Category Archives: Airbnb Host Stories

These are real, uncensored stories from Airbnb Hosts.  We encourage our site visitors to read and share their Airbnb Host Stories to help warn others of the dangers of using Airbnb, and consider using alternative options in the sharing economy.

Serious Lack of Security at Airbnb over Fake Listings

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Sadly I viewed Airbnb listed in April 2018 and to my dismay and horror I found my holiday home listed not once by total strangers but twice. The first listing even had written reviews attached to it. I later found these people lived close to where my house was situated. Foolishly I believed I could rectify this by writing to Airbnb customer service.. What a mug I am. I have no doubt that “mug” is imprinted in large letters across my forehead.

Not only was my complaint ignored, the members of staff moved the listing of my home by these unknown people to the top of listings at half the price at which I had it advertised: 30 Euro a night for a fully fitted entirely modern home that can sleep up to seven people. I requested that these listings be removed and asked for a full explanation as to how such a lack of security could take place. I expressed how cross and angry I felt about the whole situation. It proved to be writing to a brick wall.

I viewed 27 other listings for the same very lovely ancient village and found that other English people whose homes 2-4 doors down the same street had their holiday homes listed. These homes are both much smaller than mine, sleeping four people at a price of £118 per night. They were fully booked via Airbnb for £118 per night for the whole season.

To this day, August 22nd, 2018, though I have emailed and even sent recorded letters to both the registered offices in both London and Dublin Eire the staff of Airbnb have not removed one of these listings even though I have provided the listing numbers. In fact the most recent email supplied by customer service suggested that the other listing was not going to be removed. I truly believe that such a lack security is illegal and that the directors who have entirely ignored my many complaints should be taken to task.

Airbnb Not Paying Host After Guests Stayed One Week

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My story is very sad and hopefully can help other hosts and guests to make an informed decision if using Airbnb’s services. I hosted a family of four people in my flat, and after they stayed for one week and I did not receive any payment, the day of checkout, I contacted Airbnb who told me my payment was on the way and would be in the bank within 24 hours. Reassured from this, I let my guests leave the flat without paying.

Obviously the money did not arrive and nobody from Airbnb contacted me any further in regards to it. After creating a new case with customer support, I was told that I had some debt on my account for roughly 800 Euros and that’s why I did not receive the payment. The debt of 800 Euros obviously was disputed three years ago, when Airbnb sent me the money and allowed a customer to cancel a strict reservation asking for the refund of the amount that obviously I never paid.

Being particularly upset with Airbnb, my guest who stayed for six days and effectively not being paid, I decided to go to to small claims court with my guest since the Airbnb contract is void due to the lack of payment. What I have learned is Airbnb support was completely useless after three weeks waiting for the money they just pointed to their terms and conditions. Airbnb is an intermediary and fails in their role; this makes the implicit contract between hosts and guests valid.

As a guest I would think twice before using Airbnb in the future, knowing that host could still take me to court since Airbnb’s terms and conditions is not a legal contract, but just a policy that Airbnb uses to do business ignoring local laws. Once I will succeed in this case, I will then take them to small claims court for recovering the resulting damages for failing in the intermediary role and all the fake advertising that they are doing in UK. An agent who took the money and did not pay the host is a scammer, not an estate agent.

We’re Heading to Where Airbnb Offers Nothing

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My relationship with Airbnb has become more and more rocky as I have observed their tactics. I have watched them drop off lower price units that bolstered supply (and thus brought average costs down) trying to justify the move on the basis of quality control. More recently I have seen them shut complaint cases after providing a poor response – with no opportunity to see if the complaint response is useful – and more recently still shut cases without even responding. Either through negligence or design, I am currently ring-fenced.
The attached is a very recent complaint that has been closed with no solution provided.  I have lost the last three property opportunities due to this.  As an account holder where ‘legal consideration’ has passed, Airbnb is contractually obliged to afford a duty of care.  So many fundamental things are failing such as automatic acceptance of bank statement uploads and the promise of a couple of transactions to hit said bank account to be subsequently identified to finalize verification. This would suggest really bad glitches in areas such as banking and security or purposeful black balling techniques.
Either way, they selected the wrong customer for such fun and games because I have OCD when it comes to seeking remedies.  I am a god with a bone when it comes to man’s search for truth and justice. The good news is that my organization has a competing app on the horizon and if my situation is not unique there is a ready made queue emerging for the new services.  Thank goodness for Airbnb Hell as a platform.  I hope this gets resolved before the “open letter to CEO” phase.

Airbnb Guest Reviews are Unfair to Hosts

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I joined Airbnb in August of 2016 as a host. I live in a house where I rent out one guest room. All other rooms are shared, including the one bathroom. It is a small house just over 1000 square feet. Just so you know, I joined out of desperation, since I was unemployed and worried I would not be able to pay my bills. I have currently unlisted my space as I am gainfully employed and in part due to the following.

Airbnb Customer Service: I find it very disconcerting that I must go to an entirely different website (outside the Airbnb site) to find a phone number, email and physical address to contact you. When I attempt to use the Airbnb internal contact form, I get directed to the FAQ. This is extremely poor customer service and very frustrating.

Their policies of not allowing a host to view a guest review until 14 days pass or until I post a review of the guest are objectionable. For the guest I had, I would not have reviewed her so neutrally had I known how derogatory hers would be of me. I find it is their policy that I cannot change my review nor can I change a response to her review or add to it.

This guest arrived three hours before the check-in time. I wouldn’t have been concerned except for the events that would follow. She should have been charged an extra day. Since she was a multi-month guest, she was only charged the first month up front. Her second and third payments were late, which Airbnb was aware of and should automatically put up a review that she had a lack of funds to pay when the money was due twice.

It is extremely important to hosts that they get paid on-time. She never communicated to me that she would be able to pay albeit late, yet remained in the house and waited for me to ask. She did eventually pay, but payments two and three were late. However, had she not paid, they claim no liability and I would have been forced to litigate to get her out of my house.

In general, this guest was a very poor communicator. She was very upset that the commute to the hospital where she would be working would be over thirty minutes’ drive. However, before booking, she had never asked how long it took to drive there. I would’ve known and I would’ve told her.

I overheard her – when she thought I was not able to hear her – tell someone over the phone that I only provided small sample shampoos. I do not list that as an amenity on my listing. The sample shampoos are just a courtesy in case someone forgets and until they can get to a store.

She also complained that I was getting up before she left for work when I clearly told her the time I had to get up for my job (substitute teaching in the beginning) the day she arrived. When queried about when she’d be working, she was vague and I had to deduce from observations later. She also complained there was no ceiling fan in the room she occupied while many of the other rooms had ceiling fan. However, I had bought a new fan for her to use as the ones I had were dirty and I was unable to get apart to clean.

She never communicated any of these issues directly to me. Every morning she worked, and she cooked bacon. As I have stated, I have a small house. I also have asthma. The smell I had to get up to was overwhelming, many times causing a coughing attack. I had to spend 15-20 minutes every morning (before I needed to prepare and leave for work, mind you) spraying a neutralizing air spray, wiping up grease and cleaning out the drain in the kitchen (she would remove the strainer and leave bits of egg and other food in the drain, potentially clogging my drain).

As she was getting ready for one and a half hours, she would pass my bedroom door over and over as she had refused to use any of the storage in the kitchen or bathroom that I had provided. She was rather heavy footed and made a lot of noise. She had on several occasions left a big glob of hair in the tub. Once she must have been dying her hair and left two black marks on my fabric shower curtain. These did not wash out.

In her review, she claims she did not know I had a dog. My house rules clearly state that I do have a dog in two places. In addition, one reviewer mentioned my friendly dogs (one has since passed). In her review, this guest complained that my dog begged every time she ate. She never once communicated this to me. I kept my dog in my bedroom when she was eating breakfast and getting ready for work because I noticed one morning that she was bothered by the dog. I certainly would have curbed my dog more had she communicated to me that she was bothered.

She dinged me badly with one star for “misrepresenting my listing” because she claims she did not know I had dog until she arrived. She clearly could not have read the house rules before she booked. Airbnb needs to ensure that guesst read the house rules before they book. Additionally, in her review, she complained I only had one TV. Had she reviewed the photos, she would have seen that there was no TV in the guest bedroom and no others in the house except the living room.

She added that if she didn’t want to watch what I was watching, she would have to find something else to do. This is an extremely skewed view; I likely only used the TV 6-7% of the time she was there. When I was done watching I would hand her the remote and ask if she wanted to watch anything else. I also remember occasions I watched on my laptop and once on my phone so she could have the TV. She, however, had the TV on nearly every waking minute she was there. If she didn’t have to work that day, she would wake up and turn on the TV.

It would be on all day until she went to bed with few exceptions. She would come from work and immediately turn on the TV. I also observed she would have on a movie that she had just watched a couple weeks before. She also would have her tablet on her lap during the time she watched, leading me to question: how much did she really need the TV?

In her review, she claimed my house was infested with spiders. I can only conclude that she is an arachnophobe and seeing one or two spiders sends her into a panic. I witnessed her cutting up citrus to place around the room to repel spiders. She claims to have read this on the internet. Again, she did not communicate her concerns or whether it was okay to do what she was doing (it was not) and took it upon herself to address the situation. After she left, there were some dried up citrus pieces some of which were stuck on the rug, leaving a sticky mess for me to clean.

Almost a month after she has left, and I am still finding pieces of dried up citrus. The definition of infestation is enough of an insect, animal, etc., to cause damage or disease. There is no way that my house has been damaged by a few spiders and it is not unhealthy either. Her review makes my home sound like it is from the Munster’s or Adams Family TV shows or a scene from a Harry Potter movie, all far from the truth.

This is another area she dinged me badly, by giving me one star for cleanliness. My house is far from a one star for cleanliness as one can see from other reviews. When speaking to a friend about her review, she said, “I’ve never seen a spider in your house and I’ve been here a lot.” My friend also remarked that she was passive aggressive. There was another minor annoyance with her: she left drawers open an inch, and did not push her chair in.

Airbnb making amends: I would ask that her review be taken down. I clearly think that they should remove the one star for “misrepresenting my listing” when I have always been upfront about having a dog. Barring that, I would like to edit or add an addendum to my review from this guest or I would like to be allowed to add an addendum to the response to her review.

Airbnb should indicate that she is probably okay to inhabit a place on her own, but she is not a good housemate, even temporarily. She should never be allowed into a place with an animal. Most importantly, a potential host should be warned it may be difficult to collect payment from her.

Suggestion: when a host is residing on the property, Airbnb should have an escape clause: if the guests and hosts are a mismatch for whatever reasons, allow either party to cancel and part company without any retribution.

Cancelled by Airbnb a Few Hours before Guests’ Arrival

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At 11:45 PM on the 5th of August, Airbnb cancelled my first ever reservation, a few hours before my first hosting. The reservation was validated on the 27th of July, so it was more than a week before Airbnb decided to cancel for no reason… or at least none given to me until today. Here I am with four adults and a baby, who showed me the transfer to Airbnb on their bank account and cannot understand what is happening when they drove for five hours to enjoy a few chilled days at the beach.

I sent an email, then another one, then called one operator, and then a second. “We will get back to you before the end of the day,” they all said for four days. Well after four days of vacation for free, I had to ask my guests to leave. I had no answer from Airbnb until today. At least I’ve learned my lesson and not only am I taking off both my listings on Airbnb, I’ll certainly try my best to prevent every person around me from ever using their services.

Airbnb Guest Chases Me into the Basement

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A guest decided to throw a raging party in my 90210 property on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Drugs and illegal activity with minors was going on. I contacted the police and they told me the reservation needed to be canceled immediately. Since the reservation was in progress I was unable to cancel it on my end; I had to call Airbnb.

Upon calling Airbnb, they could hear how aggressive the guest was, they could hear that there were over fifty people in a listing that was supposed to have one person, and they could hear the threats and the yelling. However, they requested that I take photographs for documentation. I let the agent on the phone know that me taking photographs of these people conducting illegal activity would not put me in a very safe position.

I locked myself in my apartment and tried to talk to the representative from there. They told me without any photographs, they were unable to help me, even though they were aware of the situation. I once again informed the agent that this would put me in a very dangerous situation.

Having no choice, I went ahead and proceeded to take photos of the party going on. The intoxicated guests were so upset with me, they chased me into a basement. I locked the door of the basement, grabbed my two children at 2:00 AM who were sleeping in bed, and let them out through a window. With nothing in my possession, I took a taxi cab to a motel and stayed the night there with my two children on a school night.

Even though Airbnb promised to compensate me for the hotel room and the taxi ride, they offered it to me in the form of travel credit which expired, because I never travel using Airbnb. My situation was the turning point situation that made Airbnb change their policy to stop requiring photographs of guests as documentation when the situation is dangerous. Bad things happen on Airbnb, and I understand that. It’s the way Airbnb continuously handles this types of situations that is extremely dangerous and upsetting.

I recently had a guest kick down my door after getting drunk. They agreed to pay for about 40% of the damage as that’s what they figured it was worth. Airbnb compensated me nothing and held me responsible for future cancellations since I didn’t have a door. I was told it was my responsibility to make sure that I had a door in working order and would be held responsible for any penalties and cancellations for not being able to host guests because I didn’t have a door.

It’s three months later, and Airbnb still refuses to to explain why they won’t compensate me. Their house guarantee is complete baloney. They’ve lost way more money with the cancellations, because I refuse to continue hosting on this platform until I’m paid back for a guest kicking down my door. There’s no reason why I should not be paid, especially if the guest is agreeing to pay for it.

I highly suggest if you have a guest who is cooperating, take money outside of the Airbnb platform against their policy. They cannot even uphold their own policies there’s no point in cooperating with them whatsoever I sincerely hope this company catches a huge class action lawsuit. I’ve had over 3000 reservations as a host with Airbnb and refused to give them any more business.

Reserved Eight Months in Advance, Host Canceled One Month out

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I booked a condo eight months before an event I attend every year. Usually I book a hotel, but I thought it might be nice to have a kitchen and an extra room for my son. I booked early because the event is very popular. Since I wanted to be within walking distance of the venue, and I wanted to have a place to leave my car, I knew that lodging with those qualities would be in high demand.

Just over a month before the event, the host canceled, as his property is not zoned for short-term use. His last message said that “Airbnb says they will help you find a new place to stay.” That “help” has so far consisted of phone support sending me other Airbnb listings that are miles from the venue, that don’t have parking, or that are five times the price of my original listing for the dates I want because, again, it is a popular event.

Here I am, a month out, all the hotels within walking distance of the venue are now booked solid, and the ones farther away are 30% more expensive than they would have been when I booked the condo. Airbnb is offering no “help”: no compensation, nothing. Lesson learned: I will leave lodging to the lodging professionals from now on. No more Airbnb, ever.