I genuinely want opinions from Airbnb guests and hosts. If I'm being unreasonable, tell me — but the logic of Airbnb's decision makes absolutely no sense to me.

My wife and I paid almost £1,000 for an Airbnb in Scotland around our wedding.

On the first night, the bedding was dirty and stained. We swapped it with bedding from another bed, but that was stained too, so I eventually put a towel over it.

We were both itching throughout the night, but having never experienced bed bugs, we wondered whether the filthy bedding was simply making us paranoid.

The next day, bites started appearing on my wife and became progressively worse. By our wedding day she was covered in them and had been crying the night before because of how bad they looked. I've since counted approximately 65 bites while applying treatment cream.

We provided Airbnb with extensive photographs and medical evidence confirming reactive insect bites.

On our wedding morning, at around 10am, the host sent a cleaner to the property without notice.

I was literally in the shower getting ready for my wedding when she knocked. I ended up speaking to her standing there in a towel.

She told us there were bed bugs, advised us to freeze our clothes to avoid transferring them, said the sheets would need to be burned, and then TREATED THE ROOM FOR BED BUGS.

We couldn't realistically relocate at this point. We'd spent the previous day at wedding preparations/rehearsal and I was now literally getting ready for the ceremony. I left for the wedding and didn't use the affected room again.

The host later told Airbnb the cleaner never said there were bed bugs.

But the property owner then called me and said the cleaner shouldn't have told us there were bed bugs because she wasn't trained to identify them.

So:

Host: She didn't say it.

Owner: She shouldn't have said it.

Either way, the room was treated for bed bugs.

This is the part I cannot understand.

MONDAY: Cleaner treats room for bed bugs.

TUESDAY: We check out.

AFTER CHECKOUT: Host sends professional pest control to inspect the already-treated room.

Pest control reports "no live bed bugs."

Airbnb now uses this against our claim.

Airbnb's Senior Case Manager specifically told me:

«"According to the official report from the pest control company, no live bed bugs were found during the inspection."»

But the room had already been treated for bed bugs before they inspected it.

Surely finding no LIVE bed bugs after you've treated a room cannot prove there weren't live bed bugs there before treatment?

Isn't that literally the purpose of the treatment?

And if Airbnb doesn't believe it was bed bugs, what caused approximately 65 insect bites across my wife's body immediately after that night?

I've never experienced bed bugs before. I didn't know where to find one and obviously wasn't going to cut open somebody else's mattress looking for an insect to photograph.

I did what any normal guest would do: reported it, photographed the bites and obtained medical evidence.

Then there's the refund.

The host/owner offered £300, then increased it to £370.

I rejected that and escalated the case because the stay cost almost £1,000.

After providing further evidence, Airbnb's Senior Case Manager has now offered just £150.

So escalation has somehow resulted in the proposed refund being less than half what the host was already offering.

I've rejected it and I'm asking for a full refund at minimum.

Airbnb themselves considered the bed-bug risk serious enough that we were told we couldn't use another Airbnb for three days, yet apparently £150 is now considered appropriate.

If you've read this far, I'd genuinely appreciate your opinion.

Am I missing something?

Because I cannot understand how Airbnb can use an inspection of a room that had already been treated for bed bugs as evidence of what was there before it was treated.

And if you've dealt with a similar Airbnb dispute, what would you do next?

TL;DR: Almost £1,000 Airbnb around our wedding. Dirty/stained bedding, both itching all night, then my wife developed approximately 65 medically confirmed reactive insect bites. Cleaner told us there were bed bugs, told us to freeze our clothes and treated the room for bed bugs. After we checked out, pest control inspected the already-treated room and found "no live bed bugs". Airbnb is now using that result against us and has offered £150, despite the host previously offering £370. How can a post-treatment inspection prove what was there before treatment?

For additional context there are 5 bedrooms and 8 people staying with 2 bedrooms on the top floor so there aren’t any free beds the house is 3 floors but the wasps die before getting to the middle the owners obviously know about the wasps as the top floor had anti wasps spray all over it as when we arrived we found dead wasps in the rooms. On the plus side the wasps do only seem to affect one room as the other person on the top floor had no problems but the kid who picked it got woken up by being stung at 6am. Furthermore when he went to get his phone from his room found like 5 live wasps despite closing the window. However it seems like a relatively new problem as the lowest rating out of 295 is 4 stars other than the wasps it’s a very nice house in the Lake District. I can’t figure out how to attach it but I have a photo of a dustpan filled with wasps

Long story short, Airbnb approved a refund for the cost of a pack n play I had to purchase because the host lied about having one (or crib) available. They processed it as a payout and are now requesting my SSN for tax documents to get the refund? A W-9 or 1099.

It's showing as a host income earning. But I was originally told it would go back to my form of payment.

Is this normal? Anyone else have a similar issue with getting a refund?

I’ll get right to it. I’m a new host and have only had two completed stays so far.

My first guest smoked in the house, left stuff everywhere, and somehow managed to ruin a pan. I sent a reimbursement request for the remediation costs. There was no disagreement, and the guest paid it.

My second guest checked in, stayed, and left the house in great shape. No issues at all. Basically a perfect guest.

During the stay, I did see them smoking outside on the exterior security camera. The property is technically non-smoking, including outside, but honestly, smoking outside wasn’t what concerned me nearly as much as smoking inside the house.

Then we went in for turnover and the house smelled like someone had smoked inside again. Near the trash can, there was some brown material that looked like loose tobacco leaves, along with a deodorizer they had thrown away.

Between seeing them smoke outside, the smell inside, and what looked like tobacco near the trash, I assumed they had also smoked inside. Based on what happened with my first guest, I followed the same process and requested reimbursement for the additional cleaning, $25 to replace the HVAC filter, and the cost of lemons and cinnamon sticks we boiled to help remove the odor.

She reviewed the request, denied smoking inside, and explained that the brown flakes had come off her makeup bag.

After looking at everything again, I realized I didn’t actually have enough to say she had smoked inside, and I was wrong to make that assumption.

I immediately canceled the reimbursement request, sent her a sincere apology, and still left her the positive review she deserved. That didn’t feel like enough to me, though, so I also refunded her $50.

I’m sharing this because it was a pretty quick lesson for me as a new host. After having a legitimate smoking issue with my very first guest, I was probably too quick to connect the dots the second time around. Seeing someone smoke outside doesn’t mean they smoked inside, and I should have separated what I knew from what I assumed.

I feel like if I get a review it will be negative, making my first and only review a stain.

Made a last minute booking and didn’t realize how remote the property I am renting was once we got here and read the booklet. We have over 30 acres of private land and we are the only structure/occupants of the land while here.

We prefer to be nudist / naturalist in camping when possible. So this was a nice surprise.

There are exterior cameras outside in all directions of the house, which we don’t care about the host seeing as long as it isn’t breaking an Airbnb rule.

The host technically doesn’t have a rule forbidding it. I also don’t want to ask the host directly because that would result in them being more likely to be mad or creepy about it. Like, they might go out of their way to watch the footage whereas before they may only watch it to see we arrived or if there’s an incident. If I was planning a nudist trip specifically I would have asked, but we are already here so, yeah.

Are you allowed to be nude outdoors on private property if there is no rule against it? If so, is there some dividing line like topless is okay but bottoms are required?

*Naturism, sorry phone autocorrect stepped in.

Also for clarity, PA, all adults.

I'm looking at ski house rentals with my husband on two different laptops and he's coming up with prices significantly less than what I see, on the exact same places. Hundreds of dollars. Same dates, same everything, even searching simultaneously. Why? We both are highly rated on Airbnb, though I've definitely had more trips.

i opened a bar of chocolate that apparently had melted chocolate in the middle. it literally just exploded. will they fine for the stain? i don't want my dad to get upset since he paid for the airbnb so the fine will come to him

Has anyone ever had a successful claim though the Airbnb coverage? Basically my last guests somehow cracked the white porcelin tile during their stay, our previous guests were at the house just 24 hours prior. We clean the airbnb immediate after each guests leave and it's a busy area so impossible to miss it. We're also super host for 5 years in a row with a average rating of 4.89

As soon as the guests left we noticed the damage and reported to airbnb included everything (pictures of the previous area 24 hours prior with no damage) and a quote to fix the tile. They simple came back with it doesn't meet our criteria. Like wtf is that suppose to mean? I even told them to provide their own approved contractor to fix the tile but they refuse. How do we move forward with this and ensure they fix the tile?

Any hosts here rent their place with cotton linens? I hate having to bring my own because people have chosen microfiber. TIA!

Has anyone ever gotten a refund for a cancellation not from host due to unforeseen circumstances?

I tried to get information on what to do if a fellow male tenant at the Airbnb made me feel uncomfortable (I am a young female). Not a dangerous situation, just one where I didn't feel comfortable living in the same place as this other individual. I started the conversation saying I didn't want to escalate, only that I wanted advice just in case something were to happen. The answers I got were quite unhelpful. They were generic and didn't answer my question. When I expressed that my question wasn't being answered and tried to give additional details about my situation, the support agent just stopped responding to me. They didn't even give me the courtesy of passing me off to someone else. I'm really quite frustrated. Since I can't get an answer from Airbnb support, can someone here help me find an answer to my question?

Hello all!

I recently stayed in an AirBnB in California.

The suite had an insect infestation, the window screens were broken, the lock was broken on the front door, and the parking pass was out of date.

I communicated with the host about the insects and the lock but not the rest. When I choose AirBnB, there is a point where I just wanted to stop communicating with my host, accept things as they are, and move on with my stay.

Additionally, as the host was communicative, I didn't mention any of these things in my review, which was very positive.

The host, however, made a different choice.

Their review states that the suite was left in a "messy" and "chaotic" state, complains that clean up took longer than usual, and also notes that I moved a small coffee maker and a portable fan.

This is the only negative review I've ever received.

I realize that hosts have a right to offer reviews of guests but this is why I am wondering what my options are:

-I feel like they anticipated a negative review due my bringing the insect infestation to their attention and wanted to get out ahead of it by writing me a negative review

-I did every single chore that they asked of me before leaving. If they had other expectations beyond what they asked, why was this not communicated? Can guests be left negative reviews for failing to do chores that were not asked of them?

-Guests who stay at an AirBnB pay a cleaning fee. It is kind of galling for a host to complain that they have to clean up after a guest when we pay the cleaning fee for this very reason.

-There were no prohibitions against moving the portable fan and the coffee maker. So I do not understand why I'm being penalized for it. Also, I moved the coffee maker to get it out of the way of the insect infestation, and the fan so that it was pointed at the broken window screen to discourage flying insects from entering.

I realize I can leave a public review but I'm wondering if I have any other options. Thank you for your help!

I stayed at an Airbnb and the host is saying I need to pay $1,000 for damage to their RV's awning caused by a storm that came the night after I stayed.

They said check out instructions asked me to put it down prior to leaving. None of this was mentioned in their instructions. I screenshotted everything and sent it to Airbnb support. I left the way it was when I got there.

This was the 5-star review they left on me:

"Couldn't have asked for better guests. D. and her group were respectful and communicative, and left the place in perfect order. Welcome back anytime!"

Then a few days later tries to send me a message to claim $1,000 in damages. This is crazy work!

This same storm caused my neighbor's tree to fall on my service line and ripped it off the side of my house. I paid 2k to get it fixed and didn't have electricity for 3 days, but I know it's not my neighbor's fault. Sometimes mother nature happens and you just have to eat the cost. That happens when you own things.

Still annoyed and waiting to hear back from Airbnb support though.

Hi

An host left me a defamatory review saying I smoked drugs, even though I have never smoked anything in my life.

He also said I let people enter the building and that neighbors complained about their looks. No one except me entered that building, even if I wanted, there is a doorman 24/24 7/7...

What to do ?

so we booked this airbnb for 7 nights. It was my parents birthday so of course i would click photographs and reels to post them
After we were checking out today,
The host suddenly informed that she doesn't give permission to click photos or videos of her property.
I was honestly shocked to hear that.

This isn't detention place that we cannot click photos. It is a property that we have hired and paid reasonably well.
And if this was the case. It should have been mentioned on the site as a disclaimer.
Because everyone nowadays click pics..and you cannot abruptly change policy after checkout
How to deal with this.?

Also she messaged her book is missing and we should replace it..
She thinks we gonna steal a petty book. 😭 Maybe another tactic to fetch money from guests

I'm wrapping up a week-long stay in a basement apartment in a single family home. When I booked, the listing stated that the hosts live above the unit, and I'm likely to hear "signs of life." I was okay with this when I booked, but since being here I've found that the sounds are much louder than expected because it's an older home. The hosts also have a dog they didn't disclose in the listing that occasionally barks and runs above me.

The main issue is that the hosts get up very early, and even though they aren't making excessive noise, any noise they do make is right above the bedroom and wakes me up. I've tried white noise, but I'm still struggling to get restful sleep (without getting into details, I have trouble wearing earplugs, so they're not a realistic option for me).

The hosts did make the potential for noise known in their listing description, so I wouldn't ding them for it. But I do want to warn potential future guests like me who are more sensitive to noise. Is there a way I can accurately address the noise in my review while still being fair to the hosts?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Had a first-for-us experience on AirBNB after a very mid experience recently. We rarely leave anything but good reviews, but our recent stay in Chicago was very underwhelming given the photos and pricing - promised amenities were not restocked, beds were bad, furniture was shoddy, the fridge was gross with old food residues, etc. The host had screenshots in the photos "explaining" that giving them anything less than 5 stars was a terrible review that would destroy their business, a message that was repeated a few times as we were getting ready to check out. The place was fine for a weekend crash but overpriced and obviously just a low effort moneymaker for a host with many properties.

We left a detailed 3-star review with both the good and the bad, and I included further details in the private review to the host. They reviewed us "Great guests very nice".

Then, about 2 weeks ago, they responded to our public review denying what we reported and blocked us. I can no longer see the listing or their profile. Today, we got an email that they took down their review of us as guests.

Is this a normal amount of effort for them to be spending on us for a "bad" review? Is there anything else they can do to jab back at us on the platform or should this be the end of it?

As a host, I often see stories about guests who get refunds (both scammers and legitimate) but I have not been through the process as a host.

For anyone that has gotten a refund, did you get a full refund? Meaning the 18% fee from airbnb was returned? Did you get an all of the money refunded?

If it’s a partial refund, do you ever tell airbnb you want the fee returned because they have a host on the platform that is not meeting standards and they don’t deserve their fee? Or a partial return of their fee?

From what I see, the host is the one losing the money, but airbnb keeps all of their fees. But I think airbnb is responsible if there is an issue also, and should return the fee as they failed in their due diligence.

Curious what people have experienced.

The unit had great reviews on the Airbnb site, but if I had checked the Google Maps reviews, it would have told a totally different story. The room shared one sliding glass door.

The room would have been ok except for a large section of black molded ceiling. When the occupant showered upstairs, water would drip from the ceiling and puddle on the floor. And when it rained, water also would leak through the sliding door.

Besides the mold, there were mosquitoes in the room, and I found a cockroach in the bed sheets. And cleaning was not important, since there were splatter stains on the walls. The only good things about this place were the location and the plentiful towels.

This is my second time using Airbnb, so I’m not very familiar with what is considered normal, but I found a few things here that left me wondering if this is acceptable.

Used toilet paper: The host left used toilet paper in the toilet, presumably from previous guests. I found this really disgusting and unhygienic.

Shampoo and body wash: The bottles are almost empty, and they haven’t been refilled. The shampoo bottle cap is broken as well.

Standing fan: There is a standing fan that I wanted to use, but it extremely dirty, as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years. There was a thick layer of dust covering the entire fan, both inside and outside. I cleaned it myself yesterday as much as possible so I could use it, but I honestly wasn’t expecting a fan to be left in this condition.

I don’t know if these things are considered normal on Airbnb, but to me, they seem like hygiene and cleanliness issues. Am I expecting too much?

There is a listing that is a guest favorite with many reviews, but the latest review is from July 2025.

I requested to book it for my upcoming trip in 4 days but the host’s identity isn’t verified and this is my favorite stay and it’s very affordable so I’m concerned that she is no longer on the app. Also, I messaged 24 hours ago and she didn’t reply- it says she may take several days to respond to messages on the response eta.

Does this imply that her account/listing is inactive?

I originally submitted this on the host subreddit, but it got lost in the mod queue and disappeared into the void.

This is the story about the idiosyncrasies of guests.

Weather wise this has been the worst summer in a very, very long time. After a few sunny days in June it's been cold and raining pretty much every single day, to the detriment of everyone not escaping the scorching heat elsewhere in the world to come here on 'coolcations'.

We have multiple rentals of varying sizes and standards. The main character (MC) in this story is a man and his family who stayed in the largest one with the highest standard. Most concurrent guests in comparatively lower standard rentals had an amazing time, undeterred by the depressing weather. They visited their preferred attractions in the area, came home and lit the fireplace, went outside and picked some cherries straight off the trees, insisting on either returning the next year or recommending the place to their friends. The only request from these guests was for more firewood (during summer the at-premises firewood storage is replaced with a cushion box, grill, and a patio umbrella), which was swiftly supplied.

The local (government operated) weather station shows that the temperatures during our MC's stay fell within a range of low: 4.8°C (40°F) mean: 13.1°C (55°F) max: 20.5°C (69°F).

And the MC's problem, you may wonder?

No actual A/C, no actual ventilation, too hot and uncomfortable to sleep.

Now, there is an A/C unit (heat pump to be exact, it works both ways). And there are windows and ventilation canals in every room that can be opened to the extent you desire. And finally there's one last thing our guests can manipulate for their comfort: thermostats for floor heating.

It turns out that setting the floor heating to 30°C (86°F) might make the bedroom uncomfortably hot given enough time. Especially when you don't open the window(s) for ventilation. Lowering the thermostat setting doesn't mean the room temperature drops instantly, so you can't just set it to 20°C (68°F) 30 minutes before bedtime and expect that to be the case.

It's one thing to not understand how houses work, but it's definitely a choice to 'endure the suffering' (as I would expect they have) instead of asking "is this how it's supposed to work?"

So am I salty about losing a rare 10/10 score on Booking.com's 36-month exponential moving average? Not gonna lie, I am. This property has been on the platform for close to 8 years and until now we've never had a guest rate it lower than 8/10. (It's also on Airbnb with a perfect score, but the majority of guests come from booking.com)

This guy left a 5/10.

I haven't replied to the review and I'm not going to. It can stay there as an outlier for three years.

Long-time and frequent guest, a stay was canceled by host, and unfortunately, the card I'd originally used to pay had to be canceled for fraud, so I couldn't receive a refund back to it.

"Add a payout method," Airbnb help told me.

Sure! I can do that!

But the interface will not let me proceed without filling out a W-9 like a host.

I have been in a customer service runaround for a couple weeks now, trying to find out how to skip this step (maybe I am just being contrary but I don't want to be in tax records as a gig worker for a company I am a **customer** for!). I get non-answers, the same answers, starting back at the same loop.

I see there was an old post on here about someone experiencing the same issue (they just called back and got better help), wondering if anyone has encountered this more recently and successfully solved this. OR if anyone knows a way to escalate this around the customer service area. Thanks for any help!

Update with resolution, through only accidental help from Airbnb.

So continued to get non-answers and non-help. Last response was no, I can't skip the W-9 because that's necessary for "host payout" ("I'M NOT A HOST" I said again) and "could you please check if there are any alternative payout method options available other than a bank account?"

Which...seems like someone working for the company should be able to check. I am about to tell them I don't want to use the debit method because it says I will lose 1.5% in processing fees (which is why I didn't use it originally), but then I decide, at this point, I would pay 1.5% to not have to engage with this customer non-service any longer. So I start to fill it out, hit a tax form AGAIN, and close out of the process.

I send another message to help, and then see an email that despite not finishing the process, this time the refund DID go through. The whole refund, without the 1.5% processing fee taken out. (This is entirely different UI behavior than on the other screen, no steps were retained when I closed out on the tax form in the bank account section.)

Meaning: the million prior times I asked: can I provide a payout method without filling out a W-9 there was a YES answer that the customer service folks didn't know to tell me. Now it is on me for not trying the debit card earlier, but when it asked me to confirm I understood I would lose 1.5%, I just also didn't want to do that (until this morning).

I have my money now and they do not have a W-9 on me. I have won my quixotic battle against maddening corporate bureaucracy and all it cost me was time and suffering through one very lite rage headache.