I booked a house for 7 people on a trip to NZ, I haven’t been there yet, the trip is in a month but my actual experience on the airbnb website itself is not that good. I wanted to contact the host directly and the host also tried to give me 2 alternate contact methods, but airbnb keeps censoring everything, with a .com or an @ or extended numbers even if they aren’t phone numbers. We wanted to pay in cash to avoid the booking fee for credit cards if there are any. On their website: https://www.airbnb.com.au/help/article/694/how-will-my-email-address-look-to-other-people it says you can send attachments, I tried and I couldn’t. They don’t even allow a choice of payment methods, only different ones in different places and all are electronic, no cash. I don’t like paying over the internet and prefer cash after seeing the product. The censorship is extremely restrictive and I tried many times and they all didn’t work, even intentional misspelling.
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 has the Worst Customer Service
I rented a room where the host said he would clean it after he got off work at 6. The check in time stated 3pm, but I didn’t feel like I could force him to come home from work earlier so I planned around his schedule. When I came back around 7:30 he had still not come back and the sheets were dirty and there were dirty towels from the previous guest. The toilet had urine on it and the apartment smelled bad. Airbnb wanted him to come home and remedy the situation instead of reimbursing me. When he was not home by 9 they finally agreed to reimburse me. Which is great, but I had to go back and forth with them for almost an hour and get a supervisor involved. They also agreed to pay up to $150 for my first night in a hotel. So I get a hotel for 2 nights thinking everything will be ok. Then this morning I find the case manager has sent me 2 emails between 9 and midnight stating she needs the receipt and then that she is not paying for the hotel anymore. When I call back i’m told I just have to wait for her to return and they can’t give me a timeline. Way to ruin a vacation! I wouldn’t have been upset with the dirty room if customer service had responded to the situation quickly and fairly and I was able to put it all behind me, but I’m still having to deal with them.
How To Recover Your Money from Airbnb
Here’s a warning and hopefully some help for others in the Airbnb nightmare club. I recently used Airbnb for the first time. I have several friends that rent their houses through this service so I though I’d try it. This review does not pertain to every person on Airbnb. There are good people there, I know some personally. However, there are bad people there too and I just got a lesson in how far Airbnb goes to protect known scammers. If you read to the end I’ll explain how I unscammed myself.
Ok, I rented a room in Bozeman for 12 days. I paid for it in advance of course. Now, Airbnb claims they don’t charge your account until you check in. What they don’t mention is that for them “check in” occurs 24 hours before your rental starts. The host already has your money and has possibly spent it before you arrive. Possibly on drugs that make them crazy when you get there. Just saying. Apparently this happened to me. When I showed up, the hosts were super sketchy. The house smelled like people just pee in the hall rather than going all the way to the bathroom. There were people sleeping on every couch and piece of free carpet it seemed. The room was in the back. It had probably never been cleaned since the last junkie died there. I mentioned I was disappointed that the house was not as described and not the one in the pictures. They asked me to leave. I couldn’t have been happier to get out. Really, it was a health hazard. I called Airbnb and they said they would help. They’d call back in 5-10 minutes. They’d help me find another place and we’re sorry. I said ok, I’m sitting in my car in a blizzard so somewhere close would be best. They said if it was more than 15 minutes they’d call with an update.
They called almost 4 hours later. They said that since I’d already talked to another employee there they couldn’t help me. I never talked to anyone else. I assume the host called pretending to be me. They said that their hands are tied and they can only do what the host wants anyway. I said that is says clearly on your site that in extenuating circumstances or if the rental isn’t as described, Airbnb will override the host’s policies. He said he doesn’t think it says that. I explained where to read it. He said, well I don’t have the authority to do anything like that. I asked to be transferred to someone who can. He said there is no one who can. ??? He then said the only way is to contact the host and ask for a refund. Really? The scammers make the rules? By this time the hosts had “canceled” my reservation. You’d think this means a refund. You’d be very wrong. What it means is I can’t leave feedback about the host because I no longer have a reservation. If I go to my emails and click the links there it says that reservation does not exist. So, if the host has any clue you will leave a bad review, they can block you from writing one. Also, read through the Airbnb policies on the website. First it says all reviews are honest and from real renters. Keep reading. Wait for the part where they say they erase and or modify the reviews as they see fit. Seriously? Honest reviews re-written by marketing experts. Seems like a real nice version of honesty to me.
Ok, so what to do if this happens to you? Well, hopefully you reserved your room with a credit or debit card. Call your bank. Ask for the fraud department. Maybe even the Airbnb fraud specialist. No joke Wells Fargo said they think they need a few. The guy that helped me said this is the 4th similar Airbnb scam he personally helped with today. At this point, if they hear Airbnb they just shove the money back in your account. He said sorry this happened, and I had my cash in about 12 hours. Don’t try and deal with Airbnb if you have a problem. Well, you can try but do it with the expectation that they won’t help. So, I want to say once more that there are good people on Airbnb. You may rent a place and love it. But please protect yourself in case you do get initiated into the Airbnb nightmare club.
AirBNB Superhost Raised Price AFTER Accepting Booking!
My first time booking with AirBnB, and it was an amazingly FRUSTRATING experience. After my host accepted my reservation, she then messaged me saying she had posted the wrong accommodation prices, and asked me to accept the new property price listing. I told her that as she had already accepted my reservation, I would not pay her extra. She then told me to pay her in cash in person. I then contacted AirBnB and told them what had happened, and they said they would assign a case manager. After an initial email, I have had NO replies from the case manager and his last email stated “If your host ends up asking for additional payment at the time of check-in, you can also refer them to the Resolutions Center. The Resolution Center allows you to offer or request money for your Airbnb reservation. By using the Resolution Center, Airbnb is able to verify and process any agreements that you may reach…If your host does not allow you to check in, then please contact us immediately and we can get you a new place to stay. I hope this is helpful.” NO THAT WAS NOT HELPFUL! Do you want me to rock up to the accommodation and then contact Resolution Center if she demands more money from me in person?! Or she doesn’t even honour the reservation?! PLEASE DO NOT BOOK WITH AIRBNB FOR YOUR SANITY!!!!!!!!
Airbnb Host Stole Belongings of Guest – No Airbnb Help!
I got scammed on Airbnb and it was a totally legit listing. I only communicated with the people through the Airbnb app. When I got to the house and met the folks they seemed cool. When I went out for dinner, they stole all my stuff and locked me out. They told Airbnb my dog was violent and they were scared. I tried multiple times but I couldn’t get any refund and my luggage and laptop and camera, everything was stolen. They are still on Airbnb offering the same listing. I’d say Airbnb needs to be made illegal in every state. That’s the only time I used them so in my eyes they have 100% scam rate. There is no protection if you use them. The renters were even able to change their refund policy after I paid and the new rules were instantly considered valid. To make it worse, they sent me an email saying God bless, Jesus loves you. Also, once they canceled my reservation I wasn’t allowed to leave negative feedback. So, no one will ever know by looking at their listing.
The Psycho Airbnb Host of Cyprus
My girlfriend and I saw a beautiful wooden bungalow on Airbnb in the mountains of Paphos Cyrpus, and it was called the Zen bungalow, so we thought, it must be very silent there and clean and nice and if its zen the owner must be a cool guy, he advertised as a nice surfer and etc. We wanted to rent for 3 months the entire house as we needed to stay in Cyprus to do a course. We rented, he made us a price and my partner and son went first, they arrived late and he was waiting, they got into the house and it was covered in sand, he apologized saying that they had a sand storm 3 days ago and he hoped she didn’t mind then he left. The beds had no bedsheets, so she looked into the drawers and they were smelling very bad, so she texted him and he said it had new one somewhere else. Anyways he left all his toiletries in the toilet and all his dirty laundry too which we thought he will come back to pick it up. The beautiful hot tube he advertised and showed in the picture was the drain for the dirty water of the washing machine, when he took a picture he cut that part, so we couldn’t use it because it was disgusting, plus all his 12 pair of shoes were sitting in the area in our faces. Next morning the garden was a dump for construction stuff. The view was beautiful, we had two chicken barns in the garden and the smells would blow inside the house, he came to visit and was demanding that we feed the chickens and water the garden, and we had asked him before hand if there were animals around, he said no. He kept coming to the house unannounced and entering my girlfriend’s bedroom, the veranda was made of glass so one can see inside from the garden and she kept hearing people in the garden while she was still asleep, he even mention that he wanted to build a swimming pool so he would be working in the garden. We told him we rented the house to have privacy. Once the electricity was gone, we didn’t know what to do or where the electric box was located, and he replied in the text that he is not the electrical authority of Cyprus. He came over again and told us to keep the windows shut otherwise the wind can destroy them, he also advertised air conditioning and it only had a very weak one in the bedroom and boy Cyprus can be very hot and we asked him about it he just answered: open the window. Right so we had hot wind coming in. We didn’t know what to do as we had booked for all this time, by then we were feeding chickens and taking care of his garden, we felt sorry for the chickens, we even bought them food because he kept ignoring our messages. Then one day up he is again and we always turn of all lights in the night, that last night my girlfriend heard a noise so she asked me to leave one light out on, so I did, and because we were not used to we forgot it on, it was a saving bulb the ones that are very light and one can’t see in the day if its kitten or not, he saw it and started to be very rude, so this time we answered, he said he wanted to come inside the house because he wanted to see if we were keeping his house clean, I say of course we are and no, please we want privacy, so he grabbed me violently and I had a broken arm at the time, to come in and I told him I would call the police because he keeps trying to get in a house he rented for us and its illegal, plus he is only doing it because we are two girls. So he left, we were afraid of him as he hurt my arm. We called airbnb, they took us away from there and found us another place for 3 days, they said they would help to rehouse us, but they left the whole thing in our hands, to deal with people or find another place, they gave us a coupon only and we cancelled the whole thing. We found very nice house on booking.com where they are credit and checked, we had wonderful next 2 months in amazing house, clean and nice with a normal host, a very polite, nice man that was always asking if we needed anything, left us alone and happy, so we left there with inherit broken as we felt in love with the place, the house was spotless, and had all we needed also the silence and tidiness. AirBnB doesn’t check their hosts and doesn’t know what goes on. But at least they took us away from the Zen psycho of Paphos.
Host Lies & Claims Security Deposit After Honest Review
I stayed in Copenhagen for 5 nights at this listing (https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/4465929) hosted by this guy called Cem Arslan. I didn’t want to leave any review for him because there was nothing great about my stay. But the host has texted me and emailed me twice to have a good review. I got the rude shock this morning (after 2 weeks after my trip) when airbnb sent me a request to claim US$250 from me just because the host suddenly claimed that I damaged his TV console?!? He left me a good review after my stay, and after I gave him an honest review, he turned against me and demanded payment for some made up accusation which never happened. I was horrified to find out that airbnb still entertain such baseless complaints and demanded that I respond. In addition, he also told so many lies in his public response to my review. Gosh! I told him at the booking that there will be 2 children and he even replied saying they can sleep on his couch. Now he claims that I didn’t tell him there were young children. And he also claimed that I left the apartment dirty?! Why have a change of heart after 2 weeks when your review after I left was so good?! Beware of such host because your credit card details and security deposits are certainly not safe even weeks or months after your trip!
Airbnb is very unfriendly to consumers!
I’ve booked once before on Airbnb and it worked out great. Second time, not so great. I use the filter and put “dogs allowed” I checked a couple of places in one area then moved about 1 mile away to another set of listings. Apparently the filters do not carry over. It did not dawn on me that I would have to re-input all my filters again! If I have an account with Airbnb and a profile, shouldn’t all my standard filters be saved?? I found a house, sent a note to the owner. This listing was not an “Instant booking” so you are required to fill out a request form and “tell the host a little about yourself” I sent a note and told the host we are an older couple who want to have a reunion with our adult children and that we travel with a 9 lbs dog who is with us at all times. My husband and I work remotely from home and the dog is used to being with us all day and night. (so I tipped the host off to our having our dog with us) The owner said “yes we can accommodate you for those dates” and sent a payment request for me to pay. I paid. This was in October for a reservation for December 26-30th–way, way in advance. About 24 hours later, the host sends a note saying “oh sorry, we do not allow pets” It was not mentioned in the house rules or anywhere else on the listing. The reservation was cancelled in 24 hours and my money was credited to my card by the host, but Airbnb took their $80 fee. I contacted Airbnb and was told if you change a reservation for any reason Airbnb does not return their fee. I had to escalate my complaint to a manager who called me and said “we are going to refund our fee this time but in the future, YOU need to be more careful to read everything before booking” I told her she need not chastise me-I am a grown ass woman- and as far as I was concerned the error was on the host’s part for not clearly stating what their rules even after I sent a note telling her I was traveling with my small dog. I’ve also checked into other listings and found the advertised rental price is not always what you get. For example I pre booked another home for the December trip that was listed as $230 per night. When I got the booking information the nightly cost jumped to $330 a night. The host said the amount listed in their posting is only “a typical nightly rate” and that the rate can jump up during the Holidays. Additionally even if I tried to cancel a reservation 24 hours later, their policy is a “strict cancellation” and even with the reservation being for months away, the host can still keep 50% of your payment regardless of the possibility the host may re-rent for the dates you cancelled!!! Very unfriendly to consumers!
Unprofessional host ruined my holiday
Found an apartment last minute on airbnb in Copenhagen. The apartment was ok, not great but no complaints other than the greasy kitchen and broken shower head. On the last day, I was told I need to leave by 10am (though the website states check out time was 12pm) because the next guest was coming. So I obliged and left the apartment at 9.30am even though it was a mad rush as I am traveling with two young children in winter. I got a rude shock when 2 hours later, the angry host texted me with a series of photos of his apartment floor – and asking me why there were cereals on the floor among other things. He also threatened to charge me because I did not clean the apartment before I leave. I had to apologize profusely to him. I thought I paid €58 for the cleaning fee?! Then he told me the €58 was for pre-arrival, and I will have to reinstate his place to its original condition (does it mean the next guest doesn’t need to pay cleaning fee because it is my duty to help him reinstate his apartment to original condition?!). I was pretty upset over this but I just apologized to him on that day and moved on. Later he messaged me again telling me to leave a good review for him as he has left a good one for me. I did not respond to his message as I didn’t feel like leaving someone a good review after being scolded. I just want to leave things as it is. However, it gets pretty annoying when the host left another message today asking me to give him a good review!
Zero common sense and customer service acumen
Found a home in San Antonio. Pre-approved for the reservation (used Airbnb once before with no issues). Accepted the reservation and presented a “Net Verification” screen. Tried to upload government ID for 20 minutes. Screen freezes. Contact host and explain business will be lost because Airbnb has a workflow issue. Host contacts Airbnb and an agent calls me. Basically explains the app has issues working with MacBook Air and wants me to use a PC device. I don’t have a PC…. insane conversation. Zero empathy, zero common sense from this agent. Host loses business and Airbnb loses a customer… permanently.