Getting Fed Up With AirBnB...

[user1490969170]

I used to love Airbnb but over the last few years, I am enjoying less & less.

This year we have stayed in 4 AirBnB properties and seem to encouter issues or bizarre behaviours each time. We always have relativly premium listings and always the whole house. For example:

• Listing said no towels. Not a problem - we bought our own. However, they literally meant no towels at all. No hand towels, no kitchen towels.
• One weird male host to turned up every day to do various jobs outside the house/garden unannounced.
• A host who was constantly monitoring our electric usuage and would text me when the electric went over a certain threshold (we were just cooking dinner, so oven on)
• When vacating the property being asked to wipe down all surfaces that we had touched during our stay including all light switches and kitchen appliances & bathrooms. Obviouisly you have to also pay a cleaning fee. Btw we would always hoover and wipe kitchen surfaces before leaving.
• When we arrived at our most recent house (Tenby) we had to remove all rubbish from the house. Couldn't use the bins provided. The rubbish had to be bagged up by us and taken home (4 hours away) or disposed of in public bins. This was not stated up front, but in the guide book on arrival.
• Final rant - a property which advertised have car parking (big bonus in this area), that you couldn't physically get a large car to. Again, not stated on the listing, although if I had read every review other guests had picked up on this.

Any one else noticed this, or maybe we have just had bad luck?

I suppose it is just the lack on consistency with the listings. You get never know what you are actually going to get.

I have been very lucky that until now nobody in my family had bad experiences .
I also help my parents run the online part of a holiday rental and I have to say some of the airbnbs hosts are cheeky with their requests .
the house we have is abroad so not U.K. but it’s spotless , has everything people need and in 5 years we never had a bad review . We had an issue 3 years ago with guest having a party and we need up costing 4K to sort as they throw something in the pool and cracked the tiles and broke a marble table top .

Yes - all UK. We have never actually used AirBnb abroad. They are all for breaks between 3-7 days. Most in tourist destinations. And all premium listings.

No, never had any problems with AirBnB properties.

I've rented my spare room through airbnb for years and rented other people's spare rooms and it's always been great. Where it isn't so good is renting whole properties. Airbnb allows hosts to set so many rules and have more power to give bad reviews than other holiday let sites and it doesn't really work that well.

We generally have had good luck bar a few less than great experiences. The problem is some hosts act as if they’re doing you a favour by letting you stay and their house rules/policies show that - even though you’re paying a nice chunk of cash for the privilege!

Very mixed experience for us. I used them as a customer, and somebody stole my identity and set up fictitious listings, under my name, in another country! There was no one to call to get it sorted. A very stressful mess with no customer service. I refuse to have my dara on their site.
Husband continues to use them. Paris Air B&B was horrible, Canadian okay, but a bit odd. One in Scotland was lovely.

For the UK, I much prefer National Trust cottages, Rural Retreats or Crabtree & Crabtree. There is some oversight and quality control. Not as cheap though.

Stayed at one on the Lake District and omg the amount of rules. You really have to think if you’re letting out a house then you can’t have such a huge emotional attachment to it.

I’d never leave anywhere in a state but I’m also not doing a deep and cleaning anyway yo alto a £100 cleaning fee regardless.

Much prefer hotels.

We had this misfortune of living next to one, we ended up moving.

I have used it in the past but specifically would only choose ones on the owner’s land (annex, fancy shed etc) or with no neighbours. Mostly had OK experiences except the last one. The host was absent, the Air BnB had no towels or kitchen utensils/pans. The place was nice on the surface but needed a lot of maintenance. Just really disappointing. Will go back to using hotels and other sorts of holiday accommodation.

Did you post separately about the rubbish one if not there’s another poster who experienced exactly same. I’d honestly flag that up to local council as they will be trying to avoid fees for rubbish collection - public bins aren’t for household waste or it will result in fly tipping. I’d leave factual reviews and look elsewhere to rent.

There is a weird thing with Airbnb where people are expected to leave it as you find it. Which is nuts I expect to find it professionally cleaned. I will leave it tidy, hoovered, surfaces wiped, rubbish out in bins. I’m not cleaning bathrooms and stripping beds.

The taking rubbish to the tip is ridiculous. If you register your Airbnb as self catering accommodation you don’t pay council tax you pay rates (normally these are zero due to small business exemption) no council tax means no bins. Most cleaners won’t do a tip run ( who wants to run the risk of bin juice in their car) they need to pay a commercial company to supply bins.

Listing said no towels. Not a problem - we bought our own. However, they literally meant no towels at all. No hand towels, no kitchen towels.

YABU. This is what no towels means.

When vacating the property being asked to wipe down all surfaces that we had touched during our stay including all light switches and kitchen appliances & bathrooms. Obviouisly you have to also pay a cleaning fee.

Don't unless you have made them visibly dirty or sticky. This is what the cleaning fee is for. But unless a mess is left, there shouldn't BE a cleaning fee because that is part of the cost of running a rental.

Final rant - a property which advertised have car parking (big bonus in this area), that you couldn't physically get a large car to.

This is annoying but also the case in a lot of car parks. If you have a large car, best to ask and also to look on Google Streetview to see what other parking is around.

The others are bizarre and unacceptable. But this is what happens when amateurs are allowed to effectively run a hotel or holiday let. Bit like when amateurs take on trying to be residential landlords without having a clue. It should be better run and better legislated. Surely people can leave reviews about such things? Can people put Airbnbs on Trip Advisor?

@PostForJoy "I was notified shortly before arriving- in a passing line of a rather smug email- that the dishwasher didn't work, and two rooms were locked. No apology or offer of reduction in price. "

I would have been straight on to Airbnb about that as it means the property- particularly loss of the extra rooms - is no longer as advertised. Dishwasher breakages happen, but again I'd expect a token discount for that.

I think it’s still great but you have to read all the reviews and don’t book anyway with a few reviews. Also make sure the reviews are recent.

also have a look at the area on Googlemaps. Once place we nearly booked France, their garden opened on to a car park. Without a gate, not so good for young kids. The photos of the garden carefully didn’t show this.

I avoid Airbnb. I don't stay in self catering that expects you to pay a cleaning charge and clean!

Never posted before regarding Airbnb or rubbish.

I had never even heard of having to take rubbish home with you until last week. It is really frustrating espeically if you are family of 4 staying for a week.

Maybe the other poster holidayed in a Welsh AirBnb too!

Air bnb is awful. I've had both good and bad experiences, but the last place was full of rubbish and even had a rusty razor blade in the yard by the back door.

We had one that just stank of mice and had poison traps all over, though the reviews from years ago said the house the stank of mice so it wasn't a recent problem.

One where the host came over twice and even peered through the living room windows at us.

The expectation from guests to clean and also pay for cleaning is a joke.

They're a parasite company and their presence is ruining the property market. I won't be using them again if I can avoid it.

That's why I stay in other types of accommodation

I've seen the cleaning charges on the air B&B website

What got me in the end was being 'reviewed' for my stay, for a property I'd paid the best part of a grand to stay in! So at the end of the holiday I found I was getting tense that I hadn't cleaned their house to a certain standard (I'd always clean, but on top of paying a cleaning fee, that extra angst in case they give a sniffy review? Fuck off!)

We also had some really odd hosts that instructed us when to close and open windows. They lived next door and would pop up and instruct us. Also very tense, and odd.

I just use standard rental firms now. It's far less stressful.

They're a parasite company and their presence is ruining the property market.

It's not just the property market, though - they are ruining whole areas of the country because they don't have to maintain the standards that a licensed rental does. It's past time it should have been shut down, tbh.

Yes @ArabellaScott it probably made more sense when it related to staying in peoples actual homes, but if you're renting an entire property literally the only thing that needs to be commented on is did they pay on time and did they leave the place in an absolute state.

To be fair, the sensible owners only remark on that - I had one sentence that we left the place clean and tidy - after recent stay.

But all the scoring seems quite cloak and dagger and people apparently feel unable to leave a true score in case they get marked down or something.

I agree it’s getting worse but I feel that’s across all holiday cottage type lets in general.

They haven’t changed back from the Covid hours so you have to leave an hour earlier still and arrive an hour later. Which I wouldn’t mind but then they expect a full clean and beds stripped before this earlier departure.

It’s basically the opposite of a hotel which I lean towards more these days. Spending hours cleaning on the last morning really takes the edge off the holiday. I don’t mind wiping down services and a quick sweep. But there should be professional cleaners coming in so why does it need to be so thorough? Cleaning fees are included so we are we all stripping beds?!

If I arrived at a let and they’d relied on the the previous tenants cleaning it I’d turn round and go home.

I run an Airbnb (on my land so not taking a property from a local). It makes me sad that so many have a bad experience. I go above and beyond to give my guests a great experience, they certainly don't have to clean it or take rubbish home! I do all that every day when they're out. Don't go in if they don't want me too. Stay away but always contactable if any problems. I love my job and love hosting.

I wouldn't expect guests to even wipe down the sides let alone strip the bed, they're on holiday!

I have no folder full of rules either.

I agree I used to love Airbnb. As a family of 5 it was often so much better than alternatives (hotel etc) but not any more.

I think the prices have gone way up and the quality has gone down. We have a few days away in December in an European city and I've booked 3 rooms in a lovely 4* hotel as any suitable Airbnb ended up more expensive!

Such a shame as the concept is fab. I guess it just got too big and too corporate and has been over exploited by people more interested in making ££ than offering their spare room to some travellers.