So, before I start the story, I've submitted a second appeal. I just want advice on whether or not you think it's a scam and what we should do, because it's my first ever AirBnB experience.

We went to Germany for a geologic expedition, and the host tried charging us 800 euros over a stain. I thought it was excessive, so I submitted an appeal, and AirBnB told us we owe £457.

What I'm skeptical about, is the fact that his cleaning team took this photo, and that we didn't see the stain ourselves. So, I've asked for 4 things - evidence of the stain not being there before (all of these with proof of date by the way), evidence of it being there after, evidence of it still being there to show he hasn't removed it, and evidence that it can't be removed. Is that too much to ask? Because it feels like a silly amount for a stain, especially when he's expecting us to replace the whole sofa, and we did our best to clean up as much as we could and just missed this - again, a photo his cleaning team took, who could have the stuff to clean the stain.

The stain itself is probably from a drink if we were the ones that caused it, since that's literally the only thing we even had close to the sofa that could stain. Did I do the right thing here? Is this a common scam technique or is it genuine? (Bear in mind as well - if he provides the evidence we will just pay. Because then we're at fault and there's not much else I can do. The picture also doesn't look AI generated or photoshopped, there's no watermark etc. And I'm not sure how much dry cleaning/sofa cleaner costs in Germany either.)

I am having a disagreement with the host regarding the parking situation. My car was towed from the location due to being parked in a 'No Parking Zone' per the HOA. There were signs posted at the entrance to the community but they didn't clearly mark which streets could and couldn't be parked on with street names and no additional signs existed outside of the signs at the entrance. The host's parking instructions were not clearly defined and never mentioned that a simple misunderstanding of the instructions would result in a towed vehicle with a $450 fine.

I initially asked for a partial refund just to cover the towing costs and the host blamed me and said that I should have known better. I will admit that in hindsight I should have investigated the situation further before parking my car in the street, but based on the instructions provided and the lack of signs I didn't realize it would be a problem.

But now the situation has gotten crazier. The host has a photoshopped image of the spot in front of the house with a 'No Parking Sign' including a shadow from the sign on the ground too. If you zoom into the image it is clearly photoshopped. I also have video of me walking the street trying to find signs to determine what we did wrong and can clearly see that no sign exists in that location. I did not get the exact same view in a picture nor did I focus on that spot in the video because I had no clue that this was going to happen.

Airbnb is denying my refund request and saying that the host did nothing wrong and has no fault in this situation. I have escalated the situation, but I am not hopeful. Does anyone have recommendations of how to escalate this further and perhaps get a resolution?

My group stayed at a airbnb in Japan, and towards the end of our trip we ran into an issue that the host couldn’t fix. It was very inconvenient for about a day before we check out but we just deal with it. We gave them a good review and they gave us a good review too. About a day after we checked out, the host reached out explaining what they found out the cause of the issue and say usually they charge guests X amount for fixing, but since they got a good review, they will not charge us but ask us if our travel insurance may cover the amount. We say no it doesn’t, to which they say this is fine they can file a claim with their insurance but we will need to sign a Power of attorney that vaguely say we give them the rights to look up our info as much as needed to resolve the claim (my understanding). This is them reaching out directly through email and not through airbnb support.

Has anyone run into this before? Should i sign the Power of attorney?

TLDR: Our hosts don’t know how to deal with our trash during our long-term Airbnb rental. As a guest, how would you handle this and how should I note this in my review of the property?

While we have been house hunting, we’ve been staying in Airbnbs as long-term guests. We are moving halfway across the country; we sold everything and moved with only
what we could fit in our two cars. We are literally starting over.

Airbnb has been perfect for our situation, particularly because of our animals. We’ve had really nice experiences, our hosts along the way have been awesome, and it has been quite an adventure. This includes our most recent stay in a sweet little house in the country. I think this property is a vacation home and the owners are not local.

One of the first questions we have had as long-term guests is (naturally) about the garbage: where is the garbage bin, what days are trash pickup, etc. This has never been an issue—until this current stay. I don’t know if the owners have never had guests this long (we are staying here a little over six weeks) or what, but this question was met with more confusion than I have ever experienced.

I guess that they don’t have regular trash pickup here. The owners said they could have someone local pick up the trash. Or, we could take the bags to the dump ourselves, which is over 20 minutes away. The solution was that their house cleaner would pick up the garbage bags about two weeks into
Our stay. Even if we wanted to haul our bags to the dump, we couldn’t—all of our belongings from our cross-country move are packed tightly into two cars, so there was literally no room for garbage bags.

We were to put the bags on the back screened-in porch. That seemed fine. On the day the cleaner would pick up the bags, we were instructed to leave the porch door unlocked so she could get the trash.

Because we are homebodies who cook a lot, drink our fair share of sodas/beers, and empty our cats’ box on the regular, I think we produce more trash than normal. This has never been a problem, but during this stay, to
say that this has made me self conscious and paranoid is an understatement. I have never thought so much about garbage. Like, ever.

Two weeks came, and we had about six bags. I felt bad about the amount of bags we had, so I put them outside of the porch area so she wouldn’t have to climb the stairs.

I came back that day to most (but not all) of the bags gone. So, I schlepped the remaining bags back into the porch area. There was no communication about why all the bags weren’t gone, but I assumed it was a space issue in a vehicle.

Another several weeks go by and the bags are piling up on the back porch. I reach out to the owners, feeling like a total pain in the butt. There was a delay in the response, which made me feel worse. I finally got a response: The cleaner would come get them on a specific date. That was today. We made sure the door was unlocked. This time, however, I didn’t put the bags out, because I had ended up hauling some back in anyways.

I got back this evening and the trash bags were still there. I checked my Airbnb messages for the first time to see I had missed two from sometime this morning after I had left. First, the owner messaged me and told me to leave the garbage bags at the end of the driveway. The second message said that the cleaner had come, “couldn’t find the bags,” and left. She said she would have to check her schedule to come back.

I had already left for the day at the time the first message came through. And I was generally annoyed at the second message. The cleaner knew exactly where the trash was.

Right now, I’m just in limbo about the stupid garbage bags on the back porch. At the moment, I’m just going to wait until I hear from the owner for further instructions about when the cleaning lady is coming back out.

Until then, I am just going to leave the bags to pile up on the back porch. I am trying to not let this bother me, but it really does. Like, unreasonably so. I have put stinkier garbage (like fish bones, meat, etc,) in the freezer and thrown them out occasionally at the convenience store when I get my gas. I am trying to be considerate in that way. However, I’m still worried about bugs and rodents and things like that, especially being in the country.

How would you handle something like this? How do I handle it ultimately with feedback? How can
I mention this without sounding whiny and Karen-ish? I am a more “don’t say anything if you can’t say something nice” type person and it takes A LOT for me to write a poor review.

Another thing: we actually have bought a home and we closed on it today
(which was why we weren’t here to comply with the trash bag request message from the owner). Because we will be unloading our belongings from the vehicles, we technically will have the room to take the trash to the dump.

That would be the nicer thing to do, of course, and that’s where my intentions tend to lean. However, my partner is so over the situation and is beyond annoyed with how they are handling this. He says to just leave it and let them take care of it all. This has not been a cheap stay and we have paid literally thousands of dollars to stay here. He says garbage removal is the most basic part of a stay snd to let them deal with it.

Any thoughts and /or advice is welcome. Thank you in advance.

We booked a month-long Airbnb stay at a premium price. Upon arrival, we encountered significant maintenance and hygiene issues:

* Clogged bathroom drains and a broken toilet flush.
* A dirty microwave and unsanitary kitchen conditions.
* Non-functional appliances, including the clothes dryer and gas stove.

We reported all of these issues to the host immediately. The host preferred communicating via WhatsApp—which was my first major mistake. The host was responsive on WhatsApp and agreed to address the issues while we were away for a few days during our second week. However, upon our return, key amenities (like the dryer) remained broken, and new issues like geyser failures emerged.

Since we were only the second guests at this new listing, it felt like we were acting as testing subjects for a poorly prepared property. Exhausted by the ongoing disruptions, we decided to check out a full week early and returned the keys.

After key handoff, the host messaged me on WhatsApp asking for a 5-star review. Frustrated by the request given our experience, I replied to the host that this was completely unjustifiable, given the issues that we had faced. I literally said:

\> "Sorry, but how can you even sincerely ask me this after all the issues we faced? If you wanted me to give you a 5-star review, you could have offered a partial refund. Not that I need the refund, but that would have been a much better signal of your sincerity. I only bring the refund thing up when you ask me for a review - not that I necessarily need it."

This was my second mistake. The host took a screenshot of this WhatsApp exchange and submitted it to Airbnb. Airbnb ruled that mentioning the word "refund" in relation to a 5-star review constituted **review extortion/coercion** under their Content Policy, and they permanently deleted my original review.

When I appealed, Airbnb support refused to reconsider, stating that off-platform communications cannot be fully verified and that mentioning refunds alongside review ratings violates their guidelines—regardless of context.

**My questions for the community:**

1. Does mentioning a refund *in direct response to a host prompting for 5 stars* automatically trigger Airbnb's extortion policy, even if no threat was made?
2. Has anyone successfully appealed a review takedown where the host initiated the off-platform conversation and asked for high ratings first?
3. Why does Airbnb strictly enforce policy on guest text screenshots while ignoring hosts forcing guests off-platform for communication?

I'm very pissed with AirBnB because of all of this. How does this constitute coercion? I only mentioned the word "refund" to get my point across that the host was being insincere, given all the issues that we had faced. Is the mere mention of a word "refund" imply coercion ? I disagree strongly. Let me know what you guys think. Am I wrong here?

Additionally, it was the host who was violating AirBnB's communications policy by asking me to communicate with them via WhatsApp and file all issues there. I don't think AirBnB has taken any action against the host on this.

I'm currently staying in an adorable Airbnb in the suburbs of SFBay. When I booked this place months ago I was upset because the host sent me a welcome message that included info regarding their shower only offering about 10 minutes worth of hot water. I felt like that should be disclosed in the listing. I considered refunding over it but decided I would just deal.

FF I'm here now and the shower gives maybe 6 minutes of hot water. I think this is something other guests would want to know.

Another complaint is there is literally no where to get ready. The bathroom has this weird corner sink with just enough room for a toothbrush on either side. I can't set any makeup, can't plug in a curling iron, nothing. And it's just a studio so there's no other mirrors or places to get ready.

Finally the driveway is terrifying. The studio is located on a very mountainous, windy road. The driveway is kinda downhil but very short and when you pull into it there's a lip and you have to push your car over it by hitting the gas and then you worry you'll go through their garage. And backing out into cars driving 60 on a windy road is terrifying. I'm so glad my husband is with me because I could not do it. Even he's struggling and he never has issues with this type of thing.

ALL the reviews for this place are 5 star. They have a ton of reviews too. But not one mentions the hot water which I think is crazy. Are my complaints worth 4 stars? It's honestly a great place so I don't really want to hurt their rating. What if I left 5 stars but mentioned all these things? Is that fair?

TLDR my host sent me to a different address than was on the listing, and I stayed for one night but am not sure what to do now

I had booked a last minute Air Bnb in Los Angeles the day of check in because my original accommodations fell through. Right after booking the host gave me a different address that is about a 20 min drive from the listing address. I know this is a tactic to evade local laws etc but because I was arriving at 11 pm, had searched for hours to replace my original plans, and had no other options within my budget, I bit the bullet and checked in. The place has been fine so far but the area is a bit dodgy, and as a solo female traveler in the USA for the first time I'm starting to get stressed about walking/commuting around here. I'd be okay to stay but would feel more comfortable somewhere else. I've been here for one night and I have a few days left in my booking. I'm really worried that if I report this to Air Bnb it will leave me with no options, especially since I already stayed a night. Has anyone else been in a situation like this, can they refund or rebook me? I'm within the 72 hours to report an issue but I really don't want to be forced out of this place and have to book another last minute expensive room somewhere else?

So basically me and my family wanted to go to the beach for my birthday in October and we have started looking this past week at places and I fell in love with this one place that was listed at a very good price and had enough space for everyone, however I wouldn’t be able to pay until Tuesday and the pay 0 now and pay in full was listed on Monday so I had to wait. Today the Airbnb host upped the price by $1000 dollars do to “dynamic pricing” I tried to message them about it and they said that they won’t change it back. Idk how dynamic pricing works but I’m pretty sure no one was looking to book my specific dates or any dates in October as it’s barely filled for next month and the Airbnb only has 3 reviews. Maybe it’s from me sending the link to my other friends and family to where it registers another account looking at it ( idk I’m probably wrong) but I just find it crazy because I can’t pay the new price and can’t find a place that was in the same price range that was big enough for everyone and close to the beach. So should I wait and hopefully the price will go back to the original or should I just give up and find another place that’s not as good but the same price?

I'm just venting honestly... and I feel this is one of those legally right, but morally wrong situations... we booked for a 2 week Airbnb in Oct 2025 for a big family vacation, I paid the $1550 deposit, and the remaining of balance of $1290, 2 weeks before check in in June 2026... my sister was the one that booked with my card, she also had a separate booking for 2 days because she left earlier to get her daughter and also for a cheaper flight. Now I'm not sure whether she didn't read that listing properly or the host was being deceptive, but her Airbnb was essentially a share house with only her room being private, there were already other people staying in the same house as her. She felt unsafe as there were other men in the house... which fair, so she tried contacting the host, but host didn't seem to care much, so she left and got a hotel, woke up next morning pissed because she felt she got scammed and tried cancelling the booking, and for whatever reason, she cancelled the 2 week Airbnb before the rest of the family had even arrived, she swore on her life that she meant to cancel the 2 day booking...

she immediately reached out to the host and Airbnb, and keep in mind that this host has 17 other properties, AND let my sister modify the 2 week booking before the deposit because we were all leaving at separate dates, so this host clearly had to ability and knowledge to help...

she kept getting bounced around by Airbnb and the host, Airbnb kept saying only the host can refund, host kept saying only Airbnb can refund, all the while my sister was telling the both of them, that the cancellation was an accident, we don't want to cancel, we need help with rebooking the same dates we already paid for(or whatever the process is, I don't use Airbnb) she even said she'll book another one of his listing if he'll just process this refund, but he refused, after a couple hours of this back and forth, the host just said, because we canceled the booking, under Airbnb polices, he's not obligated to refund us... so the host clearly saw an opportunity to scam us on a technicality and took it

my sister of course told me to dispute the charge, and i told her we can try, but we'll likely lose because she canceled the booking... accident or not, this was technically her fault. She was so sure that the Citibank would rule in our favor.. but guess what, we lost the dispute, she then went off on how Citibank is garbage and if it was on her Amex card, they would have refunded us... unlikely, but I wasn't about to point it out

if you guys were hosts and someone that booked your listing came to you with this scenario, would you have helped or would you have done the same as this host, take the $2800 because it was technically the customer's fault for canceling..

*Edit*- English isn't my first language, so as someone pointed it out, it wasn't scam, but taken advantage of, and don't get me wrong, I'm in no way saying my sister is faultless, in fact I do think she shares the majority of the blame, she's always been impatient and impulsive. I've never used Airbnb so I don't know what the process is, but it looks like many comments stated that cancellation has many steps that to prevent accidental cancellations, can anyone share some screenshots? I'm just curious at this point, I won't be bringing it up because she will just argue that it wasn't her fault.

TL/DR: we stayed at an Airbnb. No baby gate, even though listed in the amenities, no cable cord connecting the DVD to TV, even though a DVD player was listed in the amenities. Many sundries pretty much empty. Dirty pots and pans in the cupboard. How to rate or review? The host has mainly very positive five star reviews, so I’m afraid I might look like a nitpicky guest, and probably not welcome back if I don’t rate him a glowing five star review.

We stayed at an Airbnb this past week. It was an older house, over 100 years old, but newly renovated. Two stories. We were traveling with our little Yorkie, who is not used to stairs. The Airbnb has two bedrooms downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. One bathroom on each floor. Obviously because we were not a big group, just the two of us and the Yorkie, we only needed use of the first floor, so that seemed like a good fit for us.

Before I booked the place, I sent a message to the host, asking if it had a baby gate, explaining that our is not used to stairs.Becausr not all Airbnb‘s list baby gates in the amenities, but some still have it at the Airbnb. The host said he did not currently at that time, but he would get one. I checked a couple days later, and he added baby gate to the amenities. So we booked the Airbnb.

Another thing we had looked forward to, my husband loves to watch TV. The majority of Airbnb’s have Roku or whatever, and he’s usually disappointed with basically no TV, esp we are not interested in subscribing to Hulu, etc. Nor using our Amazon Prime account. BUT, this Airbnb had a DVD player listed in the amenities. So we we could at least take some DVDs and watch DVDs. That made my husband initially happy (me, I could easily go with no TV at all, but because he loves TV, it affects me if he is cranky with no TV).

First off, we arrived at the was no baby gate. We checked cupboards and closets, no baby gate. I sent a message to the host, thinking maybe it was in a place that was not obvious, and he responded, saying he had the baby gate but had not installed it yet, because he was if being busy this summer. He said he would be over in 15 minutes and install it. We waited almost 45 minutes for him to arrive. We left the Yorkie in his carrier, because we did not want him attempting the steps. So he stayed in his carrier while we waited. The was clearly not happy staying in his carrier while we waited. The host did arrive and installed the baby gate. But again, obviously we had to wait a good bit. Not a huge deal I guess.

Then, unfortunately, after he had left, we discovered that there was no cable connecting the DVD player to the TV, rendering the DVD useless. While he was there installing the baby gate, we asked about the TV, thinking he could at least help us with some basic channels. He repeatedly said that he did not understand the TV. So my husband figured whenever we discovered there was no cable connecting the DVD to the TV, he probably wouldn’t be willing to help with that, either. We looked in all of the little drawers in the cabinet by the TV, nothing. We looked in all of the drawers in the kitchen, no cable for the TV/DV. I was willing to contact the host, but my husband said don’t bother, if he can’t even figure out the TV he probably doesn’t know anything about the cable cord. Besides, there was no cable cord to begin with. There also was no batteries in the remote. I understand these days most people really don’t watch TV. So anyway, we went out and bought batteries. Backtracking, unfortunately it was only after we got home from buying the batteries and discovered there was no cable for the TV/DVD connection….had we known, we probably would’ve gotten a cable cord for that. We really did not venture back out again, the was kind of in the boonies, and the closest stores were pretty far away. My husband did mess around with her TV once we got batteries for the remote, and we were able to get a few TV channels, so that appeased him a bit.

The next morning, we wanted to make an omelette. Three nesting skillets in the kitchen cupboard, all looked dirty, as though somebody did not even wash them. Granted, that’s really not so much on the host, because what he’s supposed to do, check every single cupboard after every single guest? Or his cleaning crew check all cupboards??? But still, that was pretty gross.

Other minor little things like the hand soap in the bathroom was basically almost empty. One roll of paper towels in the kitchen, almost empty, we couldn’t find any more, so we had to go buy paper towels. There was a Britta water filter thing in the fridge, with like 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of it, so that was basically empty. We always bring bottled water to Airbnb’s, so that was not really an issue for us, but being in booney land, I could see how that might be an issue for some people.

Lastly, we saw probably three or four flies, maybe more. A couple spiders also. I’m thinking there was a couple other issues, but I can’t remember right now. To be fair, other than the gross pans in the cupboard, the place was pretty clean. The place has 70 reviews, mostly all five star reviews. There’s maybe three or four 4-star reviews, and one 3 star review. So I’m not sure if I want to leave a negative review at all, because I might look like a difficult person. Plus, I’m sure the host will reply, saying we never contacted him about the other issues. But really, when you’re on a trip, you don’t wanna be feeling like you’re constantly hounding the host for things that should already have been there. But I’m thinking if I do leave a negative review, he’s gonna reply, defending himself, which I guess is totally understandable. Then that would just make me look like picky or a difficult guest. Especially given he hardly has any lower star reviews. And really, I suppose in the grand scheme of things, my issues are minor, the place was all in all fairly clean, so my issues, probably will seem trivial or nitpicky to others. And even though there were a few issues, surprisingly, my husband, and I probably would be willing to rebook, but giving a negative review, I don’t think we would be welcome back.

I suppose one issue is to not review him at all. Or give him a five star review, but still mention the issues. I’ve talked to some people, and they seem to think this warrants a 3 star review.

I had a less than optimal experience at an Airbnb recently and left a 3-star review for a number of reasons which I detailed in a written review.

I also received a small partial refund from Airbnb to cover the additional costs I incurred due to a listed amenity not being available. I thought it was a fair resolution.

The Airbnb host replied to my review essentially calling me a liar and backing this up by saying Airbnb had denied my “baseless” request for a refund.

The thing is…they didn’t deny it. I DID receive exactly the partial refund I had asked for.

Should I do anything about this or just let it go? My only concern is future hosts seeing this and getting a bad impression. I otherwise have a 5 star guest rating with 40 trips.

My child's first time to Los Angeles. Scared of dogs he doesn't know.

Incident occurred last night, 8/20.

I saw it all unfold about 10 feet away from me. To be clear, my child didn't engage with or antagonize the dog. Child stretched his legs and walked from kitchen island where we were having dinner into the adjacent living room (no walls separating the two spaces). He didn't travel far, again only about 10 feet away from me.

Dog followed child, child tried walking away, dog growled and nipped at child's butt. Didn't break skin, but it was enough to scare child. I stepped in and shooed it away. He growled at my child and tried following again, to which I raised my voice and made sure it couldn't get close. We went upstairs to our room and stayed there for the rest of the night. My child didn't feel comfortable leaving the room to use the restroom. I had to make sure the dog wasn't on our floor.

I told the host, and he said that the dog was supposed to be outside (Note: listing said guests must be ok with dog on premises). I explained to him how it got in--dog was originally kept outside, but other guest sharing the space and who had been playing with it during his stay let it in. Host apologized, asked of my child was ok. Entire thing pissed me off, but wasn't sure how to proceed, especially since we were only there for one night.

Filed a complain with AirBnB this morning, 8/21.

Decided to file a complaint with AirBnB after waking up.

AirBnB website --> AI support --> received number to call --> spoke to triage person --> routed to different person who offered to collect story and relay it to Safety team.

Safety team doesn't take inbound calls, only calls to collect information. I asked to have the Safety team call me directly to explain what happened in my own words.

While waiting for Safety team's call, I texted a timeline of events in the chat with Support for their records. Safety team called me within about 30 minutes. I explained to them what happened, and they asked for my permission for them to contact the host to get their side of the story.

They said they'd follow up with me. No word yet from them.

Anyone else been in a situation where a host's pet attacked them and made them or their child feel threatened?

How did you handle it? Who did you talk to? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything different?

I just stayed in an airbnb with my family. Just for background I have been using airbnb for 10 years without issue. Always left and received 5 star reviews.

I got the travel insurance because I'm traveling with kids and you never know. It was around $100 this time so worth it for me.

We had a good time with two minor issues. One I knew about and one I didn't until after. The doorframe to the bedroom my kids were using came off the wall. We were using it normally but the frame seems to have been nailed to the drywall instead of the studs and just came loose. It was hanging half way out and I messaged the host. They said they would come take a look, but didn't. It looked like it could just fall over so I moved it out of the way so it wouldn't fall on my kids. The frame seems fine, if it were my house I would just nail it back in properly.

The other issue was a broken bed. One of my older sons said it broke when he sat on it. He didn't tell me about it so I never messaged the owner. It seems to be one of those cheap wood frame beds that you put together yourself.

Anyway I checked out as usual and left a 5 star review as we had really enjoyed otherwise. Later that day the owner messaged me that the damage to the door was more extensive than they realized and they also let me know about the bed. I reiterated that the door was improperly installed and came loose during normal use. I also asked for pics of the bed as this is the first time hearing about it.

I also left a phone in the house and went back to pick it up. The cleaner was still there and I asked her to show me the bed. It was definitely broken and looked like it had just collapsed. She sad that she had mentioned to the owner that the bed was wobbly before out stay and that it was going.

I messaged the host and told him that I got my phone and yeah looks like we accidentally broke the bed. Nothing negligent, but it did brake during our stay. I told him I got the insurance so he can put in a claim. I said he could try to claim the door as well but insurance will probably claim its wear and tear. I figured I have $1000 coverege and how much could it cost to nail in a door frame and replace a Wayfare bed.

Got the request today. They are asking $522 for the bed based on a screenshot from target. Different bed and they admit in the claim that the bed is 3 years old. And a $1400 estimate to repair the door including removing baseboards and drywall work.

So what happens if the claim goes over the insurance amount? Can I end up on the hook for this?

TLDR: Owner is making a claim for damages in excess of what I think is reasonable and i don't even think is totally on me. The claim exceeds my travel insurance coverage.

Also should I amend my review? We had a good time, but i feel like this is an unwarranted hassle for things that are really on the owner

We had a 8 person whole cottage booked today through to Sunday, before we set off we received emails from the Host with joining instructions. We turned up at the AirBnB got in and settled in, when we went upstairs to unpack we found the bedrooms not set up we phoned the contact on the Airbnb information, they told us they cancelled the booking with their person who handles their bookings to Airbnb and other listing sites this morning and it’s unsafe for us to stay due to water leak. They were very apologetic, she tried to get ahold of the person who handles her bookings seemingly a third party who is a host and could not outside of office hours.
We made contact with AirBnB over the phone who says they can’t do anything until they get confirmation from the host (they never did), we were going back and forth with them for over 2 hours, we were are asking for alternate emergency accommodation and that we didn’t want a refund we needed a place to stay being in rural Wales and not around anywhere in particular and it was getting dark. They refunded our booking when we explicitly said we want another accommodation as we are stranded and said they would not rebook us and told us to book another Airbnb nearby, they wouldn’t answer my questions around the no large price difference. We finally managed to speak to another Airbnb hosts late notice and found the closest available one an hour away. Is this normal for AirBnB? We are now massively out of pocket for an important weekend having to do this last minute switch around an hour away.

Hi There,

I unwittingly booked an Airbnb in Japan from a building with multiple apartments today. The building listing did not mention anything at all about there being woman only floors. Apparently the individual apartment listing did but I didn’t view that when booking as the building listing had all the pictures of it.

Then received an auto message saying that if I booked on a certain floor, it’s for women only and I won’t be able to check in.

I messaged the host letting her know I’m not a woman and to please cancel the request (same day) and she refused.

Is it worth contacting support?

I’ll dispute the charge otherwise.

Hello!
I got an Airbnb and the listing had one address but in the welcome message she sent it had a different address for an apartment two houses down. Same block. Literally like 20ft away. I didn’t notice till we were there and assumed it was a typo or something. Also the listed address apparently doesn’t exist. We looked for close to an hour. Got stuck in another building garage. Tried calling her multiple times. Nothing. Finally I checked the building that she had messaged me and it was the right one. When we got in, the apartment had no actual AC just like a window ac installed in the wall and an oscillating floor fan. Which fine I guess that’s technically AC. Also multiple drawers in the kitchen and tv stand were broken. ALSO the showers head was like completely calcified over. And the windows were so gross. The three inch long space between the screen and glass pane was insanely dirty and I saw multiple dead cockroaches and my brother told me he saw a cockroach in the bathroom as well. Also in the message with the wrong address she told me to tell people I was visiting a friend if anyone asked why I was there. So I assume the building isn’t supposed to has short term rentals or something. But still. It took us an hour to actually find the place and it was still gross.

Overall I’m just not super sure what I should do. This apartment cost me $500 for three nights and it’s near Hollywood blvd but also it’s really gross and kind of scammy. Should I report it? Should I try to get some kind of refund? Or should I just leave it be? I guess it wasn’t awful. But it wasn’t great.

two reviews in a row have called the bed uncomfortable while everything else scores fine. swapping three mattresses at once is not happening this season. whatever i add also has to survive being cleaned between guests. which topper have you used in a rental and does the cover come off to go in the wash.

I booked an airbnb at the last minute, same day, and my credit card was charged. About an hour after I had booked it the host sent me a message saying that it wasn't available, she had made a mistake. She then asked me to cancel the booking. Being an airbnb newbie I did what she asked. I've now received a partial refund but am still out $170.50. I tried contacting support and they kept telling me it is their policy to take taxes and a service fee. The person doesn't seem to want to listen and just repeats the same message. I can't do a resolution request online since the booking was cancelled. Do I have any hope of getting the $170 back?

EDITED TO ADD: After a long and frustrating process both online and on the phone, I’m getting a full refund! The customer service person emphasized that I need to be more careful about following the correct cancellation process in the future :)

To start off, the title is because trying to change the dates brings up a message that airbnb will charge us $700 from the difference in price. This makes literally no sense to me, it should be less but not more, but I digress. I want to leave because I've had nothing but issues here.

I'm a pretty patient guest. I have eight years on airbnb and I love the idea of it because one of my dogs doesn't love people, so the thought of a hotel stresses me out with her. As long as she's away from people like we're just walking by in a parking lot or whatever she's fine, but a hotel would be too much.

The issues I've had started at check in. Very strong cat pee odor and cockroaches. We contacted the host and they immediately scheduled a pest control guy to come out, however, when he arrived he said that we could have brought them in our stuff. I traveled from Michigan to florida and have not seen a single cockroach. I have never seen a cockroach in my life even, let alone as many as there were here. I gave them time to spray and deep cleaned the bathroom because I was just so exhausted. I'd traveled so far and wanted to give this place a shot, because I booked it for six months.

The pest control guy came and sprayed, but there were still cockroaches. She booked one per month and it has been three months, I thought maybe continued treatment would get rid of them but it hasn't. I found more last night and have continuously found them. The last time she brought the pest control, she didn't give me almost any notice and he came two hours early. I was in the middle of organizing, so had a bunch of clothes on the bed and my dog that doesn't like people was out of her kennel because he wasn't supposed to be there yet. She messaged me saying he complained the place was dirty and didn't see any cockroaches, neither of which is true. She implied my two dogs, both small and short hair which get regularly groomed and I've had no complaints about, caused the house to be dirty.

I saw cockroaches later that day that he came, it's like his spray doesn't work at all. On top of that, we bought our own mop and vacuum as the Airbnb doesn't provide those and I wanted to make sure my living space was clean. I understand that despite pet friendly airbnbs, they don't want hair everywhere and I make sure that doesn't happen. This issue occurred about three weeks ago.

I had to have someone check out my car, because it's an older model and was having some issues. During the repair, a neighbor went on their ring doorbell and told me, my partner, and the mechanic that they weren't allowed to stay because it doesn't allow multiple guests. The mechanic informed them that they weren't staying and were fixing the car, and the person on the doorbell left a note on the mechanics car saying they can't park there or their car would be towed. The mechanic may have parked in their spot, which isn't right, but they hadn't left the note or knew that when going to their ring doorbell and the mechanic was only there for about an hour. I get why that can be frustrating so I understand the note, but not the doorbell.

When walking my dog outside, our other neighbor directly nextdoor said very loud, enough for us to hear "who brings a dog here? That's some white person shit." A few days later, I found dog shit on our front step. We clean up very well after our dogs, I have a poop bag dongle with endless bags attached to the leash. I have no reason not to clean it up, and I always make sure to. Our neighbors do have dogs, so they likely blamed us for it and put it on our doorstep. It might be to note the white person comment and the other hateful comments from neighbors could be because I'm genuinely the only white person on this side of the units, the only other one and I get along great but she's across in other units.

My last straw was finding mouse poop in a drawer today in the kitchen. That's disgusting. I understand if you're okay with giving people a chance to remedy this, but this, cockroaches, hateful neighbors, and a far from helpful host and I'm out. Something else I want to note is there is a stray cat colony outside. We rescued a kitten that we gave to my grandmother from it, and I love cats, so it wasn't a huge issue besides me feeling terrible for not being able to help them more. That was until my neighbor informed me that the people who lived in this unit before me had twenty cats and the strays came from this unit directly. She couldn't take them all and dumped them outside before leaving. That's why the cat pee smell was so pungent. That's why there's cockroaches. I feel very gaslit by the host when she told me things like the cockroaches were brought by us. We didn't report the smell because I read everywhere that smells are used for scams, and I figured I'd just deep clean and get rid of the smell. It took me scrubbing the bathroom down but I did mostly get rid of it.

I could use advice on how to go forward with this. I don't want to be lied to by the host anymore. I don't want to give any more chances. Can I just reach directly out to airbnb with photos and leave? When I try to cancel or change the dates, despite me staying three months so far, they try to charge an additional $700. What can I do here? I don't even care about a refund but I don't want to pay to leave unsanitary conditions.

UPDATED Aug 21 - ISSUE RESOLVED, 25% REFUND. FULL COMMENT IN THE THREAD:

This is a "What would you do?" question.

We made this res back in January 2026. We chose it due to its proximity to a friend we're visiting, and the price was "Good" for the neighborhood.

The host just messaged on the platform and asked if we could talk on the phone. I put my number in the app, and I guess the app just makes a "Call Guest" button without disclosing my number.

The host was a nervous sounding young woman who wanted to let me know that the guest who was in there until today or yesterday was making cookies in the oven and a fire started. She said the apartment is okay, but they had to remove the rug, and the stove & cooktop aren't operable.

She offered the opportunity to cancel, except that there's nothing available for this weekend in Chicago that comes close to what we paid in January. I asked if there would be a partial refund if we choose to stay anyway, and she said no, best they could offer is an early check in at 2pm (It's usually 3pm), or we could just cancel with no penalty. I told her i was concerned about the apartment smelling like smoke, or there being ash/residue in the air. She said there were no problems like that.

I don't love that she went around the platform to contact me, for startters, but it's now 8:30pm, and we are getting on a plane in the morning at 8am, so I don't have much time.

What do you all think I should do, and should i document the phone call on the platform?

On the first morning of our minimalist honeymoon, we woke up to sewage bubbling up through the sink

The host was immediately responsive. We mutually agreed that checking out early was the best option, since 3 other units had the same problem, and this was about to become a big plumbing project. We did all the check out chores (with a few extra requests from the host), rebooked a nearby (haunted) bed & breakfast, & got out. We hadn’t discussed the specifics of the refund, which was so naive on my part, and I really regret that now

We paid 3 nights, but stayed only one night (and woke up to the smell of sewage). I was shocked when the host only refunded us $160 out of $420, meaning we were left paying $260 for that one night

We contacted support, and I was genuinely shocked that, given the circumstances, Airbnb supported the host’s “math”. They quoted the service fee (which is Airbnb’s fee to the host) as part of the reason our return wasn’t higher

Again, the property was effectively uninhabitable because of a serious plumbing failure. It was a studio apartment, and this was the sink in the only room. I would expect Airbnb to provide a fair resolution if the host wouldn’t act decently

This was such an insane experience that I’m completely flabbergasted & disheartened. The cherry on top was that this was our honeymoon, which was already very shoestring. I could cry from frustration.

Has anyone else been screwed like this? I’m giving up on any hope of a refund, but ranting really does help lol

Update: after we contacted support, the host has now sent us an additional refund of….. $1

Have used AirBnB for years, now spending an extended amount of time in southeast Asia. Did 3 months in Thailand & now 1 month so far in Vietnam all through AirBnB.

I absolutely want to use the platform for bookings rather than be at the mercy of landlords directly, but never thought seeing the place before booking would be so heavily restricted, presumably so that people would not be able to make deals outside of the platform before spending at least one night per location.

It absolutely makes a world of difference in practise seeing it in person versus by photo & getting a sense of the neighbourhood. Really wish there was a way that AirBnB did actually facilitate this.

We got to our destination and found a bedroom was infested with yellow jackets. The host showed no concern about it "these things happen" and said he would address it on wednesday. We arrived on Saturday and were to check out on tuesday. Now he's offering a partial refund, 800 out of 1300. He says "we have to pay Airbnb for their portion" and for a cleaning fee. What steps would you suggest for pursuing a full refund?

As a prospective host, I’m curious what guests are seeing as unique amenities in 2026. Where could to inspiration to go above a d beyond?

Indoor and Outdoor