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.

We love it, a whole apartment for cheaper than a hotel room. We've had some amazing experiences all over Europe. But we're happy to wipe things down/do the bins/bring our own towels or whatever. The problem we have is people having their property showing as available in 6 months but then you try to book and they say 'oh i didn't realise I hadn't taken it down' or 'it's not available next year' or 'it's just been sold' and you keep thinking you've got somewhere booked but then find you haven't.

Used to think Airbnb was great. Changed my mind since living on a street full of them. The hosts/guests leave rubbish out to blow all over the road, which attracts rats and makes the place look shit. They're often noisy and antisocial. They reduce neighbourliness. And they contribute to the shortage of rental properties. In short, they damage communities.

So I won't use one again (plus I don't fancy cleaning AND paying a cleaning fee).

Yes they can be on trip adviser. You can advertise your property anywhere. Most people advertise on multiple sites. Air Bnb reviews are genuine though- as a host it is next to impossible to get a poor review taken down.

There was a long thread about 6 months ago. Wonder if it’s same place. Lots insisted poster had misunderstand and owner just meant empty bins from inside house but it wasn’t a mistake. Their note said take it home or to tip I recall. Suggestion was it was done by unscrupulous owners to avoid paying council fees for business related bin collection.

We've had mostly good experiences bar a couple. One time an owner claimed we'd smashed a lamp and tried to hide the evidence. Apparently the cleaner had come in, found it missing and then all the broken shards at the bottom of the bin.

Oh really? Firstly, we didn't break anything and if we did, being honest folk we'd have owned up. Secondly if this happened, provide photographic evidence of this broken lamp please?

Thankfully Airbnb ruled in our favour as owner couldn't provide a photo. But we were pretty upset by the experience.

On one other occasion we got to a property which was a flat in an old mansion block. In the courtyard outside was this massive display which looked like some kind of altar to Satan. Think skulls, pentagrams and candles. Presumably the other residents had no objection to this so I half expected to see some hooded figures gathering at desk. It was quite spooky!!

My friend runs one, a seaside second home that honestly has crying out for attention for decades.
She hates cleaning, takes no joy from it but the money is excellent. So it gets patched up year after year, it's location is brilliant but the sofas get shabbier, the beds more uncomfortable, the prices go up.
It would make a brilliant family home, with people who could keep on top of things and support the local school and community.

I've had to take bins/recycling out, sometimes to the next town! - in several holiday let cottages. Didn't realise this was to do with tax, but it makes sense, now.

I've had problems with Airbnb in the past but generally it's been good, although recently they have been far more expensive than everyone else that I haven't used them much. I will say though that if you have a problem, they are much better than Booking.com. Airbnb refunded some of my money and apologised, booking.com would only refund anything if the host agreed to, so obviously they didn't! Booking.com couldn't care less even though I had photos and had contacted the host several times during the stay to say that the router was not coming up on the list, not even to say it had no internet. It was not patchy, it did not exist.

@Theradioisoncoco You sound like a great host!

I hate AirBnB too many amateur owners and yes that was the idea but the negative is that their standards are not up to professionals and vary with expectations and conduct and you can never properly relax because the owners are either in your pocket or expect you to spend the last day cleaning and scrubbing. They make sure you leave a review first and then leave a tepid review for you as a guest and no I hadn't broken, trashed or left mess in the property. I followed all their rules and still only had a 'thanks'. AirBnB can fuck off. I actually now prefer the ubiquitous professional faceless big chains because if you feel discriminated against or unhappy with something you can escalate properly. Never again with AirBnB.

Can’t get in til 4pm must be out by 9.30 I think it was, so that’s like missing a day’s holiday

Mil booked an Airbnb for 16 for an eyewatering sum which insisted we took all the recycling away in Dorset, utter madness.

The house was bonkers, clearly inherited, lots of locked cupboards with the prized possessions of previous generations but felt rather unloved, rather exploited.

And a heads up my Bil has just bought a shabby detached house which he is planning to turn into a five star Airbnb, This man is so tight wouldn't even give you the time. Going to stay with him has always been a slightly uncomfortable please bring your bedding, towels, dinner, breakfast and a list of things he wants to borrow. He has never been a welcoming host or run a generous home with great attention to detail with a wow factor.
Some of you are going to get caught out by him, the one thing he has updated is the heating so he can control it via an App!

The main problem is that many of these AirBnBs are being run for financial return by people who are actually working full time in other industries. They look down on hospitality, it's never how they introduce or define themselves, and their lack of pride or skill really does show through.

It is true it is simply a portal. But they remove bad reviews so you can not get an honest idea of properties.

Their standards are not up to professionals which was more acceptable when it was cheaper. That has changed.

Thank you! I take great pride in it and spend hours getting it perfect, I love my guests to be happy and relaxed

I've stopped using Airbnb. When the kids were younger it was great to have a whole house to hang out in whilst they took their naps. They are older now and we have gone back to hotels. More comfortable, luxurious, and staff to sort out everything we need.

We used Airbnb quite a lot both in the UK and in France and Portugal. The only problem we've had was a booking in a UK city which was cancelled by the owner a few days before citing "change in circumstances! ". Other than that we've found most hosts go above and beyond.

I do agree they're no cheaper than Booking. Com though - and many are advertised on both.

I completely agree, me and my husband travel for work quite alot and always used to use it, have done for a few years, but over the last year it has gotten ridiculous. Lots of places that look nothing like the booking or crazy stipulations after we have gotten there. Honestly unless it is one we have previoulsy used and had no issues with or literally has everything stated in the booking, we just use hotels or booking.com now.

I think they cut their own noses off though.

We stayed in one for our honeymoon, had a great time although it was expensive. Went back for an aniversary (just 1 night due to cost as its a few hundred a night) and they left a passive aggressive review saying we where 'untidy' (god knows how its a micro house, we where there 1 night so didnt unpack and washed up, made bed and took rubbish out etc... it looked exactly as it did when we arrived).

So now we are no longer going back to something we had planned to go to annually so they could have made good money out of us over the years.

We use air bnb all the time and tbh rarely have any issues. We've only had one cancel on us (but then I also had one cancel that I'd booked through holiday lettings so it's not something that only happens with air bnb)

I generally book them because I prefer to have a kitchen and two bedrooms which you don't get with hotels...

I do tidy up and wipe down surfaces but I don't do any deep cleaning, we pay a cleaning fee for that reason. I always make sure I read the reviews so we don't get any weird surprises!

I've had the similar experiences to OP and now stick to premier inn etc wherever possible.

They really don't remove bad reviews. I am on lots of host Facebook pages where hosts are desperate to get awful retaliatory reviews removed and Air BnB won't go it.

They really don't remove bad reviews. I am on lots of host Facebook pages where hosts are desperate to get awful retaliatory reviews removed and Air BnB won't go it.

If that is true I do not understand the ratings of some places I have stayed.

I've used AirBnB dozens of times. I think the ones that are company managed have been fantastic but private have been hit or miss with their demands. One of the most recent had a warning to only use the shower for 5 minutes at a time as it floods.

I stayed in a couple in Bali and cleaning fees were reasonable and we wasn't expected to do anything. Since Covid, costs of cleaning fees have been astronomical and as others have said, we've been asked to do unexpected things like take our rubbish away with us and not use their bins.

I've started just using serviced apartments on places like booking.com and the difference has been great. All the comforts of a home but without the hassle of individual 'home' rules.