Airbnb
Reviews and Complaints

We reserved a house in Vancouver using a credit card on AirBnB, when the host cancelled, the credit card was not refunded but was applied to a credit on AirBnB without our assent. When we reserved another house, it was marketed and advertised as $262/night with Instant Booking. (See https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12755323). In the charges area of the house listing they specified that if you have more than 13 guests there would be a $21 per person additional charge. I was delighted by the price and entered my dates manually without use of the calendar and was instantly booked via Paypal. I had in my mind the $262/night cost promised and marketed. Vulnerable to bait and switch, I quickly booked it while traveling on the road (in a bit of panic about not having housing for a festival my band was performing at in Vancouver) and did not see that the price had been tripled. The AirBnB Customer Service explained that there is a new "feature" on AirBnB for seasonal rates that can change daily, but this feature is only visible if you mouse over the calendar which I did not need to do since I knew my dates. There was NO mention of Seasonal Pricing on the AirBnB site or on the house listing; there was NO note that there were variable rates that applied; there was not note of a new "feature" for pricing; there was ONLY the misleading Instant Booking advertising $262/night. Please advise on any legal recourse, would like the help of an attorney to file complaints where effective.

The Property owner of 5321 NE Ainsworth St., Portland, Oregon 97218, finds no issue moving away and renting both the small one bedroom house and the ADU ( converted garage) out on Airbnb. That said, it is in violation of the general contract rules that Airbnb outlines. The "property manager", is two squatters living in a tent in the back yard.
I have filed complaint with the city, but the wheels of justice turn slow.
This property has MULTIPLE code, permit, and zoning infractions. It is not permitted by the city of Portland to operate as an Airbnb facility. It has not had the proper safety inspections. It was cited for several electrical code violations today, before the squatters terrified the inspector to leave. I have no idea why law enforcement was not called. These people deficate in a bucket and empty it in the house when they change the sheets.
The home owners are completely unresponsive despite the fact the city has a lein against their house.
It is beyond my imagination why anyone would stay there, or why it has yet to be shut down.
I was told by a city official to file a complaint directly to Airbnb. I have tried. It is a pointless loop of BS.

Your photo file is too small.

Ms Dominika Grupka promised me and my familie a great stay in Dubai for which we paid a fortune, the room that was promised was untidy, many things were leaking and the size advertized on Airbnb was false too, myself my mother and father had to squeeze in this room as she had mentioned 3 people can easily stay in the room. Its not only the advertisement but when i went to see her and meet her she completely denied that she is Dominika whereas i had a picture from airbnb of hers, she lied on my face about she not being the person. This dishonesty and fraud is an example of how she is lieing. on further research on her she doesnt have any license to operate as a real estate agent in UAE and she is subleasing and trying to sell properties. Please be beware of this woman Dominika Grupka(German national, 35-39years of age). She has 2 companies named DMG Invest and Digital Rebel online, with no offices in Dubai.

Hello. I am a long time Airbnb user and I didn't had any serious issues with them, but my last experience was bad and I decided to share this information.
I am disappointed with Airbnb because they allow property owners to post fake information.
I booked a two nights stay in London and it was said in the description that there was a big bed, but instead of bed there was an old couch. Also microwave was supposed to be there but it wasn't. It was rather dirty and didn't look like someone even bothered to clean up the place before my arrival. I did not meet the owner, I received keys from a person which said he was owners friend and while owner was on a vacation he was helping with Airbnb. I am very disappointed. Airbnb should pay more attention to what owners post in their profile!

My name Reina Hornos
user: [protected]@fibertel.com.ar
address
Estados Unidos 1438 ground floor apart 2
Buenos Aires

I can`t log in I wanted to change my password but couldn`t recall what my phone nr was as I changed my cel phone and after several attempts my account was blocked.
My card expires on May I need to log in change my password and order a new Payonner card.
Pls get in touch send a link to know what to do I have been trying to get help since one week ago!
I have my Payonner card provided by airbnb where Iam a host.

ph or messenger/whatsup 54 911 [protected]

I had to cancel accommodation which I was to get a refund for. The original booking was booked on a card that had a fraud on it and had to be cancelled. Airbnb supposably has to pay back to the credit card and told me I have to go to the bank to get the refund, I did that today and they do not have the refund so I am now our of pocket and airbnb will not help me

I booked a stay with Airbnb twice. My first stay was great, I was really impressed with their site, service and of course the idea. That was the reason why I decided to use Airbnb again and that was a big mistake. Guess I was just lucky at the first time.
My second apartment looked nothing like pictures! On the site is was nice and clean place, furniture looked new. When I arrived at the place I was shocked because I thought that there was a mistake or something.
Furniture was old, and dusty, and the entire apartment looked like it wasn't cleaned for a long time. I don't know if I can trust Airbnb.

We have been a loyal and successful customer of Airbnb for more than 5 years. In the past 3 years, our bookings with AirBnb have exceeded $120, 000 over more than 100 bookings.
We had few interactions with your Customer Service in the past, and each time we had noted the high level of professionalism and the prompt availability.
However, we have just faced a totally unacceptable customer service experience, with an “underlying policy” that affects severely our rental revenue, described here below, and this, unfortunately, occurred while we also see the rental rates with AirBnB falling down dramatically. Here are the circumstances:
1. As shown in Document 01.pdf and Document 01b.pdf attached, your pricing tool shows a daily rate almost inferior to the daily rate of an unfurnished long term rental.
2. We have had the chance to discuss these matters with other owners of vacation rentals and they do share our concerns, while the posts on the Internet are also evidencing the abnormally long waiting time to reach your Customer Service and their efficacy.
3. In particular, on February 10th, 2017, after abnormally long and counterproductive waiting times, we could reach your Customer Service about a guest cancellation (Latoya) by phone and by email (See Document 02.pdf).
4. This was a first time guest who booked for 1 adult (See Document 03.pdf) and checked-in to over-occupy with a group of 14 people, then figured out that the property could not accommodate them, .
5. The AirBnB webpage specifies a maximum occupancy of 12 persons.
6. It was then agreed that Latoya would cancel immediately to release the dates on the calendar. This exception to our no-cancellation and no-refund policy was because we had another group in stand-by to book online in their place and PROVIDED Latoya would cancel immediately.
7. Latoya thereafter confirmed that she would keep on calling your unreachable Customer Service to cancel (See Document 04.pdf).
8. The next morning we saw that Latoya had not cancelled and the replacement group had booked something else.
9. We advised Latoya that the refund proposal was off the table because she had not cancelled when agreed (Document 05.pdf). She then finally contacted your Customer Service to cancel.
10. Latoya says that she failed to cancel in the time agreed because –she says – she was waiting endlessly over the phone while trying to contact your Customer Service and eventually would be disconnected.
11. We then communicated also with your Support (lengthy waiting time again!) and next got an email informing us that Latoya would not get refunded (Document 06.pdf).
12. Thereafter, Airbnb emailed us that the payout was sent (Document 07.pdf), we received it and had all reasons to believe that the case was resolved.
13. However, on February 19th, we got two incoherent messages from Airbnb.
14. The first one was asking us to answer to a refund request of Latoya before February 21st (Document 08.pdf)
15. The other one (Document 09.pdfwas an email from your Case Manager “Ray” Raymond informed us that “I'm reaching out to you today to discuss your Resolution Center request number 1970008 from Latoya for reservation WYJPJN” while advising us at he same time, in the next paragraph, that the refund had been already processed (without opportunity to discuss!)
16. This was not only re-opening the case (Document 07.pdf), but also ignoring the message of AirBnB asking us to respond to the refund request before February 21st and ignoring Ray’s own offer to discuss first.
17. Thereafter, and without advising us first, AirBnB deducted that refund from the payout of our next guests, on February 19th.
18. We never had a chance to discuss with Ray’s about his wrongful decision and findings, because he apparently decided that “this was it”, and he would not have the courtesy to return our calls and go answer our emails. See Document 10.pdf, still unanswered as of today.
19. In this context of manifest lack support and hasty decision of your Customer Service, we were informed by another agent that AirBnB had been generous with Latoya because she was a first time user.
It’s very questionable to have the owners/hosts pay for the consequences of your lack of support.
If AirBnB decides to be generous with first time users, it should not be at the expense of the property owners, because Latoya had no valid reason to cancel other than realizing that her project to over-occupy the property was not feasible. The list that she sent us two days later are minor inconveniences –if any inconvenience at all - that could have been remedied in less than one hour upon her arrival, and more so, it hasn’t even be communicated to the case manager.
It’s also unacceptable for any reputable organization to reverse a decision and to deduct moneys from their client’s payouts without consulting with their client first.
This new picture is scary, with an almost unavailable Customer Service making wrong decisions affecting our revenues inconsiderately, while the pricing suggested is almost the one of the unserviced, unfurnished and unattended long term rental.

I had a very bad experience with Airbnb and I will never use this service again. I booked an apartment in France and when I arrived I was terrified with its condition. The place was very dirty, there was garbage and nasty smell. It looked like no one cleaned it for ages. I contacted the owner and he said that he didn't have enough time for cleaning. What a ridiculous excuse.
I asked for a refund, but he refused and said that I can leave if I want but he will not give my money back. So I had to stay there and clean everything myself. Of course I contacted Airbnb and asked their help but they did not reply anything yet.

I booked an apartment in London and owner said he'll meet me at the station. I arrived at the place and waited for over an hour on no one showed up to pick me up. I tried to contact the owner via phone, but his phone was turned off.
I thought that maybe he forgot about me or maybe something terrible happened and decided to find the place on my own, gladly I was given an address. But when I arrived at the place and knocked on the door a woman opened it and she was shocked when I explained who I was. She said she had no idea what Airbnb was.
I sent a report to Airbnb, but they didn't reply anything.

I Neeraj Singhal r/o of Bhopal would like to inform you that I have booked one apartment in Dubai thru AirBnb website for stay of 6nights during Christmas holidays from 24Dec’16 to 30Dec’16 for myself & my friends.

When I booked thru website it asked me to contact the host person to confirm the booking, so I sent a mail to the person and requested for booking. I got reply from them and they asked all details about travel dates, number of persons, arrival & departure details & no of keys required. I provided all the details & the host confirmed the reservation.

Later on I got a confirmation mail with bank details to transfer the money to their bank account with a promise that the money is 100% refundable & will be transferred to host only after I check-in and send a message that all is okay with me.

I transferred the payment to the bank a/c given by them & asked them to provide me the details of contact person & accommodation. But to my dismay they stopped responding to my emails & when I contacted Airbnb one guy responded saying that a fraud has been committed against you.

Since then I have not received any information or reply from Airbnb despite various reminders & even today when I contacted them they said that it’s a scam.

Thus I have no option left but to file a complaint with your department. To help me recover my money from Airbnb as the fraud has been committed by their website. All the communications & confirmations are attached herewith for your reference and necessary action.

Kindly register a complaint & do the needful to get me Justice.

Let’s start it all over because I think Airbnb don’t have any idea about the absurdness of what’s happening.
Airbnb said that: “Airbnb really appreciates what I’ve been doing to our guests as one of our most valued Superhosts”. Let’s see if these are just empty words or they really have any meaning.
My main concern, as I believe is Airbnb as well, is about our guests. I’m so committed to them that I have refused a great deal to sell my property because the buyer (an investor) didn’t want to honor my reservations.
So I think Airbnb can see we’re a not talking about money or penalties, we are talking about PEOPLE.
I really don’t care about how much money I’m gonna lose if I cancel the reservations, but I DO CARE about my guests. There are a lot of PEOPLE out there that trusted their vacation dreams, their dearest family moments, their leisure time after years of hardworking to us.
At the moment I’m writing, I have more than 20 people that trusted in me and paid in advance to Airbnb more than US$17, 000.
All the sudden, Airbnb started to withhold 30% of all these future reservations which totals almost $ 5, 500 without previous notice. Why are you doing this? What’s changed?
I can only imagine that it’s because my Taxpayer information was not informed on my profile but it’s already there. When I first listed my property, I didn’t have a Tax Id and when I got it to be able to fill my tax returns of 2015, I forgot to update it in the website.
I’m completely compliant with my Federal, State and County taxes and I’m not supposed to be withhold 30% of my rentals. If Airbnb needed, I could send Airbnb all the receipts.
And do Airbnb know what’s worse? Airbnb is not just wrongly withholding 30% of my rentals but you’re taking the supposedly due amount from future payouts out of my present payouts. It’s ILLEGAL!
I didn’t receive the payouts from the upcoming reservations yet but Airbnb did. So, Airbnb CAN’T take these “tax withholdings” of something that I didn’t receive out of my payouts.
I don’t know if Airbnb realized but it’s what happening right now. It’s ABSURD!
For example, take these 2 payouts (Rayne and Johnny) that I’ve been complaining about.
I was supposed to receive $ 1, 077 from Rayne and $175 from Johnny. You said that you’ve already paid me with the tax withholding of 30%. So, I had to have received $744 from Rayne and $121 from Johnny but I have no deposit in my bank account because in your system I “owe” more than $ 5, 000 of tax withholding and you’re using this credit to compensate that.
It’s INSANE! Completely NONSENSE!
Let me repeat it to be clear - Airbnb can’t make me pay for something that Airbnb earned, NOT ME.
Considering the quantity of future reservations I have, I would only see any money in the middle of December. Beside the fact that the 30% of tax withholding is UNDUE, of course, I can’t continue to keep up with the expenses of the property without getting any money from the reservations. It’s ILLEGAL!

In August 2016, when we checked into the apartment in Tsim sha Tsui, Hong Kong, we have a horrifying experience as the entire floor outside the apartment was under construction. Cement bags, dangling wires, half hanging ceiling board were all over the entire floor. It was dusty and when checking in at 7pm there were drilling noise next door.
We contacted Airbnb and they said will get full refund with supporting evidence, which we did. We left the place immediately after check in as personal safety was breached as the place was in the midst of a construction site. We have a traumatic experience then trying to get alternate accommodation.
Thereafter it was an extremely trying time to communicate with Airbnb wrt the refund. I had to make many phone calls to Airbnb as email response was very bad. After each phone call there was always a promise that the specialist team will investigate. There were all broken promises as I finally found out the case was close after I called them. They did not even had the courtesy to inform me at all.
I felt very cheated and will never ever deal with Airbnb again. It was a terrible and stressful experience.

4 cousins and I are visiting various Canada and US areas in October, including NY and staying there for 4 nights. My cousin who lives in the Philippines looked in the Airbnb website for a place that can accommodate the 5 of us. On Sept. 1, she found an entire house/apt with the ff address:
208 East 116th Street Apt 4, New York, NY 10029, United States

The website of showed client #9928TB, the property address and the ff charges in Philippine currency:
9320 x 4 nights ₱37279
Cleaning Fees ₱5825
Airbnb Service Fee ₱6151
Total ₱49255

Airbnb contends in its website that it is up to hosts to select a cancellation policy. I think this is not good business practice. The company owes consumers and the public fair cancellation policies - even airlines and travel companies allow cancellation within 24 hours; Amtrak 7 days before . We cancelled on Sept. 1, about a month and a half before our planned visit.

There was no information at all on the page about the strict cancellation policy. Also upon examination and converting the charges into US $ at 45 pesos to $1, 094 of which $129 would go to cleaning fees and airbnb service fee $136.69. I think these rates are very exorbitant and unfair. When cousins in the US saw the charges and the area being far from Broadway theaters which we prefer, we told our cousin to cancel the reservation. Our cousin tried to cancel, only a day after she made the reservation, and found to her dismay, that she has to pay 50% of the total cost of the package!

I think it is only fair that my cousin not be charged exorbitantly for cancelling her reservation. She should even be refunded the 50% she paid.

This is as a much a complain against airbnb as it is against the Host of the property
Any listing labels with Strict cancellation policy should force a pop up window to inform you that they will charge 50% regardless once you push the confirm button - Hello ! we are in the 20th century - it's a no brainer to integrate this - unless you like to make some extra free money of course that is ...

Our [friendly] Host on the other hand is just a little crook that likes to pull honest people over the table and Airbnb is just providing him with a the platform to do so ..

[airbnb.com/rooms/[protected]] August 2016 requested a Booking,

6 hours later My Girfriend realized that she mad a mistake

Result = we where charged $861.- cancellation fee

THAT'S just BS

Property Involved in SCAM:

Dave's (j...***) Home

Southeast Clatsop

Portland, OR 97236 Airbnb Property13541764

Big time scam - nothing else

any HONEST Airbnb Host will have no problem return the full amount within such a short period - period !

- Trying to get my money back trough Citibank for 3 weeks now ..

Something needs to be done about this ASAP ! - (Airbnb wont help as it's probably free money in there pocket $$$$)

Any Airbnb host that's defending this policy is as much a crook as the guy who scammed us for $861 !

Stay away from every rental that has STRICT Return polices or just don't use Airbnb at all (sorry for all the good hosts out there)

Georg Kohler

Corvallis OR

I have been a host for over a year accepting Airbnb guests in my own residents. While I post house rules, some guest don't care to read or ignore them. When a guest breaks the rule, Airbnb gives me a right to cancel the reservation and move the guest to a different location.
The rule was this: since I am allergic to perfumes, I request that guests do not use spray colognes or perfumed aftershaves. This guest kept lying to me that he did not do it and I kept increasing my allergy medication until those did not help any more (normal outcome, by the way).
When I saw the guest in the act and took a picture of the spray bottle, he could not lie any more. I called Airbnb and they agreed to relocate him.
But what they did later was unthinkable. The guest was relocated but he gave a hard time to everyone, here in the house and to Airbnb. He demanded additional $200 compensation since the other places were more expensive than mine. They gave him $200. He moved out. Airbnb blocked my calendar for one month as a punishment for me without letting me know. They did not answer to my requests by email and I also called their call center and asked the case managers to call me back to no avail. I feel now that there is no accountability and people are right saying that all they want is money. Case managers can do whatever they want and nobody can do anything about it. They can be rude, break the rules and terms of Airbnb themselves, and again, there is no oversight, no complaint form to full out. Whatever the call center writes in the notes from your words, often times inaccurate details, go to the case managers, and one person there, makes a decision. If that person is in a good mood, he makes a fair decision, but if not, he or she writes her decision as a final judgement or don't even write. I found out that my calendar was blocked a few days before the calendar showed to be available. I still have guests staying at my place, nice people, some pf them are long term, but I am not sleeping well worrying about worse case scenario.

This has been the most terrible experience I have ever had. I made a reservation and booked a room through Airbnb website. After I paid my booking was cancelled for no reason. I contacted Airbnb customer service and the rep I spoke to was quite friendly and nice. They could not give me a full refund, but offered me a small partial refund. I was very disappointed and basically lost my money. Butt its better than nothing. I wasted my money and my precious time and I find this website quite unreliable and unsafe. Never again I will use Airbnb.

Airbnb doesn't care about their clients' safety. All they want is money. I booked a place through Airbnb and when I arrived there was no booking on my name. I contacted the company and they told me to find a hotel and they would pay for it. I found one and stayed there for three nights. Then I called the company again and asked my money back. They refused. So these people actually owe me a refund of my first unsuccessful booking and the money I paid for three nights at the hotel. About 20 emails later they locked me out of the account, said that they were sorry and closed the matter. I would not recommend using Airbnb.

When I started using AirBnb it was a great way to see places. Customer service was always helpful. But now things had changed in a bad way and they don't care about anything but their fees. I wanted to book a place and had so many problems with hosts. They said the prices were higher than listed or trying to change parts of the listing. Once I send a request and receive no reply. I finally booked a place, but when I arrived I was shocked. It was nothing as promised, the room was tiny, dark and very dirty. I contacted the host and he was ready to give me a refund, but AirBnb refused to refund me! AirBnb doesn't seem to check any of the listings and only wants your money.

I wanted to book a room, but the whole booking process through Airbnb was a real nightmare. When I wanted to pay for my room I was told that booking process includes submitting a photo, entering ID info, verifying your phone number, and then submitting a photo of your driver's license! That actually is ridiculous! Well, I did everything as they said, but then they said that they needed access to my Facebook account. I contacted their customer support, because I thought that there was some kind of mistake. But I was told that without all that information I can't book anything! I was actually shocked, because I could not understand why they need my Facebook account! Well, I'm done with Airbnb.