We're longtime Airbnb fans and have stayed in Airbnbs all over the US, in the UK and France. We like the extra room, we like to cook, we like staying in residential neighborhoods, and we like having outdoor space. We honestly have never had a bad experience, but we only do superhosts with lots of reviews.

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’ve left bad reviews on Airbnb that never publish. Sometimes you get a fab spot and others are beyond disgusting yet have great reviews- the space I rated low smelled like cat urine and damp.

It used to be a great way to travel. Less expensive and more homey.

I feel old writing this.

+1. The reviews are skewed positive.

Anonymous wrote:Having to wash dishes is an Airbnb from hell??

Right??? A place infested with roaches or bed bugs would be hell. Dishes? No.

Anonymous wrote:Having to wash dishes is an Airbnb from hell??

When you’re on vacation with your family of five, and cooking meals, it takes a lot of work (and time) to keep all those dishes clean.

We rented this place in a very remote area with no hotels available. Previously we’d stayed at a very dingy property run by a local property management company.

Anonymous wrote:I had a really bad experience also and so now we stick with hotels.

Yep, me too. Hotels and traditional rental homes.

Having to wash dishes is an Airbnb from hell??

Never stay at an Airbnb. The SECOND you sign up for them you have signed your right away to sue them for the hidden cameras that are filming you. Look it up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’ve left bad reviews on Airbnb that never publish. Sometimes you get a fab spot and others are beyond disgusting yet have great reviews- the space I rated low smelled like cat urine and damp.

It used to be a great way to travel. Less expensive and more homey.

I feel old writing this.

This - I don't risk it with AirBNB no matter the rating because of all the stories about how it was locked after their stay and they couldn't add/change a rating. I feel like people give better ratings than reality because they want good ratings as guests.

While rare, I have had at least one superhost with a highly related property where the reality was much, much worse. It is pretty obvious that the "superhost" was manipulating their ratings. I gave a less than stellar review (not actually horrible but more pointing out the discrepancies between the pictures and the reality of the place) and the host badgered me and worked to get the review removed. This is one of the flaws of online rating systems -- the person receiving the review has a lot more incentive to curate the reviews than any one person giving a review. Not only that, but the review website often has a strong interest in helping the provider of the service (sometimes providers can pay to have their services lifted in rankings). Accordingly, unless a place has both a high rating and a large number of ratings, the rating is not statistically meaningful.

Anonymous wrote:FWIW I’ve left bad reviews on Airbnb that never publish. Sometimes you get a fab spot and others are beyond disgusting yet have great reviews- the space I rated low smelled like cat urine and damp.

It used to be a great way to travel. Less expensive and more homey.

I feel old writing this.

This - I don't risk it with AirBNB no matter the rating because of all the stories about how it was locked after their stay and they couldn't add/change a rating. I feel like people give better ratings than reality because they want good ratings as guests.

FWIW I’ve left bad reviews on Airbnb that never publish. Sometimes you get a fab spot and others are beyond disgusting yet have great reviews- the space I rated low smelled like cat urine and damp.

It used to be a great way to travel. Less expensive and more homey.

I feel old writing this.

And this is why we only stay in premium hotels.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve just had an Airbnb from hell. The dishwasher didn’t work at all, the expressed no urgency in getting in fixed - did not apologize or offer to make it right, so I spent the week handwashing dishes. On top of that, there was water continually leaking from under the kitchen sink so I spent time sopping up this disgusting water and washing towels everyday, on top of our regular laundry (family of five). Lastly, my husband got an electrical shock from the hot tub the day before we left. It was a horrible experience.

I just got feedback from Airbnb stating that the host said we left the property in uninhabitable condition. This is just untrue and I’m sure they’re saying that to drag this out/not give us our money back. Whether I get my money back or not, this is making me consider giving up on Airbnb entirely. Has anyone else done the same?

Why would you get your money back? I don’t understand.

We haven't had a terrible experience but our experiences have been gradually worse and worse over the past several years. The last time I stayed in a place it looked great but nothing about it was comfortable and I worried about hidden cameras. Now that our kids are older and can stay in a separate hotel room I don't see us using airbnb again.

We are staying in an airbnb right now with plumbing issues - the shower does not work, the dishwasher sometimes makes noise for 24 hrs but has failed to load water and clean things, the kitchen sink empties into an open drain in the back yard (smells).

When we leave next week, we will be taking photos of everything. No one is going to say "uninhabitable condition" if they see that we've cleaned up after ourselves and left the place tidy.

I agree, superhosts only. This place we paid for only to find out afterwards that the host would be living in the annexe attached to the house and her dog would be sharing the otherwise "private" yard with her dog.

We had zero other options so we took it, but its been the worst airbnb experience since staying in Ventura in a place that was prone to hill collapses.

The protected hosts and screwed guests at the beginning of Covid. Haven’t used them since.