Airbnb Reviews

Airbnb’s Poor Handling of My Cancellation—A First Responder’s Experience. As a first responder who has dedicated over 20 years to serving my community, I never expected such a disappointing experience with Airbnb. I had to cancel my reservation due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control, and despite canceling within Airbnb’s stated policy, I have been met with nothing but frustration. I had booked a property for my retirement gathering after two decades of service as a firefighter. However, due to an approaching storm Milton and order to evacuate, I had no choice but to cancel. As someone who knows the seriousness of preparing for emergencies, canceling was not something I did lightly. I contacted Airbnb right away, believing the situation would be resolved smoothly given the clear policy guidelines and the fact that I was acting in good faith. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. Instead of a prompt and fair refund, I’ve been stuck in a seemingly endless loop of unhelpful customer service. I’ve spoken with multiple representatives, and each time I’m given conflicting information or no clear answers at all. Despite following all the necessary steps and explaining my situation in detail, Airbnb has failed to provide me with the refund I am rightfully owed. This whole experience has been extremely disheartening, especially considering the sacrifices that first responders like myself make to serve our communities. To be treated this way, after being a loyal customer, feels disrespectful. I expected much more from a company that claims to support its customers. I’m filing a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and will be sharing my story on social media so that others can avoid going through the same ordeal. Until Airbnb addresses their poor customer service practices, I cannot in good faith recommend this platform.

I had a very bad experience staying at a Airbnb host's property. The backyard including the jacuzzi and the garage were very dirty and show a complete lack of maintenance. Staying at the house only for 3 days, I didn't contact the host while being there as I didn't want to spend my time fighting or even having some crew working at the property when we only wanted enjoy our family time. My point is that when you rent a place, everything should be clean and work properly before you check in. The guest's role is not to act as a property manager who would show the owner the issues. I then contacted and sent photos to the host the day after checking out, letting her know that would be fair if she would refund me the $250 cleaning fee. She didn't want to hear anything because she said I should have contacted her while staying at the property. But my main problem is with Airbnb help support! I contacted them, sent them the photos, explaining them the host doesn't want to hear anything. Right away they agreed there was a big issue with the outside of the property and they compensate me with $200. I asked them if, even if I got a compensation from them, I can leave review for this host. They said yes you can. I then wrote a review; just facts no personal attack, bad think you cannot include photos! The next day I see that the host wrote a review for me on my Airbnb profile: pure lies! Saying that after we left she had the jacuzzi water analyzed with traces of urine and more.... so basically it is now our family who ruined her property.... Why would have done that? I am in my 50's and leave in a house which value is 5 time more than this Airbnb! I call help support to ask them to remove that lies based review. They remove it the same day. Good! The next day I see they have removed the review I wrote for the host and reinstated her review on my profile. What??? To make it short, since then I have been fighting with them (for about 3 weeks now) and what they keep saying is that my review violates their policy but the host's one doesn't. They are trying to protect their hosts who are the real Airbnb customers! We, the guests, are only one time customers when the hosts make them earn commissions each time there is a reservation, that's it! Their whole organization is unfair and corrupt. The property is located in Scottsdale, AZ and hosted by Martijn. I am including photos.

We had a house reserved by “Todd” At the Bayview Retreat in Hayesville, SC., for the weekend. On the way to the cabin (an hour away) he cancelled our reservation stating there was an emergency at the home. He did nothing to help other than say there was a hotel in the area and gave us customer service number. Customer service sent us 3 options of places to stay. All 3 were booked and we were unable to stay. Todd and AIRBNB should have found us a comparable place to stay. Now we ate our gas money, time and are forced to drive home!

I went on Airbnb for a weekend rental that I wanted for the Thanksgiving holiday. The host advertised that if I cancel before November 20th you get a partial refund. I cancelled on October 10th and I was told that I’m not eligible for a refund because I chose to do a partial payment. I put a deposit down (deposit is the word used) and the balance was due on November 18th. I called customer support and they told me according to their policy I am not entitled to a refund. I will never ever use Airbnb again and I will definitely tell everyone I know never to use Airbnb. Nothing but a bunch of THIEVES!!!!

SCAM SCAM SCAM Airbnb, Inc., 888 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA, this company is a scam. Don’t ever buy or purchase an Airbnb from this company ever. I purchased an Airbnb on a Thursday confirmed reservations, and on a Monday. I tried to cancel the reservations due to circumstances beyond my control. They then proceeded to charge me the entire amount and refused to refund all my money. So I disputed the amount with my credit card company and PayPal Airbnb then came back with their quote policy and only refunded partially my money and refused the dispute. I placed with my credit card company saying that their cancellation policy for a full refund was only available for 48 hours and that I would pay another $2000 for nothing. This company is a rip off, Airbnb is fraudulent and doesn’t protect the consumer in any way, shape or form. Pass this on to all your friends. DON'T EVER USE AIRBNB!?

We booked a place in the mountains of North Carolina, for October. Since that time, the mountains of North Carolina experienced the most catastrophic flooding event since 1916. Fema and the National Guard have been called in. State parks have been closed. Temporary housing is setup all over the region. Hundreds of roads are closed. The state has issued a "essential travel only" order. You are not allowed to travel to or through specific areas unless part of relief efforts. The town where our Airbnb is located issued a "travel ban" for non essential travel and yet none of this qualifies for a refund from Airbnb or the host (a company called Envolve). Additionally, major utilities are still down and a boil water advisory remains in place. Yet, Airbnb says this is covered under their blanket hurricane policy because it was foreseeable.

I have been a Super Host host on Airbnb continuously for 6 years, have a 5 Star rating, 100% response rate with zero cancellations to guests. As a Super Host, I received a higher level of customer service from an Airbnb employee rep. Sadly, now I receive service from an overseas contractor who can only read from a script. There is another hurricane forecasted to hit Saint Petersburg FL the day before my next guest was to arrive. I messaged the guest to make them aware so they could cancel without penalty. A short while later, I received a call from Airbnb customer service admonishing me for telling my guest to cancel, and suggested in the future I should call them instead of telling the guest to cancel. They hadn't bothered to read the messaging between the guest and me. I asked if they had read the messages between the guest and me and was told "no," they didn't have permission to read messages. This poor experience has become the norm and is frustrating and very disappointing. Obviously, boosting profits by reducing expenses on customer service is a higher priority than maintaining quality care.

Airbnb support is the worst I have ever experienced. We could not make it to our cabin due to road closures from Hurricane Helene. We tried multiple routes which were all closed due to roads being washed away and flooding. Our host refused to give us a refund stating that she has a mortgage to pay and she is not responsible for our travel decisions, as if we had a choice. I guess I should have skydived in from airplane to get to my Airbnb. I contacted support and they informed me they have the authority to override her decision. I did everything they told me to do, and they declined the refund. So I asked to connect with a supervisor. I have been waiting for a call back for 3 days now. They said 3 hours. I have called back multiple times and the supervisor has still not called me back. This is trash service. I have been using them for 9 year. After this experience, I won't ever use them again.

This review is not about a specific property but about companies like Airbnb. We used Airbnb (and other similar booking companies) for years and had great experiences until after things opened up after Covid. Based on recent travel, from now on, we will compare with local hotels. We have learned that a really nice local hotel might be more cost-effective once the owners and Airbnb add cleaning fees, booking fees, etc., etc. Also with a hotel, there are no requirements to remove sheets, cleaning requirements even though we pay a cleaning fee, etc., etc. Our most recent booking for an apartment had dire warnings about leaving discolouration of white towels, white tablecloth, white furniture coverings, on and on. A hotel will have safety features like emergency exits. Our most recent rental was beautiful but a complete fire trap. I have top reviews for leaving a rental in excellent condition, but I'm now weary of extra cleaning requirements by some owners.