Airbnb Reviews 

A Disturbing Experience | Future Guests Should Be Aware

I rarely write reviews like this, but future guests deserve an accurate account of what happened.

We paid approximately $1,960 for three nights, including an additional charge for a 2:00 pm check-in. The first accommodation had a strong, musky odor, coming from air condition vent or plumbing with concerns about the of the filters and the overall cleanliness.Because of these issues, we were moved to the King Suite.

Unfortunately, the King Suite was also in unacceptable condition and did not appear ready for guests. The rental space had broken windows, broken tile, dirty worn scatter rugs, mold in toothbrush holder and significant cleanliness issues. These were not minor cosmetic concerns. The condition of the room made us question how it had been approved for occupancy or offered for rent.

More seriously, someone entered our room while we were away and without us being present, while our personal belongings and valuables were inside. This was deeply unsettling and left us feeling that our privacy and security had been compromised.

Because of these issues, we left a full night early, even though we had paid for the stay. We did not leave because our plans changed; we left because we were no longer comfortable remaining at the property.

Afterward, I was told that the owner needed approximately two weeks to investigate. I waited in good faith, but by the time the process concluded, the Airbnb review window had expired. The resolution consisted only of a minimal refund for the unused night and did not adequately address the condition of the King Suite, the room- entry concern or the overall experience.

I was also disappointed with Airbnb’s handling of the situation. Despite reporting concerns about the accommodation and someone entering the room while we were away, in detailed documentation and correspondence between us and the management company throughout the entire time we were there they did nothing for us.I did not feel adequately protected or supported.

Future guests should document serious problems immediately, communicate through Airbnb whenever possible and avoid missing review or dispute deadlines while waiting for promised investigations or resolutions. Privacy, security, cleanliness and transparency should not be negotiable. After this experience, I would be extremely hesitant to place that level of trust in the host or the platform again.

Airbnb cancelled my confirmed booking and left me without a realistic solution

I booked an Airbnb in Ierapetra, Crete, well in advance for 10–16 August for approximately €380.

About 10 days after making the reservation, the host cancelled because the listing had been removed from Airbnb. I had done absolutely nothing wrong.

I immediately contacted Airbnb Support and asked them to help me find comparable accommodation in Ierapetra for the same dates. However, the available alternatives were around €900 because it was peak season in Crete.

Airbnb offered me €20, then €50, and finally €100 in travel credit valid for one year. None of these offers solved the actual problem: I had a confirmed €380 booking and suddenly needed to find comparable accommodation at more than twice the price.

Eventually, a friend found an apartment directly from an owner in Ierapetra for €480 for the same dates. I contacted Airbnb and asked them to cover the €100 difference so I could simply solve the problem and keep my holiday plans.

Airbnb said they could consider the €100, but only if the owner could provide a legal receipt. Unfortunately, the owner could not provide one, so I could not book the apartment.

The result? I had a confirmed reservation, the host cancelled through no fault of mine, and Airbnb’s solution was nowhere near enough to secure comparable accommodation.

I wasn’t asking for a luxury upgrade. I was asking Airbnb to help me replace a booking that was cancelled through no fault of my own.

This experience seriously damaged my trust in Airbnb. What is the point of booking months in advance if a host/listing can disappear and the customer is then left to deal with peak-season prices alone?

Very disappointing customer support and a very poor solution to a problem I did not cause.

I am a five star host on thispage and am glad for the ability for costumers to find me, but sadly Airbnb has the worst costumer service I have ever experienced.
They don’t read messages, even if they are repeated several times, close cases that haven’t been resolved, ignore issues and don’t respond. It is a big trial of patience trying to speak with them and I have just given up.

The worst app, always taking guests side. Cant wait for it to disapear and something better replace this crab. They make money on your property and in return they give you 0 respect as a Host. They cancelled a reservation without calling me or messaging me and sent a full refund to à guest who stayed over 24h. When I reached out to the person who cancelled the reservation she lied to my fave that she called me when I am 1000% sure I had no missed calls and when I called her out she was will ask the guest to refund you. I hope this platform disapear.

I’m tired of this platform!! Customer support keep just guest side. Host is left out by bad reviews of guest. Fustrated host ruin my reviews and my work!!

I have used Air BnB on numerous occasions but this time everything went wrong. It used to be easy to offer a host an amount less than their asking price. I looked at an apartment for 5 nights and thought the price high since I was booking for the next day so short notice. I messaged the host with my offer and she accepted. She was not able to send me the new price and support was dumber than rocks! No help at all so we had to figure out a way around Air BnB which was not easy since they block messages with any contact info. I cannot believe support could not I get it done when they clearly could see that the host and I had agreed on a price! Blatant and total incompetence. I will use another booking site in the future.

Very, very poor customer service from Airbnb. They are of no help when my host wants to charge me more after I made my reservation. Shame on them1

Airbnb double booked our rental in Santa Fe. To make up for it, they offered to comp the rental fee to pay for another rental. They deposited the money in my account as promised, then reversed it the next day, I've made numerous calls to customer service and have been passed around to agents that are obviously in a call center outside of USA. I'll never use them again.

Got stranded in London because the guy cancelled on the evening I was arriving.It was scary and expensive.
I ended up in a premier Inn.
I will be reluctant to use airbnb in future as I found out he ran a company that has been dissolved.Why do airbnb not vet their hosts better.?
Just use Premeir Inn, its scary and stressful being cancelled at the last minute.

Will not ever be booking with Airbnb again. Absolutely awful complaints service that don’t deal with any issues. I stayed in an apartment which I didn’t think was up to standard because the hot water wasn’t working, it was far too small for 4 people and the sofabed wasn’t big enough to sleep on. I gave the property 3 stars in my review and was actually quite complementary considering. In retaliation he changed his review of us to which was 5 stars and excellent guests to say we left a mess everywhere. He also tried to charge us £50 for additional cleaning 3 days after we had left and left 1 photo of a hair by the sink as his evidence. I asked for his review to be removed and shared photo evidence to show we had left the apartment clean and tidy and I showed screenshots of how he changed his review. Airbnb refused to remove the review and when you speak to a senior team member about this they say they cannot remove the review because of system limitations. There is nobody to talk to about the situation, they don’t actually look at the evidence you send and you can’t talk to the people who make the decisions on the reviews. There is no way to protect customers from hosts giving negative reviews simply because they are not happy with what you have said.

I’m an Airbnb Superhost managing 150+ listings, and this has been one of the most frustrating support experiences I have had with a major platform.

A relatively straightforward account-recovery issue affecting my hosting operations has now remained unresolved for more than a week.

During that time:

📞 THREE supervisor callbacks were promised — NONE happened
🔁 I was passed between multiple agents and cases
📝 I had to repeat the same information several times
✅ The affected account holder was already verified and had authorised me to communicate on his behalf
❌ One case that had supposedly been escalated to a supervisor was CLOSED WITHOUT RESOLUTION
❌ There has still been no clear ownership of the issue

The most frustrating part is that the technical problem itself is not complicated: access to an old Airbnb account is blocked because the verification code is being sent to an inaccessible email address. Airbnb has already verified the account holder, yet we are still waiting for someone with the authority to provide a secure recovery route.

I have now submitted a FORMAL COMPLAINT and escalated the matter publicly because the normal support process has failed to resolve it.

I used to regard Airbnb’s customer service as one of the things that distinguished it from other booking platforms. As a Superhost with a significant number of listings, this experience has seriously damaged that confidence.

I am still hoping Airbnb will take ownership, resolve the account-recovery issue, and review how this case has been handled.

Booked a stay in Milan for Monza F1, Host cancelled 3 days before meant to check in, no notice, just got an email. Following this Air BnB said the refund process is 15 business days. So not only was I left with 3 days to find a hotel in Milan on F1 weekend I also had to try and come up with the money to cover the new hotel for the 15 days until the refund came in.

An utter nightmare!! Not what the property looked like on the web. DISAPPOINTING

DO NOT HOST WITH THESE CRIMINALS! As a host you have no protection at all. They will always take the guest side, even if the guest is completely trashed your place. DO NOT USE

Our last booked trip, we were uninformed via email or on the host's webpage that a refund was only available IF the host was able to re-book the same dates with another customer. Due to family health issues, we had to cancel our reservation. Initially, the host refused to give us back any money. We brought it to AirBNB's attention. AirBNB supported the host due to their policies. We didn't have screenshots supporting the lack of evidence from the host. There was no email sent to us so we could not post a review of the host and the unpleasant situation. Unforunately, she maintains a 5 star rating. The host did give us back 50% of our money after we complained to AirBNB, but said she was only doing it because of the severity of our situation and that she didn't have to give us back anything according to "her policy". Ultimately, this is the reason that we will no longer be using AirBNB. We had used them for well over a decade with GREAT experiences along the way. Maybe these policies were always in place and we just got lucky in the past with previous hosts giving us 100% of our money back with early cancellations?? Who knows... I think there should be a better balance of helping the hosts AND helping the customers of the host. If you didn't have customers for your hosts, you wouldn't have a business. Although I don't believe "the customer is always right" is the best option, we definitely got shafted in this deal. To be honest, we thought we had a very valid case and that AirBNB would certainly reimburse us our money. Sadly, we have shared the experience with our family and friends. Sorry to leave on these terms after many good years of using AirBNB. We will be taking our business elsewhere for future stays. Wishing you all the best and hopefully you can find some ways to revise your policies that support both the hosts AND the customers of the hosts much better, not just hosts with their unposted policies. Maybe this host is the only one that has this type of policy, but it certainly ruined our experience.

I planned to stay in Istanbul from August 10 until October 5, 2026. Unfortunately, I had very bad experiences at both places where I stayed.

The first place was Zalal's room in her sister's apartment on Hayretçi Sokak No. 5/2 in Beyoğlu. I was supposed to stay in the apartment with Zalal's sister and her daughter. However, on the day I arrived, I found out that the daughter had mental health problems and had just run away from a mental hospital. Because of this, Zalal's sister could not stay at the apartment as planned, and I was told that they would have to rent another room to someone else.

This was not what I had expected or understood when making the reservation. There were also several other aspects of the accommodation that did not align with the information I had been given. The apartment was extremely hot, and there was only one small fan in my room.

I wanted to cancel my reservation, but the host would not, which meant I would have had to pay for almost the entire two-month stay. Airbnb eventually became involved. I even had to hire a Turkish attorney to accompany me when I returned the key and to record the handover. In the end, I received a partial refund.

Afterward, I wrote a review about my experience. The host responded disrespectfully, but two days later she asked Airbnb to remove both her review and mine.

During the dispute, she also sent me mean and upsetting messages throughout the day and even at night. The situation caused me so much anxiety that I contacted a hospital and even the police because the messages would not stop.

My second accommodation was one I originally found on Airbnb, though I later made a private agreement with the host, George, outside the Airbnb platform. He was the host and owner of Aram Kerisi on Ağaçlı Sokak No. 5 in Istanbul.

My experience there was even worse. The property was dirtier than the first accommodation, and I believed I had bedbugs. I stayed in Room No. 2 on the ground floor.

The laundry room was filthy. Towels, bedding, and other essentials were placed on the floor for some time before being washed, and guests had to wash their own clothes in the same washing machine. I also had an allergic reaction to the products they provided and had to buy my own products.

Two days after arriving, I discovered a moldy cheese sandwich inside the microwave. The sandwich and the plate were covered with mold. After I reported this, they washed all the dishes in the kitchen. They should have had everything in order before I moved in.

And just like that, another USD 1,000 was gone, and I had to pay extra money to change my ticket and run back to Denmark on August 22nd.

I am definitely considering closing my Airbnb account.

very bad customer support , they simply cannot do anything if the host does not reply , i have screenshot of the response of customer support as they clearly mentioned they cannot do anything if the host is not replying and we can only wait and do nothing as per company policy .

**Very disappointed with Airbnb**

I’m extremely disappointed with how Airbnb handled my complaint about the cleanliness of accommodation I stayed in.

I provided clear photographs and evidence showing the condition of the property, yet getting Airbnb to properly acknowledge the seriousness of the cleanliness issues was an incredibly frustrating and lengthy process.

What I find particularly disappointing is that Airbnb ultimately confirmed that the evidence I provided does **not violate their guidelines**, yet I still had to repeatedly push my case and fight to feel heard.

My biggest frustration is that I wanted to leave an honest review and warn other guests about my experience, including sharing photographs. Airbnb has now confirmed that the evidence does not breach their guidelines, so I will be sharing my experience publicly so that future guests can make an informed decision.

I feel Airbnb should be doing more to protect guests when genuine cleanliness concerns are raised, rather than making the process so difficult and exhausting.

This experience has seriously affected my confidence in Airbnb. I have used the platform before, but after the way this complaint was handled, I would think twice about booking through Airbnb again.

**If you are considering using Airbnb, I would strongly recommend reading reviews carefully and paying particular attention to comments about cleanliness.**

Airbnb has become a complete disgrace
I have used Airbnb for around 10 years, but my recent experience has convinced me that I will not be using it again.
The biggest problem is the way Airbnb now appears to be allowing certain commercial hosts to impose additional terms, charges and requirements on guests—sometimes buried deep within terms and conditions that are very easy to miss when making a booking. These are not necessarily costs that are made clear at the point where a customer thinks they are agreeing to the price of the accommodation.
What makes this even worse is Airbnb's response when things go wrong. Rather than protecting the customer who booked through its platform, Airbnb appears perfectly happy to hide behind the host's terms and wash its hands of the consequences.
In my case, I have been left dealing with a commercial operator rather than what most people would reasonably understand to be a genuine Airbnb host. I have always treated properties respectfully and left them clean, yet when I raised legitimate concerns about the property and the way the booking was handled, Airbnb's response was essentially a series of generic, automated-sounding messages rather than any meaningful attempt to resolve the issue.
There are also serious questions about the damage claims process. Damage had been reported correctly and promptly, and there was evidence that a previous guest had already raised concerns about damage. Yet money was still being withheld from guests. How can Airbnb's system give customers any confidence that these claims are being assessed fairly?
And this doesn't appear to be an isolated concern. There are numerous complaints from customers about unexpected additional charges, hosts imposing requirements that customers say were not sufficiently disclosed, disputes over deposits and money being retained, and people finding themselves liable for costs relating to accommodation or conditions they say they never agreed to.
At what point does Airbnb accept responsibility for the system it has created?
If Airbnb is going to act increasingly as a platform for commercial property-management companies, rather than individuals occasionally letting out their homes, then it needs to be completely transparent about that. Customers should know who they are actually contracting with, exactly what they will be charged, and what terms they are agreeing to before they pay.
Instead, Airbnb seems to have created a system where the headline price gets you through the door, additional conditions can appear elsewhere, and when you challenge them, customer support simply points you back towards the small print.
That's not transparency. It's not customer service. And it certainly isn't the Airbnb I remember using for the last decade.
I wouldn't trust Airbnb with a booking now, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants certainty about what they are actually paying for.

Airbnb called me for verification the day of the reservation. The operator misunderstood what I said and it led to the reservation being cancelled. The operator barely spoke English I might add. I couldn’t understand him and he obviously couldn’t understand me. Just so so so frustrating to have to deal with that while we were on the way to the Airbnb.