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.

Airbnb is a Scam to Guests as well as Hosts

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Airbnb supposedly gives you the opportunity of choosing a cancellation policy when you list your property. I have chosen a strict cancellation policy. A woman booked my apartment in Cap Cana three months ago for Christmas and New Years, a 14-day stay. I gave her a discount price for the two-week stay.

Six days before checking in, I received a message from Airbnb stating that they cancelled her reservation and fully refunded the client due to extenuating circumstances. Apparently the client lives in Venezuela and one of the guests needed a visa to visit Dominican Republic.

First of all, I did not know that the guest was coming from Venezuela since in her verified information she said that she lives in Miami. Secondly I never receive any call nor was contacted by Airbnb staff before they decided unilaterally to cancel and full refund her.

They said that she provided evidence to them. Airbnb had her rental money for three months and then cancelled and left me without any rental in the high season. They did not try to help at all. They even lied when confronted, saying that they contacted me, which was not true. If we were the ones cancelling in order to forfeit the penalty under extenuating circumstances we would have to have a lot of paperwork in order for them to consider it.

I asked them to reconsider. They rejected my plead. I asked them to at least give us a partial refund, but they did not. Airbnb does not consider hosts; they do not care about us at all. It seems they do not realize that without our properties they are just a mere application. Their customer service is the worst. They charge a fee for nothing.

Airbnb Guest Attacked my Dog, Deleted from Airbnb

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I’ve rented a few locations in Prague on Airbnb in the past two years. I had 107 four-star reviews, until a frat group from Israel arrived to get me kicked off the platform. Due to manners I greeted the guests in person at the place. They booked for seven days. I showed them everything.

Within the first five minutes, I got called “ata homo” multiple times  which I think is Hebrew for “you f%g”. I’m not the kind of guy who receives much disrespect unless people are of the utterly stupid kind, so I told them in English that I do understand them and they should show some manners. We got along great from that point on. It was fine when they were noisy or caused minor damage. They are young; they lack the respect that comes with responsibility. Not everyone has basic manners that are the basics of my life.

I live in the same district as the Airbnb. One Saturday night I walked my dog, seeing the group in front of the place. I walked by, asked if all was well with them, and if there were any issues. Suddenly one of the guys started to call me a racist (they were all just as white as me), saying that “people like you kill Jews” to which I replied with “my great grandfather actually served at Waffen-SS as a officer but those days are over, or else we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”

This resulted in them leaving to a Vietnamese shop nearby. I was just thinking “holy crap, these f-ing tourists”. Right next to the place is one great Pizza place (and Russian food). I stopped by there, and talked with them for a bit. My dog got free food and some water… all good.

Then I heard a bottle smash into the wall next to me; the frat boys from hell threw it, shouting English and Hebrew gibberish from across the street. I just told them to be quiet – normal people live here too. They crossed the street, and some highly aggressive talking starts from them. I had no idea what was up with them.

One of them kicked my dog who was just standing beside me not giving much a s&%t about whats going on. Like he actually kicked a dog in the chest. I replied “attack” and the dog defended himself by attacking the attacker. What an absolute mess: the pizza place owner came out of his joint and threatened us with the police. The guys tried to hit him and instead earned some fists.

The police arrived, took the guy who attacked my dog to the hospital – he lost two fingers. One other guy had a mildly broken nose, nothing too bad in my opinion. All were arrested but let go the next day. I immediately contacted Airbnb over this incident and wanted them to cancel the stay of these idiots. No. I was supposed to host them a few more days until they left.

Instead, the next morning before they left the police station, I went into the apartment to pack their stuff together. A legal person (a student lawyer of my lawyers) was around to provide “neutral opinion of the situation” so nothing got stolen or anything. I bagged everything and placed it in front of the door.

The place was not really damaged but a lot of the furniture was ruined. The total costs for repairs was 427,000 CZK, almost 20,000 Euro.

The guys arrived, picked up their stuff without any issue, and left to go somewhere else. I wrote them a long one-star rating, which after five days disappeared. Airbnb deleted my account within three days, after some s&%tchat with support over three months. They sent me a letter that I am not allowed to discuss this matter anywhere else.

Now I think I will sue them, because after all, Airbnb is involved in heavy tax avoidance schemes here in Czechia. Hosts never have to pay taxes unless they do so on their own accord. Airbnb never pays taxes to the city around here because hosts are supposed to pay taxes, but Airbnb won’t even forward them to the cities in which they are renting.

Sure, it is an easy way of making money, but the people are deteriorating fast. Other hosts I know of also complain more and more that people are an utter disgrace to society. It makes one wonder: how are we supposed to get a sense of society when scum and scams never get punished?

Airbnb Host Nightmare: Cancellation Penalty for Hosts

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A few days ago I relisted my two properties on Airbnb. I was not able to link my channel manager to Airbnb and had issues logging in to the Airbnb system. I kept requesting a password reset and never got any reset link. I contacted my channel manager and they were not helpful, saying I had to log in to Airbnb to sort the problem.

I finally logged in. To my horror, I had 14 booking received within a few days, all confirmed with dates and availability that were not correct. I had the nightmare of contacting all these people and be ashamed to say we had technical issues. To my horror, for each booking that I cancelled, I had to pay a penalty of 50 dollars. Do the math for 14 booking and see how much I had to pay Airbnb for cancelling.

I had no email confirmation for any of these bookings and no notification or any chance to accept or deny any of these bookings. Some of the guests were very helpful and some just pain and unhelpful. Airbnb technical issues turned into nightmare and Airbnb has no compassion to not change the penalty when you have a genuine problem. I had no idea about any booking or how to fix the problem. Not happy at all.

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Atheist Airbnb Host Versus Religious Guest

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I was renting my studio on Airbnb since 2016 and everything had gone fine. I did host people from all over the world of all ethnicities and they all did like the place a lot… until the day I received a reservation inquiry for a four-week stay of a certain guest. As this person had very few positive reviews, I decided to check his profile on Facebook and discovered lots of disturbing posts, especially for an atheist like me.

As my studio is located in in the same house where I live with my family, I decided to decline his inquiry. However, I also wanted to politely explain why I did it. So, in summary, I told him that being an atheist I had problem with his profile and I also added that that in my views religions (all of them) were toxic inventions that were made to divide us. I ended my message with a ‘salam’, meaning “peace”.

One hour later my account was deleted. The guest felt so offended that he claimed a file for “Islamophobia”. Airbnb didn’t even bother to contact me to see what the problem was. What counts is money and only money; they don’t care if you’re comfy or not with a given reservation. I’ve included some of the disturbing posts that motivated my refusal.

False Review and Guest’s Lies Lead to Listings Removed

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I have been the owner and host for two Airbnb properties for the past two years, garnering positive reviews and mostly problem-free until now. On October 17th, a young male guest (24-25) with positive reviews arrived. His booking was for three days. During this time he left messages about how much he liked everything about the property and extended his stay by one day.

Meanwhile, my maintenance man encountered him and after a brief interaction texted me with concern that he appeared to be on drugs or intoxicated: he acted “amped up” and paranoid. A day or two later he saw and talked with him again and confirmed the same behavior.

After the guest vacated the property my co-host entered to clean it. She found that one bedroom lampshade had been crushed, as if someone fell on it. She brought this to my and the guest’s attention and said that she would contact the Resolution Center to handle it, the standard procedure. Little did I know that my life was going to explode in all directions thanks to this $10 lampshade.

These Airbnb messages between my co-host and guest reveal why:

“I noticed that one of the lamp shades in the bedroom was broken. I talked to the owner of the property and she advised me to file a claim with Airbnb to be reimbursed for the cost of the matching lamp shades.”

“Feel free to. I’m actually filing a complaint for the peep hole I found in the shower. I’m sorry you feel that way. I discovered the peep hole on my last night of the stay. I did however report the suspicious behavior on the premises prior to that. Facts are facts. I was not intoxicated. All my reviews pre and post my stay here are stellar. You are running a dirty scam, invading others privacy. How dare you. You will not be receiving any money from me. In fact, I have taken this matter straight to Airbnb Corporate with evidence of your intrusive misuse of hosting this home. My hope is that they resolve this matter accordingly, stripping your right to host any more illegal activity, reimburse me for this invasion of my privacy, and follow through with the apology I deserve. Shame on you.”

“Peep hole, illegal activity and dirty scam” were then red flagged by the Airbnb computers. What a surprise to learn that I’m accused of this at age 71. No such things or activities are associated with me or on my properties as established by the positive comments he made after staying there four days. What I also didn’t know at that time is that my Airbnb listings had been immediately shut down so I would not have any future bookings, depriving me of these income sources.

Meanwhile an Airbnb investigator was assigned to me. In the eyes of her and Airbnb I was guilty until proven innocent. She lectured that I had broken the “trust” of Airbnb with my actions. She then gave me 72 hours to provide evidence that I didn’t have a peephole and that people were not walking around on the roof at night (the guest stated that he had heard noises like this, confirming my maintenance man’s assessment).

The roof is totally covered with solar panels; water lines and swamp coolers = dangerous tripping hazards at night. Yes, photographs were submitted as evidence. Also in question is why the guest waited two weeks before submitting a scathing and accusatory review on November 5th. I have also asked Airbnb what evidence the guest provided to support his accusations and told that this information could not be divulged to me. I doubt that he took photos of the peephole before he vacated.

The maintenance man videotaped and narrated a “tour of the bathroom walls” to prove there was no shower peephole. I then sent the videotape to Airbnb after confirming their email, Airbnb.com/help. The email was rejected with “incomplete address” every time. I was now calling Airbnb every day to speak someone who could give me additional support or updates.

I reached someone who was shocked to learn how this case had been mistreated for so many weeks (she had access to my original “ticket” and opened up another to better defend me). She commented that it was blatantly obvious that the guest was lying and fabricating stories and that I was being vilified unfairly. When asked why the video was rejected she said that videos are unacceptable because they may have a virus. Then the original agent said all forms of media are acceptable but I couldn’t send her the video. This had become a Kafka nightmare.

Every professional, honorable company provides standard protocols and procedures to follow for every type of action that may occur. Airbnb does not. At no time did Airbnb send a notification to alert and explain an impending investigation. This is a simple, professional courtesy. Airbnb never provided me with information as to what steps I would need to protect my rights during this investigation. Airbnb never provided information as to collecting specific evidence (recordings, videos, photos) or a timeline to furnish them. The investigators failed to provide this.

Airbnb never informed me that my Airbnb listings were removed and when. Airbnb has yet to inform me how I will recoup my lost booking income since my listings remain inactive. Will Airbnb ever apologize to me for all my lost current and future booking money while my investigation was underway? Will Airbnb ban this guest for eternity? All the evidence supports that I was intentionally maligned.

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Bad Experience with Airbnb Host in Vancouver

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I made a reservation on Airbnb for a bedroom with a private bathroom and paid the full amount on November 23, 2019 to stay December 5-8, 2019. On the check-in day, December 5th, the host emailed me to change my bedroom with a private bathroom to a shared bathroom at 3:00 AM in my timezone. I didn’t check my email until a few hours before the check-in time. I never expected a change in the reservation on the check-in day.

I insisted to the host that I still wanted the bedroom with private bathroom which I reserved and had paid for since November 23rd. The host replied that he already sent me an email about the change. However, he did not clarify on compensating me for the difference between a private bathroom and a shared bathroom. The only thing he replied was that he could cancel my reservation if I wanted.

On the check-in day at 10:00 PM at night, if an Airbnb guest cancels his reservation that he made on November 23rd, where can the guest stay that late at night? Why should I deal with this host and this situation? It was a very bad experience for using Airbnb for the first time in Vancouver.

How Can an Airbnb Host Control Mother Nature?

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Being relatively new to hosting, I am very proud of my five-star rating. Then on my last guest for the year, everything went wrong. The guest texted me that the internet was down. With this being the day before Thanksgiving, a repairman was not happening. Neither the guest nor Airbnb could understand. I was told it was my responsibility that all amenities should work on check-in; therefore, I was breaking a policy.

I pleaded, “How can I control Mother Nature?”

I went to the newspapers and found proof of the storm. 3700 peoples’ electricity was still down smack in the middle of where my house was. In the meantime, the security system which also controls the furnace and door adjacent kept sending me messages that the thermostat was at 80 degrees, and multiple doors were open. I again asked Airbnb for support and there was nothing.

After I could get into the home for inspection, I found tremendous damage. The router had been unplugged and affected the security system so the outside security cameras were off. I found locked areas broken into and rummaged through: two broken door handles, a door that was sealed shut, broken open. I had cabinets zip-tied that were off limits. They removed all the ties and used all the dishes. My fresh painted walls were scuffed so much, I have to repaint. Canned goods gotten into that were locked up.

I call this vandalism. I cannot get Airbnb to help me with making the guest responsible for their actions. I came to find out the router was unplugged. These people were looking for a free ride. Perks were already handed out like one free night as a gift at a lowered rate.

Close your bank account to stop con artist guests

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I hosted an Airbnb guest that booked my beach condo for over two months. On the first day, the guest said that the center support of one of the beds had broken off; I then had a handyman come by and fix it. The bed also has three wood support beams going across it at the bottom. Those were all intact and the bed could still be slept in. It was fine and didn’t need the center leg. The guest tried to say they couldn’t sleep in the bed.

Then they threw dirt around my condo, took pictures of it, and told Airbnb that my condo was not clean. I had previous reviews that said my condo was very clean and was cleaned spotlessly before they arrived. The guest then got Airbnb to give them a 50-percent discount for the 20 days they were in my condo and also let them cancel their reservations without my consent.

This guest got a beach condo for $45 per night on the California Coast of San Clemente in which Motel 6 charges at least $150-200 a night. The people were con artists. After they left, my sink and the bathtub were filthy. They ruined my expensive toaster with grease. Airbnb took their side and wouldn’t even listen to a word I had to say. I got paid for 30 days and will not reimburse Airbnb for the money they refunded.

I put a stop payment on my bank account so they cannot take money out of it. I am going to close my account now. I am done with this sham of a company; they should be shut down.