. The very next night, I had my best friend drive up from San Diego for dinner. I introduced him to the host’s girlfriend because she was in the yard watering the flowers. She seemed super nice and we all talked about places to go eat, things to see while in town, etc. It was a very normal, casual conversation. She recommended a very nice place for dinner and it was great. She also asked if my friend was planning on staying and although it was not the plan, I said that it depends on how late dinner goes. She said ok and walked inside. Since we couldn’t get a reservation until 9:30pm we did not get home from dinner until midnight or so. We were extremely quiet when we got home and went straight to sleep (again I’m here for work).

After being asleep for 3.5 hours, at 3:30am, I was suddenly woken up by someone pounding on the door and yelling at me to get out of the apartment. I opened the door and it was the host’s girlfriend screaming at me and saying that I must pack my things and leave. I was told that she called Airbnb and reported me for breaking the rules of having a friend stay with me and if I don’t leave in 5 minutes, the cops will come (she never called Airbnb). I was completely caught off guard; it was the middle of the night, and when I simply asked her what was going on and if she could provide me with the number for Airbnb, she said no and that I had to leave immediately. Needless to say it’s 3:45am in the morning now and I am on the street with my luggage and no place to stay. She got to keep the money that I prepaid for the apartment and possibly rented out her place again for that night. I have never been so disrespected by anyone in my entire life. This was the most ridiculous experience that I have ever faced and don’t know anyone who has the conscience to treat someone like this.

After speaking with Airbnb, they were extremely apologetic; they credited my account for the one night and gave me $100 in Airbnb credit. When I asked how to leave a review on the site, I was not able to because the host immediately cancelled the reservation to prevent me from leaving a bad review. When the Airbnb host told me the house rules, there was nothing stating that one will be evicted for having a guest stay with you. The house rules stated that they “prefer” to have no outside guests but when I introduced my friend to the girlfriend earlier in the evening, she said nothing about not being able to stay. I was out $620 from the rental of the Airbnb and then had to find a hotel at 4:00am in a city that I am not familiar with and pay an extra $300 for the room.

Airbnb Double Booking in Amsterdam

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I traveled from the US to Amsterdam for business and over the weekend I convinced my family (my brother and my parents who are over 60) to come and visit the city. We arrived at the apartment quite easily, by following the good directions of the “manager” of the rentals. I specify manager as this Brazilian guy, who handles many apartments for other people and they’re not his property. Well, we arrived at the apartment, and he opened the door. I was right behind him. We switched on the light and….. SURPRISE! A man was sleeping in one of the beds who assured us that the apartment was regularly rented from him. Well, the owner of the apartment nicely forgot to tell the manager that he rented the apartment to a friend of his! The manager got in contact with Airbnb to explain what happened and they called me.

At that moment my nightmare started. A certain Tina H at Airbnb tried to NOT help me by saying that she was sending me an email about how to book another place. I am from the US; how do you imagine I could find an Internet connection in the middle of a park in Amsterdam?

The very nice manager offered his phone and router. I then spent three hours, THREE HOURS, in the cold weather of Amsterdam on the damn phone trying to find another apartment with a reasonable price. This useless Tina H sent me an email with “suggestions”. Very smart suggestions. Since I was in Amsterdam and she was proposing options in towns far away from he city! What an intelligent service, eh? So, I did some research by myself but obviously no one was accepting my last minute booking! My parents started to feel bad, in a serious way, about the cold, the stress…!

In the end, the manager offered his apartment for free as he was feeling so bad for my family so that we didn’t sleep under a bridge. But if not for him, and the useless Airbnb customer service, we would have remained in that park for three days by sleeping under the fantastic sky of Amsterdam. This is unacceptable. They’re a nightmare! How could they leave people on their own in this way?

Airbnb Should Pay More for Last-Minute Cancellation

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I booked a trip through Airbnb on February 1st, 2016, and this morning – April 20, 2016 – I got a text from Airbnb stating that Lindsey Secor had cancelled my reservation. I had booked a two-night stay in Mancelona, Michigan. The host Lindsey Secor just texted me, stating “…personal circumstances have caused me to remove my home from Airbnb. I am very sorry. Thank you for understanding.”

I understand that is not Airbnb’s fault for the host pulling out, but i think the host should be charged at least one thousand dollars for doing this; I wasted many hours and now of course the prices are much higher. My best friend is visiting from Australia and i wanted to show him around. I also booked a trip to Niagara Falls, so I hope that host does not cancel this trip. Airbnb should charge each homeowner a large fee for cancelling on their guest: not just $50 or $100… I would say $1000 or more. I am very disappointed.

Last Minute Cancellation for a Year-Old Booking!

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I made reservations for an “Artist’s Hideaway” in New Orleans a year in advance of my son’s law school graduation. The host confirmed the reservation and gladly accepted full payment in advance. Today, three weeks before our arrival she cancelled saying “my calendars didn’t sync.” It was already booked. My family has already made expensive travel plans and accommodations will be hard to come by. She had almost a year to see that she double booked. Why are we the ones to suffer for this? It seems that as a potential guest, there is no place on Airbnb to write a negative review for her so I am posting here. Do NOT book the Artist’s Hideaway in New Orleans or be prepared to be screwed.

Coachella Disaster: Airbnb Cancelled after Check-In

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I had a terrible experience with this host.  I’m the type of guy that prepares for everything. After this experience I realize I cannot place any amount of responsibility for the success of my vacation in the hands of strangers with no track record. I will be using reputable hotel chains for the rest of my life. At least they have process and procedure in place and aren’t flaky Airbnb NOOB hosts that can’t get their stuff together! I actually had a hotel booked ready to go… but no…

“Why don’t we try an Airbnb?” they said. “It would be roomier,” they said.

“YES! Great idea!” NOT! We planned to check in to our accommodations that Thursday and got the Airbnb booked and confirmed with the host on Tuesday. Somewhat short notice but as a guest I had expected that this room would have been ready to be used if those dates were listed as available. Everything started off smoothly: after the confirmation and payment I reached out to the host via text and they replied stating they would call me that evening. No call came that evening. The next day was Wednesday, one day prior to check in. I again reached out to the host via text and Airbnb but never got a response. A host going dark within 24 hours of check in is not good. The check in day arrives and I’m getting nervous. I already cancelled my hotel plans so that I wouldn’t get charged so now I have NOTHING to fall back on.

The first thing I do that morning at 8:00 AM is contact Airbnb stating I haven’t heard from this host. They say they will contact them and get back to me asap. They call me back around 9:00 AM saying they spoke with the host and the host was having issues getting a cleaning crew to prepare the condo. I said I didn’t plan to check in until 10:00 PM anyways so that should give them time. The Airbnb rep told me to contact the host directly to complete the booking. I said, “OK, I’ll call them after I get off work.”

So I texted and messaged the host throughout the day stating I would call around 5:00 PM. At 5:00 PM I called (straight to voicemail) and texted the host asking to make arrangements. I finally get a text back at 6:00 PM saying they couldn’t have the condo cleaned in time for my arrival which would have been 7 HOURS AFTER CHECK IN, at 10:00 PM! Are you kidding me? Please get your life together! You have a responsibility when you placed that listing! So two hours after I was supposed to check in I’m screwed and back to square one, trying to find accommodation for the vacation! I was supposed to have left already! Unreal! I couldn’t imagine myself in this situation in a million years.

To top it all off, Airbnb didn’t have this flagged as urgent in their system so I never got a call back from them even though the host notified Airbnb at 12:00 PM that they would have to cancel. Thanks for letting me know Airbnb! And thank you, host, for not letting me know that very important and pertinent information. FLAKE! I didn’t even get a cancellation notice in my inbox until 6:00 PM, three hours after check in! One Airbnb agent was able to restore quite a bit of faith by getting me a FULL refund and getting one night at a nearby hotel. Although I appreciate the gesture, it still required us to check out the next day and check in to another hotel for the remainder of our vacation causing us to lose half a day at the Coachella Music Festival due to the hotel’s 3:00 PM check-in rule. And with the prices having skyrocketed I actually ended up paying MORE for my trip. Not to mention that when I checked into the “Free Night Hotel” booked by Airbnb I had to put down a credit card for incidentals…. Guess whose credit card got charged at checkout for the “free night”? You guessed it! MY AMEX. Not the credit card put down by Airbnb when THEY booked the complimentary night for me. So now I have to fight Hilton’s accounting department on that one. What a joyous experience this has been! As I mentioned at the beginning: experience, process, and procedure will now win out in favor of any cost savings or added benefits that can be brought by using Airbnb.

Don’t Expect Airbnb to Honour your Booking

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We requested the 19th to 23rd of July for 16 people. The booking (and the money) was accepted. After confirmation, the host messaged that they had mistakenly double booked the property. The host offered us instead a choice of three sets of dates. We contacted everyone in our party to find which dates would suit them. We selected one of the dates (24th – 29th July). As there was an extra night and the property was larger, we asked for confirmation that the price already paid would be honoured. The host confirmed that the price would remain the same and confirmed the booking. We made travel arrangements (not cheap). After all the confirmations, the host said that the property would not be available on the first night – the 24th of July. AirBnB let the host cancel the reservation – without any repercussions – despite the host messing around with us twice! The accommodation looks amazing but don’t expect your booking to be honoured. Proceed with extreme caution – no matter how many are in your party!

Bizarre Encounter with Airbnb Host after a Stay

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I spent three months in 2016 with Roberto Eichhorn who is a super Airbnb host. His place was ok, but a bit far from everything (which is inaccurate according to his online description). Luckily, I had my own car. The reason I stayed so long was to transition to a different city. So after I finished my stay, I moved to the west coast. During my relocation period, I received a strange text message from Roberto about his cat and blaming me for cutting his cat’s whiskers short. I thought he was drunk and high, with a little too much time on his hands. So I didn’t bother to respond. Little did I know, he actually posted this “accusation” on my Airbnb profile and made it public. I’m now in a long process of disputing it via Airbnb for his tarnishing comments.

I would have thought Airbnb would ask the host to verify before putting any strange potentially reputation-damaging comments online. No! No preventative guidelines. This is a terribly managed site regarding reviews.