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.

I wish I would have read this before reserving!

Posted on

Wow! I paid for a full month and was going to spend three months with a host on air Bnb.  When my daughter and I arrived, the place was freezing even with the fireplace going. This is in 38 degree weather! My daughter and I could not even take our jackets off! Plus the place was grossly misrepresented in the pictures! I told the host and told him we could not live in that environment. I was still charged for three days, cleaning and a service fee totaling $500!  Then I was told that usually the whole amount is kept!

I couldn’t even post a review! You only see the good reviews! Bastards! Fakes!

The place is in Phoenicia NY.

Lying, Psychopathic Host – Total Nightmare!

Posted on

Here is a AirBNB Review for you. I made a reservation with a host in California through AIRBNB. When I arrived the place was a filthy mess. When I mean a mess, I mean, pubes on the bed, hair on the bathroom floors, pet hair on the couches, pee stains on the toilets and what appeared to be vomit on the sheets on the bed.

I obviously called the owner and told her the issue and she instantly became defensive. She said someone had gone to clean the house and she knew it was spotless. When speaking to her before this time she had stated she was out of town, but when I called her to tell her about what was going on she said she would drive over to see what was going on.

When she arrived she was in a bitchy mood to start off with. After showing her all the mess she stated that she knew everything was clean because she had cleaned it herself. I had taken pictures of the bed sheets and the mess before she arrived in case she was to get feisty with me and ask us to leave.

What happened next is truly disturbing….

First, she stated that we had too high expectations.
Then she states that we probably were the ones who made the mess.
We had not even been there 30 minutes before we called. (30 min. was about the time it took all 6 of us to get the luggage off of the car.)

She continued to try and argue with me that it was our fault and that she would not cancel the reservation, meaning if we were to leave that we were still going to have to pay for the whole stay.

I was pissed by this time. I told her I was not about to argue with her about it infront of my kids. I called Airbnb from there, she called on her phone. Then we starting to tell them our sides of the story. She started saying that we had turned her house upside down…lying right in front of us. I mean to say we were upset is an understatement. She said she didnt give a fu&* what we said we were going to have to pay.

So we took our pictures and left. I emailed them to Airbnb and they stated we were still going to have to pay for the weekend unless she was able to find someone to stay the other days. Are you kidding me?!

I am the only girl on my family and I have 4 brothers, so I’m used to defending myself, and this was not going to be a fight that I was going to lose. And I didn’t. I got my full refund back after I texted the owner that I had looked into her home zoning and she was not only in violation of renting her home but also in violation with her home owners association. You see many locations do not allow a home to rented under 30 days without a permit.

Moral of the story… Stay away from Airbnb.

P.S. I’m not usually rude but when people try to screw me over, I don’t take it lightly.

AIRBNBEWARE

Posted on
blank

Airbnb has censored my story! This doesn’t surprise me considering they scrubbed the statistics of their recent court ordered data hand over in NYC. They delete my comments off of a TedTalk about trust ! I was an AirbnBeliever before – now I’m just terrified by the agentic protocol and the sociopathic response of my former classmates at Rhode Island School Design : Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky. They are unscrupulous to allow my abusive host to continue using Airbnb 1. After he solicited me for extra money off the platform! & discriminated against my handicaps!! 2. Because Chesky is a Jew and it is disgustingly hypocritical to fund and protect a notorious Holocaust denier and leader of the KKK!!! visit the updated http://www.haughtee.com/airkkk for more . . .

False Airbnb Location in Thailand

Posted on

I recently rented a condo/apt in Hua Hin, Thailand, in what we believed to be in the downtown area. We only searched places marked near the train station close to the main road going to the beach. After reviewing the pictures of the placed marker we rented the unit. Later when I contacted the owner and was provided directions, the unit was located way South. I recontacted the owner and she “said” the unit was properly marked on the Air BnB website. I have no idea who is at fault, the owner or some mistake with Air BnB. We did not look anywhere close to the actually site so we know the fault was not ours. Air BNB cannot even be contacted to deal with the problem. I doubt that I will ever use Air BNB again.

Airbnb Verification Frustration!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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?