Tag Archives: airbnb business model

Hotels are Always Preferable to Unreasonable Hosts

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After deliberating at length, I’m sharing my story and advice. I planned a trip to Paris, my favorite city, to celebrate my birthday. I carefully chose an Airbnb based on reviews and location, with price being my least concern (but still looking to minimize). My host notified me via email the morning of my departure that my check-in could be two hours earlier.

My transatlantic flight, which included a layover in London, touched down just after 14:00. After claiming my luggage, getting my bearings and securing train tickets, etc., I headed to the city. Combining these activities would warrant at least a two-hour window, even if I knew the exact location already, which I did not (though after eight previous visits I know Paris somewhat).

Once off the train I texted the host again, noting I was in a cafe for a break before heading over. It was 30 degrees F and sleeting outside, and I needed to consult my map and have a quick bathroom break, unsure of just how close/far I might be. The host rang my phone immediately and was very curt, saying I was late. I knew I had been expected at a certain time, and he had been waiting for 30 minutes.

I stated that based on weather, my fatigue and (obviously) his displeasure I was happy to seek hotel refuge and regroup, to start over the following day. I had paid for six nights. He said he would not be free any other day to meet with me and pass over the keys. Following this statement to me, as I made an effort to explain my situation, he hung up. I was shocked and dismayed, so I went to a hotel.

What transpired afterwards was just more and more of my precious vacation time texting, emailing and phoning with Airbnb. To sum this up as I see it now, a hotel (even a small privately owned one), would have been available based on the demands or shortfalls in my schedule, and would have recourse for a complaint, refund or even cancellation based on my customer experience, without requiring added time and energy.

I will use Airbnb again, but strictly within the US, where there is little or no language barrier added to the experience. I did receive a portion of my fees returned, but my hotel stay far outshined and surpassed what that apartment could have offered, for the same price. Lesson learned.

Airbnb: Unprofessional Standards Drive Guests Away

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In the last three months I have stayed in three Airbnb apartments and houses: each for a month. I moved to a new Airbnb house two days ago. Already, I have noticed the TV system has a fault, there is no hot water, the fob to the garage doesnt work and I had to climb over the gate all day yesterday because I didnt have a key. The last two places were just as bad.

They are amateurs: they only want your money, and have no sense of professional responsibility or standards. No wonder the terms don’t allow refunds. If you find the electricity constantly cuts out, or the plumbing is so noisy it keeps you awake, or you do not get the necessary keys, or there is not enough hot water for two people to shower, or the fob to the garage doesn’t work, or there is little privacy to work there, or it’s cold with no heating, and consequently it’s overpriced – complain, or leave a bad review. It’s your duty to do so. We are the regulators.

Whenever You Need Help, Airbnb Isn’t There

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I’ve never seen a company like Airbnb. Whenever you need help, they are there not to help but piss you off and wish you to hell. I have never gotten any help either by email or by phone. The representatives are rude as if you are living in hell and you deserve their condemnation. I have never seen a company in my life to be that unhelpful. I have received this template email at least three times and no help has come so far. I don’t know what is wrong on their end: no explanations, no information, nobody to talk to and template email responses with no real communication and no intent to communicate. Their technical errors put you on the hook for the blame.

“My name is XX and I’m a Trust & Safety specialist at Airbnb. We regret to inform you that we’ll be unable to support your account moving forward, and have exercised our discretion under our Terms of Service to disable your account(s). This decision is irreversible and will affect any duplicated or future accounts. Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the action taken against your account. Furthermore, we are not liable to you in any way with respect to disabling or canceling your account. Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We’ll contact you if anything changes in the future, but until then, we won’t be able to assist you any further with your account issues. Please see our Help Center for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432. Regards, XX”

Airbnb Does Nothing to Remove Illegal Listings

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I owned a property that has been posted without my permission. After reporting to Airbnb about this fraud, their response was that they cannot help because of their obligation to privacy of the host’s account. Clearly there’s no screening process to ensure that the host and property are legitimate. The humor is I found out because the person putting this ad has contacted me about the reservation. I have changed the locks and informed security at the property. I do not know how long my property has been advertised on Airbnb and of any damages from this fraud. My point is it’s not safe to rent from Airbnb, and I hope this is a reminder for guests of Airbnb to be careful booking with them. Simply irresponsible.

Trip Insurance is a Necessity When Using Airbnb

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We have been with Airbnb for three years and most of our experiences have been good up until now. As provided in a formal feedback from my wife, guests buy trip insurance to cover crisis situations and illness. Airbnb is effectively negating this avenue by offering refunds at the host’s expense. It is completely unacceptable as a policy and puts the hosts in an untenable situation of loss that cannot be recouped for last minute cancellations – which, by the way, is why trip insurance exists.

Airbnb is hurting the small business owners who are the reason Airbnb is in business at all. Shame on them for allowing this and for interfering with legitimate trip insurance companies who protect the owners as well as the traveler when situations happen outside of either parties control. Airbnb clearly is not protecting owners and their businesses with this kind of policy. If you read some of the posts from hosts you will see what I am talking about.

We had a guest that was going to check into our property on December 6, 2017 and at the last minute something happened. They cancelled their reservation, and Airbnb refunded their money back to them. Now we are out over $600 to cover our mortgage and other fees and there is no time to rerent the property. I understand things happen that are out of a person’s control that cannot be helped. Thus the reason for trip insurance.

Suggestion: if you want to act like an insurance company and refund guests their money then charge a fee ($35 – $45 to be competitive with trip insurance companies) for that service, put it in a separate account, refund them out of that money, and offer it on the Airbnb website. Both guests and hosts will be happier. I purchase trip insurance just for that purpose. I read about another guest that cancelled at the last minute because they didn’t plan early enough and didn’t have their visa information in order. Airbnb refunded their money, costing the host a month’s rent that couldn’t be replaced.

If a driver is driving without insurance they are taking on the full responsibility if they get into an accident. You don’t have insurance because you plan on an accident, but to protect you just in case you do. Please protect your hosts and guests, as we pay your salaries.

Airbnb’s Policy on Holding Payment is Dangerous

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I applied to stay at an Airbnb property in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The host completely ignored my request, and did not respond in any way. Fair enough… although this behaviour is very disrespectful and rude in my opinion. Anyway, that’s not really my issue with Airbnb. I did not realise that even though the host ignores your request and you don’t actually fully book, the funds are restricted and frozen for whatever the amount is. In other words, even with no contact from the host after requesting to book their space, your money is being frozen until it is deemed suitable for release. This affects my ability to live whilst alone abroad… even though the money appears to be in my account. In other words, if a host decides to be inhospitable, or covertly racist they could ignore your request merely based on what you look like. What other reason could there be if the space is showing availability and your reviews are totally positive? It’s not rocket science. Be very careful not to request any booking unless you have more than sufficient funds in your account. This aspect needs to be revised ASAP.

Host got a better offer and cancelled my reservation

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On September 21, 2017, I booked a room over the New Year’s holiday in a resort town in Southern California. I made the reservation and paid in full in good faith. Yesterday, my host canceled my reservation. She got a better offer; I was dumped. This was her message:

“Regretfully, I will be cancelling your reservation as I will be out of town and have a family interested in renting the entire house for the holidays.”

Besides being pissed and having to scramble to find another place to stay in a popular location over a holiday, I have two basic questions (both likely rhetorical). Why do I not have the ability to leave public feedback about her regarding this? My host could have penalized me if I would have cancelled on her by retaining a portion (up to half) of the money I paid her. Yet as a guest, when my host cancels on me, I have to just take it. Why is she not monetarily penalized for my inconvenience as I would have been for hers?

Airbnb Considers a Loud Air Conditioner an Extenuating Circumstance

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About six months ago I had a six-month reservation that was cancelled because we didn’t reply to Airbnb within one hour. Our listing was listed with a strict cancelation policy which states that we don’t offer refunds if the guest chooses to cancel. However, our guest was sensitive to the noise of the air conditioner in our apartment and there was a cockroach (we live in New York). Airbnb determined this to be extenuating circumstance and canceled on our behalf.

Since then we’ve been having issues because apparently, we owe Airbnb the one month’s rent that was paid out after the first night. We actually ended up losing over $20,000 with this reservation, considering we had to cancel our lease, forfeit our security deposit, and hire last minute help to vacate our apartment in just three days before leaving for our six-month trip around Asia which we planned during the rental.

Airbnb has been our main source of accommodations. In fact, just three days ago we were not allowed into Taiwan because our visa got declined and even in these circumstances, when we contacted Airbnb they said we needed to give the host 24 hours to reply and explained that it’s up to the host whether to give us a refund. This was indeed an extenuating circumstance listed on Airbnb’s policy (as we literally were not allowed into the country), but Airbnb still stood by the host’s cancellation policy.

Every time we had issues over the course of our travels, Airbnb gave the hosts 24 hours to fix them and placed us in a hotel for the night while the problems were resolved. In our case, Airbnb canceled our six-month strict cancelation policy reservation because we didn’t answer them within one hour while the guest did confirm we were in contact with her, trying to fix the issue – which seems extremely wrong.

All problems aside, last month we booked a place in the Philippines for three weeks and the apartment had multiple electricity issues for many of the days we were there: meaning we couldn’t cook, there was no internet, no lights, no hot water, etc. We contacted Airbnb and they placed us in a hotel for three days which they said would be refunded. However, now they are saying we owe them the first month’s rent that was paid out for the 6-month reservation in June (which they cancelled without our consent) and that they won’t refund us for the hotel stays. We think this is completely wrong and we wanted to hear anyone’s thoughts.

According to Airbnb’s policy, it’s up to the host to set their cancellation policy; we had set ours to Strict, which meant that the guest does not get a refund unless we decide to give them one. There’s also another policy that applies for 28 nights or more, the long-term cancellation policy. If a guest changes or cancels a long-term reservation their first payment is non-refundable. If they cancel after the trip has started, the remaining nights in their reservation are non-refundable. If they have more than 30 nights left in their reservation, only the next 30 nights are non-refundable.

Looking into the extenuating circumstances policy established by Airbnb, it states that deaths, illness, injury to the guests, ability to travel, natural disaster, urgent travel restrictions, endemic diseases, severe proper damage and government-mandated obligations are the reasons why Airbnb would be able to cancel a reservation without the host’s approval. The reasons why this was canceled does not fall into this scenario at all. A loud air conditioner and a cockroach does not sound life threatening to me.

Keep in mind, this guest actually came to the apartment prior to booking it on two separate occasions to determine if it was suitable for their stay and heard and saw the air conditioner. We gave them a full tour and walk through and even rearranged some decorations after their request, which says a lot about our commitment and quality provided to our guests. We have hosted many people before and maintain a 4.8 rating, whereas this person was a completely new user with no reviews. Not only that, none of our past guests (some of which stayed just a week prior to this guest) mentioned any of the problems which she claimed made our apartment uninhabitable.

That being said, the cancellation of this reservation violates Airbnb’s policy as none of her reasons fell into the extenuating circumstances clause and we were not given the standard 24 hours to seek a resolution for the issues. After consulting with our legal team, it seems we have very strong grounds to sue Airbnb up for these losses. We did in fact let it go at the time but considering it is being raised again as an issue of us owning money to Airbnb I think it is worth pointing out that this cancellation was not done by the book in any means.

Regardless, it’s completely unprofessional to have an agent email us confirming they would refund three nights in a hotel and then be told after the stay that the refund would not be granted because of a balance owed for a reservation six months ago, which we were never informed of. I’m sure this is against their policies as well. At the very least, it’s an extremely disorganized an unprofessional way to treat loyal Airbnb users as hosts and guests.

How would you handle this? What would you do in our shoes?

Left Homeless in Mexico City when Airbnb Host Cancelled

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I’ve used Airbnb several times without issue. However, last week I had a horrific experience that Airbnb completely failed to resolve. My host canceled a three-night booking in Mexico City on my day of arrival two hours before check-in. Airbnb did not phone to alert me to this significant last minute development, but rather sent an email. In the email, various “alternatives” were proposed – none of which were in remotely the same area of Mexico City, a massive metropolis – that I could book directly, or I could request my money back.

The alternatives were not comparable. I had guests arriving within two hours, and did not have time to research, communicate and rebook (hoping that there would not be another last minute cancellation). In lieu of availing myself of a non-comparable alternative that would have taken time and effort (and luck – there was very little time to pull all of this together) on my part to reserve, the only option that I was left with was to request a refund. I was forced to book two hotel rooms at the last minute, incurring a cost $300 greater than my Airbnb booking. Airbnb offered no further assistance or recompense for the stress and extra expense that resulted from using their platform.

Subsequently, I received a phone call purportedly to learn more about my point of view regarding what happened. When I said that Airbnb failed in its customer service, and that it did not provide me with assurance, as a paying guest, that I could depend on pre-booked and pre-paid accommodations, I was informed that it wasn’t their fault. Problems happen, but Airbnb’s management of the situation and subsequent follow-up was pathetic. I will not be booking with them ever again, and urge other travelers to be cautious as they also may not know that Airbnb hosts can cancel prepaid bookings at the last minute, with no excuse and no assurance from Airbnb that you will be relocated to comparable accommodations.

Airbnb is the Law, Enforces their own Policy Arbitrarily

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I booked a house in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Airbnb last week. Shortly after booking, the host wanted to increase the price by nearly 50% and sent a request to alter the agreement. I refused and the host cancelled the booking unilaterally. As soon as the reservation had been confirmed, I informed my family about the extra space available so I had to take this back. It was embarrassing, a lot of time was lost, and I had to look for another place. Despite Airbnb policy to post an ‘automatic’ review that the host had cancelled and block the dates I had booked on the host’s calendar, nothing happened. I received a ‘full’ refund a few days later but I still had foreign transaction fees of 15 USD nobody will cover. My conclusion is that Airbnb policy is completely arbitrary and the whole process is set up to maximize the profit of Airbnb. They talk about the ‘Airbnb community’ , which is utter nonsense. It’s a (poorly regulated) business, and that’s all.