I have been using AirBnB for long-term housing and short-term housing for over a year, in multiple countries, and I am now done with it. I’d rather use hotels, hostels, campsites, formal rentals or just about anything else, and these are the reasons why:
1. Renters have no guarantee like hosts do.
When you host on AirBnB, you get the following guarantee:
There is no comparable guarantee for renters. There is no similar peace of mind. If you end up in a place that doesn’t match the description, or is unsafe, or isn’t really a private “entire home” or anything else, you are out of luck. You could send AirBnB a message and maybe get a resolution in a day or two or longer, but if it’s late in the day, and you’re in an unfamiliar area, and you don’t feel safe, you are stuck.
2. There is no one to call when things go wrong
Most hotels have someone at the desk most of the time, and if not all the time, there is usually a phone number to call. In hotel chains, there is even corporate numbers to call. If there is a problem with the room, or with the service then you have someone to call, someone to talk to. Not so with AirBnB. You only have your host you can talk to, and if the problem is with him, then you are stuck. AirBnB should have some sort of virtual “front desk” to call to resolve problems in the moment, not the next day or in a week. Some things like personal safety and sufficient accommodations need to be resolved immediately on the spot.
3. There are no safety or cleanliness standards
It’s quaint to stay in an old farmhouse in a foreign country, but not so fun when you find out it is full of asbestos and has no smoke alarms. It’s also no fun when there’s black mold or fumes you can smell from the heater. Worse yet are the fumes you can’t smell. Best to bring your own smoke and CO2 detector.
4. AirBnB doesn’t work well for long-term rentals
There is a “long-term” option for places on AirBnB, but month or year-long renting is different than a day or week or two. With long-term renting you need to decide who is responsible for utilities, who is responsible for maintenance on appliances, the yard, and deep cleaning. You need to come to an agreement on what is acceptable wear and tear. AirBnB doesn’t have a good way to specify these details.
5. Some hosts just can’t let go
Some hosts still think they can stay in their place even if they mark in the listing that you can have the “entire place.” They mean that you can use the entire place, not that you get the entire place to yourself. We stayed in a place once where not only the host stayed and watched TV in the “entire place” we rented, but his mother stayed in a room too.
Some hosts still think they can still use their place as they please. We stayed in a place where the host thought he could come on the property whenever he pleased, and let other people use the property whenever they please,
Some hosts can’t see the true condition of their house. We stayed in several places that weren’t particularly nice, and weren’t very clean. We would clean them thoroughly and leave them cleaner than we found them. Yet some hosts will suddenly notice a dirty house when you leave. I am not renting houses for a week just to do free “entire house” cleaning for people.
6. Reviews are not helpful
First of all, rarely do people leave bad reviews. No one wants to talk bad about others so only in rare cases does anyone leave a negative review. And there seems to be an effort on the part of AirBnB to purge negative reviews one way or another. So all you have left are positive and very positive reviews. In fact, I believe AirBnB knows that people oftentimes will leave no review rather than a bad review, because once when I didn’t leave a review AirBnB sent me an email asking me if I wasn’t leaving a review because I had a bad experience. That was exactly the case, so that host doesn’t have at least one bad review because I didn’t want to be the bad guy (plus the situation was complicated).
Second, without any standards, what does a 1 star or 5 star even mean? For both renters and hosts? These are people’s homes being rented out. How do you rate that?
Third, who else rates their customers? What other business (hotel, restaurant, store, taxi, etc.) do that? It just creates bad blood and arguments over whether someone is “good” or “bad”.
Fourth, reviews don’t make sense for long-term rentals. How do you sum up months of experiences and interactions in a paragraph and a star? You might have some good interactions, but one thing was not good and is still unresolved….what star to give? Doesn’t make sense.
Goodbye AirBnB
Unless you get some guarantees and help for renters, I feel too vulnerable to book anymore. I’ve spent too much time dealing with hosts, strange people coming onto the property, staying in unsafe places, dealing with changing terms of long-term rentals, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, only to be told that we left it dirty.