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My experience as an Airbnb Guest two weeks ago was not a great experience. I work hard to make sure my Airbnb unit is clean, comfy and in great working condition. I really wish that Airbnb would take more seriously hosts that don’t maintain or clean their properties.
Sorry it’s so long but I thought folks might like to see what happened on the guest side.
I booked a place for 2 days. Pretty fancy place right by the ocean.
Check in info was not provided other than address even though I sent a message to host before asking for instructions. It took me 30 minutes to find the hidden driveway that goes through to a one way street where you park you car to check in.
I was informed that there were registration and amenity fees that were mandatory even though I declined to use them. (The listing never said that it was mandatory). Add $100 . I was booking a condo, I had no idea the condo was in a resort hotel.
Check in and found the view lovely but the 2nd bedroom was actually a boxed-off area with a sliding door, no window or closet. Just a bed. Floor was dirty and sandy and only one pillow had a pillow case.
The sliding balcony door that is shared with other units on the same floor would not lock. (Both locks were broken). We barricaded the door to prevent access.
I contacted in writing less than 24 hours after check in my concerns and sent photos of issues. (I did it after my mother’s memorial). Host knew this.
He never offered to send anyone over to fix locks, or clean. He said that I was trying to scam him. I told him I would then contact Airbnb and to stop contacting me. He continued to send me messages but I ignored him at that point.
What proceeded as a guest was so frustrating. I had to request resolution through host which he declined and then I could send a notification to Airbnb.
Airbnb resolution asked if they could call. I said that I would prefer to respond via messaging.
Airbnb first offered me $50 which was less than I had requested. Over the course of the next 10 days, I received and/or sent over 30 emails. The rep continued to request to call and in fact tried a few times. My caller ID for Airbnb says Airbnb do not pick up. (I find that it’s always best to get things in writing with Airbnb).
He allowed the host a week to prove that I was untruthful. I questioned Airbnb how you could prove that my issues was untruthful if I provided pictures and he had other guests there in-between.
During this time he spoke with the host and finally offered me the exact same resolution as I rejected from the host via the first message with Airbnb.
I was told that he would now discuss it with his team leader and get back to me.
I wrote back letting him know that I was a bit frustrated about how I was being treated and how long and time consuming the process had been. I also mentioned for the first time that I was a Superhost and that this host failed to check in with me and when I did within 24 hours he was not trying to make it right.
Well to my surprise, Airbnb gave me much more compensation than what I was asking for and thanked me for being a superhost but it took over 30 messages to resolve. Seriously!
So in your judgment, the SH designation was the key? I supposed all hosts should take comfort in the fact that Airbnb doesn’t automatically side with the guest when there is an issue. From the guest side, like what happened to @JDD, it sounds pretty bad. May I ask what this host’s reviews were like? Average and number. I have numbers in my head that I always look for but I wonder if that helps.
Calling must be a component of their new Customer Service initiative. I had a question submitted via Twitter & they called, since I didn’t answer they left a message in my in-box. Call them message occurred several times after I asked them to message only.
4.8 but when I booked they were higher. Reviews were good but not very descriptive. When I booked about 6 months ago there wasn’t many options. I should have waited.
I’m not sure because it did seem like we were coming to a resolution. I am really surprise that they gave me much more compensation than I was asking for.
I’ve only had acceptable Airbnbs and my cutoff is 4.85. I also filter for Superhost and IB. 5 years ago I stayed in an excellent homeshare that only had 10 reviews at the time but now I look for listings with dozens, if not hundreds, of reviews. I know we all had to start somewhere but that’s true for hosts and guests. Let the inexperienced guests stay in the poorly rated Airbnbs, lol.
I agree. It was my first trip since the pandemic. I’ll have to remember to be more careful. I just checked the place I’m booked in Jan and it has 4.9, super host and great reviews. Whew.
I think that garbage was my expectation and is why I didn’t call them during my bad stay. @Lynick4442 I am so glad you didn’t take their crap and so happy for you that you won.
Well, I have a 2nd place booked and she is a new host, no reviews when I booked. I guess I’m living dangerously I’d already booked it before having this bad experience at the last place or I probably wouldn’t have.
The area we needed something in had a lot of other listings but those listings had really poor ratings and were just gross looking so I thought it better to take a chance on the new and enthusiastic host who, from the photos at least, has put a lot of care into her listing.
We don’t go there until Dec 18 or something so I’m keeping an eye on her listing and if she gets a bad review I will call in for a free cancelation on it. I’m already prepared to put a fight this time. She has received one review now and it was glowing so I have good hopes about it at least.
I’ve also never been in the position of wanting to go somewhere where I didn’t have good choices, so easy for me to say what I’d do.
Some of them have to be good, right? There also must be those hosts who start out strong, get good reviews and then slack it. Then they’ll pick it up again if their average starts to slide. Just like 80% of my students over the years, lots of folks just do enough to get to whatever mediocre standard they set for themselves.
You know, I have had a 4.92 rating for years. I got a few bad ones in my first year of hosting and no matter how many 5 stars I get it never budges. I have 390 reviews.
I came up with something like that years ago, and suggested it jokingly on the Airbnb forum. It could be a featured category- something like “Airbnb Bottom, matching horrible, clueless guests with terrible, clueless hosts. Because Airbnb is a place where everyone belongs”.
This is why I really don’t put much stock at all in star ratings. You have no idea whether the host had a 5* rating that got tanked by a 1 or 2 star revenge review that Airbnb refused to remove. The only thing I judge a listing by are the written reviews.
YEAH, I got a 3 star review from a guest who made fun of my disability and disclosed it in the review. I’m still very upset that it was allowed to remain. Mostly I just let it go but it really irks me.
The other bad review was one that was set up on purpose by a neighbor that I had issues with. It was her friend who stayed. I didn’t learn of it until after she checked out but again Air wouldn’t do anything.
Someone suggested it here last week on the thread about Airbnb purposely offering a filter for people to choose houses they clean themselves. I joking refer to these kinds of suggestions as Airbnb Minus.
Don’t forget stained, threadbare towels and linens- there’s so many things a “Minus” host can work on to make sure they get top search placement in that category.
We travel a lot and rent a lot of STRs (except, of course, during this pandemic). We were already renting STRs 10 years before Air We don’t go to poorly rated accommodations, but, in most places, we don’t care about how many reviews they have. We have even gone to 0-review places several times. In many cases, we have found truly lovely places for which we often were among the first guests.
We have occasionally found places with problems. One (a one-day stay) in Salt Lake was so bad that we did not even stay (it was very well reviewed btw). But we’ve never complained to Air—we simply provided the appropriate review.
In my view, as a guest (of course, we all have a very personal view of this):
it’s OK to have a few weaknesses in any place you stay at
travel is adventure and it’s perfectly fine to take a new rental
when you travel abroad in particular you have to be very accepting
I once stayed in a shared airbnb (separate suites with a shared common area) with the owner of the suite. She actually went out of town during my stay but then asked if I could clean my own suite for the next guest.
I’d already booked it before having this bad experience at the last place or I probably wouldn’t have.
We don’t go to poorly rated accommodations, but, in most places, we don’t care about how many reviews they have. We have even gone to 0-review places several times. In many cases, we have found truly lovely places for which we often were among the first guests.