NEVER Again will we use Airbnb. You THINK you are getting a better deal than staying at a hotel. NOT THE CASE. You can literally find yourself not only paying for commission charges from Airbnb, and the per-night charge from the ‘host’, you leave yourself wide open to a ridiculous security deposit, and claims of all sorts by the hosts of the place you might stay. We were using airbnb since 2013 and we have had fantastic experiences with many hosts, but it was only down to pure luck. If a lunatic / neurotic host decides to ruin your holiday, they can! They claimed that we destroyed (with shower steam ) their baby’s paper planes that were hanging above a changing mat it the bathroom (that should not be left there at a first place) , stained two of their towels with some dirt they couldn’t remove and apparently spilled something on the floor and damaged the laminate. (No one of us remembers anything of this). Nonsense!!! ..airbnb sided with the host, and wants to charge $600 the security deposit to my Visa card. They didn’t even bother to show me the pictures that the host presented as ‘evidence'”. We were not even allowed to dispute their decision!!! I called my bank and spoke with a supervisor, and I hope to be able to stop this totally unexpected and unfair charge out of nowhere!!! . I totally lost my trust to this company. Would you valued me as a client , you would have to compensate me, for putting me through this hellish nightmare! My previous positive experience with other airbnb hosts made me believe that this was a trustworthy company. Alas! They are NOT worth your trust! This would have never happened with a holiday park, a hotel or a proper B&B. This Christmas our holiday will be with a holiday park in the Netherlands. NEVER Again will we use Airbnb.
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.
Do NOT rent from SOFIA KASIANENKO, Brooklyn, NY
Do not EVER rent from Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC (30 Rogers Ave, Apt 3D), you will regret it! Link to listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2477728 User: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/2959577. Stayed at her place for a month – turned out to be a complete utter nightmare. It was so bad that AirBnB even refunded our money, given how notorious they are for not doing so. Thank god for our credit card company who resolved the dispute in our favor as well. She is a young Russian lady in her mid 20s – a consummate liar and scamster who had the audacity to rent her apartment out to guests even though she did not pay RENT to her landlord for TWO whole months. Soon after she handed us the keys, she flew off to Russia for a whole MONTH and ignored all our problems entirely. We could have been kicked out from the place by the landlord because rent was due — she couldn’t care less, and rented it out so she could make a quick buck off unsuspecting guests. Had the landlord not slipped a demand letter under the door, we would not have known. At first glance, her place looked fine. But it turned out to be an absolutely filthy and disgusting dump because it was infested with COCKROACHES, FLIES and SILVERFISH because of how dirty and unhygienic she is. We killed about 12 flies a day. She kept denying that there was a pest problem — and it gets better – she accused us of lying and causing the fly/cockroach problem when she was the one that had been living there for 2 years! As if we could conjure flies out of thin air. The place also had huge DUST BALLS, GRIME, BROWN STAINS and feathers gathered in the corners because she was so lazy that she didn’t even try to clean before we got there. I had to spend my own money to get a vaccuum cleaner because my asthma attacks started coming back again. It was so filthy that if you walked on it without socks on, you would have to wash your feet ASAP because grime would STICK on your feet. Thirdly, her neighbor upstairs would not stop making tons of noise every single night. We woke up almost every night. When we complained about all these problems, Sofia did not even care or act concerned. She completely denied all the issues we brought up – late rent, pest, noise and dirt problems — and accused US of causing them. She also lied in her review of us, saying that we stole one of her keys and that she had to change her lock (though I don’t see why she has to change her lock when she has another copy of the keys available). Presumably so she could lie her way into keeping our security deposit. Unsurprisingly, this brazen liar left us a horrible review for us, to which we responded and offered to show her future guests PICTURES and PROOF of her nasty cockroach-ridden dump of a place. This story has a happy ending because we got a refund from both AirBnB (which is super rent) and our credit card company after we showed them videos and pictures of the pests and noise. So beware, DO NOT RENT FROM THIS con artist liar, Sofia Kasianenko in Crown Heights, Brooklyn! I’m surprised her landlord hasn’t kicked her out already for illegally renting her apartment out and being such a filthy, unhygenic slob. Pics of pests and her filthy apartment attached.
A Breakup Letter to Airbnb
This was the last email I sent to Airbnb after significant frustration. It explains my story:
Dear Mr. Gebbia, dear Mr. Chesky, dear Mr. Blecharczyk, dear J. K., and dear Airbnb team,
I give up. I won’t write any more emails nor try to reach again any of your employees by phone. I stop thinking positive and being confident you people will clean the mess and offer me a solution. I give up on your intention of doing business properly and decently. I give up on the dream of a cool company offering cool places all around the world. I give up in trusting that you people know what you are doing. I give up on you.
What you do is purely unfair and fraudulent business: take the money and run, don’t look behind.
For the last two days my family and I have been living in a nightmare. We should have started today our holiday all together on a long drive from Spain to Austria. We had planned it months ago and had been finalizing the bookings until last Thursday. I had 3 previous experiences with Airbnb and I trusted the company. Everything would surely work well. Today we would stay in a super cosy place in Provence, tomorrow and for 3 nights we would discover Lago di Garda, we would end our trip on Saturday and Sunday visiting Venice and surroundings. Just perfect, don’t you think?
With all this great perspectives in mind I decided to book a holiday in London in October again via Airbnb. I tried to book it a few hours after completing my last booking in Italy. Suddenly it did not work as usual, I had to submit an official ID. Wow. Surprise. Not even hotels or traditional ways of booking ever required this from me. I contacted my Host in London and told her I did not agree with it and she was OK with my decision, she did not need my ID. We both contacted Airbnb asking for assistance. I only got contacted 2 days later. By that time I was already feeling not so good about the way Airbnb was handling troubles.
Your answer to my concerns was as you can see in your records: an explanation on what a trustful company Airbnb is, how much it takes care of its customers and what a wonderful world all this is. Still I did not agree to submit any ID or passport or driving licence because I don’t see the real reason for it. Airbnb has my phone number, my VISA number, my picture and my 3 successful bookings behind me, what on earth could identify me better for a potential host?
I communicated my decision not to book again with Airbnb and to stop being a customer in the future. I also requested a confirmation that my bookings for this week would not be affected since they were accepted before the new requirements came to place. You have an employee, J.K., who took the unilateral decision of deleting my account right away, without contacting me prior to this nor asking for my consent. Nevertheless he assured me “I have deleted your account, although the account is eliminated it will not affect your reservations”. In the same moment the cancellations for my 3 bookings entered my email folder. I just could not believe my eyes. J.K. had deleted my account, cancelled my bookings, made me lose a lot of money due to cancellation policies and lied in his email, or he just did not know what he was doing when he pressed the “delete” button??
So I started desperately trying to reach someone. J.K. never answered again and of course did not call to give an explanation. Between yesterday and today I spent a big amount of time and money waiting on your telephone line. I did manage to talk to 4 or 5 colleagues, in English and in German. They were all lovely, nice, young, enthusiastic, feeling so sorry about my situation, admitting the “mistake” that had been made by Airbnb, promising that my case was going to be handled with priority and I would get a call back. You know you never call back and I was not the exception: I never got a call back, although your employees tried hard to make me believe their promises (you apparently tape the conversations, so make sure to hear them). They are well trained in showing empathy for the miseries of the customers. By the way, were you aware that your managers are never in the office, never reachable, always in meetings or can not make decisions? gosh what a chaotic company I heard on the phone!
I even tried contacting you via Facebook, I thought you would maybe mind about bad news being spread in social media? Your answer was laconic. My last message was simply deleted. Censored. Great.
Here we are: my husband, my kids, my dog and myself. We could not begin our trip. Our holiday was ruined. We lost money. We have a big stress. We find no place to stay on the way. We had to extend our stay in Spain, look for new hotel. The extra costs are increasing each day. The damage is done.
I seriously expected professionals on your side. At least some decency. You don’t seem to care about the situation you put customers in and shockingly enough you don’t seem to have any intention to refund us the money you illicitly retained as cancellation policy.
I found out that there are thousands of other disappointed customers out there and I really wonder how can it be possible that this happens to so many people. What kind of company are you at all? A big shame, that is what you are. Was this the initial idea when you started this company? Cheat customers all around the world? Do you seriously think the internet is the no-law territory where you can get away with whatever you want to do?
I said at the beginning of my letter that I give up on you being professional enough to solve this mess. But I did not give up in justice being done. I give up in contacting you again. But I will contact my lawyer. The moment I manage to arrive back home I will initiate the legal measures to get a compensation for the damages caused.
Wish you a better future than the holidays you offered me.
Immature abuse
My sister and I booked Airbnb accommodation in Granada. The position of the accommodation was superb, down a short alley way and you were at the base of the Alhambra. Perfect for a couple of days which would include visiting the Alhambra, gazing at the Alhambra and photographing the Alhambra. The accommodation was basic at best. Claimed to sleep four – but where? The two windows which opened to the alley way were the only source of natural light but neither had a curtain, we hung sarongs to provide some privacy as the alternative, to close the shutters, meant that we felt like we were living underground. The gas stove and hot water did not work so we emailed the hosts. At 2pm, on day 2, they arrived to rectify. I am a coffee fanatic and carry my own coffee with me. Once the stove problem had been rectified I looked forward to a decent coffee. But their coffee maker did not work. Eek! The hot water continued to go off until the end of our stay and we continued to light the gas every time we needed a shower. Now, this is what happened, so this is what I reported in my review and this is when the abuse started. Airbnb encourages guests to be honest but where is the protection from the abuse that may follow?? I am very suspicious of reviews and “verified” photos. It is patently obvious that photos lie and reviewers are telling less than the truth. We rented the “magical” place in granada based on photos and reviews. The photos turned a sow’s ear into a silk purse and the reviews were generally glowing …. How come all those visitor experiences were so much better than ours? It’s an Airbnb mystery!
DO NOT RENT FROM VINAYAK IN DUBAI
Unbelievable!! Out of respect I left the host Vinayak a nice review, because the place is in fact amazing and because Vinayak apologized to us many many times by text for everything that happened to us during our stay, so I felt sorry for Vinayak. But now Vinayak changed his character. Let me now start about the way Vinayak treated us and share my side of the story, which I have not mentioned in my first review. First of all, I messaged Vinayak (the host) on the arrival day, regarding the keys and checking in time, but Vinayak never replied. This left us discussing the situation with the security supervisor and we told him to reach out to Vinayak. The supervisor then told us that it is ILLEGAL and AGAINST THE LAW in Dubai to rent out the property to other people for a short term, no matter if the place feels like a resort or residency. So from no where, two so called agents of Vinayak arrived at the supervisor office. They said Vinayak has not rent out a property to you and that he is on holiday. We were shocked and showed them the proof from airbnb that we did have a reservation at this property. The two agents then called Vinayak’s sister and she explained to us that we should not discuss anything with the supervisor, as it is not allowed to rent out the property for a short stay. The two agents then took us to the property, as if nothing happened, and said that Vinayak would sort everything out with the supervisor, as the supervisor allowed us to stay at the property but refused us to use any of the facilities, such as the pool and gym. From this point we thought everything is fine, but it still felt weird on how the agents first said we did not have a reservation and told us to leave, but after a call with Vinayak’s sister, everything was fine and we were shown our property. Never mind the next day, my kids went to the pool but they were sent away as one of the security said we were not allowed to use it and Vinayak has to come down or call the supervisor. I then messaged Vinayak the phone number of the supervisor and over the next couple of days the security kept removing us from the pool because Vinayak still has not contacted the supervisor. He also said he thought Vinayak was scared to speak to him and only spoke to the normal security person that have no right to make any decision. This shows that Vinayak was aware that it is ILLEGAL to rent out the property, therefore did not want to contact the supervisor. After the first five days, Vinayak returned back from his holiday, but never came to the property to check on us. He then phoned us telling us that it was his fault renting it out to 6 people but he apologized and said that only 3 people are allowed to register with using the facilities. We accepted that because from this point on we just wanted to enjoy our holiday, and after speaking to security ourselves, they allowed all members of my family to use the facilities, because they became confused about the whole situation with Vinayak. They said that we were nice guests, therefore, allowed us to use everything. Vinayak therefore has done nothing, and we had to keep chasing him with issues that should have been solved by Vinayak, not by guests who are there to enjoy their holiday. Therefore, Vinayak is a liar when he says “we tried our level best to settle these issues”. Vinayak did not settle anything, and does nothing to help anyone. We have proof from text messages on how long he takes to reply and solve the issues. Sometimes he does not even reply or pick up his phone, leaving you there on your own. Another lie is when Vinayak says we damaged the house, which we did not!!! I do not believe how someone like Vinayak, which acted nice over the phone and text, lies so much. We left the house in the best cleaning condition possible. We cleaned the house everyday. The house was not even clean the first day we arrived but we did not complain. In fact, one time the roof was leaking water. We contacted Vinayak and he apologized and sent people to fix it. Ask any of the lifeguards, security or housekeepers about me and my family and they will tell you how we were such a nice family to have us there. If anyone needs proof of the text messages between me and Vinayak and the way he treated us, feel free to send me a message and I will send you my contact details, so I can send you all the messages and you can read it yourself. I am here just to help you to not trust this guy. I do not wish upon anyone to go through the same experience, me and my family have gone through with Vinayak. Remember that this property is ILLEGAL for Vinayak to rent out, and from now on, every person that books this property, will be refused to stay there as the supervisor is now aware that Vinayak rents this place out AGAINST THE LAW.
Airbnb does not have your back when things go sideways
In July 2015 I found a large Victorian in a small foothill town for an upcoming girls weekend in October. It looked great, and I contacted the host. She wrote me back and said she’d love to have us if we were ready to book. I told her it was 5 women and a small dog–under 50 lbs and asked if that was okay? She wrote back and said she had a “pet approval policy.” I wrote back asking for details of her pet policy and waited for her reply which never came. Foolishly, I went ahead and requested to book. Later that evening we were approved and I got a text from the host saying she would need a $1200 pet deposit — in cash or check — upon arrival. This sent up a huge red flag for me and my friends. We then discovered the hostess has a “Strict” cancellation policy, which meant that if we wanted to cancel we would lose 50% of our money– $616. We had no intention of handing over $1200 for any length of time to someone we didn’t know and who was acting out of the normal protocol of Airbnb. I called an Airbnb agent and reached someone by the name of Jacob who promised me that he would have a trip specialist contact me and that the company would cancel our reservation if we wanted that, and no fees would apply. I waited 24 hours, then called again. I got another very nice agent who said she would expedite our call and have someone call us back regarding the refund. Long story short, I had to call EVERY DAY for 6 days, and every time I called a very nice customer service agent would tell me “I’m sorry for the delay” and “your case has been elevated to ‘urgent’ status.” My friend had put the a $616 deposit down on this booking and I wanted her to get her money back. But it appeared that no one from Airbnb considered our case urgent enough. Apparently “urgent” with Airbnb means you may hear from a specialist within 2-3 weeks. We were finally contacted via email by someone named Charlotte who apologized and said “It was all a misunderstanding and Elizabeth would love to host you that weekend.” Again, our request for a cancellation was ignored!! I then wrote her back and explained that at this point, we no longer felt comfortable staying with this hostess and wanted to cancel this booking and receive a FULL refund as was promised by Jacob. She finally wrote back, 3 days later (now a total of 2 weeks later from our original request) and said she would credit us in full — that we would get $249 back from the host and $341 back from Airbnb, who was covering the remaining balance since the host would be getting paid in full. She told us to allow 10 days. 15 days later, only half the refund is here. We emailed Charlotte this morning and got an email back saying she had processed the refund but there was an error and it would be another 10 days before it posts. We are now at 6 weeks past our original complaint date! We have contacted the credit card company to cancel the charges. Thanks for having our back, Airbnb! You are re-writing the book on ‘customer service’.
Airbnb thinks a crappy appartment is suitable for rent
We arrived in Roma at the beginning of August after renting an Airbnb apartment called “Slice of Heaven” (https://fr.airbnb.ca/rooms/7335934). The apartment was so crappy that we made the decision not to stay. We took pictures of the main defects, stopped the leaking air conditioning and left. We left because: – The air conditioning was not working properly. The host explained that it was due to the extreme heat. As a consequence it was dribbling and two cups were put on the floor to receive the leaks. We were asked to make sure that these recipients stay on the floor to avoid damages. – The walls were damaged on several places, not only due to previous dribbling of the air conditioning, but also caused by previous patches of painting on many parts of the walls and the ceiling. – The ceiling of the bathroom and of the master bedroom had obvious traces of moisture. – There were oil spots on the floor of the terrace. – The speakers shown on the Airbnb website pictures did not work. When we asked the host about them, he told us that they were broken and that he should get rid of them. When asked to review the case, Airbnb told us that we were wrong to leave, and made us pay for one night. After I insisted, they refunded us entirely with Airbnb coupons. Airbnb thus thinks that an apartment with moisture and leaking air-conditioning is suitable for rent. More generally, once a reservation based on the nice Airbnb pictures is done, there is nothing guests can do, even if the pictures are a fraud. The pictures we took in the appartment and the pictures advertised on Airbnb website have nothing in common. We wrote a very negative comment to the host. After one week, the comment had disappeared because Airbnb removed it. It is clear that Airbnb does not care about what kind of apartment guests are actually renting.
Beware of Strict Cancellation Policies and Hosts that do not help you Cancel
I was a novice Airbnb user and did not understand that the onus was on me to cancel a reservation that I wanted to change. My traveling companion had to cancel her trip with me to Hawaii due to an unplanned chemo-treatment and my Airbnb host in Honolulu was not willing to change my reservation. I incorrectly presumed that she would cancel the reservation when she refused to alter it. Her communication skills were not great and I feel she mislead me about Airbnb’s policies on cancellation. Bottom-line – I paid for three nights in Honolulu that I did not get and Airbnb will not let me review the host in terms of her communication skills. She also promised a partial refund which was never sent. Needless to say, she is not very honest and future Airbnb users who fall for her very high rating may regret that they chose her. Airbnb deserves credit for refunding to me their commission; but the trust system does not work well if they do not allow me to leave a review on my experience with her. Filtering out low ratings makes everyone look “way above average.” Suggest Airbnb allow all cancelled guests who end up paying for the accommodation to review the host on the host’s communication skills.
NEVER BOOK WITH ANTOINE, LOFT PARIS CENTRE 2270159
This July we booked the loft in the centre of Paris (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2270159), which was written to be family friendly and could accommodate 12 people. We were 12 adults (incl. 3 people over 70, 2 small children and one person with down syndrome) The host knew that it was a big family and did not say nothing. When we arrived at the loft, it was a horrible experience!! First, we had to wait in a tiny corridor at the door of the loft, as the host was finishing cleaning. The real nightmare was when we entered the flat, it was very different from the pictures on the website. It was a small and dirty loft, which could accommodate max. of 6 people! The second floor was covered with the mattresses, that a person could not even walk. There was information about extra mattresses, however all of them were very dirty with holes and bed smell, they looked like they were taken from the trash. Staying on these mattresses a person could easily catch lice or fungus or smt even WORSE!! The flat was extremely children unfriendly, as the sockets were out of the wall. We cancelled the booking and we were trying to negotiate with the host, but he was behaving very rude, he started to eat in front of us with his friend. We did not use the flat, and we had to spend a fortune making a last-minute booking of the hotel, which could accommodate 12 people for a week!! Airbnb could not help us, I was calling many times to the customer support service, sent e-mails, the case was under the supervision of five people or more… One time one CS told me that we would get the refund, the other day her colleague wrote the opposite information. In the end, we could not get the full refund (2120 euro!!), neither could leave any comment of the host. Be careful with this host and avoid booking through airbnb.com. A very sad experience!!!
Dirty sheets and a stoned airbnb host
I have used Airbnb a number of times without incidence. The best was in Barcelona for an incredibly low rate at a modest, but clean and convenient location. Early this summer I booked a night in Montreal for my daughter and me. We had a full day attending the Women’s World Cup and really just needed a place close to the stadium to sleep. Our host greeted us casually, directed us to a room near the entrance of her apartment. She showed us where the bath was and went off towards her own room. The bathroom had dirty wet towels and other people’s wash cloths in the shower- it was clear that the bathroom had not been cleaned in advance- The room was like a dorm room, with random belongings of other guests? The sheets had clearly not been changed and had hair on them. My daughter and I were sharing a full sized bed- She had fallen asleep and soon after I laid down I felt something crawling on me- I lifted the sheets and there were a half dozen gnats in them. I went to the door of our host and knocked- she opened the door- I asked if the sheets had been changed and she was not clear- not just because she hadn’t been involved in the process but she was quite stoned. She seemed confused, baffled that there was an issue and said her roommate had changed the sheets. I asked if there was another set and she said that there was not. I was tired and freaked out by the bugs and said we would not stay. My daughter and I drove through the night to get home. When I called Airbnb the next morning to request a refund I was told (after nearly an hour on the phone just trying to get a person) that it was up to my host to decide whether or not she was willing to give me a refund. I repeatedly asked if Airbnb provides any protection for people who need a place to stay and was told that they are just acting as the advertisement/agent for the host. If this is the case and there is no protection for the renter/traveler/guest I am unlikely to use Airbnb again. I do not trust that I will not be scammed or taken advantage of and after the apathetic response of the Airbnb staff I am not interested in having to negotiate a refund for a stay in a dirty apartment. I travel a lot and want peace of mind about my destination. I want the key that I am given to fit in the door that was advertised and I do not have faith any longer that this will be a given with Airbnb. I think they grew too big too fast to manage the challenges that they now face.