AirbnbReviews 2,101

As a host, AirBnb will ruin your holidays.
Letting your place on AirBnb is a lot of stress before, during and after the guest(s) stayed at your place. It's a lot of stress before, because it's a huge amount of work to prepare your place. It's a lot of stress during, because you are away and guests always have questions and requests.It's a lot of stress after, because you worry about bad reviews that could hurt your popularity. Altogether, if you want to enjoy headache free holidays, don't let your place on AirBnb. If you really want to do it, hire a landlord or an agency, you won't regret it.

They sent duplicate tax forms for us to the IRS, so the IRS thinks we owe them twice as much as we do.
Airbnb has been totally unresponsive, giving us the runaround, and then dropping off the map.

What a shameful company you are. Between the legal problems we can get from using them, the risk of random people using and abusing your lovely home (as they have in the past), and then Airbnb making you pay DOUBLE the amount of taxes you owe because they screwed up is nuts. Stay away from these vipers. Their mishandling of this very serious matter was disgusting and legal action will be taken on our part.

I booked an Airbnb experience, and Airbnb gave the host and I the wrong date and so charged me for the experience the week before it should have occurred. So now I am out $40 for the experience that never occured. There is no number to call Airbnb to talk to customer service on the site. I am now afraid that something will actually go wrong with the apartment I rented through them. I hope it is there when I arrive in Paris in a few days! Do not pay for any experiences on the site since they mislead you and charge you for experiences that never happen!

Our host Patrick was delightful. The rental was over the top, amenities provided were beyond expectations, Garden apartment in the Kenwood area of Minneapolis was a perfect location. We could walk or use public transportation along with our rental car. It was everything and more, especially paying attention to every detail. I would recommend anyone to stay at this location. Superb. Thanks you Patrick Porter. Sincerely, Brian, Jeff, Wayne, and Gary

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 10 minutes of closer look or so 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 in this thread 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.

Atrocious and horribly slow phone and email support by inattentive and inarticulate customer service employees.

In my attempt to resolve a billing issue, which began on May 19th, and is still unresolved, I experienced numerous instances of 35 to 45 minute hold times to speak to a customer service representative, often followed by another 10 to 20 minutes on hold while they researched the problem.

I experienced numerous instances of emailing detailed information to customer service representative Garret who repeatedly ignored my specific requests for action to be taken on his part to resolve the situation expediently.

I have repeatedly requested he provided me with contact information for his supervisor which he still has not to this day.

In a phone call to a different customer service rep on May 28 or 29th I was promised a return call from a supervisor by the end of the day. As of this day, June 3, that has still not occurred.

I have spent three hours of my life attempting to resolve a situation that should have been resolved in less than 30 minutes. It remains unresolved as of today.

While I love the concept, and I've found some lovely homes and hosts, this is I classic case of growing too fast to provide quality customer service to the customers who have fueled your phenomenal growth.

I have been using Airbnb for a number of years and have never had a bad experience. I've booked 8 separate flats in London, one each in Yorkshire, Paris, Chicago, Pennsylvania, St. Lucia, and New York. I always exchange several messages with hosts and read between the lines in the reviews. Whenever I have had a question or require additional information, Airbnb representatives return my call or answer my emails in a timely fashion. My deposits have always been returned and, twice, I received $25 bonuses. Not a single host has complained about dishonest or disagreeable guests. In fact, several of the hosts have become friends. One make-up artist wouldn't let me leave the flat without doing my make-up. One host sent me to Wales, to stay in his flat without charge, and another took me to Italy, to stay with his mother in her villa. I'm 65 years old and don't enjoy the isolation of a hotel. This has been a blessing for me! Do your homework and you, too, will have a pleasant experience.

The booking experience through airbnb was the easy part... That's where it went downhill...
My sister and I used airbnb to rent (what appeared to be) a cute two bedroom, two bath place in the California wine country. In addition to the daily charge, we paid a cleaning fee. We arrived to a locked door, and no key where we were told it would be. The house not only looked as though it had not recently been cleaned, it looked like it was never cleaned. There was long expired milk in the fridge, filthy floors, broken fixtures, etc. I could go on and on. The place not only looked dirty, it smelled dirty. We swept the floors, dusted, cleaned baseboards and kitchen cabinet doors and counter tops, and washed the sheets before we dared to sleep in them. The interior looked nothing like the professionally taken photos in the listing. The most baffling thing of all is all of the positive reviews for the property! Not only do I not trust airbnb to honestly represent properties, I now know that they care nothing for the condition or cleanliness of them. I will NEVER use them again and would advise against it to anyone who asks!

So so disappointing! Needed housing for the month of may in NYC. First reservation taken and paid but three weeks before move in received a cancellation with no reason. Made a second reservation and also paid in full, just received an other automated cancellation again,, supposed to move in in 2 days. How can this be allowed. There is no accountability and no one to talk to and no cancellation reason given. This leaves me stranded in ny to start work on Monday. I can't believe a reputable place would allow this. I even had an appointment to meet a person to get set up in the room. Two days to find replacement housing. Bad bad business!
Will NEVER consider using or recommending airbnb again.

I booked a place in New Orleans in october for a stay that would take place in december, everything was great, hosts were nice, house was true to pictures. A few days after getting home i received an email from AIRBNB saying they have released my $250 deposit and it would show up in my account within a week. I never received it so i contacted airbnb and they claimed that it should be there and this is now my banks problem. I contacted my bank who said this was airbnb's problem. When i contacted airbnb again they were apologetic and said that they themselves had contacted my bank and everything should be fine, of course it was not! My bank NEVER received anything from them! I told airbnb this and they sent me some letter that they apparently sent my bank saying that they have in fact allowed me to receive my deposit back, my bank said they would give me a temp amount until they got the proof from airbnb.
It is now APRIL! And i just got charged the original amount on my credit card again ($1620) which included the deposit! Because my bank never received proof that they were giving me back this deposit... i called airbnb to file a complaint and the guy i spoke with said hed have to send it to a different department because he cannot deal with something like this at his position and the department he's sending it to has NO PHONE NUMBER! NO PHONE NUMBER?! A WELL KNOWN INTERNET BUSINESS COLLECTING PEOPLES MONEY AND THEY DONT HAVE A PHONE NUMBER?!? He claimed i will receive an email from them and i can tell them whats going on there... UM NO I DO NOT WANT TO TALK TO "A PERSON" VIA EMAIL, I WANT TO SPEAK TO AN ACTUAL PERSON AND FIND OUT WHERE MY $250 IS!... I DO NOT RECOMMEND AIRBNB! -TERRIBLE

We booked a place in Amsterdam with Airbnb. The place worked out fine but when it came to getting our deposit back which they assured us had been done a day after checking out it has been nothing but hassle. They charged my card the full amount and included the deposit and try telling me that they never charged the deposit to the card. My credit card company said they had to do a credit, they couldn't just cancel the part that was the deposit. I must of corresponded with 7 different customer service people who just did not get that concept. It's over 4 months and still not received the $300 deposit back to my card. They said someone of higher position would contact me and they never have. Not worth the hassle if you don't get the deposit back it makes it expensive not a good deal.

It seems to be a nice and quick bookong.
Owner contacted me I had to Phone.
So i phoned from europe to Vs Arkansas.
Did get a new phonenr from the manager.
The want to know if i do timeshare.
Manager could not find the reservation.
Give me a false email.
Next day airnb told me the house was not available
But looking on the site again it is still for rent.
Send airnb a mail wich they dont respond to.
Warned them for the person who is looking for victims that they can sell timeshare to.
So cost me like 20 dollar for phoning and no house,
Decided to not using airnb anymore because you can fall in to a scam.

AVOID this site as a guest or a host!
I recently started hosting and had bookings almost every night. After a month of having herds of strangers going through my flat, washing sheets, cleaning and waiting on them – I still haven't had any payments released to me by Airbnb...
Many expensive calls to their US office later and talking to many totally incompetent members of staff all I have is assurances that they are dealing with the problem.
In the meantime, I am forced to cancel all the reservations I have through them, which means that some of my potential guests will have no place to sleep when they arrive to London.
I am fairly certain that nobody in Airbnb is going to help them, as in my experience "24/7" and "local contact number" are a myth - you can only really get to talk to a human on the US number, during US office hours, after 7-12 minutes of being kept on hold only to get to speak to some American kid who sounds a bit $#*!ed.
Sorry guys. Good luck to everyone who decides to put their holiday and money into Airbnb hands…