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I must be super lucky or some Airbnb master-user, but I've stayed at more than I can count and have never had a bad experience (over 40 times in the US, plus a few nights in Canada). Some minor quirks, but nothing that made me regret the decision afterwards. I check for listings that have a lot of reviews (with an average rating of 4.5/5 and above), look through the pictures carefully, and read the description thoroughly. It doesn't usually take me a huge amount of effort to book something.
I'm not denying that bad experiences happen with the platform, though, which is why I'm quite picky when booking a listing.
As for the fees, I notice they're only incredibly high if you rent an entire apartment/house. We usually just get a bedroom/bathroom. The biggest plus-side is the price for the location in an interesting part of a city; hotel-wise, the choice is either a way more expensive place that comes with a bunch of amenities we don't give a crap about, or a meth-motel. Yes, a hotel way out in the boring suburbs can potentially be the same price or cheaper, but that adds a layer of inconvenience. We take lots of weekend trips, and I rarely find a hotel price to be competitive in offering a clean, safe place to stay in our desired location.
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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My friends and I have rented 2 places before for gatherings. Both were great, pretty large enough and secluded enough since our group can get a little loud. The issues we had at one place was we coudln't find chemicals for the hot tub, so we could only use it on the 1st day of a long weekend.
I check for listings that have a lot of reviews (with an average rating of 4.5/5 and above), look through the pictures carefully, and read the description thoroughly. It doesn't usually take me a huge amount of effort to book something.
Agreed, plus it's quite easy to contact the owner with questions. We've had many an exchange with owners before booking to clarify things we couldn't from photos/description and they almost always get back to us immediately. In fact we've even had some extend discount offers when we contacted them with questions. If an owner doesn't bother responding to your query that's a good sign that you should move on.
I've stayed at Air BnBs many times and have had a good experience at all of them. The hosts have been responsive and I got accommodations at a good price. That changed when I stayed at an apartment in Georgia. My wife and I read the reviews and thought we were getting a good place.
The owner required guests to remove their shoes in the house and even though I thought that was a PITA, we agreed to abide by that. My wife and I thought we were getting full use of a two bedroom apartment for three nights.
Boy were we mistaken. We arrived at the property to discover that we were unable to bring our luggage easily through the front door because it was fake. So we had to go through the pitch black backyard and the walkway was blocked by the owner's huge truck (he was out of town), necessitating us blocking someone else's driveway with our vehicle and hauling our luggage up a few steps through the muddy grass in the rain.
We then could not get the porch light illuminated (turned out EVERY electrical item in the house was unplugged) and when we entered, it was 63 degrees in the home because the heat had not been turned on. We got in and discovered the floor wasn't clean so our socks got stained.
But the kicker was, the owner still lived in the apartment, which would be fine if he cleaned it out when he left. But he didn't. The freezer was completely full of food, so full it was unusable. The fridge and pantry was half full, and the dresser and closets had his clothes in it.
It felt very weird being in an apartment that was so obviously someone else's and we kept having to move the owner's items to make room for our own. The final straw came when I tried to use the microwave and had to move it off the microwave stand and onto the counter because it was also unplugged and the outlet wasn't within reach.
Oddly, the apartment had several rave reviews by supposed tenants which made me wonder if they were as fake as his front door. We contacted the host (not the owner) and she said no one had complained before, but I find that hard to believe. How can a guest not get angry about renting a dirty place full of the owner's personal belongings? Fortunately, Air BnB offered to refund our money, and we checked out without staying there. Have you ever had a problem with Air BnB?
I got a call from Airbnb customer service 10 minutes before checkin to let me know that the host cancelled the reservation. That listing has been removed now.
Another rich but classless vietnamese family who treated me like crap.
But 2 other American families who knew what they were doing.
So its basically the people you meet, than the actual brand itself.
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