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.

Refund Madness Leaves me with Nothing

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I have been struggling to get my refund from Airbnb for a month now. I contacted the host after I booked and explained how I had to cancel my reservation. He told me that I would be entitled to my full refund and that it would take up to 15 days to receive it. I patiently waited and it never came.

I then contracted Airbnb and was told I had to contact the host to get my refund. I contacted the host and he told me he had done his part; it was now up to Airbnb. This has become a joke. All Airbnb keeps telling me is the cancellation policy.

I have canceled within the policy rules and I am entitled to my refund. The host has agreed to give me my refund but I don’t understand what the heck Airbnb is doing. Do they enjoy stealing from people? This is a nightmare. I would never recommend this site to anyone.

Airbnb Host Insists a Guest Cancel without Notice

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Our host cancelled our reservation the morning we arrived because we were early. I contacted him over the phone (which was on the reservation). We have had issues to get on the wifi so communication was limited at some point before. He was very angry that I got in touch to see if we could check in earlier. I offered compensation and my apologies. He was okay and told me he was letting me in the house with a key code.

As soon as we got in, he called me on WhatsApp to say he was not going to host us and was going to cancel our booking. He told me to tell Airbnb so they could get me a new place. Now he is not cancelling officially on the Airbnb site and I have emailed him, so I can get my full refund. I believe he is waiting for me to cancel, to get some money. This is not fair as he decided not to host us today, when we were due to check in. He is leaving us with no place to stay and taking part of our money. I am starting to think this guy does this all the time.

I reported this to Airbnb a few hours later. I messaged him straight away after he cancelled. I have politely requested him to cancel my stay but now he is not answering my messages. As for Airbnb, they haven’t done anything either; they should step in and refund me. I have made sure I requested this in writing within the time frame, and it was the host who decided to cancel. I’m still waiting, short on cash and with nowhere to stay.

Airbnb Allows Fake Account to Let Felon Host

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I was preparing for an extended work assignment in a northern state. After viewing several places, I came across an Airbnb that was in my price and location. I messaged the host and introduced myself to “Debbie”. She said that her retired brother and daughter lived in the home and she was traveling for work. Good enough.

I made the 12 hour drive and finally arrived at the house. I was greeted by a woman – not “Debbie” – and was shown around. There were more people than I thought staying there. The following week I met the homeowner. I inquire as to who “Debbie” was and he changed the subject rather quickly. I began to become suspicious as to what was really going on after he said that all communication could go through him via text.

I compared the number that I was given to me by Debbie and it was the owner’s. I decided to Google him and get more information. I found that Debbie had passed away the previous year and that he was a convicted felon (burglary). Apparently either she made the account for him or he used her information to open an account. I would have confronted him but quickly found out that he was currently doing a short stay in the local lockup for another DUI.

I packed my things and hit the door running. Nothing felt right about the stay there and situations like this are how people end up in an ice bath, missing a kidney. I’m currently in the process of trying to get some sort of refund from Airbnb and he should be out of jail at the end of this week. It should be an interesting conversation if he tries to contact me.

Unverified Property Leads to Nearly Ruined Trip

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I have been an Airbnb Host and also a guest so my recent experience took me by surprise. I booked a rental in a resort town in Canada, found a perfect location, had four beds (for four adults) and saw it was reasonably priced. I paid my 50% with my Amex Platinum card rather than using Paypal, which I have used in the past. I also sent a note to the owner.

After the Easter holiday weekend, my husband asked if he should cancel the hotel he had booked and I said that I had booked the Airbnb a few days ago. I went to check and there was no reservation, nothing in our upcoming trips or the like. I couldn’t find any messages either on the site or in my email so I was very puzzled.

I finally decided to call Airbnb and while I was looking for contact info on the “contact us” page, I saw a picture of the property with a message that said “did not pass verification”. What the heck? Why wouldn’t I have seen something online or received a message about this? And what verification?

I called customer support and the agent said she couldn’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be verified and sometimes “mistakes happen” in their system. She sent my issue to another group and a case manager reached out to me this morning. After several exchanges of messages (after he said it was a system error on their end) he asked how many times I had submitted payment.

Well, only once and it seemed to have gone through; there were no error messages. I explained that my Amex Platinum card would not have rejected anything and have since checked; they did not reject anything.

The case manager said “I am leaving in 15 minutes” and asked me to call back with the number I started with yesterday. After being on hold, the agent said she would transfer me back to have a live conversation in the same department that I had been messaging with and then she disconnected me. I have not received any call back.

Now, the property is booked, we cannot find another one that fits our needs and I am seething. I would have been able to respond and fix the situation if I had been notified, but even the agent was at a loss why we couldn’t see this message except the one buried in in the contact us section. Fortunately, we have found two guest rooms in another place through booking.com but I would like Airbnb to admit to its mistakes (they sometimes make per the agent) and provide some restitution.

Absolute Nightmare of a Host and Stay

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How can I even begin to describe the absolutely horrible experience my two friends and I had dealing with our Airbnb host? Nothing short of a nightmare.

None of us had ever been to Miami Beach and were so excited to spend our spring break there (April 10th-16th). In the beginning, prior to arriving to Miami, the host was super responsive, seemingly charming and very accommodating. Everything was awesome.

I was told closer to the date that we would be checking in with a man, which was strange because most people I know who booked through Airbnb had lock boxes or codes on the door. However, I assumed he was simply the landlord of the building or something.

They were nice enough to let us check in earlier than expected, since we took a red-eye to Miami and came in at about 3:00 AM. Check-in, which was initially 3:00 PM, was moved up to around 11:00 AM. Great.

The man and his wife, who joined him to let us into the building, were nice enough. I had to sign a lease agreement which I also found odd, since I never had to do anything like that when renting a hotel room. The apartment looked so cute on a preliminary scan, and my friends and I were absolutely enamored.

He and his wife left us with the keys and we were ready to get settled. I ventured into the bathroom to shower so I went through the drawers that were under the sink to find a washcloth and towel. I realized that there were only a couple of washcloths, but there were three of us signed up to rent the place. I assumed maybe there were more in the closet so I took one.

Afterwards, I went to hang up my towel and the towel bar just collapsed. There was no extra pulling on it, not anything. I simply laid my towel on it and boom. The anchor holding it to the wall slid right on out. That being said, it was obviously broken before (this information was later confirmed by him). We also discovered that there were, in fact, only two washcloths.

Before heading to the beach, the left corner of the bed was lightly sat on. It completely gave away and caved in. Luckily there were no injuries, but we were left wondering: where is everyone going to sleep now? I immediately messaged the host to let her know what happened, as well as texted him. No response. We wound up having to put something under the mattress to prop it up for our very first night in this place.

The next day: still no response. I was wondering what happened to my oh-so-hospitable host, seeing as she had always been so responsive prior to my stay. Finally I sent another message and she told me to just call him, but he didn’t answer the phone. I messaged her yet again after he didn’t respond and she contacted him. He showed up unannounced at almost 10:00 PM to give the bed a temporary fix. Then he also promised to bring more towels and washcloths. I never saw him again for the rest of the trip, so we had to continue to use dirty towels and washcloths for the duration of our stay.

One of my friends noticed water pooling behind the toilet, which I thought was maybe from the shower. It turned out, according to him, the toilet had a leak.

On the second night of our stay, since we rotated who would use the couch and the bed, one friend slept on the couch. The next day she woke up with a ton of red bites on her body, which appeared to be bedbug bites. At this point I was completely through with the place. She still currently has the bites and they still itch.

That evening, we all went out. Upon our return we attempted to unlock the door. We had done it quite a few times already so everyone knew which keys went where. The lock wouldn’t budge. We stood outside for a solid ten minutes trying to jimmy the key around until finally one of us was able to get the lock to give. It was then that we realized the top lock was actually broken, which is definitely a safety hazard. There was even a note on it that said not to touch it.

The fourth day we went to turn on the TV In the bedroom. It didn’t work. I am not sure if it ever did, but I know it was advertised and was one of the selling points for me, so I was very disappointed.

My friend went to use the hair dryer, plugged it in, and it made this loud grating noise as if something was stuck in it. Mind you, this was the first time we even realized there was a hair dryer. After the initial plug in, it was never touched again. I submitted a complaint, and the host was contacted about it.

The host was basically yelling at me via my inbox for doing that and was accusing my friends and I of the damage that was clearly pre-existing. I very calmly let her know about each and every problem that had occurred since the bed broke and she basically accused me of being a liar, especially about the bedbug bites. After getting completely snippy with me, she wrote me an awful review and attempted to accuse my friends and I of causing the damages that were clearly pre-existing and tried to charge us for the damages.

I submitted this same review and Airbnb took it down because it “violated community policy”. Although they dismissed the charges, none of my complaints were really addressed. Not that I expected any sort of money in return, but I did not expect to not be assisted at all.

To conclude, this host is a scammer, peddling a mediocre experience disguised as a dream vacation, and Airbnb is the medium that allows for scammers like her to operate unregulated. I am absolutely disgusted.

Airbnb Gift Certificates are a Scam, Plain and Simple

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What a great idea, I thought: give my son and his wife an Airbnb gift certificate for a weekend getaway for Christmas (they have two preschool boys… need I say more?) and some cash to spend wildly. I chose Amazon as my gift card producer, paid my money, got the certificate to print off, and gave it to them for Christmas.

It was only recently that they tried to use it and the nightmare began. First, my son lost the paper and asked me to find out what the code was to access the money. I spent almost all day trying to get this information. Airbnb blamed Amazon and Amazon initially blamed Airbnb. Amazon then sent me proof that I had paid for the thing, plus we had the credit card receipt to prove we had paid.

I scanned and emailed all of this to Airbnb. They basically told me that it was not sufficient and I had to tell my credit card company to refund my money because “it did not go through”… except I did get a code to access the money. Basically, they said they could not issue a new code. Then my son found the code and tried to access it. He was told that it was invalid by Airbnb.

He made numerous calls with no success. I finally contacted Amazon again, very angry about the difficulties and that they should sever their ties with Airbnb. They decided to refund the money to me with no strings attached. You rock, Amazon! You suck, Airbnb!

I will never use Airbnb again. They were uncooperative, rude, unwilling to do anything in the face of evidence that I had purchased the card, and generally absolving themselves of all responsibility. This felt like a scam. You give me your money and I will keep your money because you have no recourse. Do not book with Airbnb.

Deposit Scam: Cancelled Within Four Minutes

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I was looking to book a place close to home for my wife and I while we had renovations done on our house. This is when I came across this host’s place. I went through the request process and paid. Just as I did, I noticed that it did not suit my needs, as it was only a room in a shared house.

I quickly cancelled (within four minutes) my request to stay. Then I received an email for the cancellation and another one for the credit. This is when I saw I was only getting back 50% of my money. I tried contacting the host to explain what I had done in error. He said: “No problem, just cancel.”

I told him that I did. He then stated that it was the cancellation policy to keep half. I called Airbnb and they said it was up to the host. This host has no morals at all. I did speak to a nice girl from Airbnb and she is trying to help me. If she is unable to help me I am out $2300 dollars. All because this host has no soul. Please avoid dealing with him.

Watching the Boston Marathon… from Salem?

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In October of 2018, I booked an apartment in Cambridge for the weekend of the Boston Marathon in April of 2019. As I was preparing to fly to Boston, I realized that I had not heard from my host. I sent an email and then a text message the next day.

On April 11th, before I was to fly to Boston on the 12th, I unearthed a telephone number for Airbnb, called and asked for help. They contacted the host and told me that the listing had been withdrawn. I was in total freakout. They gave me a $60 credit to help find another listing.

Seriously? Everything in Boston had been booked for weeks or months. I posted something on the Airbnb Facebook page and their customer service was calling me with new listings and higher credits. Well, all of the listings were for “Boston” but were actually in towns like Salem, miles away from public transit and Boston proper. It was like planning to stay in NYC and being offered lodging in Connecticut.

Finally, one of the reps who called got it: that location was critical and that Boston lodging had been booked for months. I was lucky enough to stay with the daughter of a friend of a friend. I will never again use Airbnb when I have to have guaranteed lodging.

No Results from Airbnb Online Customer Service?

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Most of the complaints from Airbnb guests are about dirty conditions. Unfortunately, I had to learn this the hard way. While the reviews might give five stars for cleanliness, perhaps some of those stars come from people who are not so clean; anything tidier than their own personal environment is indeed clean.

I rented from a “naturalist” in Las Vegas. His clean factor was rated high and the pictures boasted of this modern home in immaculate condition. I, of course, jumped right on it. He also listed the place as a serene and peaceful environment.

When I arrived, there were about 20 people in the house for a photo shoot that I was not made aware of. The music could be heard from the road. Not serene nor peaceful.

To top it off the bathroom was filthy. The sink had mold around the stopper, the shower had a significant amount of mildew, and there was hair all over the bathroom floor. They blamed the people from the shoot. Well, mold and mildew takes longer than half a day to grow; they were just making excuses.

Regardless of any of it, it was the host’s responsibility to provide a clean room. He should have blocked the room or put up a “do not enter” sign. I asked for a partial refund, which I thought was fair. He obliged and said he was sorry and wished me the best. However, he then posted a review full of half-truths, ad hominem attacks, and blatant lies.

I reported this to Airbnb and provided actual photo evidence of where he contradicted himself and of the room conditions. They did absolutely nothing and totally dismissed it. I then filed a complaint with the BBB, the reason being a lack of resolution. I was given a reply a week later from another department at Airbnb and given a full refund. I didn’t even ask for a refund from Airbnb – I requested that the host be flagged.

If you want to get Airbnb’s attention or have someone with some sense of how a business model should be run, go higher. It is worth mentioning that the background check Airbnb does is only a criminal check. Criminal background checks only prove whether or not a crook got caught… basically useless.

This is one of the ways Airbnb slips through loopholes and escapes liability when people get scammed. Ask guests and hosts questions regarding what kind of cleaning products they use or what the turnover is, and if they don’t answer or don’t want to be bothered, it’s a red flag.

As far as hosts, I think they should be made to prove they have proper licensing to do short-term rentals, proof of ownership of property, or an agreement between the owner and the tenant to use the property for Airbnb. It seems like this would keep everyone safe. This would undoubtedly damage their profits… so perhaps that’s why it’s not happening.