Tag Archives: airbnb guest review

“Furnished” studio apartment was not furnished!

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I am English and live and work in Strasbourg, France. I sold my apartment and travelled for a few weeks, then came back to Strasbourg. I checked into a hotel and looked for an airbnb for a month while I look for somewhere more permanent. I found a place on Airbnb that advertised as a “furnished studio, city centre” and I clicked on “Reserve”. Within 24 hours my reservation was accepted and my payment taken and I arranged to meet the owner at the property so she could show me how everything worked. Fine, I thought. Then, half an hour before the appointment, while I was already on my way there, she called to say she had to cancel, because there was no bed in the apartment. I said this caused me a difficulty, because it would take a while to get the refund and I couldn’t afford to pay up for another rental right away, leaving me homeless. I met her at the property anyway, and there was no bed. She asked me if I could take delivery of a new bed on the Tuesday, the day I was to move in. I said fine. She then called me later to say that the bed would not arrive for two weeks, and she would offer me a refund of 200 euros (nearly a quarter of the total). I agreed to this, feeling I had no choice.

In the meantime I bought myself a floor mattress and some bed linen, and stayed three extra nights in the hotel while I was doing all this, which cost me much more than the 200 euros she was refunding, which in any case I had not received yet.

When I got in on the Friday, the place was empty. There was a chest of drawers and a table and chair, a fridge, hotplate and microwave, and that was it. I had to buy a plate and cup, knife and fork, saucepan and so on. I then wrote her a message to tell her all this (in addition, the paintwork was peeling off the bathroom walls, which is hardly hygienic), and her response (the latest so far) was that she had been willing to cancel, but I had refused (yes, she ought not to have accepted and had my payment taken) and that she had had no idea of the state of the place until the day she agreed to meet me there (after my payment had been taken). I took pictures as soon as I arrived there (three days after the date I had booked and paid for) but am not holding my breath for further refunds.

Is there anything I can do?

Paying $40/night to Walk on Eggshells to my Room

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Overall, I would call this an uncomfortable Airbnb experience. The host was Beverley in North Port, Florida and the room was called “It’s a large private bed and bath” Yes, it was clean, and Beverley provided 3 mini bagels plus some fruit, which was nice. The bed was super high and a bit wobbly, and the mini fridge goes off loudly for intervals in the night–but those are non-issues for a moderate/deep sleeper. However, much as I am the kind of guest who made myself scarce and basically used the room to sleep each night, I didn’t get the sense that common areas including the kitchen or living room were truly open to guests. That was one of a few unspoken rules/expectations that I encountered here, and I was walking a bit on eggshells by the end. I suggested things like the 10pm curfew could be put up front in the house rules section for everyone’s benefit. That there are children in the house REALLY changes the dynamic. I was accosted on the 2nd night by Beverley for coming home at 1am–she said her children were disrupted from their routines from asking about my whereabouts and the noise even though I tiptoed in each night. I felt bad and her children deserve to sleep, but this was something I completely didn’t anticipate. I figured if someone’s putting up her house for airbnb that they would have thought of the possibility that the guest may not follow their sleeping schedule. I didn’t pay $40/night to come home early every night on my vacation for fear of disturbing the sleep of children, and would have considered that before booking, if I knew that was an expectation.

There were other things which I won’t go into, because I don’t want to speak ill of a person who seems like an OK person, but the place just wasn’t suited for Airbnb. She did say some things that were slightly racial (I am Asian) and I talked to her about that and will give the benefit of doubt. Yes, I reached out to Beverley privately before writing this review. We talked out some things up there, but it was not an easy convo (she accused me of some things that I did not do and insinuated that her daughter had abilities to perceive when something is “wrong” with someone, and that she perceived that about me when she first saw me, which was VERY uncalled for) and there are some other things that I am leaving unsaid. I don’t think Beverly is a bad person, and I wish her well. I made one mistake which I apologized to her for, which was bringing my boyfriend in for 15 min after I had given her an estimated time frame about an hour earlier. He came later and I forgot to text her before entering the house, thinking we would just drop off the items quickly, but when we stayed a few more minutes to apply sunscreen before heading out, she had covertly entered the house and saw/heard us, and later accused me of purposely coming in the house with my bf while she went out, which was so not true. It was just a mistake on my part and I did apologize.

Conclusion: I just don’t think this was a house that was ready for prime time on Airbnb. If I could do it over, I should’ve just paid more to get a place where I could feel free to be a normal person operating on my own time and feel free walking around. I wanted to post this since it couldn’t get posted on Airbnb in time.

First and LAST time airbnb customer

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I had never used airbnb before but was traveling with family to California for a wedding. My cousin was nice enough to book a place for us using airbnb. I was traveling with 2 other adults and 3 children so needless to say we were disappointed to find that she had only booked us a 2 bedroom condo but figured we’d make it work. That was until we got there and saw the condition of the place. It was cramped and filthy. The one bathroom was moldy and the sink was broken. The mattress in the master bedroom was stained with blood and urine. The kicker was there was no A/C and it was over 100 out. We had no idea what we were going to do until a man approached us and told us he was the landlord and that the place was not in fact a condo but an apartment and the tenant was in violation of his lease by renting it to us and we had to leave. We contacted the owner for a refund and he insisted that the landlord had told him we could stay but that he would refund us. So then the 6 of us basically homeless in LA attempted to book another place on airbnb. We found a place that looked great. It bragged of city views in a safe neighborhood so we booked it and headed out. On the way a friend from home said he could help us get a huge discount at a hotel starting the next night. We called the host of the place we just booked literally minutes earlier and asked if we could change our stay to just one night and offered to pay the cleaning fee as well. He said ok so we started our drive there. We started noticing that the neighborhood we were driving into was looking less and less safe the closer we got and then we drove up a street that was literally inhabited by only homeless people in tents. Of course, the house was right around the corner. We pulled up to a small 2 family home next to an open lot that had a 30 foot drop with no fence and garbage everywhere. We then received an email from our host saying that we were just too complicated for him and we should cancel our reservation. At this point, we didn’t want to stay there anyway but wanted to ensure a refund. The host came outside and we asked him to contact airbnb letting them know he was canceling not us. He said no, we had to do it first and then he would agree. Of course he never did and we ended up pleading with airbnb for a refund. This guy was completely fine with telling us we couldn’t stay but keeping $1500. It took 5 days for a refund so thank goodness we got a discount at the hotel or we wouldn’t have been able to afford to stay anywhere. We should have just booked an affordable hotel from the start. Never again!

Chicago 4th of July Nightmare

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The host for my stay at a luxury condo in Chicago over 4th of July weekend told me that if I didn’t accept an unsolicited offer for a ride from the airport, I couldn’t stay at his place. I know what you’re thinking, I have “negative energy” for not accepting such a gracious offer from the host even though they asked for my credit card information, well that’s what the host said. It was a nightmare as I was on the way from the airport in a cab to the place when he refused to host me so I had to reserve a two nights in the only hotel in town that had availability: the four seasons. That’s right it cost me a fortune but it ended up being great at the hotel. I will never use Airbnb again!

AIRBNB Loophole

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I have made three reservations on non consecutive dates on Airbnb… the credit card was pre-approved and the reservation completed… or was it? Apparently one of the reservations did not go through, as my creditcard had gone over the limit because of the two previous transactions. However, because of the pre approval, I was now liable to pay for this one reservation that wasn’t completed. The problem was that, because my card was already above the limits, I did not have how to pay. So, the policy of the website is to keep trying the payment until it works, regardless of how many times it would take. I was stuck with a payment to make and no certainty about the reservation outcomes (BUT OF COURSE HELLBNB will keep the fees if I get refund)… If that was not enough, a representative kept on stalking me with inumerous emails demanding me to pick up my phone because he wanted to call me… I called the 1.888 and of course the attendants were as useless as their company. NEVER AGAIN