Having issues with Airbnb? You may have legal options.
Airbnb is an app that allows property owners to rent out rooms within their own homes to short-term guests. It fills a modern niche in the travel industry, allowing hosts and guests to match up with one another and find good travel accommodations by filling out profiles on a neutral app. In this guide, we’ll go over all that you need to know about Airbnb, including what the app is like and what current users have the say about the experience.
We can check out how Airbnb fares overall by gathering customer feedback and looking at several well-known review-collection sites.
For instance, the Better Business Bureau, which keeps lists of overall customer feedback and company reputation for accredited businesses, has a general F rating for Airbnb. They additionally only have a 1-star rating out of 5 possible stars. This shows that general customer satisfaction is somewhat low, although the BBB also notes that Airbnb closed over 3000 customer complaints of the last three years.
This shows that they do take note of customer complaints, though they’re closing fewer complaints recently because many of their customer service representatives have been laid off as of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We can also look at consumeraffairs.com, a review collection site. Airbnb has a 1.1-star rating out of 5 on this site, based on 350 ratings submitted in the last year. Again, this indicates low customer satisfaction overall: a bad sign.
Bestcompany.com is one final review resource. Interestingly, Airbnb has a much higher 4.5 stars out of 5 according to this user reviews site. This does seem to show that Airbnb’s complainers seem to be more invested in leaving reviews than their proponents. Ultimately, the company’s overall reputation is a bit in flux.
Airbnb is an app you can download for your iPhone or Android mobile devices. You make a profile and can sign up as either a host or a guest, then fill out your profile with various pieces of personal information. If you’re a host, you can provide pictures of the space you hope to rent out to travelers in your area, along with your rates and any other caveats you might have for a potential guest.
If you’re a guest, you can browse all of these potential living spaces as you travel around the world. Many of them are steals in terms of value for money due to their proximity to metropolitan centers or important locations. However, hosts always reserve the right to refuse the proposition from a potential guest. This gives hosts most of the power in the relationship.
The app is generally easy to use, although some customers have certainly noted that a type of “Airbnb” culture has arisen, making it difficult for some travelers to find accommodations.
Most of the written customer complaints for Airbnb have to deal with the above power discrepancy. Many complaints are from the perspective of guests who are angry at hosts canceling on them at the last minute or at kicking them out with little notice. Furthermore, Airbnb isn’t very good about getting refunds for its travelers.
There are some complaints regarding COVID-19 panic and confusion. Notably, very few people have specific bones to pick with Airbnb’s app interface, or mobile app in general.
Airbnb hasn’t had notable negative lawsuits pressed against them, though they have been involved in certain lawsuits against cities like Boston for so-called draconian data sharing laws. Specifically, Airbnb sued the city when it demanded that it hand over lots of user data.
Regardless, there’s no doubt that plenty of people have difficulty getting refunds from Airbnb, particularly if they run into an issue with another user. If you need help pursuing arbitration or another form of resolution against Airbnb, we’re here to help. Contact us immediately and one of our representatives will get in touch to look at your options!
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