AirbnbReviews 2,101

I bought a plane ticket and room in Martha's Vineyard, but 2 days before the trip as I'm getting ready for work I find out... airbnb abruptly canceled my reservation and asked me to verify my ID! I verified my ID with passport, but then my account was closed.
I didn't know what to do, because all the hotels were booked. They never gave me an explanation, but luckily my gf was able to find another bed and breakfast.
If they had called me ahead of time or given me an explanation, I wouldn't mind so much. I guess this is the way airbnb does business.

Created an Airbnb account and booked a house rental, so far so good. Then tried to make a second booking and Airbnb indicated that I have to verify my account with a driver's license or passport. Not going to do that, WAY too invasive. Now my account is locked in the verify step and I can't edit my account or make any other bookings until it is verified with a government issued ID. The guy on the phone (after finding their phone number through a Google search) confirmed that the account cannot be used until the overly invasive verification step is completed. He said that nobody would see the ID! Huh? Why do they insist on having it submitted if nobody is going to see it? Unbelievable! Wow, they really don't want to work with real people and will never see any more business from me.
Here is the "Part 2". We worked with AirBnB from July through September. We continued to have a reservation showing as current for our daughter's wedding, but were still blocked from accessing anything on the website, including the details of our own, paid, reservation. After numerous phone calls and emails (we wait days and days for replies) they finally said, "verfiy or we cancel the reservation". They claim that they have to know we weren't "bots" (um, you're talking to me) or a rapist (but they claim they don't do background checks). We cancelled. Found accommodations through VRBO, deal done in less than 24 hours. I agree with another reviewer that the "verification" progress may be a way to allow hosts to avoid renting to ethnicities and religions they don't like. I mentioned that to them and had a fairly hostile response. Just saying.

Must be the worst company out there to deal with. Very unhelpful. Take your money for your booking in full plus their costs without it showing it properly on their website. When you contact them and try to get a refund oh they will only refund 50% even though you have not taken the holiday. Also they don't even pay the holiday owner until you have been. Luckily we have been in direct contact with the owner now and all is ok but I would never ever ever recommend using Airbnb for anything. They are rubbish

We booked a place in London and the host cancelled on us. Airbnb did give us some compensation towards booking another place, which we duly did.

Low and behold, the new place was cancelled on us by the host, 3 days after he had accepted and we had paid him.

This site is overrun with unreliable, unprofessional host who are dipping their toes in the water for a few extra pounds.

When it suits them, they will accept your booking, when it it doesn't they will cancel your booking and the hosts don't give two hoots about ruining your trip and plans.

I have spent a total of 6 hours on the phone dealing with this nightmare. In the end I called a hotel that was cheaper and took me 5 minutes to book, GO FIGURE!

TAKE MY ADVICE, STICK TO PROFESSIONAL RELIABLE HOTELS AS YOU HAVE ALWAYS DONE AND SAVE YOURSELF THE AGGRAVATION AND RISK.

I would sooner sleep stood up in a field than go anywhere near this idea ever again.

We rented a condo last week in Oceanside, CA and the listing/ad said sleeps 4, Air Conditioned, quiet place; well when we got there the first night about 10pm we opened the door and it was about 92 degrees in the condo, humid and we could not find any air conditioning thermostat. So we opened the windows and found out there were train tracks right below the windows and balcony, the went by every 20 minutes blowing the whistle and you could not sleep it stopped at 2am and started back again at 5am! Then we found out the place only slept 2 really, the couch was hard as a rock and did not pull out like the ad state (sofa bed). We tried to cancel and they charged us half of what we paid! We had to get of this hot hell whole! So we got ripped off excessively! DO NOT USE AIRBNB!

Absolutely AWFUL experience. I booked two condos for a family trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. BOTH condos were canceled by the owners, one about three months prior to our stay and another ONE WEEK PRIOR to our stay. I had to book other arrangements at nearly double the cost due to having to book so late! Not only that, there is no way to leave a negative review on an owner if they cancel your reservation so who knows how often this stuff is happening! To top it all off, it's nearly impossible to actually SPEAK to anyone at AirBNB about complaints or issues. I called their number and was on eternal hold. DO NOT USE THIS SITE!

Airbnb works for some folks, but god forbid you have any problems setting up a rental. Techincal glitches are met with friendly telephone agents who assure you the problem is solved ( if you can even find their number! You have to google search it. Not offered on theor web site). But you quickly learn it has not been solved... and round and round you will go with these people. It is maddening. The right hand doesnt knoe what the left hand is doing at airbnb. Very sloppy.

I booked an apartment in NYC for 21 day. Upon arrival I found that the place was dirty and in not livable condition. I canceled my reservation immediately even though I didn't have a place to go. Later on Airbnb refunded only 42% and stated that the rest of the amount is completely up to host. It was obvious that the host didn't want to refund. End of story. I lost money, had to find a place to stay and had no help from Airbnb at all. I wish I would read more reviews here before booked the apartment. Booking through Airbnb gives you a good chance to lose your money and ruin your vacation.

UPDATE: One week passed and I never received a response/update from Airbnb or from the host. I received the refund I was seeking only after I disputed the charge on AMEX and they got in touch with Airbnb. Original post below:

I'm contesting a "cleaning fee" and an "extra charge per person" fee. The apartment wasn't clean and we didn't stay (I accidentally booked a shared not a private) so I'm only contesting the two charges previously listed. Airbnb encourages you to try and work it out with the renter. I'm not getting anywhere with him. Now I've seen that my credit card has been billed the full amount. I'm not feeling confident that Airbnb is going to get back to me. Especially after reading all of these reviews. I don't think that this is worth booking with Airbnb. If something goes wrong, you're screwed!

I rented an apartment in June, 2015 in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, California through
Airbnb. The host cancelled 48 hours before I was to occupy. The host tried to move me to another apartment which I found out is against company policy. Airbnb's solution? A refund and then a 10% discount if I would rent another apartment. A whole whopping $110. The apartments offered were not comparable to what I had rented. I believe Airbnb should have found me a place equal to or better than I had rented and eaten any additional cost. Instead, they left 3 women, 3000 miles from home stranded. After the fact, customer service contacted me and wanted to know how they could do a better job! Really?

As a host, airbnb did not stand behind their own terms and conditions. When I hosted clients and they broke and did damage to my house, Airbnb encouraged me to communicate directly with the client, which I did. The client wrote horrible reviews about me, and my community, and Airbnb did absolutely nothing to control this belligerent client, nor recover some of the security deposit for me. I have discontinued hosting through airbnb, and encourage others to be very very careful, as when things are good, thats all great, but if something goes wrong, your on your own, plus you've paid for their services!

This is the worst service ever. I have had the worst experience with AirBnB. They really need to vet their hosts. I just arrived from Montreal to Brooklyn to find the house I was to stay in had a broken window and glass all along the patio. The host notified me by e-mail as I was driving down, but I was already en route. Hard to cancel and find other accommodations at this point. However, that's what I did when I arrived to the sketchy neighbourhood and a broken window with easy access. My 6 yo was terrified at the prospect of staying there. Air BnB's policy? Work it out with the host. The host's response "Not My Problem" and "No refund". Air BnB's policy allows you to be sent in to unsafe conditions, ripped off by a host and if you cancel the reservation you can't even write a review to warn others. This is Bad for your brand Air BnB. At the very least allow us to write a review if we've had this kind of experience.

I tried to book a miami room. Airbnb advertised the host would contact in 24 hours. Not only did it take more than 24 hours the host NEVER contacted me. So airbnb sends me an email saying we see the host didn't get back to u and offers me other similar host to try. I tried one of the offered host and that host declined. Why wouldn't airbnb check with offered host for availability instead of offering another unreliable host? Yes it sux hotels cost more but at least hotels are reliable. Airbnb is a shot in the dark.

My gf was tricked into a listing in a high crime neighborhood. The owners defended themselves by saying, "Our listing says 'for seasoned travelers' but we understand if you don't want to stay." Which = travelers willing to deal with being solicited for sex, drug addicts, local dug dens, etc. The owners know this and thus have a 'strict' cancellation policy, ensuring that those who realized they've been conned can do nothing about getting their money back.

Customer service is a joke; the female 'supervisor' told my gf that "she understands but will not issue a refund." Since when does a woman in a position of authority not empathize with a female customer who feels in physical danger?

I'm sure there are good people out there, but new life experiences and meeting people are not worth going with this company that may leave you in the ghetto of your vacation city with no money back and no cares in the world if you live or die...

I booked an appartment in LA. It was cancelled 1 month before the travelling date. I booked another room (more expensive, of course, nothing 'cheap' was left!). It was cancelled less than 1 week before the travel!
This shows that airbnb does not carefully checks their hosts. Airbnb has a nice webpage, cashes in on quite a nice fee, withdraws the money right away from your credit card... and then delivers nothing but cancellations!
I think it is telling that airbnb does not give me (or anyone else) the opportunity to comment on hosts who have cancelled reservations... in other words, there is no way for me to check whether a potential new host is 'reliable' or also prone to short-term cancellations.
STAY AWAY! There are other platforms that are MUCH more reliable!

I reserved a house only to discover beforehand that the host had not been honest about the property. When I pointed this out and tried to cancel. This host became beligerant and over the next 10 or so messages, her insults escalated. When I involved airbnb resolutions in the dispute. I initially had my doubts. But ultimately they took a loss and refunded me. Have to be impressed by this customer service I so often do not receive.