251–260 of 406 posts
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> I never received my money back based off of a technicality That's why try to always pay with credit card (preferably Amex).
And what, do a chargeback? That's a very easy way to get banned for life from the platform.
I'll add my AirBnB anecdote. We were in Hawaii. We checked into the AirBnB, and the first thing my wife noticed was that there were crumbs of food all along the walls of the kitchen. She murmured something about this not being good and attracting bugs. We turn off the lights, and a few minutes later she jumped up, claiming there was something on her. We turned on the lights, and saw nothing. I brushed it off. A few m…
To be fair it actually is pretty common to see 3 inch cockroaches running around in Hawaii and other tropical places, even in reasonably nice/clean houses. Especially in older houses that might not be insulated or sealed very well (given the weather there's not much need to insulate for heat purposes).
Granted, keeping things clean and making an effort to get rid of bugs when you do see them will obviously make things better, and it sounds like this host was probably more neglectful than they should have been.
This is honestly a really interesting example though - a lot of people's stated reason for liking AirBnB is being in a more authentic, local environment. But then when you have different expectations about the conditions than a local person living in that house might have, it becomes a bad experience that AirBnB should solve. Where should the line be? If you want them to standardize things and make sure all listings are comfortable for the widest range of people possible, doesn't that just end up looking exactly like a hotel?
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Depending on your policy, your homeowners insurance or renters insurance (at your long-term home) may cover you for theft from hotels, Airbnbs, etc. If yours doesn't, you could shop around for one that does.
As a digital nomad, I have no long-term home. I literally live in Airbnbs. I tried finding a policy to cover me, but none exists. Policies also vary a lot with burglaries - eg some require signs of forced entry.
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I'll add to this as well. I've had two incidents over the past year. 1. I rented a place and was told that I could check-in whenever. When I got there, the key wasn't available and I wasn't able to contact the host. I was essentially just standing around for three hours waiting for Airbnb to respond. Apparently, you can contact them, but it's extremely difficult to call them if you're international unless you want to…
> I never received my money back based off of a technicality That's why try to always pay with credit card (preferably Amex).
> If the guest cancels less than 7 days in advance or decides to leave early after check-in, the nights not spent are not refunded.
^ I basically got hit with that rule.
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Edit: Wanted to add that I'm pretty sure AMEX has a partnership with Airbnb since I always notice the promotional deals pop up. Spend $200, get $50 back.
I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…
I'll add to this as well. I've had two incidents over the past year. 1. I rented a place and was told that I could check-in whenever. When I got there, the key wasn't available and I wasn't able to contact the host. I was essentially just standing around for three hours waiting for Airbnb to respond. Apparently, you can contact them, but it's extremely difficult to call them if you're international unless you want to…
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Their response was that I should have contacted them immediately... but they don't make it easy to contact them. Companies like this should be left to die.
it's good to hear the horror stories like this. here's hoping they IPO so I can short them! seriously, companies like this are not long for this world.
I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…
I consider Airbnb to be a menace to society. The hotel industry exists for a reason. I've been lucky and never had a truly bad experience with Airbnb, but I've had some lousy ones and never a top notch or even good one. Conversely hotels usually provide at least decent service and usually are great in my experience. What I really dislike about Airbnb is the feeling of being an invader in a neighborhood. Doing somethi…
I never understood appeal of AirBnB. We used to travel a lot and thought AirBnB would be cheaper to equivalent hotels but it usually is about same or more expensive but with less amenities. For example: * There is no room service. You can order delivery but room service has certain charms especially at 2AM. * In hotels, you come back to a clean room at the day's end. * There is cleaning fee for many AirBnB. With hote…
That makes no sense to me. Airbnb has changed travelling for these reasons: * It is cheaper for the location * It has a kitchen * It feels like a home I don't understand these kind of comments. Can you remember any of the hotel room you've been in the previous years? I can't. Can you remember any of the airbnb you've stayed at? I remember every one of them. There is a true home feeling to them.
A lot of my friends who stay in AirBnB list same reasons for using it. Also they say that they like to live like locals when traveling.
I can respect it but I really don't want to feel like at home on vacation. Hotels give me that feeling of adventure and travel. I have couch surfed and enjoyed it. But that was probably because I was visiting a friend in burbs without any agenda of "travel".
Kitchen is cool but then again I am on vacation, I don't want to cook.
I have never stayed in any AirBnB but always compared AirBnBs and hotels before vacation. At least, in the US, hotels and AirBnB of comparable quality and location cost about same. Even if it is any cheaper, it is not by much.
And now you asked, yes some of my favorite hotels are Eden Roc in Miami, and Marriott in Maui. Yeah they are a little bit more luxurious compared our normal hotels but highly recommended for special occasions.
I had booked an apartment but the host was not replying to any of my messages/sms/calls. Fearing something was fishy I opened an Airbnb support ticket 3 days before my the checkin date. In those 3 days Airbnb support did not reply to me at all. It was a shitty feeling, I wanted to book another place but I had already paid for this one.
1 day before checkin, the host replied with a short message that I could checkin next day, he didn't address any of my questions nor any of my follow-up messages. Next day I go to the specified address of the villa and call the host, the host picks up this time but tells me that the address on Airbnb is wrong and sends me to another location. I go to the second location, the building does not look anything like the one in the photos, there is nobody there and I cannot get inside, the neighbour shouts that the building is empty because the lease contract has expired a month ago. it starts raining and I am standing there on the street with all my baggage and it starts to rain. I call the host, now really angry and he starts apologising that he is not even the landlord but just a guy from another country (India) and he does not know much about the booked property then he stops responding.
At this point I submit to the reality that this listing is some sort of scam and start looking for ways to contact Airbnb over phone to get urgent help since I have nowhere to go.
The Airbnb website is useless, cannot find any phone numbers to call. Finally I google and read on some forum, that there is no phone number for Airbnb in Indonesia and that I need to make a call to a US number. I make the call and they are very helpful. They tell me they will try to contact the host in the next 30 minutes and that I should look for other suitable listings. After 30 minutes they contact me again and they agree to cancel my previous booking so that I can book something else. I end up booking something which was is in the same price range but much lower standard (not much choice when doing same-day booking).
I talked to Airbnb support for 7 minutes in total and that cost me 28 EUR. Airbnb later agreed to refund me the 28 EUR for the phone calls.
After this experiece I am more keen on using booking.com again, have not had any such bad experience with them yet.