AirbnbReviews 2,101

UTTERLY DEPRESSING/DIRTY/TOTALLY OVERPRICED never again!

Feb 4th 2016
We arrived after a long journey. (India to Kenya) On arrival at the 'Turquoise Villa' our hearts sank,
The grounds were poorly maintained, the property was dirty, poorly maintained, and completely unloved, dirty kitchen, dirty kitchen utensils, dirty cooker, dirty fridge etc etc etc
Ripped curtains on the main entrance.
Bedrooms, grubby, dimly lit grubby, linen, grubby towel grubby bathrooms etc etc etc
The 'host' is NOT the owner, he is a neighbour who owns other properties next door, (Much Better quality) he showed us one of his properties, which we immediately agreed to move into the next day.
Air BNB act only as in intermediary, with No authority or real concern, Basically AirBnb ask you to sort it out with the Owner,
When the Owner clearly has no interest in the property.
We asked for a refund for the 1 night we had to stay as we had arrived late and it was getting dark - He Refused.
We moved the next day, The review on your site are from his relatives. Not impartial reviews at all.
As we left the property next door, we could see that Villa Turquoise was having the roof removed - need I say more.
In addition AirBnb claims the property has Washer, Drier, Internet
NO IT DOES NOT!
A VERY POOR EXPERIENCE

I booked a House near Dallas, Texas after carefully reviewing the refund/cancellation policy and confirming that money will be charged to my card once the host confirms my booking. Not even 5 Minutes later I received confirmation of charges from my bank through text and email, however upon viewing my AIRBNB profile, there was no confirmation, no trip showing, or any other way to tell my reservation was made, aside from the charges to my card. Chatting and calling customer service got me no where in life but aggravated and impatient since apparently the reps could not find my trip either, but magically had the last 4 of my card number that was used on file, announcing it was a glitch/ one-off in there system and the charges are not normally applied until the host confirms. CSR Ricardo Barros emailed a statement informing of the error, as well as confirming to me that my refund had already been processed in full. Sounds lovely right? Seems like a rep will tell you anything just to get you off the line so it can be the next man's problem. 5 days later I am still not showing my refund released. I called to follow up and the next delusional rep said that AirBNB never processed it and I would have to log in to my trips to cancel. Now Obviously this bone-head did not do her due diligence to thoroughly read her notes for an IRATE customer because the trip not showing up in my profile is my reason for cancellation in the first place! At this point I demanded a Supervisor, and got stuck with Rizzo who seemed to have been in his position for less that an hour because this dimwit provides ME an authorization code to call and provide my bank to release my funds?!?! In what bank in America would that really work where a consumer can call in their own refund codes and not have the money sent back from the merchant? Let alone, the Less-than-"Super"-no-"visor" Rizzo has yet to follow up with me, allowing me to call back twice while he was clearly providing call avoidance, refusing to come to the line and I sent 2 emails and still no word from the punk! AirBNB failed to provide confirmation, then after admitting their error, they still have yet to resolve the issue. Never will I ever do business with this scam site again.

I booked an apartment through Airbnb's "Superhost" Luka Piscitelli and when I was forced to cancel my entire trip due to unforeseen circumstances, I gave Luka 6 weeks notice, yet he refused to refund 50% of the fee I paid (totalling $236). Despite talking to several supervisors at Airbnb, they refused to help and supported the host because I clicked on something at checkout that says I agreed to this policy (despite my not even remembering seeing it). They put "Superhost" front and centre on his profile, but not these unfair and punitive policies. Shame on you Luka and Airbnb.

Airbnb's website is user friendly and has all the functionalities both hosts and guests could wish for. It does a better job than its rivals like Wimdu or Roomorama. It's not perfect yet, but it's the best in its category.

Airbnb doesn't care about your safety or you vacation. They just want money. I had a terrible experience with them. We couldn't get into the place we booked and it was late at night. They told us to find a hotel and they would pay for the cab. After searching for a hotel until 2am we found one. They then wanted us to spend a day of our 3 day vacation trying to use another airbnb place and if it didn't pan out we were on our own. So we made the decision to enjoy the rest of our vacation since we already lost 1/2 a day because of them and stay at the hotel. We asked that they pay for 2 night, they renegged on everything. I had to ask that the phone calls be pulled. 18 emails later they paid for one night at the hotel and took my $250 credit. Then they locked me out of the account and said they will not engage me, that they didn't provide good customer service and they are sorry for that but this matter is closed and they will not speak further to me. I called back and got a rep who was stoned. I wanted a name in someone is corporate to discuss this customer service as they protect each other. He wouldn't give me one. I eventually found a name but it didn't matter. I mailed in letter about what happened and copies of the emails... no response. I would not recommend using airbnb. If something goes wrong you're screwed.

I am hosting on airbnb for more than 2 years. I can't express how disappointed I am as a host by my guests. While in the beginning, I seemed to deal with normal people, now that the site got more expensive, only rude, clueless people seem to be using that website. I have zero cancellation rate as a host; all my apartments are exactly as shown and cleaned by professional crew. However, I deal with guests who call me drunk at night demanding parking that is not even advertised on the listing; guests smoking in the apartments even though we have non-smoking in the house rules. Recently, a guest attempted to hack (!) the building router that produces wifi for the all other tenants by installing his personal password on it. We prevented it, sending a technician. The guest left a review saying "apparently wifi was shared and others in the building didn't like it". What kind of a person expects NON-SHARED wifi nowadays and, after not receiving it, writes a negative review? Wifi by definition is a shared facility, even in Marriott or Hilton.

I don't know what hosts will soon remain on airbnb, but their reviews policy is clearly encouraging scams like that to put down good hosts. This encourages hosts to offer lesser quality services or not leave any reviews to good guests, since guests will write whatever, anyway, without much thinking and knowing that the host won't see their review or have any recourse.

On a positive side, airbnb allows me to earn 25% net extra income vs my long term rentals, this being the only reason I work with and continue being listed on that website.

We recently rented a room in the in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco, and were excited about the "Spacious bedroom w private bath". Unfortunately, when we arrived the situation was not as advertised.

The kitchen was an untidy mess, with fast food containers and dishes laying about. We ended up leaving instead of cooking the planned meal.

The bed had clearly been slept in, there was no top sheet, and when we turned the bottom sheet inside out discovered that the bed had blood stains. Needless to say, gross! The bed was also rock hard.

The floor, windowsill and desk were all dust-covered and strewn about with items. There were no towels in the bathroom. The room mate's SO provided a couple of threadbare towels.

We contacted the host, who was not present at the time, and essentially received a "this is not a hotel, it's how I live, so deal with it".

We then reached out to Airbnb, were assigned a case manager (Tiago), and after providing documenting pictures then were granted a refund of the base price of the rental. We've stayed with Airbnb hosts myriad times and this was our first negative experience. Airbnb smoothly turned things around for us. They also reached out to the host for a discussion regarding rental standards and communication.

Thumbs up from us, despite the incredibly negative experience with the host.

When I started using airbnb it had just started and was a great way to see places and meet locals who were lovely. But now it seems they're commercialised and don't care about anything but their fees. They seem to have invested little time and money in checking listings and hosts or customer service. When using it this month I've had so many problems with hosts rep! Ying to a request saying the price is higher than listed or trying to change parts of the listing. Or I send a request and get nothing in reply or I try to make a booking and it won't work for some unspecified reason. Just now we've turned up at a place that was filthy and completely unacceptable. The host offered us a refund but then airbnb wouldn't refund their service fee PLUS added more on top AND wouldn't refund me in the currency I paid so I lose out even more on their dodgy exchange rate. Avoid if possible. Yes you can have nice experiences but it's not worth the hassle. Airbnb doesn't seem to check any of the listings and only wants your money.

We booked a house in a small province of Turkey with airbnb, thinking we could get away from the mess of the big city.
We arrived at the house, and although we were a bit disappointed about the quality of the house compared to the price we paid (it amounted to the full month in a house like that- I checked afterwards), we left the place a bit relaxed after our visits to nearby villages and natural sites.
The nightmare started as we got back. Although it hasn't been resolved yet, we are facing a damage claim by our host, 1600 Turkish Liras ( 500ish dollars) for burnt rugs and couches, broken tiles and old electrical heating devices that apparently did not work.
We did none of the damage, the couches and the rugs were placed in front of the fireplace so we didn't think the burnt spots on them could be used against us. The host explained to us on the phone that the tile was broken already, and the electrical heating devices were so old and did not work, which meant we didn't even touch them after an initial try.
These are issues with the host, it is obvious that she is after money and is trying to make us renovate her rugged apartment.
The problem with airbnb is that, there is nothing we can do if they decide that she is right... I am not sure if the pictures of devices that seem to be off, and couches that are burnt, are enough evidence to prove we are the ones that caused them. But airbnb has no limit in the amount the hosts can charge, and we are apparently obliged to pay if the airbnb decides we have to.
I am not sure how this can be overcome? Are we supposed to take pictures as soon as we arrive of every broken thing in a village house that is filled with broken things and burnt spots? What sort of proof could we have? Isn't the host responsible to prove to airbnb that we are the ones who caused the damage, instead of just proving the damage?
Can I simply enlist in airbnb and make my future guests fix the broken things in my apartment?
I will not be using airbnb as a guest anymore, unless this damage claim is dropped completely.

We've had many good experiences staying places, BUT just had the worst customer service experience we've ever had - my review here is about AirBnB customer service.
Booked a 2-BR villa in Bali (where 85-90 degrees is the norm) - one of the amenities was AirConditioning.
We arrive and only 1 of the 2 bedrooms has AC. Over 36 hours they actually install an AC unit, which great, but that was to little too late, we were only there 48 hours.
We appealed to the host, but they said to take a hike.
We escalated to Resolution Center and AirBnB said that it was OUR FAULT for not asking if both rooms had AC or just 1 room.

AIRBNB CUSTOMER SERVICE FAIL

Not sure what has changed at Airbnb, but in 2014, when I rented my cabin in a very strong rental community (my cabin is almost always rented) they seemed really good. I stopped through the winter, and started renting again in the summer of 2015, and through February of 2016, it has been a NIGHTMARE! I have had many times I simply call up customer service to get information, and have gotten absolutely wrong information. But THE WORST thing is that the guests they send me are HORRIBLE! 5 of the last 6 I had to make a damage claim on, as they either damaged my property, or left it un-clean and I had to claim an extra cleaning fee. The guests also consistently either lied or did not know how to use the Airbnb website, and would consistently put down fewer guests than actually stayed at my cabin. The DAMAGE CLAIM process is a JOKE! It is almost not worth it, as I yet to have a guest, even for a measly $50 say "yes, we did ruin your bed sheet, and will pay you the $50." Everyone of them are in denial, and just want to say they did not do it, instead of being honest. Customer Service is a JOKE. I STRONGLY suggest paying more and using VRBO/HOmeaway, as I have never had one bad guest, have never made one damage claim, and customer service is GREAT! Also, if damage occurs, I simply document it, send it to the renters email, let them know the amount, wait for thier feedback before making the final decision, then take what I feel is appropriate. I AM IN CONTROL OF WHETHER I LOSE MONEY OR NOT, AND I HAVE LOST A LOT OF MONEY USING AIRBNB'S CLAIM SYSTEM! I have delisted, despite the fact they charge nothing to me to rent my cabin, and bring me renters. Doubt I will ever be back.

As a new host of an Airbnb rental I must report that I am deeply disappointed. We worked very hard and spent a lot of money in making our house a great experience for our guests. We are 5 star rated and our guests have been very happy to return. Recently we had a request from an Airbnb employee to host 6 of his colleagues. We of course accepted trusting that these people were Airbnb employees. As it turns out Airbnb is doing an experimental project for a cleaning service in which they will clean your rental space. Our guest were 6 cleaning people who were not respectful of the space and used our very high end laundry machines as a laundromat for their dust clothes, cleaning clothes etc. Even our towels and wash clothes were washed with the cleaning clothes.
If there was another good option to Airbnb I would switch in a heartbeat. I feel very deceived by the Airbnb employee and when I questioned the cleaners have received very implausible answers.