I still haven’t been paid for guests who visited in early July.
Category Archives: Airbnb Host Stories
These are real, uncensored stories from Airbnb Hosts. We encourage our site visitors to read and share their Airbnb Host Stories to help warn others of the dangers of using Airbnb, and consider using alternative options in the sharing economy.
AirBnB “Hell?”
I have been an AirBnB host for two years now and have hosted close to 150 reservations. Usually it is 2 guests per reservation, so about 300 people have passed through my apartment in this time.
During this time, I had only two “eh” experiences. One was when two old ladies rented out my studio for a month, and it took me a whole day to clean all the food stains from the kitchen. They did a lot of cooking and didn’t really clean up. But, nothing damaged. Another bad instance was an “uppity” couple who had complained about my lacking wine glasses and a glass tea pot for the complimentary wine and tea I gifted them for their stay. They wrote me an email later stating that “even when we slept on the beach with crabs crawling into our tents, we had essentials such as wine glasses and a tea pot available”. Obviously, they just couldn’t use my other 20 glasses for their wine, nor my tea kettle+brewing set for their tea. So, snobs!
Aside from these two mildly grotesque experiences, I have had nothing but WONDERFUL guests over and over again. I feel that a lot of bad experiences from both guests and hosts come from a lack of interest on either part. A lack of interest or concern for the validity of a listing/host or a guest. A lack of interest for the diversity of the accommodation. Etc.
I feel that I have had such positive experience because I’ve been ACTIVE about HOW and WHO I host. When you are constantly taking the risk to invite strangers into your home, you have to use common sense and caution. It’s kind of like splurging on an expensive product – you do your research before purchasing, right? Or going to a restauraunt – you read reviews, browse menu, etc., right? OR, staying in a traditional hotel…you read reviews, you check amenities, etc.
If you’re a guest who has had a bad experience, it may be that you didn’t spend enough time validating the host’s listing. READ THE REVIEWS!!!! The reviews usually tell you everything you need to know about what a place is like. If the reviews, or the host’s profile don’t make you assured (for instance, it’s a new listing), CONTACT the host PRIOR to requesting or making a reservation. PRIOR! Find out all the information you want to know, PRIOR to booking. Ask questions! If the host responds poorly or seems unfriendly, it is a close approximation of how they will handle the reservation and conduct their hosting. An unfriendly, unresponsive host is usually a host who probably doesn’t provide the best accommodation.
This type of “research” also applies to hosts considering guests. Above all, I require guests to have validated identities on their profile (number, email, ID) and I engage them through messaging prior to booking, and also prior to their arrival. If you don’t care about what guests your booking, you will most definitely be hosting a couple of bad seeds here and there.
The reviews of both hosts and guests are SO important. They really say a lot. For me, I do AirBnB to pay off my student loans. I think it’s awesome and it’s something that truly has helped ease my financial burdens. I take the job of hosting seriously, not only because I have financial gain from it, but because I genuinely want to make guests feel welcome. I take negative experiences that I’ve had in hotels and consider them when I’m readying my studio for my guests. Do YOU like seeing hairs in the bathroom or on your sheets & towels in hotel rooms? Do YOU enjoy drinking from dirty cups or sleeping on musty pillows in hotel rooms? Probably not, unless you’re morbidly gross. As a host, you should treat your rental the same way as a hotel. Keep things clean, and your guests won’t say it’s dirty. DUH! Maintain your listing. Check plumbing, check amenities needing replacing, etc. People are PAYING you to stay at your house. If they wanted to stay in a dump, they can do so for free. If you won’t act like a professional host, and check the guests that you’re hosting, you’ll receive bad reviews or will have bad experiences. It’s as simple as that.
As a guest, it’s even more important to read reviews. Two years ago I signed up for AirBnB and had no reviews (obviously). I didn’t know what to expect, and probably neither did my first guests. But both of us had great experiences! When they were leaving they promised to leave a great first review, and they did. And so my little studio filled up over time, and each time positive (minus the two aforementioned dinguses). And honestly, I think the reason that all my guests have been wonderful is because I’m passionate about hosting and I take care of my flat and communicate with guests/making them feel welcome. I think in general, if you invite people to stay at your home and your home is clean and maintained, those people will be more inclined to leave it just the same.
So, yes, I understand that there can be many cases with bad hosts, bad guests, etc. But a lot of those bad experiences could be avoided if the host puts care into who the guest is, and puts care into the accommodation, and if the guest puts care into who the host is, and puts care into how they treat the accommodation. For guests, there’s a number of ways to see whether an accommodation is worth it or not. Do your research! And hosts, check the guests out and make sure they’re verified. If they’re not, ask them politely if they could complete their verification process. Some guests don’t feel comfortable uploading an ID, which is understandable. So talk to them! Ask them about themselves, etc. Be friendly! If they respond in a similar matter, it is a good sign (from my experience).
So while, yes, there is the possibility of AirBnB “hell”, there is also the possibility of AirBnB success. And trust me, the success stories definitely stack higher than the defeats. A service shouldn’t be “booed” because of the bad experiences. I’ve stayed at hotels who had 2-3 star ratings only because the majority of the reviewers complained about the goddamn “complimentary breakfast” or the “pool being too small”. That’s so unfair to the hotel, who otherwise provides exceptional accommodations. If you want a five-course breakfast and a lap pool, pay the $200-300 extra and stay in a 5-star.
The same applies to AirBnB. If you’re a guest who complains about there not being coffee for the coffeemaker…you should have stayed in a hotel. Or at least communicated with the host if they provide coffee. So to guests…if you want a good experience, communicate with hosts about your needs and wants PRIOR to making a reservation. Ask about the water pressure & temperature. Ask about heating and cooling and etc.
The key to a good AirBnB is communication. If a host or guest can’t communicate, they won’t have a satisfactory experience.
As for the AirBnB service itself, I can’t speak on the matter as I (thankfully) haven’t ever had any serious issues. I had maybe 3 instances where I had a question, and every instance the AirBnB team emailed me back within the day with a response. No problem there. But I see how they could be slow and questionable when processing claims. It would be very easy to blame natural wear and tear damage as damage done by guests. I could have said that my lamp broke not because I’m a clumsy idiot, but because my last guest knocked it over. Of course claims take long!
And obviously, guests or host, never do transactions outside of the website. I’m not sure why in this age of advanced knowledge, people still do dumb things like that. AirBnB tells you it’s against their policy. If you accept to receive payment outside of the AirBnB site and are scammed, it’s your own fault. Why would you even complain? You shouldn’t just be banned from AirBnB, you should be banned from the internet, for you own good.
I just hosted a family who earlier in the week had booked an apartment close to my own. They got there and discovered it wasn’t maintained and that it was dirty. They called AirBnB and the site set them up in a hotel instantly. While there, they found my listing and booked. And voila, a good stay. They told me the initial “dirty” place had no reviews yet. Mine had 113 reviews. And while, yes, I too was once a new listing with no reviews, I never lacked in communication with guests. My guests said that the host of the poor BnB wasn’t friendly in replies, and that it should have tipped them off.
Communication and care from both host and guest, is key to avoiding being stuck in AirBnB purgatory. Do your research, ask questions, and you’ll have a good experience.
Hosts beware of “Mediation” – you have no say
We have been hosting with Airbnb for a couple of years. Our reviews were only 5 stars, with great feedback from guests. When people had problems or issues, we are always quick to react and resolve problems. We had the misfortune of hosting a couple of jerks who stayed in our rental apartment but treated it like a hotel. They reserved for 2 people for 3 weeks. They told us some extra family was coming after they arrived and asked us to bring around some more sheets and towels – we were miffed that we were not told beforehand but did so, and didn’t want to rock the boat. They told us 3 others were coming but in fact 6 others arrived for a total of 8 in an apartment with 1 toilet that sleeps 6 as advertised.
The extra people arrived on Friday, and on Sunday night we got a call saying the toilet was slow and had been since Friday. We asked if the toilet still flushed or was completely stopped up. We were told that no, it still went down but sometimes the water rose, but did not overflow. And we wondered why we were not told about it earlier – while businesses that do plumbing services were open !! We explained that on Sunday night, Father’s day in France for a non-emergency it was unlikely we could find anyone to come around that night (we knew it was in fact impossible unless an emergency as the very first thing the services as in France is whether the toilet is overflowing or blocked – if the answer is no, they send someone the next day). We said we’d call around and let them know more as soon as we had finished our dinner (we’d literally just sat down to dinner with our other Airbnb guest in our home). Before we were done with dinner, we received a text Airbnb message saying they’d resolved the issue by pouring hot water down the toilet and that it was “fine”. We called and told them we’d stop by the next morning to check on things.
We did stop by. To us the toilet was still slow though they said it was OK. They also said, oh and don’t worry about the hot water, it’s working again. We then realised they’d written in the middle of the night to complain about no hot water. We’d explained to them on arrival that the hot water heater was connected to the cheap rate electrics and that it operated only when that was on, hence to plan showers around this – which they did. They said they’d only run out when washing dishes after midnight. They were evasive when we asked how many showers they took – one said 5 showers and 1 bath, the other said 2 showers that were less than 5 minutes (we asked the couple separately). We explained that the hot water heater was working properly and they were using too much hot water during the day when the hot water heater was off – and also that for the number of people in the flat it was likely too much. We gave them instructions for how to set the switch to override to the hot water heater so that it could run during the day as well. For the slow toilet, we arranged with our neighbour to use the toilet of his office, which was in the hallway (the office was empty) as the service that we needed to use to clean the drains was unable to come immediately (they need to send a truck with a high pressure hose, as our old plumbing could not be fixed with a normal “snake” as there is a bend in the pipes that is less than 90 degrees so it won’t run). We told them to use the alternate toilet if the existing one developed more of a problem than slowness. They kept saying they thought this issue was caused by the building in front of ours, as they’d seen “workmen” there and a bad smell. We never in 4 visits were able to smell this supposed bad smell, and we also brought out the building manager of the other building. During the next 2 days we visited 4 times to investigate this “smell” which was not in our apartment, but they said in the hallway. The other building manager spoke to them and explained that no work had been done in that building and we tested all the pipes, and we assured them we simply had to wait a day for the drain clearing service to come out. They sent us a demand for a 50% refund for every day they’d experienced and would experience a “loss of service” starting with the day BEFORE they reported the issue to us. Their note contained a veiled threat to take further action against us if we did not agree to this. We refused on the grounds that they never had lost any service and in fact even had access to a 2nd toilet now. After this they called Airbnb and lied to their customer service. The “mediation” of Airbnb never spoke to us. They decided to allow the client to leave early and take away our rental fee for the unused days. We were able to get payment in the form of credit for some of the extra guests, but Airbnb refused to honour their rental contract. The drain clearing service came on Weds and cleared the drains but they’d left that AM and then they left a horrid review on Airbnb, claiming that there had been sewage flowing in the apartment, that we’d never called a plumber and many other lies such as claiming we had told them to use the public toilets as an alternate toilet and that they were without a working toilet in the apartment for 96 hours and were “forced” to leave it. Despite the fact that I sent in videos showing the toilet still functioning and flushing when they left and testimony from the other building manager also attesting to the toilet functioning as well as to the 2nd toilet they had access to, and despite the letters in the Airbnb system that clearly showed they were lying, the review was allowed on the site in the name of “free speech”. Additionally we were lied to and manipulated by the Customer Service – they briefly took down the review – and the minute we returned the security deposit of the guests, they put the bad review back up without notifying us and allowing even further lies now about our mental health on it ! We took down our listing as Airbnb refused to take down the libel. Disgusted with their customer service – and the “mediation” which is simply dictatorship.
Airbnb, Daily Mail enquiry
Hi, I freelance for Daily Mail features and we’re working on a feature on Airbnb. I’m interested in highlighting potential pitfalls for hosts to balance up all the obvious benefits for guests of a cheap room. Are you British and have had a bad experience as an Airbnb host? I’d be really grateful if you can help. I’m on timstewartnews@gmail.com Thanks, Tim Stewart
Horrible Airbnb Guests
My husband and I put our condo up on AirBNB and we VERY disappointed with the customer service. We had our place rents twice. The first couple were really friendly and left the apartment clean and as they found it. The second set of guys did not. Fair enough, we did put a large deposit to cover any problems – these students used our place to party even though we said no to parties. When we went to get the keys back there were 3 more guys there than what the booking stated. The left towels with stains in it on the bathroom floor like a hotel, put our wooden placemats in the sink and somehow chipped our floor!!! We contacted airbnb right away and received a notice saying it will take 48 hrs for them to respond – it has been ONE week and no one had contacted. Really disappointed. This has turned into a hassle more than a gain of extra cash!
I would never put my place up on airbnb nor would I use their service. This company has terrible customer service. We need to spread the word so people don’t get scammed into thinking its safe, trustworthy, and reliable. Horrible company.
Not worth the trouble – taking down the listing
Used to love the Airbnb experience as a host until recently when I was enlightened with the real picture of the horrible customer service offered by this company.
Fully agreed with some of the comments given on this site – appalling customer service. One day out of the blue my account was disabled for no reason. I tried to call them to (1) understand what happened and (2) reinstate the listing as everyday of it not being active costs me reservations and $. Customer service line was always busy, and I ended up waiting on the phone for 30min for what must have been 10 calls to a US number within the course of 2 days (I am based in the UK). The reason why I had to call them 10 times is because half the time the person I was on the phone with was clueless about what was going on (more than one of them was adamant to me that my account was still up and running – and only after taking a closer look realised that actually yes it was disabled!). In addition, the whole process was hugely opaque – all they could do was to pass on your “case” to “a specialist department” to investigate. I never heard anything meaningful from this “specialist department” – they sent me back an email saying the account had been reinstated (without an explanation as to why it had happened in the first place) but when I checked it turned out it was still disabled. Appalled, I called back (and waited on the line for 30min again) to only find myself back in the original helpless explaining – waiting process. Nothing has been resolved or updated since.
Worst is the attitude of some of these call-centre people: When I expressed my concern that, because I can’t even access my account and because the whole incident has been such a bad experience, I may consider delisting the place to avoid getting into the same trouble in the future, the lady on the line cheekily said “you don’t have to stay with us – but if you cancel your future reservations we will charge you penalties”. Helpful, isn’t it? Considering I can’t even *manage* my future reservations not being able to log into my profile. How am I to welcome my next guest in a few days when my account is disabled? Is it fair that they took down my business AND fine me for not being able to accommodate my guests?
But seriously, having thought about all the risks, the trouble of going through all of this again, and the appalling attitude of this company, the $200 cancellation penalty fee seems utterly small. I have decided that it’s not worth it – so bye bye Airbnb, never again.
N.B. I am reading online reviews that many people have experienced abrupt and frequent cancellations from the hosts recently. I suppose those hosts may be going through the same thinking process as I am. Sorry guys but it’s Airbnb who’s screwing us all.
Trust&Safety at airbnb behind low level
I`m a former Employee of airbnb and I can warn everybody who likes to travel not to use `the service` of airbnb. I worked in the trust&safety Department of airbnb and checked new listings and hosts on a daily base. The interesting fact I approached there is the low security standards airbnb put on potential new hosts and jeopardize the safety of all guests. If you want to host airbnb guests you can grab any pictures from the internet like a nice five star villa or a beautiful castle and declare yourself as the `official owner` of this listing, you do not need to provide any form of ID or Proof of Ownership like a Utility bill of the listing. This means in fact that almost more than 50 Percent of the listings on airbnb are fake or put from drug dealers or other criminals to make `the easy money` with the dumb tourists. Trust&Safety just work this way, that they take a look on the Pictures of the listing and declare them as genuine or not. There is no background-check put in place what kind of host you can expect (even serial-killer or Drug Dealers could be hosts at airbnb) . And if the host need to provide a ID they can easely fool the automated security system by providing any kind of Photo ID, the automated system called Jumio accept even Library ID`s . I discussed this issue with my Manager who is responsible for the Security of the listings and he replied to me back that airbnb don`t want to put much restrains on new hosts to register with airbnb (!!!) Sorry, every banking institution or Gambling Website has better security measures in place to prevent Criminals to do their illegal activities but on airbnb every Criminal is warm welcomed to register as a host without hassle to be security checked. You don`t believe it? Try to register yourself at airbnb website as a host with any `funny Name` and put the `Oval Office` as your listing, you will be surprised how quick you are `approved` and go live with this `listing` . Sounds funny, but what will happen when a Hannibal Lecter will be the next host inviting guests to stay for Dinner or even worse. Welcome to airbnb
Guest Made My Family Unsafe
A guest who was barely around and had 0 communication skills never locked our door. When asked repeatedly, and signs were put on the door requesting it be locked, the guest still left it unlocked. Oftentimes the guest would leave it unlocked overnight (he came back at 12pm-1am nightly), and I would have to go down to lock it after him. Let’s not even talk about the security system he refused to use. I contacted AirBnB and they were of no help. I had gotten myself into a situation where an irresponsible person had control of the safety of my family, and had a key to my home. So it was a balance…I didn’t want to have the guy get hostile to us either. It was our first (and last) experience hosting. Never again. It is just a bad situation, and AirBnB won’t bail you out. This is the kind of thing where the existence of a website makes you feel safe making decisions you would ordinarily never make (i.e. letting a stranger into your home).
Fraudulent Airbnb Payments!
We have just found out our payments have been paid to a fraudulently set up bank account in Spain.
We are based in UK and have 13 apts listed with them but without warning they started paying an IBAN account in Spain IN Euros. So far we have calculated more than £50,000 has gone to this UNKNOWN account. No response from Airbnb fir 3 days Uk fraud police are investigating. All multi property hosts please check who’s account your money is going into.
Problems
We have been hosts for just about a year now, have more than 100 reviews on our account. We have had to contact them on occasion to check on missing deposits but they recitifed this quickly. Maybe are just lucky up to this point but we continue to suppliment our income nicely with the service and hope to continue doing so for a long time.