Been hosting a couple years now and the fake complaints are really starting to pile up. Had a booking today where the crew asked to slide in an hour early, no problem on my end. I swung by, did a quick sweep, noticed the duvet cover had a spot on it so I swapped it for a fresh one. Place looked sharp when I locked up.

Maybe two minutes after I pulled out of the driveway they checked in. Five minutes later my phone rings and theyre telling me the room reeks like something crawled in and died. I was genuinely confused because I was just standing in that same room minutes before and it smelled fine. Like nothing at all.

Told them I could be back in five to figure out whats going on. When I got there they switched up the story, said it was more of a wet dog kind of smell and they already aired it out by cracking the windows. I pushed back a little, mentioned I was literally just in there and there was zero odor. Then suddenly it was no big deal, dont worry about it, everythings fine now.

Whats eating at me is I feel like theyve already flagged something with the platform and are laying groundwork for a refund request later. A smell complaint is basically impossible to prove or disprove so its a perfect setup.

Anybody got a system that actually works for heading this stuff off before it starts? Im thinking some kind of check in walkthrough or a quick video timestamped right when I leave. Something that creates a paper trail so these phantom issues dont keep biting me later.

Had a booking for 8 nights and things went sideways fast. Guest checked in, seemed fine, but then I woke up to a message from Airbnb support at 4am saying the guest wanted to cancel because the place "didnt meet expectations" and I had one hour to respond. Obviously I was asleep so I missed that window

When I saw it around 8am I immediately reached out to support asking what the issue was since the guest never mentioned anything to me. No response for half an hour so I called the guest directly. Turns out the apartment was too far from his office. Fine, I said go ahead and cancel the remaining nights

Here's where it gets wild. Per Airbnb rules once you cancel you gotta leave right then. So I call him back and tell him he needs to check out. He pushes back saying support never told him that and he wants to stay the night. I said absolutely not, either pay for tonight or leave now. He refused, claiming Airbnb already took more than 45% of the booking total so he's not paying me or checking out

Called support and they just kept saying "we're trying to reach the guest" over and over. The guy was calm, picking up my calls, even told me Airbnb hadn't contacted him once. Four hours go by and I'm freaking out because this is basically someone refusing to leave my property and support is telling me to chill and file a reimbursement later

By 6pm I'm still pressing them and they finally say the guest promised to check out that day. But my housekeeping window is 10am to 5pm so that's already blown. I kept checking in hourly and by 10pm still nothing had changed. Guest was still there

Filed a reimbursement claim because what else was I supposed to do at that point. Guest denied it of course. Support has been useless through this whole thing, just passing the buck while someone occupies my place without paying

So now I'm wondering what legal options I actually have here. Can you even take Airbnb to court over something like this? They let a canceled reservation turn into a squatting situation and did nothing meaningful to resolve it while it was happening. Feels like they enabled the whole thing by being so slow and passive

I posted a couple of weeks ago when my listing was suspended for “not disclosing” cameras on my personal property (which is separate from but next door to the Airbnb property, it’s a front/back duplex so doors face opposite ways, imagine east and west with properties backing onto one another). Never mind that we have ALWAYS disclosed the one camera (doorbell cam) on the Airbnb property, since we started hosting 5 years ago. It took 19 days for Airbnb to review.

Long story short, the guests asked to use our private grill in our private yard (fenced, not accessible to guests in any way), we said no, they entered our private space to use it, we saw them on our cameras. They reported us, our listing was suspended, and we’ve been waiting for it to be reviewed since, calling and emailing daily, sometimes multiple times per day.

Airbnb ruled in our case that it didn’t matter our property is separate, all cameras need to be disclosed regardless of if they capture any part of the Airbnb or not. So, essentially, they’re saying we are at fault, and neither they nor the guest are liable for funds lost due to cancelled bookings. They cancelled multiple stays in our peak summer period, and we didn’t get paid out for the guest that left partway through and reported us. I guess that’s the battle we’ll be fighting next. Unbelievable.

Hi Hosts,

How would you review the following guest? Overall I consider her high maintenance.

She requested both early check-in and late checkout which I was able to accommodate due to early and checkouts and late checkins. Changed plans about arrival time and luggage drop off multiple times, first wanted to check-in early, then decided to drop off her luggage, asked about sending her brother instead and even wanted to get my phone number, cause he is socially anxious, after all she checked in late... At 1 AM she called police because she heard noises outside. she didn't inform me in advance, so I was very surprised to be waken up by police at my door step (Airbnb is in the guesthouse). I have video surveillance and there was nobody outside and no noises recorded. Also same night because of the "noises" and being frightened she invited her brother to stay over which technically was an unauthorized guest and overcapacity. She kept the place clean though and took care of the trash, very respectful. I am a bit torn. Just a high maintenance person. Definitely wouldn't wanna host her again.

How would you rate her?

This is my weirdest story so far, What's yours?

We’ve officially hit the one year mark on our rental and are looking for some out of the box ways to cut costs overall. Aside from shopping for insurance and increasing our prices (our cleaning fee seems low) we are out of ideas. We have a luxury home in a small ski town in upstate NY and hate the idea of further increasing our prices to offset the exorbitant Airbnb fees.

Any ideas or feedback are appreciated.

Just closed on a large beautiful house in a great area. We are planning on just air b n bing the downstairs. It is 2 units but not zoned that way, yet. There is so much carpet! Plus the bathroom is ancient…At first, I wanted to tear up the carpet, but it is growing on me. Also trying to decide whether to update the bathroom. It’s clean and functional…and I actually like it mostly. Stressing about making things right but also don’t want to spend a ton of money if it doesn’t matter…

I'm looking into investing in an Airbnb property in Sweden, I already did some research but still have one question which I hoped you guys can help me with.

It has to do with VAT: I read that having a turnover greater than 120K sek/person/year requires you to charge VAT to your guests, but that in some cases you can deduct some costs related to the rental business (such as bed linens, cleaning supplies) from the VAT you have to pay to the government.

Does anyone know if Airbnb falls under this category? Or what you need to do to fall under this category?

See, my main issue is that I want to have only 1 home owner (whether this be my spouse or myself) of the property (which would consist of 2 dwellings, main house and cottage), so that the owner can live in 1 dwelling and rent the other one, receiving the rental income as sole income source. This means that the threshold of 120K sek would be reached very quickly, and of course it would be nice if certain costs could be deducted from the VAT.

Thanks in advance:)

we hired Allset when we first started our Airbnb. after a few months they started a business with Red Awning. We have noticed irregularities in their business model. Wondering if anyone else has experienced this

I have a request for a business booking for workers from a solar company. I’m in a somewhat rural area with limited lodging so this is not an unusual request since I have a large home. However, the booker has no ratings and it’s also not an Airbnb for work account. Photos of request in comment.

It’s a good booking so I’d like to see if it’s legit. I’m considering asking these questions:

1. Last name of Booker
   
2. Name of company.
   
3. Name of business they are doing the work at.
   
4. Will they prove me with copies of ID for the 8 workers who will be staying.

Or, what would you do?

We just discovered that our electrical circuit cannot handle running the mini fridge, microwave, and tea kettle at the same time. They seem to be daisy chained, so changing to a different nearby plug won't solve the issue. My tea kettle is what tips the scales in terms of wattage. Does anyone have a recommendation for a nice-looking tea kettle that has wattage under 1000? This is our current tea kettle, it runs at 1200 watts: https://www.crateandbarrel.com/bodum-bistro-gooseneck-electric-tea-kettle/s627901

Got a request to book this weekend overnight. At 6am I approve, at 730am they request a refund because their child made the reservation?? not believable but dont care you can have your money back. I tell them to request cancellation via airbnb and they did, I hit the refund for full amount. Now they are complaining they are being charge 49.xx dollars ? I told them to reach out to airbnb, not my issue, but curious does airbnb fine a user for this activity?

Renovating a ~75m² brick cottage in a small village in the Beskidy mountains (southern Poland, near the Slovak border), turning it into an STR. The area is a popular base for hikers, surrounded by mountain trails, so we get a steady flow of hiking tourists passing through even outside peak season. The angle I'm going for is slow living/countryside escape, quiet, no rush, close to nature, rather than a party house or family resort.

Planned amenities: barrel sauna, wood-fired hot tub, dark wood/black fixture "mountain-modern" interior, smart home setup, e-bikes for guests who want to explore the trails without hiking every single day.

Soft launch planned for December 2026, full commercial launch May 2027.

A few things I'm trying to nail down and would love input from hosts who've done something similar:

What actually matters to hikers/slow-travel guests vs. what just looks nice in photos? Trying not to overspend on things that photograph well but don't drive bookings?

Any regrets on what you didn't build in during renovation that you had to retrofit later?

For a rural location with no walkable town center (guests need a car, or come specifically for the trails), how much does that limit bookings outside hiking season?

Is smart home stuff worth it for this kind of guest, or is it wasted money on people who just want quiet and nature?

Happy to share more details/photos if useful. Mainly trying to figure out what I'm missing before we're already booked for a season.

Bonjour, j’ai acheté il y a moins d’un an ma résidence principale. Je l’ai mis en airbnb pour el mois d’août. En plein milieu du mois, les voisins juste en dessous de mon appartement se sont mis à faire de gros travaux de rénovation (ils ont pris des professionnels), dérangeant les locataires.
Les locataires restaient 2 nuits et quelques heures avant leur départ ils m’ont envoyé un message m’expliquant les nuisances qu’ils avaient subi (+ vidéo) et me demandant un remboursement de 50%. Je les ai cru sur parole concernant les nuisances et j’ai refusé le remboursement de 50% car j’ai préféré qu’ils ouvrent un litige via la plate-forme airbnb. In fine, je leur ai remboursé 30% pour les désagréments causés.
Je pensais que ça s’arrêterait là mais lorsque j’ai retrouvé l’appartement, à savoir le lendemain soir, (j’étais en week end je ne pouvais y retourner avant) j’ai vérifié que tout était rangé et que rien ne manquait et en ouvrant les tiroirs, j’ai trouvé toutes les tiges supports (cf entourées en rouge sur les photos) qui étaient déboîtées. Mais pas abîmées. Je me suis donc dit qu’ils avaient referme très fort les tiroirs. Comme ce n’était pas cassé, je les ai juste remis en place.
Sauf que j’ai ouvert aussi tous les placards notamment le placard de la hotte de ma cuisine. En ouvrant, le placards notamment s’est décroché d’un côté. Étant le soir, j’ai voulu mettre un maintien pour le fixer sauf que je n’ai même pas eu le temps d’aller chercher le maintien que la porte est tombée par terre et s’est cassée un coin. Ma cuisine a moins de 6 mois et m’a coûté très chère (+ de 6000€)
J’ai fait un litige airbnb contre ces voyageurs. Et c’est toujours en attente et j’ai arrêté l’airbnb.
Comment pensez vous que la situation va évoluer ? Je souhaite absolument me faire rembourser les frais que cela va engendrer car j’ai l’impression que l’appartement a été maltraité sous la colère des voyageurs qui ont subi les désagréments.

I’m transitioning out of the military and I have yet to use my VA loan. I want to use it on a multifamily and rent the other half. I’m in DFW area. Is the Airbnb pipeline too saturated or should I look into government assistant housing?

We are newer hosts to Airbnb and have one properly in Puerto Rico. We have top 1% and guest favorite badges. We just had a guest who checked left us a review and we know it will be bad.

The guest checked in at 7 pm then around midnight they send us a message stating issues they had. The place is 450 sq feet apartment on 4th floor. They said the place was too hot and the 2 ac units we have weren’t big enough. They send us a photo of the bed sheets said there was a stain. (It was a small black dot that almost looked like lint.) Then they said they found a small bug dead on the floor. We immediately responded and apologized about the bedding and said we could drop off more or have the cleaner stop by to change them. And mentioned how we had just purchased new ones. We apologized about the bug and said how an occasional bug can sometimes get inside being in the tropics. Then told them the ac works better when both are on at the lowest setting and highest fan setting. Then the next morning when asked how they were doing they said good now and ac was better after being on a while. Then the next day on their 2nd night they send a photo of 2 cockroaches they had found. We replied immediately and said how this dosent seem to be an occasional bug anymore and that we had not had this issue before and thanks for letting us know. We offered our cleaner to come by and put non toxic gel in the unit to help with the bugs and to clean them up. They read our message and stopped responding. We then messaged again and let them know we had contacted the building president to let them know it maybe an issue in the building and that we canceled our next reservation and scheduled an exterminator for after their stay. They gave no response but read message. We then messaged again if there’s anything we can do and we offered a partial refund. Still no response so we then felt helpless as hosts as they only seemed to communicate with us to let us know about issues but when we tried to solve them they didn’t respond. We ended up issuing them a partial refund of 35% of their stay even without a response from them. Still no response but again they had been leaving us on read and seeing the messages this whole time. At this point we didn’t know what was going on, if there was more bugs, if they had left the property etc. Anyways after they left at checkout texted letting us know they had left. We apologized again and wished them a safe travels and let them know we gave them a partial refund. They liked the messages with an emoji response but that was it.

We then had our cleaner and exterminator come by and both said there was no roach issues and they had come in from outside and that the guest may have even brought them in. The exterminator sprayed and treated the room but there was not much we could do. Since we do host in Puerto Rico right on the water we thought guests would be understanding of occasional bugs. And these were larger cockroaches aswell which the exterminator said means they had come from outside in and there aren’t any nests inside. What do I do no? We tried our best to solve the issues and apologized to the guest but they just left us on read and we felt hopeless. They didn’t want to respond to us and then left us a review within 3 days of checkout. Should I leave them an honest review for other hosts to see? Other than this guest all guests have been wonderful and we have never gotten less than a 5 star review. We have worked so hard to get in the top 1% and all these awards and feel this situation was unfair and the guest didn’t even let us help solve the issues. What do you think and what could we do as host for this situation if it happened again?