To say be VERY careful when booking an Airbnb

[Shineynew]

Just an Airbnb word of warning...
We stayed in one in London lately. Apparently it was ‘newly renovated and chique’ (I think he meant chic).
Anyway - it was neither.It was dirty and mouldy and the sofa bed was broken so I had to sleep on an air bed which kept deflating.
I won’t go into the million and one things that were wrong with this place but fortunately Airbnb refunded us half so we were ok with that...
Ffwd two weeks and the listing is still there. They are still selling this mouldy flat as ‘newly renovated’ and ‘chique’. There is another review after mine saying exactly the same things. I contacted Airbnb who said ‘if we have a number of similar reports we will talk to the lister’. How many people does it take to say the place is a dump before Airbnb will pull it? More than 2 apparently.
And in the meantime, people are still booking it!!
Beware of Airbnb guys especially in London. I’ve attached some photos of this ‘chique’ place for you to judge for yourselves...

because endless Premier Inn, Easy Hotels, Travelodge are so much better.

Well, they will be doing things like conforming to fire regulations, health and safety legislation, the minimum wage. Trivial things like that.

I only tried to use them once. Booked a whole flat for four nights as there was a convention at the excel.

As soon as the Host realised this my booking was cancelled and the flat related for the times the price.

Oh how I laughed when I was at the convention, checked airbnb out of curiosity and found the grabby fuckers flat still available.

nothing stops fire regulations and health and safety legislations to apply to short lets.

Air bnb was created in 2008 it seems? Pretty sure holiday lets, BnB, and short term lets were very popular decades before that date! Even hotels use airBnB by the way.

I agree there are dives and dumps everywhere. It’s not exclusive to AirBnBs or even London. I was recently looking at a TripAdviser review I posted about 5 years ago of a place I had blocked from my memory. It was a supposedly 4 star hotel about 300 yards from Selfridges. It was the dirtiest , smelliest dump I have ever stayed in. I have genuinely stayed in cleaner, better equipped tin huts in East Aisan rainforests. It’s still on Trip Advisor and still raking in the shit reviews.

YABVU.

It is your responsibility to ensure the reviews are good, not air bnbs fault you're not very good at choosing an appropriate place

www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-scam-london

I live in central London. I loathe Airbnb and I feel sorry for anyone who books them on a budget. They are invariably scuzzy. Look the real estate you have to choose from. It's obvious a purpose built hotel like a travel lodge or a premier inn is going to be a better bet.

They'd have lost me at chique.

@ScarlettBlaize
You’re a real charmer!

(soz I see that link has already been posted. Well it's a great read!)

Airbnb causes so many problems for neighbours that I wouldn't use it. Why not stay at a hostel, a cheap hotel or a proper B&B where the owners pay tax and insurance, have to pass safety inspections and meet health standards? Better for everyone.

I have stopped booking air bnbs. They used to be great. More recently I have stayed in a number that are okayish to shit. I don't care if I get my money refunded, I want to stay somewhere nice in the first place.

And the place I booked on air bnb that was shit had all 5 star reviews. It was so awful that I don't believe they were real.

Same with Check-a-trade. I booked a removal firm, not a cheap one, but were offering what I needed. They did not deliver - literally. I had to threaten them with the Police before they delivered my furniture - over 48 hours late, damp, and broken, with parts missing.

They refused to give me any compensation because I didn't complain in writing for over 7 days. This was because I was still waiting for them to deliver some of my things!

Told check-a-trade this, and they've done feck all except publish my review. It's one of only 5 (very) negative reviews they have - but to be treated SO badly by a firm - and with evidence - surely these sites should be held responsible in some way?

Don't take check-a-trade as a guarantee - being on their site means nothing.

It is your responsibility to ensure the reviews are good, not air bnbs

And as the posts above and the linked article show, Airbnb and their various property owning users have various dodgy ways of removing bad reviews.

Yes if I look at hotel reviews they usually have some negative and some positive. By reading both you get a true idea of the place. Most air bnb places have a small number of very good reviews. I would not care if they deserved them, but in some places the reviews bear no reality to the place. So reviews saying how clean and well decorated the place is from people supposedly who stayed a month before you. And when you get there the photos have been doctored on site and the whole place badly needs decorated.

But, OP, you were not very careful. You didn’t read the reviews from 2019, some of which are awful.

What I can say, having stayed in a horrible AirBnb which had a number of rave reviews, is that you need to focus on the bad reviews when choosing.

I have stayed in a terrible air bnb with all 5 star reviews. I don't believe they ere real in retrospect.

£150 a night to sleep in a mouldy room on an air bed is obviously a ginormous rip off even in London.

AirB&B has ruined a lot of places.

My rule is to use mainly hotels for cities and if I'm going to a european ski/outdoor activity destination, I use airbnb as houses in small towns are usually good and vet thoroughly the reviews of the place before I go.

I have been caught out before. But I just call airbnb, get it cancelled and refunded and then book another Airbnb at short notice if poss or hotel.

@makingmammaries

That’s why I posted here, to warn others!

Not just airbnb we stayed in a holiday cottage,wharf cottage it was called,if better not say where and it was the most disgusting indoor accommodation place I had ever seen.think hoarders programme.pubic hairs,matted black hair in a sticky substance in the fridge,handfuls of hairs,dirt,food everywhere.infested with insects.and the company we hired through refused a refund,refused to post an honest review and totally backed the owner.after many photo's were forwarded they threatened to sue us if they were ever shown.grim.

I agree it's more difficult to find good quality self catering places now that the market is dominated by big shady players like TripAdvisor and Airbnb, both of whom have woeful disengaged customer service and no quality control.

We're being careful about booking them for summer as we're going somewhere with big demand and big demand means dodgy listings... I have heard a few tales of places that are unavailable due to a sudden 'sewage leak' or similar but 'luckily I have another place available' and it turns out the host owns a bunch of scuzzy apartments in one block full of broken furniture and other guests whose places were suddenly unavailable. Only booking ones with lots of reviews is a start

you are lucky they didnt have bedbugs