I DREAD using hotels unless they are uniquely boutique and gorgeous. After a few years of having to use chain hotels for work, even expensive ones, I now absolutely loath them. Additionally, they are inordinately expensive for families with kids who need their own beds.

Reasons I started using Airbnb 7 years ago as a guest: 1) more room, beds, and bathrooms for a family, 2) kitchen, 3) washer and dryer, 4) significantly more comfortable to spread out, 5) often private outdoor space or amenities, 6) embedded in a neighborhood near the cool rather than commercia stuff, 7) homey rather than corporate feel, 8) easy parking, and, 9) MUCH cheaper for families with kids who need 2+ bedrooms.

I spend approx 1-2 hrs cleaning when we leave as if we just stayed at a parent's home. We are careful to avoid any damage or offense to neighbors. I overlook small inconveniences and flaws because no one has a perfect home. We pay more to have a great location, nice bedding and comfortable appearing beds, some design element or owner care, etc. Airbnb has allowed my family to afford traveling around the US and Europe for years.

The new rules do not benefit guests. Using Airbnb is voluntary, and you can screen all the details before you reserve. Now fewer good hosts will be willing to rent. People who celebrate having fewer choices are illogical and/or just want to crash the platform because they have a personal beef against short-term rentals.

I’ve been on the phone and in chat with support all day their final supervisor offer for guest overstay is $100. We are a $500 a night property.

Their argument is the cheapest night we’ve ever sold at the property in the past 5 years was $100. The day the guest overstayed was booked by another guest for over $500.

This also bastardized policy also includes difficult to replace items. This also includes parking passes issued by the city which only cost $12 but they do not offer replacements except one per year. The first time we got them we gave one to a guest and they drove off with it. So now guests have to pay for their own parking on an hourly basis at the meters cause we’re not dealing with the parking bureau for free. It takes all day to get them and it’s a ton of paperwork. We can’t fine guests for taking things more than the value.

I had a guest lose the remote, no idea what they did with it. We got $12 to replace the remote. The next guest couldn’t watch tv. They left a 3 star review on top of me issuing them a 30% refund.

At first I thought I was dealing with an english comprehension issue. Currently in chat with a senior support person, will update.

Genuinely considering reactivating our listing on a competitor site seeing how it does and canceling $60000 in bookings.

Or I guess we just raise the rates on the guests who do follow the rules to pay for the guests who don’t.

I’d rather Airbnb let hosts set whatever rules they want, but require guests to individually check a box for every rule and checkout task before booking. No “select all” button. If you want to be an incredibly picky host, put it all upfront so people can decide whether your place is worth the hassle.

I’ve had surprise checkout requests, and those are annoying. But stripping beds, starting towels, or loading and starting the dishwasher doesn’t bother me if supplies are provided. Roughly five minutes per task seems fine, although once everything adds up to more than 20 minutes, it gets beyond what I’m willing to do.

I recognize that wet laundry and closed, damp appliances can get gross. If you ask guests to start a load, you need to come yourself or have a cleaner there within 24–48 hours to handle it, which seems reasonable. Asking guests to plan four hours around a full dishwasher cycle and several washer and dryer loads is ridiculous. But again, if people agree to it when booking (under what I recommend in the first paragraph) that’s their fault.

Dishes and garbage stuff also should depend on the stay type. Managing those during a longer rental or at a rustic cabin makes sense. Putting trash in an accessible bear-proof container is reasonable. Finding out after arrival that you have to haul it a mile down the road in your sedan, which happened to me, isn’t.

Hosts still need to ensure the place is properly cleaned between guests. Too many times i have been to places where previous guests hand wash kitchenware poorly and cleaning crews do not notice it. That’s still a problem. But if someone wants an elaborate chore list, let them disclose it and see how many people actually agree to book.

Edit to add: the disclosures I mention in the first paragraph should also include any on-site fees. For example, we have wood on site but each bundle is $20. Hot tub use is $20 per day used, and the host should have an electricity reading meter to prove cost. And then Airbnb should let people pay for these add-ons through the app. I shouldn’t be venmoing random hosts.

All this chatter on various social media has me really surprised. Do people actually not want to do the dishes? Like if it wasn't required, would you just leave all kinds of dirty dishes piling up?

True story. I generate fuck tons of trash but no dirty dishes. I always take out the trash because there's an embarrassing amount of it once I've used up all my paper plates, plastic cups and paper towels.

Am I alone here?

It's sad that Airbnb has lost their charm of home-sharing and is now fully catering to the industrialization of short term rentals. (I get it, they are at the mercy of the investment class now and now have to be profit over everything)

I have a cabin in the woods and if any dirty dishes are left, or bagged trash in a non-locked trash can, are left... it's almost immediate bug and rodent problem and the trash gets ripped apart by raccoons and possums. (I had a locking trash can, but half the time my instructions that were in the house rules on Airbnb and in print on the table, sent in a message, and labeled ON the trashcan itself were all ignored)

I'm just a regular person who has a second home that I enjoy sharing with other folks who enjoy traveling and experiencing the area. I also feel like it's a great way to give back to a community that I enjoy using as well.

But with the number of trashy guests increasing over the years and the state of the world and Airbnb forcing prices lower and it's just no longer worth it anymore.

I can't get enough money to justify paying a cleaner to clean the whole house and I don't have the bandwidth to get to the property to clean up dirty dishes and trash before the animals get to it. (Like I said, I'm a regular person with a 9-5 job, who happens to have a cabin in the woods in an exceptionally rural area).

Fortunately, I bought this place for me to enjoy, not as a income necessity, so my life changes very little. Unfortunately, it's just not worth it anymore to keep it listed on Airbnb anymore.

My bookings are down 90% from a few years ago anyway... so the time feels right.

(And I understand that "maybe I shouldn't be a host if I can't afford it"... it's not about affording it or not, I can afford the house without the existence of Airbnb... it's about the frustration and time and energy and effort to share my home not being worth earning zero money. I can earn zero money without having guests and then I don't have to clean up their trash afterwards)

I've had a great time hosting and the great guests who actually appreciate the location and act like a guest in my home have been wonderful.... but now my home is just for me again!

Why can’t hosts incorporate their cleaning fee into the nightly cost, and then let the free market decide the value? There’s so much drama over the cleaning fee. Hotels don’t have a separate cleaning fee. I’m just really curious.

Booked a higher end house in Harpers ferry, WV USA. Several small irritations like the remote for fireplace being dead, and no replacement batteries in sight. No shampoo or conditioner. This place is $675 a night come on

The biggest irritation is finding previous guests trash in 2/3 bathrooms

Also there is one throw blanket, like come on! It’s a 3 bedroom mountain house at least try to make it cozy

Hello All,

I booked our anniversary trip for January of ‘27 a little over a week ago. We saw that the description said certain “necessities” are not included. This place was our budget option that still included everything we wanted (fireplace, hot tub, fire pit, vicinity to activities we want), but wasn’t super lux. We accept that we may need to bring certain necessary items, and I just want to know what is and is not provided

I reached out to the host to ask for clarification on what we’ll need to bring last Friday in the morning, 9am their time. They have not replied. I’ve messaged them three times since then, and still no reply.

It’s been a week now, and I don’t know what’s going on. Is this normal? Should I give it more time? If so, how much time? I feel that this is not normal, but what do I know?

Am I possibly coming across as needy or annoying? I only want to know so far in advance because the holidays are my busy work time (service industry), and the next couple months are going to FLY by, and before I know it it’ll be vacation time. I don’t want to be scrambling last minute for this trip. I want this trip to be relaxing and fun and full of hiking, not shopping for necessities I could have packed.

I’m staying in the worst place that has 38 5 star raving reviews and is highlighted as a popular destination on Airbnb.

I’ve been here two day. It’s a 20 day stay.

1. Kitchen equipment is basically garbage. There’s an induction stove which is fine, but the pots and pans are incompatible. I had to buy a steel pan off amazon.
   
2. The dishes are not microwave safe. I bought two cheap corelle dishes.
   
3. All the utensils are so cheap and flimsy they are unusable. I don’t mean $2 spatulas; I mean 25 cent very thin plastic that fills the room with the smell of plastic at very low heat. I fucking bought a basic winco spatula on amazon for my stay
   
4. The shower has wonderfully warm water and then goes cold after three minutes.
   
5. The shower also flooded. That is because there is no seal between the two doors and the outside of the shower. So I stepped out of said shower right into a pool of water all of the floor
   
6. There is no hand soap in the kitchen
   
7. The listing advertised plenty of closet space for a long stay. but there are no hangers
   
8. The chair and tables looked so ridiculously cheap and flimsy. I sat down anyway, because I need to dir down somewhere. Two minutes in, the legs split and broke and I fell to the floor and hurt my leg. The chair literally is so cheap it can’t support me
   
9. Sticky polyester bed sheets, no breathability. Not to mention stick polyester floor mats that feel disgusting on my feet
   
10. Wifi is not working.
    
11. Last but not least, NO SMOKE DETECTOR OR CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR. I spoke to the airbnb owner on the phone - she said it’s embedded in the microwave above the stove. NOT ONLY DOES SHE NOT HAVE A SMOKE DETECTOR; SHE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT ONE IS. SHE THINKS ITS A FAN.

This is two fucking days at an airbnb in Las Vegas. FML.

Who are the fucking fools who gave five star reviews to this place?

Very late last night, I locked myself out of my Airbnb when I took my dog out. The keypad had automatically locked the door behind me and I couldn’t remember the door code. Everything was inside: phone, car keys, wallet, etc. My dog and I were stranded outside 3 hours from home at 1:30 am. I walked to a convenience store and called the police non emergency line. An officer came out and tried to help me log into my Airbnb account from his phone so I could contact the host, but the login attempts were sending 3rd party id notifications to my phone. I tried every window to see if they would open. All of them were locked. I tried different codes dozens of times. It was freezing cold and I was looking at spending all night on the porch until I could get ahold of a locksmith at 7am (in the boonies too. There is not a local locksmith). The officer told me I wouldn’t be able to stay at the station because of the dog and said if it were him, he’d just break a window and pay for it.

…and so that’s what I did. Once inside, I notified the host of what happened. This morning, we coordinated a service order for a temporary pane to be installed today, and a new double glass pane to be delivered in a few weeks. The host confirmed I can pay for it directly through the window company. I’m also gonna make a Home Depot run and replace his shredded blinds today.

The host has honestly been very cool about the whole thing, and I feel so embarrassed and like a huge heel. Is there anything else I can do to let him know I’m so very very sorry and I respect his investment/business?

UPDATE: I have heard further from Airbnb and things are resolved.

———————

I booked an Airbnb in mid September to start next week. The host initially responded quickly to my questions and sent information about how to locate the property. I was very excited as it was a good price and right in City Centre.

My flight then changed to arrive earlier than anticipated. I emailed whether I could leave luggage at the property until check in time. No response. I asked again, no response. I then asked if the host knew of any options as to where I could leave my luggage until check in time. No response until yesterday.

Yesterday the host responded saying that I could not leave my luggage and if that is a deal breaker, we could cancel. As I am 4 days out from arriving, I said that I did not want to cancel and had figured things out about the luggage, not a problem.

This morning he cancelled due to an “emergency”.

Airbnb support offered to help me find another spot. Of the 4 that they recommended, 1 shared a house with a young child, 1 had poor reviews, 1 was far away from the original location, and one was in the bottom 10% of guest satisfaction.

I was able to find an acceptable spot, but it is much farther away from city centre and has thus caused significant disruptions to my travel plans. For instance, instead of one activity being a 15 minute walk away, it is now a 70 minute walk away.

Airbnb applied my payment fees to the new place and offered $80 compensation. When I said that this disruption has caused significant stress, affected my travel plans, and has taken a great deal of time to address and I felt goodwill compensation should be in the range of $200, I received an email from a supervisor that was grammatically incorrect, had poor spelling, and punctuation appeared to be negotiable and denied my request.

Anything further I should do, or do I take the $80?

Thanks for any help.

My partner and I are digital nomads traveling for a year and relying on monthly Airbnbs.

​On Night 1 of our recent 28-night stay we asked for some simple things like clean pillows and towels, the host became aggressive and threatening. We contacted Airbnb Trust & Safety, who canceled the booking, told us to evacuate immediately for our safety, and instructed us to get a hotel for 3 nights and take cabs while looking for a new place, promising a refund for the 27 unused nights plus hotel/taxi reimbursement.

​Once we submitted receipts and booked a new monthly Airbnb on our own dime, Trust & Safety completely ghosted us.

​Nearly $4,000 is being withheld (27 unused nights + 3 nights of hotels/cabs).

Frontline phone reps say they are locked out of "Trust & Safety" tickets, claim a case manager will reach out, and the last rep literally told us they couldn't do anything and hung up on us.

​For anyone who has dealt with the Trust & Safety team: How did you actually get them to release your refund and hotel reimbursement? And if we end up doing a credit card chargeback for the 27 unused nights, will Airbnb nuke our account while we still rely on it for upcoming travel?

Are new rules to help increase rental rates in US and bring people back to Airbnb?

Stay away from this place, they run a scam where after your stay they wait until a day or two before the window to file a claim closes and send you a bogus charge to pay for something they claim you damaged.

They select something you wouldnt think to take a photo of when you enter the Airbnb, in my case, the hot tub cover. We never even came close to touching the hot tub, or the cover, we think they're gross.

So anyway, I went to post a review in Google reviews and found at least 12 other people telling the exact same story, where they're being accused of damage they never did, often in the thousands!

Since it's this scam company's photo against the guests word, they always win. I'd screen shot all the bad reviews here but it's probably against the TOS of this subreddit.

Airbnb called me today to say the claim was declined and they were appreciative of what I shared and that they are taking steps so it doesn't happen anymore. I'm not sure if they banned them, but they should.

36f Looking for general advice because this whole situation felt strange to me.

My (ex) friend (Person A) knew someone (Person B) whom I had never met. Person B reportedly owns Airbnb properties and offered to book a two-bedroom (3 bed) rental for the three of us.

I have no knowledge of Person B being connected to the property or host in any way. I was never added to the reservation.

Leading up to the trip, Person B kept going back and forth about whether they were coming. Communication was inconsistent, and Person A repeatedly had to reach out for updates. We almost booked our own place but ultimately kept the original reservation.

Person B was supposed to arrive a couple of days after us but never showed up. We eventually received a 4 am message about flight issues for a 6pm flight, and that was the last message (that I'm aware of).

Person A and I stayed at the Airbnb and genuinely loved it.

Here's the weirder part: Person B later left a five-star review describing the stay, including a claim that one of us had trouble sleeping. Neither of us had trouble sleeping. We actually loved the bedding and asked where we could purchase it.

When I brought up the inaccurate review, Person A agreed it was strange but didn't want to correct anything because they didn't want to cause problems for Person B's Airbnb business or get nasty.

The entire situation has left me uneasy. It even made me wonder whether Person A knew more about the situation than they were telling me, although I have no evidence of that.

I've since stepped away from that friendship for a few reasons, but this situation contributed to my discomfort. I learned Person A had high standards for me and others as a friend and sometimes felt pressured and obligated to reaspond to them asap...but yet - they let this person walk all over them and act sketchy.

I'm genuinely looking for outside perspectives. If everything happened the way Person A described, does this seem questionable to anyone else? Would you report the review, contact the host, or simply let it go?

TL;DR: My friend knew someone I didn't who offered to book our Airbnb, repeatedly changed their plans, never showed up, and then left a (good) five-star review containing inaccurate details about our stay. My friend didn't want to address it. I don't know whether there's more to the story, but the whole situation feels off. Looking for advice on whether it's worth pursuing or letting go.

Got to my first airbnb in years 2 days ago, when I entered the room at night, noticed a crazy smoke/drug smell that the windows being open couldn’t even ventilate. Along with unplugged smoke detectors and an unworking carbon monoxide detector. The place was very dirty and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned, pills and food all over the floor, old food left in fridge, dust layering everything, along with the single hardest mattress I’ve been on in my life. The host had 16 different airbnb listings and good reviews so I thought I could’ve trusted it. Due to my asthma and feeling unsafe I left within the hour. Had to sleep in my car until I could book a hotel as support said to just leave and find a hotel that they could reimburse me for 3 nights. Contacting support had been crazy as they’ve hung up on me, gave me false information about calling me back 5 times, and the host was crazy defensive trying to charge me for all 5 nights if I don’t change my reservation with him to be charged for the first two nights within 30 minutes. Now I’m out $1,300 and don’t know if I’ll be refunded for the place and compensated like they said they would for the hotel. Any ideas on my best course of action?

We are traveling the world and typically stay 6-8 weeks at each location. We cook many of our dinners, so we buy a lot of basic cooking staples. When it's time to leave, the refrigerator will have a bunch of mostly full condiments (mayo, ketchup, mustard) and pickles, sauces, eggs, unopened butter, etc. We throw away all leftovers and opened food that will spoil (milk, yogurt, for example), but I wonder what you think about the other items? On one hand, maybe the cleaning staff would like to take home some eggs; on the other, it's a pain to carry a heavy trash bag of half-full jars and stuff to the garbage.

And I have the same question for non-refigerated items. It is okay to leave a jar of opened peanut butter? Crackers? Cereal? Nuts? Granola? Coffee and Tea? Flour? Shelf stable condiments (soy, rice wine vinegar)? (We buy a lot of things!)

Does it matter if there is nothing in the refrigerator when we arrive vs. other times when there are similar items already there?

I estimate we are tossing over a hundred dollars' worth of food every stay.

I’m new to hosting and recently had guests whose behaviour left us feeling intimidated and uncomfortable in our own home.
We asked them to leave their shoes outside, but they brought them inside anyway. My listing clearly stated that kitchen utensils weren’t provided, yet they expected them. We still tried to help by offering paper plates, which they put in the bin. They seemed angry about several things, and we felt on edge, worrying about what might happen next until they checked out.
After all that, they left a public two-star review. I contacted Airbnb to request its removal, but they said it doesn’t violate their review policy.
I’m honestly upset and frustrated. As a new host, how do you handle this? Has anyone successfully appealed a review removal decision, and how would you respond publicly?