32 responses

  1. Stacey
    November 14, 2015

    Oh wow that looks terrible! I had a bad experience when I first moved to Antigua- my friend had booked the AirBnb for a couple of nights but I wanted some time to get to know the place and find a new place to live so I booked for a month and unfortunately paid with Paypal. She initially wanted 3 months upfront, but I’m super glad I didn’t pay that since the place was a disgrace. Lesson learned- use AirBnb in case you want out!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 18, 2015

      Whenever possible, I try to only pay for no more than a week initially to make sure I won’t regret my decision later.

      Reply

      • Jasmine
        February 5, 2017

        We just stayed at a condo through Airbnb in Huntington Beach for 32 days but we had to pay $3475 out of the total $3899 up front. How do we go about paying no more than a week for future bookings?

        Reply

      • Talon Windwalker
        February 6, 2017

        Unless you can make a special deal with the host, Airbnb’s system is going to expect payment up front.

        Reply

  2. Wendy
    November 8, 2015

    Wow, thankfully we’ve never had a bad experience with airbnb before (knock on wood). Glad to hear that customer service is helpful – I can only imagine how frustrating being in those circumstances can be!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      Considering how often we’ve used them and for how long, it was bound to happen some day. I’m just glad they were so proactive and responsive.

      Reply

  3. Zascha
    November 7, 2015

    I have had the Airbnb app on my phone for months and months now and I still haven’t tried it out yet. I must get around to it and hopefully I won’t end up in a place like that. It looks absolutely filthy! Also, if I saw a rat casually walking around on the floor I’d be screaming my head off whilst running out of the building! 😀

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      That would make for a great video. LOL

      Reply

  4. Sadie
    November 6, 2015

    I haven’t had any terrible experiences happen to me personally, but my boyfriend went through one while he was waiting for me to get to NYC. He was suppose to have a futon in the living room of the apartment, but when he got there, the futon was actually in the kitchen, so every morning when the 2 NYU students (red flag right there) got up and ate breakfast he was right there trying to sleep. On top of it all their apartment was completely filthy. He sent me pics. The trash was overflowing onto the floor. Dirty dishes piled up in the sink and they never unloaded their dishwasher. They just left the door open with the racks out to store clean and dirty dishes. And this was all for $60 per night! I told him to report them, but he didn’t think any thing would come of it. I’m going to have him read this article now.

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      That is just horrid! Yes, he definitely should’ve contacted Airbnb. So wrong!

      Reply

  5. Nicole
    November 3, 2015

    Wow! In hindsight, were there any hints in any reviews or descriptions that these stays could be bad?

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      Nope! For this one with the rats her reviews were excellent. I’m still stymied. Although most of her guests were from the Baltics or Russia, so perhaps the expectations are just vastly different.

      Reply

  6. Cassie
    November 3, 2015

    What terrible stories, those photos are so gross 🙁

    While I was happy with how my Airbnb story was eventually resolved, the company was not responsive when I needed them to be (when I was calling their emergency hotline at 2am and no one answered–they didn’t start to staff it until about 7:30EST). I’m HOPE they have changed it since then and now offer a 24-hour hotline. That’s good to know about their Twitter helpline, I’ll have to follow that account.

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      Oh wow! You’d think they would have it staffed 24 hours, esp since it’s a global operation.

      Reply

  7. Michelle Quinn
    November 3, 2015

    We used AirBnb over a dozen times, on three continents, during our world trip. We stayed in everything from high-rises to an South African sheep ranch – it was awesome.
    If only I had been more diligent, like you, with our Shanghai apartment, though. It was so filthy. We had him move us to a slightly less filthy apartment and then (as it was 24 hours later) just decided to ‘grin and bear it’. We should have contacted Airbnb, I guess. Good to know for future trips!
    Thanks for this post,
    Michelle

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      I’m not surprised. A friend of ours rented quite a bit in China (long-term rental), and she said it’s pretty customary to have to do a deep clean of a rental. From everything I’ve heard and read, it just doesn’t seem to be a very . . . tidy culture.

      Reply

  8. Leila
    November 3, 2015

    Talon, how does Riga fit into this? Thought the difficult Air B & B was Paris. Yep Henry should have posed for a photo under the kitchen sink water pipe!!!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      The first photos are from the place in Paris, and the rat and broken sink stay was in Riga.

      Reply

  9. Chanel | Cultural Xplorer
    November 3, 2015

    I’ve had good experiences with all of my rentals through AirBnB to date but I know to always be prepared in case things don’t go quite right. That mouse thing would have made me scream – glad AirBnB resolved your situation and it is good to know that I can contact them if I have issues!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      We’ve had so many really good experiences with them. Makes it even better to know firsthand that they’ll come through for you when it goes south.

      Reply

  10. Billie Frank
    November 3, 2015

    No photo of Henry-lol? That place sounds too disgusting for words. You have a lot of fortitude. I would have been out of there the first day. Wonder how they got good reviews. It’s good that you reported them- otherwise others would encounter this same subpar apartment. I hope Airbnb removed them from the rental roster.

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      Airbnb gave me the impression that they gave her some expectations on improvements, which she apparently accepted.

      Reply

  11. Bell
    November 3, 2015

    Wow, what a story!! We’ve actually never stayed in an air bnb but when we had a second bedroom we rented it on the site.

    Most of our guests where either never there aside to sleep, which worked, or lovely. Aside from a couple who had decided to move to Dublin with no jobs or place lined up. They were in the apartment basically all the time as they had no money. As Alex works from home this was very difficult, after that we learnt to communicate a whole lot better and didn’t host people in such a circumstance, which may seem a little unfair, but I think the right expectations for both parties are what make air bnb work!

    Best of luck with your next air bnb rental 🙂

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 9, 2015

      As long as those expectations are made clear, yes it’s a good thing indeed.

      Reply

  12. John
    November 2, 2015

    Yikes! Those sound like quite the doozies! We often use Airbnb and have only had one challenging incident from a host who was brand new to Airbnb in Manilla, Philippines. The host insisted on us giving her an $800 USD security deposit in cash to hang on to. Things got a little dicey when we downright refused and it was looking like we’d be getting kicked out. But Airbnb customer service was awesome in getting it straightened out and they explained to the host that any cash transactions violate Airbnb’s policy. All ended well and we stayed in the apartment without dishing out the cash.

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 2, 2015

      Yikes! Glad it was resolved. That’s quite the deposit, too!

      Reply

  13. Stacy
    November 2, 2015

    Greta review of AB&B. I’ve found the same to be true…that is great customer service and for the most part upstanding folks who rent out their places. We’ve rented from people all over the world and really only had issues a couple of times…one time the host was so apologetic he sent over a bottle of the local whiskey!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 2, 2015

      Now THAT’s an apology!

      Reply

  14. Michelle Snow
    November 2, 2015

    Yikes! I guess it’s good to know Air BnB has such great customer service, but sad you had to go through all that. I swear I read on another blog a few months ago about another bad experience in Riga. Maybe the same place? I don’t remember but it was equally atrocious. I haven’t used them yet, but was thinking about it for next year.

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 2, 2015

      Interesting! I’m not surprised they had issues in Riga, to be honest. From the ones I looked at it seems that there isn’t a lot of . . . host pride in many of the rentals. Now, our one in Dubulti (a district in Jurmala) was really good.

      Reply

  15. Ele
    November 2, 2015

    A horror Halloween story in perfect timing 🙂 So sorry you had those experiences!

    Reply

    • Talon Windwalker
      November 2, 2015

      Too bad we couldn’t put a costume on the rat. 😀

      Reply

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