Airbnb

I booked a hotel through an Airbnb host and was charged by the hotel after I had already paid through Airbnb. The hotel told me that the Airbnb payment would not go through and that’s why I was charged. So I paid double for one vacation. The host would not refund me and Airbnb customer support was not at all helpful in trying to resolve the issue. I will never book through Airbnb again.

Airbnb’s app displayed pop-up errors telling me that reservations had not completed when they had, in fact, been booked and charged. Then, when I immediately tried to cancel the unintended bookings, the app displayed additional errors indicating the cancellations had not gone through, when they actually had. This happened while I was trying to secure urgent lodging for my family in the middle of the night. Because the app gave me incorrect information at critical steps, I ended up with multiple bookings and a nearly $1,500 charge for a reservation I canceled within minutes, never checked into, never used, and received no service for. Airbnb support later told me they did not see an error in their backend logs, so they treated it as my problem and deferred entirely to the host’s cancellation policy. In other words, if the app gives you a misleading local error but Airbnb’s servers do not record it, you may be left paying for the app’s failure. After 15 years as a customer, I no longer trust Airbnb’s app for high-value bookings. If you use it, screenshot or screen-record every step. Better yet, use VRBO or a real hotel. Sort reviews by “recent” and see what’s really going on with this company.

Just tried the app for the first time and I deleted it 2 minutes later. I set the filter to only show whole houses, and all i got was camp sites. What a pos.