AirbnbReviews 2,101

First let me start out by saying my husband and I have been renting out home thru VRBO for over 10 years…By and large we have been pleased using their platform for renting our home. Any way we received an offer to add our home to AIRBNB.com for free… seemed like a good deal…. WRONG…. This platform and business model is terrible… FIRST and most importantly to all person advertising on AIRBNB.com chances are VERY good that their "host guarantee" does not cover apartments, villas and condos which make up 90% of the vacation rentals owned… this is buried in the fine print… this site is a scam… I am shutting down my site and want nothing to do with them… The whole idea of turning over your home to an unknown guest without first communicating with them is absurd. SECOND…they allow guests and OWNERS to cancel right up to the moment of arrival…. Can you believe that…. YOU get NO money until guests have checked in……. Absurd business model when you are dealing with your property …we are not the Holiday Inn. … right now we receive a deposit with the balance due 45 days prior to arrival. VRBO guarantees to the guest that the person renting on their site has been vetted and that they will receive their money back should there be a problem…AIRBNB…NOTHING… this web site is like I said a sham and at least a very poor business model…who the heck thought this one up…. READ the fine print…. ALSO GUESTS beware…. airbnb.com adds a 12% commission that you pay…. So you know that good deal you think you are getting…. Guess again…. Stick to vrbo.com …. We pay to advertise but at least we get to talk with our guests and make our own financial arrangements with them… and guests are completely covered by VRBO… stay away from airbnb.com

I have had an horrible experience with them. First I tried to book a room with my account and the night before it was canceled by airbnb without explanation leaving me and my husband with no where to stay. Also they triple charged his credit card which took so much hassling with them to get it back. Then they canceled my account with no explnation. Next My husband made his own private account and we tried to be a host. After 3 weeks of our listing not showing up and many calls and e mails to them with them saying they cant help us and would not tell us the problem they canceled his account without telling us why.
They are a horrible service center and I dont trust them at all.

First, the rules on the website pit renters against the hosts when there is any sort of problem. Second, Airbnb customer service is absurd; the people manning the phones don't know the rules of the site, don't know their way around the site, and simply read the rules back to you rather than trying to help. You can hear about 4 other conversations at the same time, and there is no supervisor on site. Escalations have to be referred to someone offsite via email. AVOID!

I rented a place at 10:40 at night, only to discover on the confirmation there was no parking which I need. Also - my fault for not reading more closely prior to booking - there was no coffee maker, internet, air conditioning. I canceled at 4 am the next morning. The reservation was for a future date - 3 1/2 months out.

My issue is that the reservation was on the books 6 hours for future date of 3 1/2 months but they kept 1/2 of the entire reservation money. Contacted Airbnb and they support the host in this thievery.

If they will steal from you in that way, I hate to think in what else they will do.

I just tried to book an air b and b condo in Toronto for a week next November. I exchanged a number of emails with the "host" who was really a real estate agent representing a number of properties. She was cryptic and rude in her replies but because the user reviews were positive and the location was great, I went ahead. Well, then I get a message from her that her "boss" told her she cannot accept a reservation so far in advance. How far in advance can she accept? 2 months! So there is no future planning allowed. Then I had to cancel the reservation because she didn't decline it officially. I will NEVER use them again. SCAM and RIP-OFF.

As a host on airbnb I can say - besides many site functionality problem, it is also a poor business model and bad operations. The site is poorly tested and malfunctions often. If not an ordinary booking taking place - any slight modification on the booking request throw the whole thing in disarray. The customer service is below the poor. To reach them by phone - impossible, by email - upto 48 hours, and then you will get a kid giving you a lecture on how to operate their site. Then, after 6-8 exchanges, when screenshot being sent to them to prove that the magic button they sending you to is not there, they will say "Ohhh" and send it to the technical guys to sort it out. And that is endless with them. They take a pose to get upset with you if you are upset with them. They are polite, but mostly incompetent and will never admit to the site's malfunctions. And, finally, they take a big advantage of charging travelers 100% upfront and holding their money sometimes 6 months or more! Money should work. I think they are working only for Airbnb and not for the host. They are doomed. They are living their heydays, but they will not survive - this business is being re-arnged under pressure from governments and many hosts are seeking better representations, while travelers looking for more security. Airbnb does not offer neither security for hosts, nor for travelers. Nor they offer a good and sound service for us - they take advantage of us, hosts. I don't feel that I got a good deal.

At start seems a outstanding website, from both host and guest.
After one year hosting I can tell "if something go wrong you f*kd as host and as guest"
The story is they take 10 % of all transaction, they deal very well whit it, but that`s all. No insurance, no support, no noting, guest in trouble left alone if there is problems. I been renting for one year, they ruined my life, I left my job believing to be able to make a living out of it, but one day my place disappear from the research, no more booking, I contacted them 3 time a day for one month, is impossible to talk to someone who does say more than "good morning, how I can help you?"..." I am sorry to hear that...", "I send already an email whit the highest priority".
Never been contacted back, no one know what did happen, sent endless email, always received the usual automatic reply, thanks for contact airbnb we will contact you as soon is possible. Bla bla blabla." 2 month and not one human response., there is no offices there is no manager contact anywhere, is a "ghost" company to the point that a layer does not know how to suit them, and even if was able to do so it was pointless (according to him). To cut it short if you are a host don't relay on them.

I have been renting from airBNB quite a lot particularity on my trips to Lyon in France.
I have to say that airBNB doesn't seem to be a trustworthy organization. Their client service is nonexistent. NO mail or direct phone to contact them.
Every time they charge non authorized amounts in my credit card and I have to claim to no avail. Last time I had to request anti fraud services of amex. I do recommend you people to be very careful with this company in order to prevent fraud and rip-off. On top of that strange way of operating their fees are outrageous. A rip-off no doubt.
They don't have a mail for us to complaint but their address is:

Airbnb, Inc.
888 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA *******
USA
Registered at: State of Delaware, Department of State,
Division of Corporations Registry
Number of registry: *******
Tax number: 26-*******
Phone: 1- 415 728 000
Or *******262 or maybe you can use the following: [email protected]

I have a continuing problem as a consequence of a reservation I made with airbnb. I wanted to inform potential users of this site of the difficulties I have had in resolving a problem i had. I booked two accommodations for six of us (three married couples) traveling to Ireland in late August 2014. Both of the reservations were accepted and I furnished payment for same in the amount of $2301. 00 on November 15,2013. I think that bound both Airbnb & me contractually. The reservations I paid for was for a trip we planned for August of 2014. I was informed it was "Company Policy" that trips had to be paid for when booked…even when that far in advance

On January 20,2014, some two months later, I received an e-mail from the host of one of the accommodations through Airbnb, cancelling my confirmed and paid for accommodations in Dublin for Aug 28-30. She claimed some misunderstanding on the dates that I had requested. She suggested another property and even went so far as to ask the host of that property to hold the space for us. Upon investigation I found it to be unsuitable since it had only two bedrooms and a hide-a-bed.

Since then I have made numerous contacts withairbnb company by telephone and e-mail. The e-mails were always answered by an automated response that made vague (& unfulfilled) promises of resolution. My telephone contacts, when I was able to wait long enough to get through the queue, were equally unproductive. I was often told that "senior management" was working on a solution and I would hear from them soon. The latest contact I had with your company was with an employee named Mitzi on 2-14/14. She said that the company had issued a refund for the cancelled/paid for reservation. I checked my AMEX account and no refund from Airbnb was posted. The representative then said that an e-mail addressing the situation had been sent. To date I have received no such e-mail. I asked for a mailing address for your company. After checking with someone, Mitzi unbelievably stated that she could not give out the address and that I should Google it. I also told Mitzi that I was unable to respond to the automated e-mails sent by your company. Her answer was that I should change my browser… which I found an astonishing response to a customer service question.

Avoid - no safeguarding to hosts & poor customer support:
I am a host and listed my apartment. Very quickly it was generating enquiries.
Someone booked it, they wanted that day for a total of 4 nights. I followed all the procedures at Airbnb accepting the request. 4 hours later I met up with the guests and they moved in.
8 hours later I get an automated email from Airbnb saying the reservation has been cancelled by Airbnb as they believe this particular guest may be behaving fraudulently. Payment had also not gone through.
That left me with guests in my apartment on a cancelled reservation! I then emailed Airbnb basically asking for advice and what had gone wrong? I thought maybe it was just a mistake with credit card details or something?
I also raised a safety concern through the website again asking for details and advice.
The response to these was just an automated acknowledgement email with no other answers. Further to this, it is now 24 hours later and still Airbnb have not got back to me via either methods of communication.
The ironic thing is it says on their website in big letter that they have 24hours customer services?!
Whilst it isn't there fault that the guest is possible fraudulent, they should of have contacted me much quicker via telephone rather than just an email at 5 in the morning the following day. They have cancelled the reservation which means you can no longer access any contact details of in fact correspondence of the guest. They should also verify the payment details of guests immediately when the reservation is accepted.
The result of all this was I had guests in my apartment that should not be there. I went round to see them and they fobbed me off. I asked for a cash payment and they hadn't got any money. I had a ‘well built' friend to hand and luckily they left peacefully!
If you use the website as a host, you take a big risk; the website does not support you if there are issues.

This is a scam to both renters and guests, and I would suggest that you keep away from using their services. Not only is it run by a computer with no humans in sight, not even a contact link NOR PHONE number in their website, but should you encounter problems with the reservation, you are on your own. They just simply dont give a damn, because they charge the traveller upfront, and then wash their hands of any issue that may arise. Also, they delay payments to the renter, if they ever pay, that is... Unfortunately, there is no other similar site, which should give you an idea of a great business model ran professionally and decently. AVOID AIRBNB AT ALL COSTS!

I have been hosting now for about 9 months on airbnb with nothing but positive experiences; I have so far received just under $20,000 in income from a single apartment on airbnb alone. Some of the complaints here are fickle and/or knee jerk reactions to experiences that airbnb.com may not have been able to control. The verification system is actually quite reassuring, and it is up to the host/guest to make a judgment on a case-by-case basis. We have accepted some guests with no verifications whatsoever and we have still had no bad experiences or instances of fraud. There will always be fraudsters, especially on the internet, it is up to you to be vigilant in any of your interactions and transactions when doing business with anyone. There is a reason why airbnb urges you not to communicate outside of the website, and it is not just so they can secure their commission - it is for security. If someone asks to communicate outside the site I immediately flag them. I also read a review about receiving funds on weekends... if you have paypal you will receive the money about 24hours after check-in; if you are set up to receive your payments via bank account, then this is dependent on your bank being open on weekends, again something out of airbnb's control. Again, I have been nothing but pleased with this listing service... it's definitely the best I've encountered on the internet. HouseTrip also seems like a nice site, but it's not bringing in any $$ for us yet.

UPDATE (Year 3 - October): $80k earnings on year 2, $100k and counting on year 3. More than 90% of bookings made on airbnb. I have had no major problems. One guest damaged something by accident and agreed to pay damages from the deposit. Don't know what I'd do without this service, and I'm still confused by the overwhelmingly negative reviews on this site. I recently used the website to stay at an apartment for the first time as well, and I was very happy with our host and the quality of her accommodations. She could have dusted more, but I also understand that I was staying in someone's apartment and not at a hotel. The price could also not be beat for staying in downtown Chicago.

Beware! The "Street View" shown the web site is not the actual location of the apartment. Airbnb does not give you the address of the apartment until you have paid for your reservation. We made a 35 day reservation for an apartment in Lyon-France for June this year. Based on the information displayed on the Airbnb website, the apartment looked very nice and the street views showed that is was located in a very nice area. After we made payment, we got the address of the apartment. When I checked the address on Google Maps we I found out to our dismay that the building was located in a very narrow and dark street with bordered up store front and shuttered windows. The area did not look safe. Everything was covered in graffiti and the entrance was located across from a building where the trash cans were collected. We tried to cancel the reservation. So far Airbnb is unwilling to refund the money and we have contacted the credit card company to open a dispute with Airbnb.

I was recently scammed for over 1500 USD by a fraudulent posting for an apartment in London on the AIRBNB site. I share much of the blame for this as I went outside of the AIRBNB site to communicate with the prospective host. But I am not inexperienced with AIRBNB, nor do I consider myself uneducated when it comes to internet buying. However I felt safe with this prospective host and I feel that I felt safe communicating off-site with this host largely because of some conflicting policies and procedures that AIRBNB uses. I am concerned that AIRBNB has become successful enough to be targeted by sophisticated scam artists who mimic the AIRBNB website, language and page formatting. This included using the AIRBNB name in fraudulent email addresses and on fraudulent bank accounts. Unfortunately, at least in my experience, I don´t feel that AIRBNB is doing enough to police it´s site, and to provide a safe and trustworthy format for connecting hosts with guests. After more effort than I think appropriate in my circumstance, I finally was able to contact AIRBNB to first confirm that the reservation I thought I had made was fraudulent, and then secondly to lodge my complaint and concern over this event. The response I received in both cases expressed regret for my experience but was focused mainly on indemnifying AIRBNB from any responsibility. It is of course common in cases of fraud to blame the victim for lack of vigilance, but AIRBNB has been disturbingly uninterested in my experience, how I might have been led to feel safe with this posting, or how a multiple user might be confused by the policies of AIRBNB. At this point it is my feeling that prospective users of AIRBNB must be extremely cautious with any connections that are made through this site. Hopefully AIRBNB will place effort and resources into making their site safer for users. I have been a very happy user of their site and think that their business model is very interesting, but with their success comes the responsibility to be more proactive to protect users from site predators. It isn´t enough to claim to be a third party platform user anymore. They need to up their game when it comes to user trust and security.

We've used http://Airbnb.com over the years and the service matches travelers with BnB hosting owners - - worked really creat - - until this week. We attempted to book a visit with a host with which we have stayed twice previously. Now the site has as new feature - - User Verification ID. The concept is novel enough in that it attempts to match the traveler with at least two Social Media site (Facebook, LinkedIN, Google). We had our reservation cancelled because 1) we don't have Facebook or LinkedIN accounts, 2) don't have a webcam to create a personal video, and certainly would not provide any form of government id (driver's license or Passport).

http://Airbnb.com has fallen into the trap of believing that Social Media is truthful, useful and a meaningful means of identification. We are seniors and like to travel, even world wide. I am a retired professional programmer. There are many websites using Social Media for single-click login, but attempting to use it as a means of ID Verification is totally bogus. Our friend has lost a book, we will not use http://Airbnb.com again (too bad - has some nice listings).

You might have no concerns for privacy and use the Social Media frequently - - good for you, but for those that don't, the new policy of ID Verification is a nightmare.

I've been a host now for about 9 months. We have had almost all positive experiences (except for the one lady who begged to bring her "well behaved" dogs... but I digress). I am fine with the way the reviews are set up, I think it keeps people honest. A couple of suggestions for folks using Airbnb: (1) don't wait until the night before your visit to try to book a room. Even a usually conscientious host can forget to check their email. (2) ask questions before you book. (3) book a place where the pics were taken BY Airbnb, that helps reduce the chance of scamming (and if you're a host, at least last year it was free).

My only real complaint is their claim that they "can't" transfer the money to you over the weekend; so if you have someone at your place Friday - Monday, you probably won't see the $ in your acct until Tuesday. We are in a 24-7 financial market, I'm sure they could fix that if they wanted to.

I for one hope that (a) the # of negatives reflects the fact that people are more likely to share those than take the time to share positives; and (b) airbnb does address what seem to be some fixable situations so that I as a host can continue to meet and host folks from all around the world.

This was our first time booking through AirBnB. Everything was, to my relief, fine and the apartment was, for the most part, great. However, there was one negative incident where the cleaner came into our room to ask us when we were checking out a day before we were scheduled to do so. Even though the review I left on Air BnB was mainly positive, because I mentioned this one negative fact, the host told the Air BnB community we had left the apartment in a mess and we should not be rented to. Strange that we have never had such problems in any cities in the world for the last thirty years or so. I am considering taking legal action against the host for defamation of character. What I do know is that Air BnB clearly has unscrupulous people like this that do not take valid criticism in their stride. Instead they lie to an international community of people to say you left the apartment in a mess and did not treat it well when the exact opposite is true and when additional items were left there at our expense for future guests. I will not be using Air BnB again in a hurry - I am happy for people to reply with valid points to criticism but not with lies and slander. If there really had been such problems, why were we not contacted immediately? Why were these supposed issues only raised after my review.

If you are OK with staying in a place that is NOT a hotel when you travel, and you are OK with having conversations with your hosts about what to expect, etc, then this is the site for you. If you'd rather check in to an establishment with online reservations, a bellhop to handle your bags, etc, and limited other interaction, this is not the option you should choose. I have used airbnb.com successfully more than once, and each time I've met friendly hosts who understand how to help their clients. I've considered becoming a host myself, but in this case, it truly is that the customer's expectations seem to sometimes be higher than they should be. It's a new concept, and growing, but know what to expect before you make a reservation.