I’ve had SEVEN, count that SEVEN experiences with AirBNB customer service. They have the worst customer service you could possibly imagine. They are getting worse and worse and worse. Last night I was locked out of the reservation I arrived at and was supposed to be staying at for 11 nights when I arrived late. I stood outside in the cold for 2 hours and then was told that I had to get a motel with my own credit card and ask for a refund after the fact. When I told them I wanted a refund because under no circumstances would I pay to be locked out in the cold in the middle of the night and then have to rent a room, they WITHHELD $100 FROM ME IN THE REFUND. In otherwords, they MADE ME PAY $100 TO BE LOCKED OUT IN THE COLD WITH NOWHERE TO STAY FOR 2 HOURS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. They refused to do anything else.
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.
Disappointing and inconvenient
Rented a place through Airbnb, the first night didn’t get a key. The second night was locked outside, and so-called “host” said that I should have texted/called before [showing up at the place I had paid money for]. After asking why can’t I get a key, the host became hostile and suggested to cancel reservation. I contacted Airbnb, cancelled, got full refund (thanks to Judy W. with Airbnb), and got offered a hotel room for free due to the inconvenience that was brought upon me from this psychopath, ungrateful, imbecile “host”. I hope nobody ever stays at Martha’s place in east Austin, and I hope Airbnb gets her place off the list.
Horrible in Hong Kong
I booked this room, but I decided not to stay here (https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/6407995) very quickly after my arrival. I just looked at the place and said “not for me”. Whilst I probably should’ve investigated a bit more before agreeing to rent, but you tend to take things on face value, and other reviews, so I thought I’d got a decent deal. After having to navigate my way up a rather steep, narrow and extremely dirty and smelly staircase with brown liquid stuff (which I hope was ices cream or similar) carrying a heavy suitcase, I found a very, very tiny room with an extremely uncomfortable bed, very small outdoor style table and chairs, no place to hang or store clothing, the curtains are see through, and on top of all that, the air conditioner did nothing except make a loud noise. The place is quite central, but that’s probably the only thing it has going for it. Oh and the WiFi works fine, once you get the correct user id and password. It was printed incorrectly on the fact sheet, so I had to contact Romain to get it sorted. To Romain’s credit, he answered all my emails and inquiries very quickly, but unfortunately the place just wasn’t up to a standard I find acceptable. I think there needs to be more honesty in the description of the apartments on AirBnB. Must admit, this experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth and I probably won’t be using this service again. I did contact AirBnB, to complain, but 4 weeks later, I am still waiting for a reply.
Psychopathic airbnb host in Hawaii
We booked a room that was formerly called “the surfer room” in hawaii. It is now listed as “hawaiian spirit and lots of aloha”. The host was a crazy woman that posted reminder notes all over the place. These reminders were an insult. Turn off the lights, turn off the fan, don’t put quilt on floor, leave door open, leave sand at the beach, and more. All she did was complain about past guests. Read some of her very very long replies to comments guests have left on the Airbnb.com site! This lady yells and screams when she talks. Her site has listed many amenities that aren’t available unless you pay her some cash. She refuses to do laundry unless you pay $10 per load. She claimed that it’s a contribution because the resources in hawaii are so limited and so expensive. We can understand that but then don’t offer them as “guest amenities”.The glass shutters in the room were broken. The toilet was awfully dirty with hair, mold and sand. The kitchen was even worse. The toaster oven was gross and the microwave was worse. There is a coffee machine that was also gross. And this host brags about how much of a clean freak she is. All this crap for close to $100 per night. The $40 cleaning fee was a joke. We had to do most of the cleaning ourselves before checkout. Then finally she begged us to post a great 5 star review. We refuse to post anything positive because there was nothing good about the surfer room. We expect that our negative review will be removed by Airbnb since it looks like this is what they do. I highly suggest you avoid this terrible hawaiian airbnb listing 100% at all costs!
Dirty Apartment, horrible host
I booked an airbnb place in tokyo, Japan. It was an Apartment located at takadanobaba. From the pictures, the place looked big and pristine. However, when we visited, the sheets were covered with hair and was extremely dusty to the point where you can see a layer of greyish dust on it. The whole house was covered in hair, and dust too. Everywhere. The host did not even clean the room at all. The host did not bother to clean the room everyday and only cleaned it when we checked out, and we even paid him a cleaning fee of $56!! It was horrible. The hosts’ name is Kazuto Imai.
Guests Robbed in Paris, No Help from Airbnb or Host, and Airbnb Removed Negative Review!
In August, my wife and I booked a “lovely” houseboat on the Seine River in Paris. The reservation indicated that there would be an access card entry and the reviews were generally positive. When we arrived, we noticed that the entire river embankment in our part of town was being used as a camp for migrants. The owner assured us that there would be strong police presence and that the area was safe. She enlisted her neighbor to keep watch over the area while she was gone. There was no access card, however, as promised. Unfortunately, the neighbor who was supposed to be keeping watch skipped town for the weekend and we were robbed in the middle of the night while sleeping. The thieves took our wedding rings, engagement rings, laptops, jewelry, cash, cards and passports. They were actually right above the hull of the ship where we were sleeping. Thereafter, we were informed by another resident that this had become quite common; i.e., there had been a rash of break-ins in this very area. We had to sit in a police station for 3.5 hours trying to tell our story in broken French. AirBnB and the houseboat owner were extremely callous and unsympathetic. Most of our items were uninsured, so we lost a decent chunk of our property, as well as our security. They have refused to reimburse us and they do not seem to realize that they had a duty (whether moral or legal) to inform us about the recent activity in the area or to take bona fide steps to secure the property. Worse yet, our negative review of the property has been removed from the AirBnB website. The owner is Marie and here is her unsecured property: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/527140?s=CwERv8I5
Horrible customer service
I stayed at an AirBnB site in Maui for 2 weeks. The host in the suite beside me was rude, drank nightly, and carried on loudly in the night and morning in her inebriated and hungover state. There were holes in the screens where the bugs came in, and when I looked closly at the mattress I could see it was not, it was a box spring. I had to use the wakeboard to sleep on. AirBnB did nothing to mediate, nor did they offer any sort of customer service. I recently found an unreturned refund amount, and they are handling like automons. When I complained about their communication they say “Thank you, have we answered your questions?” Its annoying, anything out of the simple monetary transactions are terrible. They deserve to fail as a business.
Fake Airbnb website, don’t be fooled!
I found a nice apartment in Oman on the olx.com.om website and I contacted the owner. He replied to me and said that he is currently in London cause his contract in Oman has finished in 2011, he has the keys from flat in Muscat with him and he will fly to Muscat as soon as he finds reliable tenants. I was interested in a long term rent, the apartment was very nice and I was ready to talk with him on skype to convince him how good and neat couple me and my husband are. I got a long letter from him, his passport copy and not even a single answer to any of my questions… it was like I got the answers from a robot. Then he sent me an email saying: “I had bad experiences with prospective tenants so that it happened for me to travel to Muscat for nothing which involved a complete waste of time and efforts. Having received proofs from tenants according with them being interested in renting (passport, job contracts showing their earnings, bank statements) proved to be ineffective for my certainty. Some tenants tend to put additional conditions even if they had not been discussed previously or worse, they sometimes still try to negotiate after traveling back to London. Some of them also asked me to wait until the end of the month for them to get paid. I hope my explanation is enough for you to understand my point of view and why I chose Airbnb. My apartment is listed on airbnb.com and I have more good reviews. Let me know if you know about airbnb and I if you are ready to rent the apartment for the first month. That is my certainty guarantee and the only way I can come to Muscat.” I said I don’t mind to rent his apartment through airbnb for the first month and asked him to give me the link. He said he will send it to me shortly and I only got it the next day.
This is the address that I saw in my browser after I clicked on the link he sent me: http://airbnb-rent-booking-apartment-verified.ashanti.ro/rooms/2367933?View Which looked exactly like airbnb and had the payment system in it. Of course it was clear for me that this website is fake airbnb and someone was just trying to get a 1500$ transfer from me. So be very careful and make sure you deal with real airbnb 😉
Uncomfortable situations – Not using Airbnb again.
I’ve used Airbnb a handful of times with mixed results. I’ve had a couple of lovely experiences, but also a couple of creepy experiences that have made me realize it is NOT WORTH IT to book through Airbnb – no matter how many “good” reviews the host may have (though I do think Superhosts are probably OK). I should mention I sometimes travel alone and I’m a woman. The good hosts I’ve had I’ve enjoyed chatting with when I would see them in the house. The first creepy experience was when I needed to book a place for one night as I was passing through town. The host greeted me as I arrived and seemed friendly. This host had a lot of very positive reviews. She lived in a separate house next to the house she rents. I later texted her a question and thanked her, saying it was nice to meet and I would likely not see her as I was leaving very early the next morning. She informed me when she would be back at her home that night, and I told her I would be coming back later in the evening and again wished her well as I needed to be up early in the morning and I didn’t think I would see her. When I arrived back to the house that night, I was surprised to find my host sitting in the living room on the couch, waiting for me – with no tv or music playing, no book to read – she was just sitting on the couch with a ton of bright lights on, waiting for me. This part of the house was supposed to be only for people renting as it was a guest house, not her living space. It may be hard for me to convey how creepy and unexpected this was – I felt a chill down my spine. I felt nervous so I sat and talked with her for a while because it seemed she needed to talk and I felt rude to retire to my room right away. But I was paying to sleep there, not to talk to this lady about her life story. I felt very uncomfortable. Second awkward situation was in Berlin when my host informed me her boyfriend would be in the flat that night while she was out babysitting. That evening, after a long day of sightseeing, I showered and retreated to my room to send some work emails. The door to my room wouldn’t latch easily so it was cracked a couple of inches. At one point, the boyfriend knocked on my bedroom door to say hello. This in and of itself was okay – I was happy to say hello and chat for a minute. HOWEVER – he would. not. leave. I don’t know if it was his awkwardness, but he kept ignoring my saying, “Yes, well, I should be getting back to my work” and kept starting new topics of conversation with me while I was sitting on the bed with my laptop and a towel around my wet hair. Again – neither of these situations were nightmares or anything horrifying, however, they did creep me out as they made me realize WE HAVE NO IDEA WHO these people ARE, and yet we are putting our safety into the hands of strangers. It’s too bad, but for me it’s not worth it.
Horrible, dirty listing – and no way to warn other people about it!!!
I booked a 2 bedroom apartment (https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/5887408) for 10 nights for my parents during a visit to see me in Australia, as the beautiful studio they previously stayed in was unavailable. Prior to our arrival, I found the host to be responsive and the location of the listing is certainly great being as it is a stone’s throw from the epicenter of lovely, lovely Newtown. We had hoped we were about to discover another local Airbnb gem, but unfortunately we were left very disappointed by this dirty, poorly appointed and dangerous listing. Not only did we have to formally complain to Airbnb, but my parents had to check out early and waste an entire day of their holiday sorting out new accommodation. I have pictures and videos of all the issues described below, which I provided to Airbnb with my complaint. To their credit, eventually, they agreed to refund us the un-used nights and have given me a $250 credit towards the 3 horrible nights my parents stayed in the listing. Unfortunately, Airbnb told me that because I didn’t physically stay in the apartment and because we didn’t complete the reservation, the review I have written will not be made public- and so the host will get to keep his 5 star listing… which I have no idea how he got in the first place.
Having purposely booked a 2-bedroom listing, we were disappointed that the second room was not made up as a bedroom (no bedlinen and futon folded up) and feel that the photo does not illustrate how low the ceiling is. However, our principle concern was in the master bedroom- the sharp, metal bedframe was extremely hazardous, especially as the room is quite dingy and cramped, and no bedside lamps were provided. We found much of the furniture to be very tatty, the bedlinen and towels in the apartment showed signs of age, and my parents were only provided with one towel and one pillow each. The cutlery was stained, sometimes broken, and not properly washed (some still had bits of food on), mugs were chipped, and glasses and a bowl were filled with dust. The top of the microwave, base of the toilet and bathroom exhaust fan were also extremely grimey. The host was not at all friendly or accommodating when they asked for a second pillow, bedside lights, or for bed linen for the second bedroom. He also dismissed my parents concerns about the dirty microwave saying “who is going to put things there?” which they found very unhelpful and a bit rude. Lastly, whilst there is a washing machine and the price is clearly given, the listing does not make it clear that guests are not permitted to access the machine by themselves. To get their clothes washed, they would have to give their dirty items to the host, who would then wash them and return them- wet, with a drying rack- for $8. I should add that this is the first and only time I have had to complain about an Airbnb listing in over 2 years of using the site- I’ve received a great feedback from and have left many positive reviews for other hosts: I certainly don’t make a habit of criticizing or whinging and have personally received excellent feedback. My biggest complaint is actually with Airbnb- they constantly changed their story at all stages of our complaint. One minute we were going to get a full refund, the next minute a partial refund, then no refund… it was time consuming and exhausting. To know here that they won’t publicize our experience feels like disingenuous censorship. So, repeat, DO NOT STAY HERE: https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/5887408