Anyone else run into this AirBnB problem?

I recently tried to book a place for my upcoming trip to Manhattan in June using AirBnB. I've connected my FB account, had friends give me referrals, have money in my bank account, etc. After a ton of research into places to stay (mind you, in the $200-$350/night range!), I contacted about 10-12 places. I got zero response. As far as I'm concerned, AirBnB is an utter failure. I'd rather pay more for a hotel where I can rest assured that I've got a place than risk my vacation on some third party that is flakey.

I tried to use airbnb twice to book whole houses (ie no one else there) in March/April during a 4 week trip back to Australia.

First place, the host accepted (so we were billed) but 20 minutes later she sent a message to say she had to cancel because someone her husband knew died. She never cancelled the booking, it took several days of me complaining to airbnb before they agreed to cancel it themselves, so we could get a refund.

Stupidly I didn't learn my lesson and tried to book another place through airbnb later in our trip. It was only after they had authorised my card for $1100 for the stay that I got a message to say "you need to provide more information" - I don't have a LinkedIn or Facebook account, so my only options left were to upload a photo of my drivers licence add then they wanted to verify me by my card, so they charged < $1 and said I needed to tell them how much they charged (from my transaction history). They gave me 11 hours to do this - my banks visa transactions are about 2-3 days delayed.

When I emailed them about this, they suggested I create a video.

I never did stay at any of their places. One of their phone support staff tried to tell my refund was taking so long because "Austrlaian banks can't believe we want to give your money back".

I will never (attempt to) use airbnb again. The fucking around is simply not worth it.

Both times when airbnb let us down, we stayed in a short term rental, organised directly with the owner over the phone, both times at late notice because of airbnb.

The second time we stayed, he left a bottle of wine for us. It's not a huge thing, and neither of us are big wine drinkers but it was enough to cement that place as somewhere we will go back to whenever we are in Melbourne.

Please try and think of this from the perspective of someone who is letting you into their home.

Obviously the issues with Facebook/LinkedIn should be resolved, but if these were down it is absolutely 100% responsible of AirBnB to expect people to verify their identity through whatever means necessary. If you are not happy with that, use a hotel.

I found AirBNB to be a pain in the arse. I was trying to book places in London. Most of the time the places were unavailable but the host hadn't updated the site. This meant I had to then contact another host and wait.

Turns out hotels were cheaper and less hassle.

I have been using AirBnB very actively during the last couple of years, mostly in the Northern Europe and South East Asia, and my experience was nothing but wonderful.

However, as some people in this thread have already pointed out, you need to stick to certain rules of a thumb: a) always check response rate and average response time to weed out any sloppy profiles; b) BEFORE you place a reservation, write a host introducing yourself and telling a bit about the purpose of your visit; c) after the host OKs you (or makes a special offer through the system), go ahead an make the booking.

Of course, the optimal time to book is 1-2 weeks before you arrive, do it earlier and hosts' plans might change, do it later and they might simply miss your message.

We had one of these in our neighborhood. It was a pain in the ass to get rid of, but we did. People paying several hundred dollars a night felt entitled to act as if they were staying in a hotel. They behaved as if we were staff and our streets a motel parking lot.

There are two sides to these transactions. The vast majority are violations of local laws and everyone knows it. The AirBnB model allows one jackass to force jackasses and worse upon those living nearby.

I have no sympathy for anyone who struggles using their service. Stay in a hotel. They are designed for that. My neighborhood isn't a place for you to throw your party or sit on the hood of your car drinking at midnight or send your brats outside to play throw rocks at cars so you can get some Sunday morning booty on the sly.

This whole post seems pithy and extremely subjective by a cranky and unhappy person. Whats with the dancing monkey comment? It really took you an hour to take a single picture of your drivers license?

The person who's home you are staying in wants to know it safe to have you there. Big deal?

I'm done with airbnb too. I applied for a place at its earliest opening - 2 months in the future. I saw the cancel policy was GREEN (full refund) up to one day before checkin. After some messaging with the owner (who was gracious and helpful) I had to cancel. This was about a half hour after my reservation was accepted. Then I found out my card had been charged $2200 for the month and they would refund all but their "processing charge" which was about $200.

So for 2 clicks during a half hour, and a cancellation 2 months in advance, airbnb took $200. Then they offered to refund me $40 of their $200 to make peace. No, airbnb. That's not how you keep customers. I'm done.