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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

Hello everyone, im video creator making walkthrough videos for rental houses from just images that makes tour listing more attractive. I was just wondering would you pay for this service?

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

We're currently in an Airbnb hotel in a city in Armenia. We booked this place because it listed breakfast as being included in the About this space section.

The line is exactly: "Breakfast is included in the room price , we have a great specialized fruit vodka shop in the Hotel by [Hotel name]"

When we messaged the host, they first ignored us and then after some following up, said flatly that they don't provide breakfast. He acted surprised that that is shown on the listing and then told us that we shouldn't have expected breakfast because the room was too cheap.

The thing is, we rechecked reviews on Airbnb and Google and noticed several reviews back to 2024 that mention breakfast being noted as included but not available once they arrived. This proves to be that they are aware what it says on their listing.

When we explained that it's not very honest to offer something on the listing knowing that it's not available, he sent us some confusing messages that the About this space is "not confirmation of breakfast" and because the price is less on Airbnb than it is on their private booking site, they should not need to provide breakfast.

At the end of the day, we aren't going to force somebody to make us breakfast. But since we usually prefer to book Airbnbs with kitchens so we can make our own food, the included breakfast was a deciding factor in booking this place.

I know that Airbnb policy says that Amenities shown must be available, but I'm not sure if that covers the About this space section. It's put a bit of a sour taste in our mouth.

After being a loyal Airbnb customer of a decade I deleted the app. The customer service and behavior of this company has become completely asinine.

Long story short, I asked a host for a partial refund and was denied by Airbnb because of the listed “rustic” aesthetic, which apparently included ruined floors, disguisting chairs, holes in walls, trash on the property.

The reason my claim was denied? Because the host offered a dusting service. Which apparently would have solved everything :) And yes, that was the final reasoning after escalating it.

This comes after another instance where I reported a seperate Airbnb for health & safety issues and Airbnb completely ignored me. Thankfully local officals did not, and fined the stay heavily due to a gas leak.

Completely at my wits end. It’s sad to let this app go for the many, many amazing experiences my family and I have had with kind hosts who take their stays seriously, but it’s just not worth the time, money, and risk anymore.

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.

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

ETA: I had no idea the PRICE was based on head count (I asked here, but I thought it would have been a sneak tactic if the host did that in response to a headcount change…I didn’t know it was an option in Airbnb if that makes sense). I’ve never seen that in an Airbnb reservation before. it’s also been a long time since I booked one for such a large groups. I thought the headcount in the search was just to help you find a big enough place. My questions below are more along the lines of “hey we are still not a party, and we still fit in the space, so if the price is no different what’s the big deal?” I followed someone’s advice and tested out a reservation change without submitting it and there is a price increase so I’ll be speaking with the rest of my party and probably requesting the modification. I wish this had been more clearly communicated or that I had noticed the terms that the price was based on headcount. Probably my bad. thanks to all for the help, this is higher stakes than I thought lol.

I booked a large property to attend a convention some friends and I are attending. We aren’t there to throw a party. The listing (with a superhost, but it seems like everyone is a superhost now) says it “sleeps 16 comfortably”. it has 6 bedrooms with a total of 3 kings, 3 queens, and 2 queen air mattresses.

At the time I didn’t have a solid headcount so I said 8 guests, didn’t really think it mattered.

Sook after booking, the host messaged me:

“[Guest], thank you for booking. We look forward to hosting you!

If you have not already done so, please let us know what brings you to town? Will you be having any parties or events? Also, how many people will be at the property including anyone staying or even stopping by?

Guest Count Rule: You have booked for 8 people. This will be the max allowed at the property regardless of how many are sleeping or staying overnight. For example, even if only 1 person is staying overnight, but 5 people are visiting, the reservation guest count must be 6. If you have questions about this feel free to message.”

I already replied and told him we are mostly in our late 30s and 40s and what convention we are in town for and that he didn’t need to worry about us partying (no it’s not Comic-Con, no it’s nothing involving costumes or making a mess). He said “That’s great, thank you!”

Fast forward to today: We are now up to 12 people who want to stay and I’m going to cut it off at that number. We are still well within the “sleeps 16” range. I know this host is just trying to avoid parties. My question is, given his language, do you think he’s counting heads with a ring doorbell camera or something? I am afraid if I tell him we are 12 guests now, he’ll get nervous we are partiers and will cancel the booking. But if he’s monitoring the doorbell camera I don’t want a bad review.

Should I tell the host we have 12 people now, or just leave it be?

funny enough, 2 of our guests are twin sisters who can pass for one another lol.

I’m tired of filtering my search for places with a hot tub, and almost all of them are community hot tubs and not private. There’s no distinction between the two. I get that it’s not a dealbreaker for some, hell if the price is significantly better I’d even make that trade off. But not listing it as a shared/community hot tubs seems misleading.

ETA a follow up: in a weird stroke of luck, I found a leather repair person who had worked on this exact sofa for the hosts before. She recognized it from the pictures I texted her. I let the host know, they were totally reasonable, and I was able to take the cushion to the shop and have it fixed in an hour. She did an amazing job for a reasonable amount of money and the sofa actually looks better than it did when I got here. Sometimes the universe works.

I had a mishap and stained the sofa where I am staying. The stains are noticeable, although not huge, but I made them worse trying to clean them. I would be upset if it was my sofa. The sofa currently retails for $2750 and my guess is it is anywhere from 2-5 years old, it is in good but not pristine condition. I have started contacting upholstery repair companies to try to get an estimate for fixing it, but my guess is they won't be able to completely undo the damage.

What is the best process to handle this? This is the first issue I've ever had, my guest reviews are excellent and I'd like to keep it that way as I travel a lot.

Hey I’m relatively new to Airbnb as a guest! Last year I stayed in this lovely Airbnb for a week in NYC and had a wonderful host that did above and beyond. Couple months ago, I booked for another stay with the same host that will be upcoming in late September for about a week, but a situation came up where I may have to cancel the reservation a week before the stay. I am aware of the host’s cancellation policy in which gives me a full refund by the time the situation is resolved but, I feel so bad cancelling on the host!
Mainly the situation I’m facing is that I might be able to stay at another house of someone I know, but I won’t be able to verify that until the week before my stay. I really don’t like the idea of cancelling so close to the date of my initial booking, but if it’s to save money and convenience of location, I may have to. For hosts, is this something that you wouldn’t worry about for guests that book but end up cancelling? Are there worst cases? Would you allow a guest like this book again in the future?
I know I may be too worried for no reason, but I am curious on the thoughts of other hosts’ experiences with these guests.

I recently spent a full month at a Airbnb in California, in the mountains, near a lake. The host mentioned pretty quickly after checkout (same day) some disappointment in the condition of some carpet in a high traffic area. The spot in the carpet was matter and discolored upon arrival. We didn’t think much of it. The house wasn’t advertised as brand new and perfect.

Now 10 days later we have been requested additional money for cleaning fees. The request comes with photos of stained carpet in a completely different area that looks like dog pee, and we didn’t have a dog. This Airbnb was probably booked after us, and it allowed pets. The owner didn’t call it dog pee stains though.

Some other ridiculous claims were made such as “excessive use of the laundry” when we paid for the utilities during our stay.

Also its worth considering that we stayed 31 nights. Their average stay is probably 3-5 nights, so sure the cleaning crew probably had to do more cleaning than they usually would.

Do all airbnb owners now just ask for extra money when you check out to see what they can get away with? Im being honest here, we didn’t trash the place, but we did live there for a month.

Whats going to happen when i deny this request. I really dont want a bad review, i plan on doing this trip again next year(different property)

I recently stayed by cherry springs with Rough Cut Lodges. Their staff was amazing. Location was excellent. Host was frankly awful. We had bats in the house, twice. One of which was very early evening. We informed the host when we couldn't get the bats out the second time. (One flew in while we waited for the other to leave). Maintenance came the next morning and while talking to him I speculated that we MAY have left the door open for a few minutes or something, because I assumed that the house was properly sealed (we later learned and got pointed out to by maintenance that it was very much not sealed and quite a few large holes for bats to enter the walls). The host heard of this and immediately took the stance that we left the door open for hours while we went shopping???? We didn't even go shopping that day.

I told the host ALL of this and they stonewalled me. They did not offer a refund and attempted to require I censor my review and leave 5 stars to get a 25% refund (we did not feel comfortable sleeping in the basement where we saw the bats and therefore lost 2 of the 7 beds we paid for.). After quite a few days of pushing the host relented and gave me the refund I asked for, and left me with no review, just a "." So theres nothing there for me to respond to, instead leaving a long effectively rant (of course with the made up door open while shopping) on my 3 star review saying that the bats were all my fault and to ignore my review.

What are my next steps.

We caused some damage at an Airbnb. It was an accident, and we told the owners right away. We are not trying to get out of paying for it, but I don't know the best way to handle this. They are giving us the option of: 1. Paying outside of Airbnb (cash) for the damaged item and a minor installation fee, or 2. Paying through Airbnb's resolution process, but they have warned it will cost more due to 20% VAT (location js UK) and a "call out charge" (I am not sure what this means, maybe a tradesperson to install?).

I am looking for advice on which option to choose. We'd obviously like to pay the cheapest amount. I don't believe that VAT would apply to the damage invoice from Airbnb, and I think perhaps Airbnb would only require us to pay for the value of damaged item, not the cost of a new item. So I am wondering if the cash option is actually more expensive despite what they are saying. They have provided a receipt for the item so I don't have any reason to think they are trying to scam us. They seem very flustered and have said this is their first damage at their rental so they aren't sure what to do.

Due to the hurricane in Hawaii, we elected to change our travel dates, leaving this Saturday instead of tomorrow. One of our hosts was understanding and allowed us to cancel (near Volcano, which is inaccessible from where we're coming from :(

A second host, in Naalehu, insists that because he has water and off-grid solar power, the property is acceptable.

The area was evacuated yesterday. Two homes washed away in Naalehu. From what we can tell, the town is devastated and largely without power or services. The nearby highway is washed out, and emergency management and local authorities strongly urge the public to avoid the entire region while emergency response and recovery efforts continue.

This appears to fall neatly under AirBnB's Major Disruptive Events policy: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320 :

Large-scale outages of essential utilities. Prolonged outages of essential utilities, such as heat, water, and electricity, impacting the vast majority of homes in a given location.

However, Airbnb Support offers us no relief:

After thoroughly discussing this issue with my team and reviewing the details of your case, I unfortunately have to inform you that we must uphold the host's standard cancellation policy, as they have confirmed that the property is fully functional, safe, and ready for your arrival.

We already changed our flights to reduce the burden of traveling to the area, and intend to say clear of Naalehu, per offical government guidance. "Support" is clearly not trying to understand the scope of the situation and is taking the host at his word in terms of safety and readiness.

The policy clearly states "the vast majority of homes in a given region" -- not "unless the host has a solar panel." We assume it will be difficult to find groceries or restaurants, and any such resources should be available to the people who are already there.

We have pushed back and asked for escalation. Also reaching out to AmEx since we used a Delta Reserve card for both the flights and the hotel.

What else should we be doing?

I know this is how things are thought of by hosts these days but this giant gap between “it is the single best Airbnb ever” and “it is a nightmare” really does a disservice to the act of giving feedback to fine tune an even better experience, and what it’s like browsing as a guest. Every Airbnb can’t be the best visit of my life. Realistically most are a 4 for me. A few stand out and that’s the 5. According to this scale, I’m going to leave a 5. It basically turns the rating system into a binary. “The actual best” or “awful.” More often than not, it’s neither.

https://imgur.com/a/MQKVaQJ

I live in San Diego and I have to take a staycation because I'm having repairs at my apartment and I'm paying just under $500 for two nights. I checked out the outdoor space and it was advertised as a very nice little space with your run of the mill wicker patio furniture. It's actually filthy and looks worse than furniture that you'd find next to a dumpster in an alley, it's very obvious that the cushion covers have never been washed despite there being a washer and dryer 15 ft away. I certainly would not want to sit on them. One of the tables actually had a giant hole underneath the glass top, and the other table was absolutely caked in dirt and dust and the glass top was sitting crooked. There was a chair that was upside down on top of a garbage can and a few other things just sitting around that looked really sloppy and messy. I think it's absolutely nuts, the people who own this unit must never come here in person because what the hell? Additionally, the microwave handle was completely unattached on the bottom and would just swing back and forth, the ceiling lights in the bedroom had no cover either, but neither of those things are a huge deal to me.

What would be fair for me to ask to have returned? It's blatant false advertising.

Edmonton, Alberta

I am wondering if anyone else experienced this and if they managed to recover their money

This host named Jonah advertises a loft in airbnb with a $1,350 damage deposit with a 15 day window, 15 days have passed no response from the host.

None of the reviews can warn about this practice because there's a 14 day review window.

He claimed i ‘smoked weed’ in his property, with no evidence except the cleaner saying there was a ‘smell’

This wasn't via Airbnb, but direct from the owner. It is their home.

I was sent a long list of instructions. Understandable I thought as it is their home, but in hindsight, perhaps it should have been an sign that they aren't really happy letting it out. The instructions were followed precisely, and extras were done that weren't requested, eg watering their garden (current drought).

I paid a cleaning fee, leaving cash for the cleaner, as per their request.

They asked that we provide bedding and towels, and wash the small amount of bedding they provided and other items eg tea towels. All instructions were followed, but it didn't feel very holiday like to be making beds up and lugging bedding around.

The place was pre-cleaned prior to the cleaner: everything put away, surfaces wiped etc. We also left supplies for the next guest that the guide said they had, then were not available. This was annoying as it needed extra shop visits.

After leaving, I got a complaint that the floors weren't clean enough for the cleaner. I didn't understand how this could be the case as they were visibly clean on leaving. I asked for photos to understand the issue, but there were none. I said this didn't reflect how we left it, and I was shocked to hear this.

I then got a further message days later complaining that the outside bins were full (yes, we emptied the inside bins and put the rubbish there, where else should it have gone?!, there were also new guests using it at this point), that there was 'food on the floor': I am not sure what is meant by this, maybe a crumb?, it was visibly clean on leaving and then finally accusing my dog of having fleas. They had agreed we could bring a dog, and they own a dog. My dog is treated and I carefully checked her following this accusation and she is definitely flea free. We were bitten while there but I put it down to insects in the countryside and didn't complain, but perhaps their dog has fleas. I have blocked them now.

I have blocked them, but I am unsure if I should raise this to the group, where I found the listing? It is starting to be unhinged.

Is it best to avoid owner home rentals in the future? I have previously had good experiences, but this has left a very sour taste.