I made a booking for a week at a hotel in London via Airbnb. All seemed fine, until arriving at the property I was asked to pay an extra charge for VAT — a government tax. I’m really happy to pay my bills, but not happy when I thought the tariff I paid directly to Airbnb included taxes.

I thought this for two reasons. Firstly, their booking website said that the quoted amount was “including additional fees and taxes” and secondly, the Airbnb invoice said “VAT is charged at the time of payment.” Of course, I paid them, thinking my payment was all inclusive.

I’ve had at least four exchanges with the help centre. No one answered my question why their website and tax invoice were inaccurate, and basically fobbing me off. After the fourth exchange my customer manager “closed the case.” Not good enough.

Any suggestions how I can take this higher up? At best, if they fix their website so that other people don’t get caught, it’s a start. The hotel also said that this happens all the time with Airbnb clients.

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Our experience at this Airbnb was horrible. The check-in code wouldn’t work to open the door and we later found out our hosts were spying on us with a video camera. The host later contacted us to ask us to get the flies out of the porch area as the door was slightly ajar. We then realized the listing states there was a security camera and the hosts were actively watching us.

Lastly there were no board games as stated in the listing. While in good faith we disregarded these instances, we received a final payment invoice charging us $180 for an “extra person.” I contacted the host who did nothing, which was followed by the real icing on the cake. I left an honest and decent four-star review suggesting to future renters they should be aware of the issues above. The host then sent me a private, callous and slanderous message blaming me for the stay:

“The issues you have indicated were all oversights on your part… you should understand how to read listings and receipts.”

I warn other renters from staying at this Airbnb from hell. You would do well to take your business elsewhere.

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Anyways, his post had pictures of a pool table and a large couch with projectors. He also told me that he and his girlfriend traveled quite a bit and that I would have the whole townhome to myself. When I arrived, however, I found out that I basically got one bedroom and was told that downstairs was off limits. He then said that I could have one shelf in the fridge. I was in a room with no central air and the bathroom was absolutely disgusting. The sink took a while to drain but I was fine with that.

At first it was okay and I never used the kitchen. However, one time he and his girlfriend left and I began to spread out more into the upstairs living room areas. One day, I left for my rotation day quite early and was planning on cleaning up that evening. My host got back a little after I left and sent me image after image saying how disgusting it was to come back to a dirty house. He then kept sending me images and pictures saying that I was irresponsible and that I needed to clean up. He kept harassing me until I paid him $50 apologizing after which he basically didn’t say anything. The irony was he and his girlfriend moved a bunch of their stuff back and piled it all over the kitchen.

I was pretty much just left in my room all the time because it was too awkward to go use the house. He disabled the heat and the cable while he was gone so there was a span of five days where I was living in a 50-degree house. After I checked out, he messaged me saying that one of his towels was missing and that the drain was clogged. After three weeks, he sent a message requesting $45 to repair the drain. When I mentioned the $50 I had already paid him previously as an extra/coverage for such fees, he said that that didn’t count and that I paid him without him asking — this time, he was requesting the $45.

It was awful. I was confined to a room for ten weeks and basically never really got to use the house. He got angry when I tried to clean up the kitchen with cleaning supplies I bought (he didn’t leave any cleaning supplies). He said that he only preferred to clean with his own supplies but he kept them hidden away and would charge $30 every time something needed to be extensively cleaned, which he found to be quite often. Furthermore, there were amenities on his listing (pool table, a projector lounge, large TV) that were inaccessible to me. Basically, he harassed me to sign up and then I stayed in one room. Horrible.

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Surprise, surprise: the host had a ‘no cancellation refund’ policy. In the meantime, I contacted the host to explain that we had booked for three days and it was a mistake. The host agreed to repay some small part of the amount I paid. I paid £143 and he agreed to repay €125 minus taxes; all in all, a big amount lost for nothing.

Then he kept making excuses that I should ask for the money back via Airbnb, which was the first thing I did. He kept claiming he could not see the request, which was clearly a lie. Then I realized that he kept leading me on so I didn’t have the time to write a bad review. Instead, I cut my losses and wrote a very expensive bad review for the host.

Airbnb has been on his side not compensating me in any shape or form. Therefore, the host, with Airbnb’s blessing and full support, stole £143 from my account. Please beware of these thieves. I was also a host on Airbnb. Needless to say, they have lost me with this support for thieves.

Beware of these scammers; do not book their place. Use Booking.com — what you see is what you get with no hidden fees and theft of money from accounts with lack of service provision.

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My criteria was four nights for five guests. Airbnb returned with a quote of R1900 and showed pictures of the rooms indicating one for two people and other one for three. We left early in the morning and were basically on the road the whole time. I was driving.

When we finally arrived at the destination, first they were looking for my booking and then the manager had to come assist. I, in the meantime, went through my emails to show them the reservation when I saw that at only 18:00 in the evening the guesthouse had sent me an email at 14:30 to say that we must book additional two rooms to accommodate us.

The purpose of using a site like Airbnb is to find the cheapest accommodation and/or a place with proper and suitable accommodation but it still remained my decision. The pictures of accommodation looked good because I showed it to two of my companions to get their approval before booking and they agreed it looked acceptable.

At the end of the day, we did not take the room and luckily my friend could accommodate us for the night. I had to find accommodations for the following three nights. I paid much more but at the end of the day I had quality for my money.

The guesthouse manager or owner said he would also find out from Airbnb about what went wrong but I think it did not really matter to him; I already paid Airbnb for accommodation, thus he will get his money irrespective if we used the place. Now I am trying to recover my money from Airbnb.

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I was cool with that so I booked and a confirmation was sent. When I had a chance to go through the confirmation email, I noticed another completely new set of house rules, including “no additional guests unless they were approved by the host” and also a $25/guest per night charge if I had more than two overnight guests.

I am a home-based massage therapist so I contacted the host to asked if it would be allowed for me to see my clients while I was there. She literally said no, that they lived upstairs and didn’t allow extra traffic in their home. I thought I was renting an entire place, not a part of someone else’s home. The listing initially said English Basement Apartment.

Being my first time, I just thought this was how Airbnb does things and sucked it up as a $2500 loss. Until my neighbor who uses Airbnb all the time told me that it is a violation for a host not to disclose all house rules in their listing.

I contacted Airbnb for a refund or some type of resolution, as the cancellation policy was the long-term strict type (literally no chance of a refund). As of now they are upholding the deceitful, dishonest listing of the host, saying the host has a right to limit the number of guests, which I never disputed. I just wish I would’ve been told in advance and I would’ve chosen a different listing. I will never use Airbnb again; it’s such a scam. Has anyone ever sued a host before?

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I was staying at an Airbnb in New Zealand. The place was good and the host seemed very nice. The problems started to occur when we checked out. We ran out of time (we were travelling far away that day) so we didn’t wash the dishes for our breakfast. It was kind of messy in the kitchen but we didn’t break anything and we reported the right number of people for check in.

After we left, the host got angry and wanted me to pay $60. I just don’t get it: in the house rules, they stated the fees only applied when we smoked, not for the dishes. I’m confused: can someone tell me what should I do? Other Airbnb properties seemed fine when we left the house with dishes unwashed. Should I reject or accept the request? Please help me understand.

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During my stay, I went onto the listing and found out the next guests had cancelled and I could book that extra week. Great, except when I went to book, that extra week was going to cost me around $3000. The place was less than $100 a night so I thought it was a glitch and got in touch with Airbnb.

What happened was the host had raised the nightly price on the Airbnb site during my stay and Airbnb wanted to charge me the new price for my entire stay. I had to pay the higher price for the period I’d already stayed, not just the extra week.

Luckily, in my case I got in touch with the host who was horrified and happily put in special pricing on his end so I could book the extra week at the original price. However, that isn’t always going to happen and if it hadn’t been such a huge difference in the price, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed. I wanted to post this because it’s something people aren’t aware of and could really screw guests over.

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I stayed at an Airbnb for three nights in February paying £1300 and thinking the outdoor Jacuzzi was included in this price. A few months after and just before Christmas, the manager asked for £250 to be paid directly to her for use of the outdoor equipment. I did not pay as I felt uncomfortable with the request and Airbnb recommended not do to do this type of transaction. The manager shared with me that she was fed up with Airbnb because “they have to accept bookings”.

Before leaving we ensured the house was tidy and in good order. The manager advised cleaners would be arriving at 11:30 AM after we had left but everything was left clean. The microwave was only used for sterilizing baby bottles but a very dirty picture was produced when a claim for £500 was made. Cigarette butts were all over the grounds and my sister cleared some away.

We were accused of leaving these and a difficult to see photo of a butt was evidence. A bed was shown with a mattress cover very stained. A clean sheet could be seen on the floor. It’s horrible to think only one clean sheet covered the staining and that one of us slept on that bed. The £500 claimed by the host manager was for a new mattress, mattress cover, pillows, cleaning of the microwave, and picking up the cigarette butts.

Airbnb did not contact me (they have my phone and email details) and agreed without consultation to a payment of £250. I cannot describe how angry I am right now but really want to warn others who might book this property. The photos were not dated. I think the manager was miffed we did not pay for the Jacuzzi and so got her money another way – a shameful scam. I have attached the picture, a very odd colour of red and green staining. We are all very worried who got this horrid bed if indeed it was in the house we rented.

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I have reported this issue to Airbnb. It involves booking issues. A courteous young man tried to help. Unfortunately, he works for a company that has no control or, evidently, no interest in the legitimacy of its listed rental properties.

My friends and I are planning a trip to Spain and Morocco. We are trying to pay ahead and have all issues resolved before our departure date. We have, so far, had very little trouble with booking in Spain. The only issue is that when searching for a property you enter the number of guests and the number of nights requested. Then a list of available properties appears, and you choose a property and book it.

At that time most properties either give you the option of either a partial or a full payment. We always chose the full payment option. As to the number of nights, that isn’t exactly the information the computer needs; it needs the day of arrival and day of departure, not the number of nights. It took us a while and several mistakes to figure this out. A clue from Airbnb would have been helpful.

Other than the number of nights issue, Spain, so far, has been relatively smooth sailing. I say relatively because here comes the headache… Morocco.

As with Spain, we entered the dates and number of guests and a list of available properties appeared. We read the comments, compared prices, and chose a place that was listed at $87/night. As with our other bookings , when a partial or full payment was given, we would chose the full payment option. Our total appeared on the screen as $524.22. Okay, fine, we say. Joke was soon to be on us.

The next email from this property was about a new charge of $976, with add-ons of a cleaning fee of $39.84 (reasonable) and a service fee of $111.60. A charge of $137.54/night was being charged per guest. Whatever happened to the $87 originally quoted in the initial property description?

After making an inquiry as to the change, a new total cost was emailed to us. This time the total was in Euros – €725.00 – with a cleaning fee of €35 and a service charge of of €27.13 deducted from the total. So, when you look at a property, after having submitted all the necessary information, and you receive a list of available properties that meet your criteria, and they advertise a price, beware. Once they have your credit card, it’s open season for bait-and-switch scams, and Airbnb can but won’t do anything about it. Buyer beware.

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