AirbnbReviews 2,101

This is a difficult review to write as nothing horrendous occurred. We booked three accommodations, one was great, one had to cancel for very legitimate reasons and one was just ok. The accommodation that had to cancel did so because the island had no water so it was the responsible thing to do. Unfortunately it occurred one day before we were to arrive. We were able to find another place and with the help of the owner received a full refund. Without his help however my feeling is that we would not have received it so quickly. Trying to contact Airbnb with concerns is not easy.

My complaint with the company is there is no consistency in how places are rated so you are never really confident about what you might be getting. In the two places we stayed they were rated the same, hosts were both super hosts and there was a world of difference between the two... the accommodations were also rated the same and yet again there was a big discrepancy.

We have used VRBO often and there has never been such a discrepancy. There seems to be more scrutiny and control over who can put there accommodation on VRBO vs. Airbnb. I have not heard of last minute cancellations by owners on VRBO either. It is important to feel confident when booking your accommodation and after this experience I won't use Airbnb again unless there is no other possible option.

I made a booking with Airbnb in December 2018 and paid half the amount in advance. I was later contacted by the agent for the host and told that he required the apartment for two days of my booking and they would move me during the stay to an alternative apartment. This was not acceptable as I considered the host was inconveniencing the customer and this was bad business practice. I then asked for a discount due to the trouble and made an offer. The agent failed to confirm the dates or provide a discount acceptance. After contacting Airbnb a number of times with no resolution or confirmation; I cancelled the booking. They then tried to take a service fee from the payment which included cleaning, even though we had cancelled well in advance due to their poor business practice, which we considered a breach of contract. We later found out that the Airbnb policy was to give a discount and the agent withheld this. We threatened to sue and finally received a full refund. I would not use this organization again and other reviews I have read paint a very poor picture with both customers and hosts complaining. You do not make money in business by acting in this way and they fell short of acceptable business standards in this matter. Hosts who think that they can treat customers any way they want to, may occur and if Airbnb does not properly intervene then these sorts of problems will continue, with it sure to impact on their business. I therefore, do not recommend using this organization, customer service is still in its infancy as seen from this experience.

Advertised as "PET FREE" we found TWO barking dogs living on property.
Advertised on AIRBNB as "cooler than standard construction" we found a furnace with no windows and no a/c.
"clean and well equipped" I say not, plastic outdoor furniture as our furnishings, no salt or pepper or oil in kitchen as advertised.
We had to ask/beg for toilet paper and shampoo and soap... says it was provided.
Found THREE PINS IN MY PILLOW, one poking my cheek about 1/2 inch from my eye.

I had to cancel and they agreed to 50% return of my money. Paid $496.68, refunded $149.31(missing $100). Minus their fee that I pay and NOT the host of $56(should have been $248-$56=$192). Still missing difference ($100) and they won't refund me, saying I received the whole refund. Complete scam and they are protected by their own cancellation rules and policies. There are better ways to do business and its not with them. Case managers dont have the decency to call you and discuss issue with you, only made their conclusions based on their notes.
***UPDATE***
3 weeks have passed and still no refund. I worked with 8 case managers over a course of 3 weeks. NOTHING BUT A WASTE OF TIME. I have their emails that clearly states my refund! Now, they have decided to close my account based on their privacy policy and with NO explanation. I never swore, or insulted or threatened anyone. The money is already in the host's pocket. They new they messed up and wanted to get rid of me. All hope is now lost for my remaining refund.
Not professional at all and to be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS no matter if its cheaper! Not worth the stress and headaches because you will NEVER win! Even if you report them, their policies protect them and you will just waste your time and hard earned money. They are NOT there to make your plans easier but simply to protect their hosts and fees. No remorse, even if you have a valid reason "no passport". STAY AWAY!

We are a small Bed and Breakfast business in Cumbria in the UK. We have never given Airbnb our details and have never asked to be registered with them. Twice now we have had telephone calls from people who say they have booked our accommodation through Airbnb. In both cases they were advised that we had accommodation available and in one case they had already paid money and received confirmation by post on headed notepaper displaying the heading from our web-page. In neither case have Airbnb been in touch with us. AS FAR AS WE ARE CONCERNED THEY ARE USING OUR DETAILS WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION AND IN OUR OPINION POTENTIALLY MAKING FRAUDULENT USE OF THEM.

I rented a home for a weekend and a window was damaged. I contacted the company I rented from (a very popular on line rental company that people put thier privatley owned homes up for rental. I don't want be sued by naming them but the name of the company starts with an A and ends with a B and the name is 6 letters with A's b's and an i in the name) because I have integrity and felt it dishonest not to do so. The property owner sent in an invoice for the wrong type window which was $1000 more than I owe for the actual window we broke. The owner acknowledge his mistake immediatly and agreed with me. I received an invoice for payment for the incorrect amount from Airbnb. When I contacted them regarding this I advised them they needed to contact the host to get corrected invoice. I then received a dismissive email from a customer service rep named JOAO. Joao wrote that after "careful review" I still owed the incorrect amount and that my future reservations had been cancelled and my account deactivated. I had rented 4 times in the last 6 months from them so I am not a new customer. I have been trying to reach them on the phone to no avail. Do not rent from A__ B N B. You can contact any host on the site with questions before you pay anything. Contact that host and ask to rent directly from them. Use A____ b in the same disgusting manner in which they treat thier good customers. I am so angry. I am also contacting the Better Business Bureau and will make it my mission to write reviews to help others to not get SCAMMED and DISMISSED by this disreputable company. Shame on you A____ b.

Never will book again with Airbnb. The owner struggled for four hours to add a day to our reservation. It took Airbnb until 2:40 the next morning to acknowledge my attempt to book a townhome in Mammoth. I loaded three photos over three hours by instruction of the customer staff. The company cancelled my reservation three hours before it was to timeout. Had to keep writing the owner. Called customer service at 5:00 am because our reservation was still not confirmed. The automated system kept not accepting my photo to match with the government ID (California Driver's License, front and back) I submitted. After 1.5 hours in a chat with customer service. Leizel said she had to go to a meeting and would call me in an hour -- when my reservation had been cancelled! There were between 20 minutes and over I hour in gaps to the chat responding.

I WILL NEVER BOOK Airbnb again. VBRO IS SOOOOO SUPERIOR AND THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS FANTASTIC COMPARED TO WHAT I AM EXPERIENCING WITH Airbnb.

Airbnb confirmed a reservation for my homestay. Airbnb send me a email to check in a customer. After customer check out, Airbnb does not want to pay me. The reason is Airbnb need to collect payment from customer before they pay me. They said customer have some payment issues. Airbnb said i need to wait until the cow comes home or until customer pays up. Many message to Airbnb has been closed by them. Beware of Monster Airbnb who does not care about Host. Sometimes also teaching customer to cheat Host.

We have several homes that we manage and unfortunately, a couple of years ago, some of our property owners had heard of Air B&B and insisted that we try them. We now have lost half of our properties because Air B&B doesn't pay us and hence we cannot pay the property owners or our cleaning crews. The president of our company has had to get personal loans to cover the amounts that are due to be paid out to the property owners. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. It has gotten to a point where every booking we receive through Air B&B has to be verified over the phone to make sure they have sent our money to the proper / working bank account. They are still holding a huge amount of money from 2 years ago.

If you are considering trying Air B&B, I recommend that you reconsider. VRBO/HomeAway is not any better either. These companies have gotten so big that they now control most of the Internet bookings and apparently are not capable of keeping themselves organized. If you are lucky enough to talk to someone that can actually communicate with you, you can expect rude service and even hang ups.

One thing I DO recommend is that even though both Air B&B and VRBO/HomeAway will not divulge the e-mail addresses or phone numbers of the renters until they are actually booked, once they have booked one of your houses, encourage them to book directly through YOU the next time they want to rent one of your houses. I send our clients a friendly e-mail once they check out and tell them how much they could have saved if they would have booked directly through us.

I'm reading a lot of reviews here from renters but need to add my own as a property owner. We own and/or manage 17 vacation rental properties in two countries and have been Air BnB hosts for over 10 years with 95% 5-star ratings. Every now and then, we get a weird bad review-usually due to a gap between what we offer and the expectations of the guest. Recently, we got a 4-star review from someone whose issues included no water in the ice cube tray, exposed television cables on the wall, no door on the closet and not understanding that Air BnB properties don't include breakfast (it was her first time using the platform). As a result, Air BnB suspended the listing for a week because it fell below their arbitrary 5-star requirements, with no option for disputing the review and no one to talk to at customer service. Their attitude is "we let the reviews speak for themselves", even when the review is clearly unreasonable. I can live with a bad review-I can't accept the arbitrary suspension as "punishment". 10 years ago I used to tell everyone how great customer service was at AirBnB, and it was. Something went wrong somewhere along the way and they have become arbitrary, unresponsive and arrogant. There are better choices out there including VRBO/HomeAway and Trip Advisor/Flipkey We've developed our own booking site and related marketing tools and last year, it came close to beating Air BnB in total booking revenue for our properties. So we're winding down our participation on the Air BnB platform this year. They don't seem to understand that property owners are their lifeblood and responsible for 100% of their income. I would have written them to tell them of our decision directly but they don't seem to want or care about this feedback.