SpotahomeReviews 166

They lied about the stolen and damaged items just to steal your deposit. They are liers and scammers! Don't use this website!

I planned my trip two weeks in advance, one apartment I waited for a week and a half and the landlord nor the customer support replied. After some time, I booked a different apartment but the landlord requested more documents two days before travel. I sent them but received no answer from the landlord and customer support. As a result I booked a hotel room for the same day I arrived and booked a different apartment on Airbnb, which actually worked compared to this waste of time or, sorry, spotahome.com. Don't use it

I stayed in their apartment and it was left it a good condition. However, now they sent me an email claiming that something was damaged or even stolen, which is totally untrue. For example, the host said we stole a microwave (literally what the hell, why on Earth would we need it if we didn't even use it). I have no clue how they came up with such nonsense and now they refuse to give me the deposit back. Stay away from this scam! This fraud must be punished

Horrible customer service. When I realized they were charging me a whole month's for 2 days I told them they gad missleading information. They replied to me that I need them. They dont need me. They will find customers but I will not find a plave in Berlin. Not only they had horrible customer service, but also horrible manners.

I would not recommend this site at all. I booked a room by accident (i thought it would Show me payment Information, but instead it confirmed and completed the booking. I cancelled 2 Minutes after I realized my error, but they already charged my credit card 900€ for rent and service. I cancelled, but only got 300€ back because of „service fees". The customer service doesn't give a $#*! about the people and is really greedy, I lost 600€ because of 2 minutes reservation. Don't use this site! Absolutely horrible people ripping off students and young people. I wonder how they sleep at night, rotten hearts.

Avoid absolutely Spotahome
It is Spotahome, not you, who confirm your reservation request. Spotahome charges your credit card immediately for each request.
Spotahome charged me for two rentals in the same city for the same period when I had only wanted to know if one of the apartments was available. When I asked for a refund for the rental I would not be using, they refused and told me that it was their usual policy, most likely to increase their profit. I strongly advise against dealing with Spotahome to avoid getting ripped off.

I find the service offered very useful and would be happy to pay a fee to Spotahome, as long as that accommodation is provided for me. In this case I stupidly made a mistake and canceled the reservation after a few minutes. The landlord had also immediately contacted me on Whatsapp, I explained to him that there was an error. They did not want to proceed with the full refund, violating the basic rules on the right of withdrawal. I didn't want to take legal action because honestly I have many other things to sort out at this time, but it only takes a moment of distraction to lose half a salary in an instant. BE CAREFUL! Unfortunately I will use their website again, given the difficulty of finding accommodation in Lisbon, but in general I DO NOT RECOMMEND, if you can find accommodation in another way it is much better, you will avoid unpleasant misunderstandings and expensive loss of money.

As an 18 year-old student coming to Barcelona for a 6 month internship, this was my first experience travelling to a foreign country without a single family member. I booked my first month's stay through Spotahome and what I was promised, compared to what I found was completely different.

When I first arrived, the apartment I was supposed to stay in did not have electricity for the week - I was put into a neighboring apartment during that time (9 bedrooms and I was the only girl). The state of the kitchen and bathroom was horrendous, and each tenant who was with me could agree that the pictures we saw and what we found were very different.

After that first week, I was moved into my actual apartment. What I found was horrible; a disgusting smell from the two fridges filled with rotting food no one came to clean (it was August and we found food that expired in April in the fridge), the floor had a layer of dust you could see, the bathrooms were filled with dirt and they were unhygienic to use, all the utensils were filled with dust in the cupboards and there were cockroaches all around the kitchen, and more. The previous tenants had left the apartment a complete mess and housekeeping simply turned a blind eye to everything. Myself and the only other tenant who remained helped clean up the mess. We emptied the fridges, scrubbed the floors, tried to kill as many cockroaches from the kitchen as possible, cleared at least 8 large bags of rubbish from the kitchen's rotting food alone, and more. We took the horrible house and made it habitable again.

Upon leaving, I was promised that I would have my deposit returned to me between 1.5 to 2 months. The time came and nothing. When I requested the return of my deposit, I was informed that from an original 759 euro deposit, the company would only return 167 euros to me because of charges including maintenance of common areas, damage to common areas, some unexplained penalty fees, et cetera. The company is using false claims to steal the remaining 592 euros of my deposit, and when I asked for a proper description of the money being taken, I was ignored. I have all the pictures and evidence of the house when I first arrived and when I left, which clearly highlight how much I did to improve the state of the apartment. I shared everything through several formal emails to the company and I have been completely disregarded. Once in the beginning I heard from previous tenants that they steal your deposit but I never believed it until it happened to me.

Now a few weeks later I find out from remaining friends in the apartment that it has been completely renovated - and so it makes clear sense now, they stole my deposit along with many others using false claims and have used it to renovate the apartment. I moved out on the 13th of September 2022 and it is now January 16th 2023 and I am still fighting for my deposit back.

If you are interested in learning more about this and seeing the evidence of photos and videos confirming my claims, please contact me directly. Moreover, if you have also faced similar issues please contact me so that we can try to combine our efforts to get our deposits back together. Thank you.

This business is not actually doing the retal but charging you 500 to connect with landlord first of all. I paid 2600+ and they kept adding additional ways I needed to verify after literally sending my passport, scanning my face and voice, sending my credit statement for address verification, screenshotting my confirmed payment. Yes all of these things completed and still I was removed access to my account because I wasnt verified and then the landlord reaches out under a different name and different email asking for my passport. Customer support is only available through email zendesk. And they're extremely slow to respond and only available in local hours. So 2am - 11am my time. Taking hours to reply to email. I requested cancellation and they sent me terms and conditions and privacy policies instead of info on cancelling. This is a scam they're trying to get people to apply so they can take fees for using the service and say they refuse refunds because it's not 2 months in advance even if you book in less than 2 months makes no sense. The landlord then can add a contract with additional fees and rules not mentioned on the original booking. It's a whole scam use another site that includes all payment within and is trusted. You'll have to report to your bank.

TLDR: The landlord made up reasons to keep our security deposit and Spotahome refused to take action in spite of all the evidence provided to them.

I had a tremendously negative experience with Spotahome and would not recommend it to anyone. At the beginning, they were helpful and quick to respond. They asked me to leave them a review at this point, which I did – most of the 5-star reviews they receive come from people who, like me, are satisfied with their responsiveness at the beginning. It is a strategy to mute the honest reviews about what happens at the end of the rental period.

I rented an apartment in the neighborhood of Chueca in Madrid, Spain for the summer. The landlord was sketchy and dishonest from the beginning: he wouldn't reply to messages, I had to insist that he send me a contract and move-in information in advance of my day of arrival. He asked for a security deposit in person, and Spotahome said that was common procedure. I trusted that, if I got scammed, Spotahome would help me. After all, I paid them a hefty 30% fee so they could help me with the rental process. Upon arrival, the apartment did not have wifi as was listed on Spotahome and there were issues with the furniture. I had to deal with these directly with the landlord, Spotahome completely ignored the evidence I shared with them.

Even worse, when the time came for us to move out, we asked the landlord to come check the apartment in person and pick up the keys. He said he would not come, all we had to do was to leave the keys inside the apartment. What we feared then happened: the landlord made up "electrical emergency" issues in order to keep hundreds of dollars from our deposit. I had proof of the landlord's wrongdoing, I spent months asking Spotahome for help, and they refused to take action based on the evidence we provided them with. All they said was that it was between me and the landlord. The landlord also wrongfully charged us for utilities that were supposed to have been included in the rent price as per the details on Spotahome's listing. He used strategies to steal part of our security deposit, knowing we were already outside the country and unable to confront him legally.

Why pay this company a 30% fee if they won't help you when you're in a vulnerable position abroad? This is why people are calling Spotahome a scam: they will not offer you a service if it is not in their favor. They do not sanction these landlords who take advantage of foreign tenants. Their business model takes advantage of foreigners who do not have the means to sue the landlord or go to the police – in my case, I had already left the country, and Spoathome guaranteed me that it was normal to wait at least two months to have the security deposit returned to me. It took me two months, and the helps of Spanish locals I knew, to be able to get just a part of the security deposit back.

I chose Spotahome because I believed it would be more affordable and of higher quality than more famous competitors. This could not be farther from the truth: I ended up spending far more money by renting with them and being completely abandoned by their essentially non-existent customer service. Spotahome qualifies as a "scam" because they know that landlords, such as the one I had, are actively robbing tenants' security deposits, and Spotahome supports them in their wrongdoing by not sanctioning them, and not being transparent about who the landlord is during the booking process.

I regret ever choosing Spotahome. They are an untrustworthy company, and if you are looking for accommodation in Madrid, be very careful with this one-bedroom apartment in Chueca. The landlord is dishonest.

This company is total scam. Please don't waste your money for this website and just remember that they will take so much money and don't give you back. Their cancellation service is awful and total Fraud. Even landlords don't pay your deposit back at the end of contract. Be careful

Booked a room through their website in March 2022 - they double booked the room due to their INCOMPETENCE, left me HOMELESS, worst customer service I have ever seen, no way to contact them properly, their employees seem to have no motivation to be helpful. I had to find a room on my own as a matter of 24 hours in one of the largest cities with the most competitive real estate market. Unless you want to be left homeless, with no one to help you, avoid them at all costs, biggest scam in history

Save yourselves from a very expensive lesson!

No malice here, just an honest review based on my own personal experience.

First, none of their "emergency" numbers go through at all. This is a major red flag. Is any organization that provides a list of numbers that are all blocked and never work, serious about helping customers Something is clearly amiss here.

Second, if the landlord enters misleading information on the site and you as the tenant get into a bind as a result, Spotahome will side with the landlord and emphasize their no-refund policy.

Third, I lost about 300 Euros staying in a hotel despite the fact that I had paid the full month's rent because the landlady changed the move-in date and Spotahome wouldn't intervene.

Fourth, when I arrived in the apartment, the landlady told me I had to pay an extra 350 Euros immediately or leave. Let me explain. Spotahome requires you to pay them an agency fee and one month's rent. They then give you the exact amount that you need to pay for your stay. All this happens before you can see the apartment, meet your landlord, or sign the rental agreement.

What this means therefore, is that the landlord can take advantage of you. They can wait till they know it is too late for you to claim a refund from Spotahome and then charge you any amount they wish. They know it was not what you originally agreed with Spotahome. But they also know that you cannot backtrack without losing the rent and agency fee you paid. This was exactly what happened to me.

Fifth, after my tenancy period was over, I sent photos as evidence that there was no damage to the apartment. Yet to date, despite numerous attempts, I have never received any of the 1,100 Euros I paid as deposit back. The landlady promised to transfer the money to my account and then blocked my number after I left. When I finally managed to reach her by using a different number she did not recognize, she told me she will never pay me back. Then she hung up and blocked that number as well.

On another occasion after my arrival in a different city, I was shown into a cold, dark room that was completely different from what I originally selected on their site. As stated before, the landlord can switch things around like this at the drop of a hat and the tenant has no recourse whatsoever, because money has already changed hands and there's the no-refund policy.

So bear in mind that at any stage of the leasing process, once money is gone from your account and something unexpected happens, you are on your own.

The abovementioned landlady and others like her are still posting their apartments on Spotahome. Their agenda is to swindle and defraud the public and they know they are criminals in the eyes of the law. However, the platform gives them the freedom to continue with the malpractice and claim more victims.

I do not recommend this service and would advise anyone seeking accommodation to contact a company that truly understands the hospitality industry and has reputable customer service. Again, save yourselves from a very expensive lesson!

They take your money BEFORE checking with the landlord if the room is avaliable and they take way longer than 24hours to get back to you (they took a month to get back to me to confirm my booking, take the money and then cancel my booking THE NEXT DAY). They're now REFUSING to give me back the 400£ they took for a booking they then cancelled!

Really rude and felt gaslighted when I approached them with problems I was having with my landlord. They take 3 business days to reply to complaints - that's their way to shake off the blame and hope you run out of energy. Each response is vague, unhelpful, and written to kick the can down the roead.

I am trying to book an appartment through Spotahome, but my creditcard and my pay pall is refused for 2 weeks. I contacted them by email sereral time and by whatapp, but after 1 week they answered to ask me again what was wrong (I already pointed it out) and then there was silence and no solution! I could not reach them!

Hi,

I rented a room through spotahome. The apartment fit the description of the photos on the site. However the landlord was horrible he drafted a contract where he restricted me from using the apartment specific hours. Also the landlord was rude disrespectful I tried to contact spotahome. They refused out right helping me after 24h, we won't help you! The landlord took my deposit also.
Do not use this site!

The biggest scam and fraudulent company on the market, hands down. They utilize a false marketing strategy to make you believe they provide legit and verified homes —however, it's not true.

Let's start with the facts —this company is probably 4.1 on Trustpilot because they buy fake reviews. So check how legit these "one-review randomly named people" are on this platform.

First, the homes are around 50% above real market value; you'll surely find cheaper places on your own.

Secondly, my personal story was that they put me together with a landlord suffering from serious depression —also taking countless medicines (painkillers and sleeping pills), drinking on them, and constantly disturbing me with psychotic notes and messages. It ended in a way the landlord threatened me that if I was not social with her, I couldn't use certain things in the apartment.

Then I contacted Spotahome to resolve the issue professionally. Instead, they forwarded my message –that I write to them directly– to the landlord (yes, the Customer Service agent shared my private conversation with the landlord).

After the landlord kicked me out of the flat while accusing me of fictional things and harassing me via phone, email, etc. So this is what 'Verified Landlord' means in their vocabulary.

And what did Spotahome do? They promised me a refund in 15 business days. We are around one month, and I still haven't received anything. They won't respond to the ticket I submitted on their website; they disappeared with the money.

THE BIGGEST SCAM COMPANY ON EARTH. I will consider taking legal action against them. JUST GO AWAY FROM THEM.