Airbnb: A Mixed Review

As my email subscribers know, due to life circumstances, I spent the bulk of the early pandemic traveling on the road.  I had used Airbnb a couple of times before, but I relied on Airbnb heavily on this trip.  It seemed pretty straightforward. You create your profile and upload your ID, and you’re free to book.  You can search by location, and there are plenty of pictures, and rates are right upfront. Since I was looking for longer-term places to stay, I figured it would a good way to hang out in some new places, live with the locals, and do so inexpensively. I was right about everything except the inexpensive part. If I had just stayed in cheap motels, I probably would have been money ahead in most cases. I think Airbnb is a good idea and a good app, but there are definitely some on-the-ground issues. 

Cancellation policy

One of the most frustrating parts about using Airbnb is the cancellation policy. If you arrive at a booking and it’s not what you anticipated, or in a neighborhood, you don’t feel safe in, you’re going to lose your money. I booked an apartment in Binghamton, NY, because I wanted to investigate the area for a potential move to Unadilla nearby. Binghamton is a rough town and is certainly one of the rustier spots in the Rust Belt. I will tell that whole story in my Travel series. When I arrived at the place, the building was not nearly as nice as the picture. The neighborhood was run down, trash abounded, and there were drifters, homeless people, and others drifting around, especially around the laundromat across the street. The weather didn’t help, but there was the pervasive smell of the nail salon below and plenty of walk-by traffic and drive-by traffic for the cellphone store. They helped me get all my stuff into the apartment. The layout was odd, but it was big enough to suit my needs until I started investigating. The windows were all sealed shut. It was getting into the summer, and there was no A/C, so I wasn’t sure how it would work out.  The neighborhood got worse as day turned to night, and I checked on my street parked car regularly to see if anyone was hanging around it or looking to break-in because the place did not just seem that safe. After getting unpacked, I sat on the bed. It was an air mattress—a queen-sized air mattress but an air mattress none the less. As I struggled to get in and out of the thing, I seriously wondered if I could do a whole month here. I don’t feel unsafe, very often. I’m a big, brown dude with strong “don’t bother me” vibes. I felt unsafe. I lost $800 on that stay because I decided to leave. No help from Airbnb and no help on a refund because it was after check-in.  When I contacted, there wasn’t even a standard option for, “This place isn’t safe.” I ended up leaving the next morning and moved over to a hotel for a few days so I could regroup. 

And There’s Cleanliness

On these adventures, I discovered that I am not nearly clean enough to suit several Airbnb hosts. Despite my other good behaviors and all the things that went right (and wrong) with my stays, all they seemed to remember was how clean things were or were not. In my first stay, I stayed in a little bedroom below a house in West Virginia. These people were smart. They build their house on the 2nd floor and then put 3 bedrooms with their own entrances on the ground floor. It’s a brilliant way to make some money. However, I stayed there for 2 weeks, and they supplied no cleaning supplies. I did the best I could with what I had, but I couldn’t do a full cleaning on my own, and I didn’t need to haul cleaning supplies with me as my car was already full. I was quiet, put everything back where it belonged, and didn’t ruin anything while I was there. Do you know what made the review? The fact that the bathroom was not so clean. That’s it. That was the review. This happened with my next two stays. My next stay was in Massachusetts, and I stayed there for over a month. The person in charge asked me to wash some dishes before another guest showed up. It had only been me for about 3 weeks at that point, and I would wash up every couple of days. I didn’t hesitate and put everything right again, and you know what made the review? That one time that I was asked to wash up some dishes. Bear in mind that in this place, I was there for a month. I fell through their deck and injured my leg (which is still healing), and I put everything back in the room that I was supposed to. I cleaned the kitchen regularly because I was cooking every day. I hung out with my host, talked with her, swam in the river on the back of the property, and didn’t cause too many problems. I didn’t complain when she rearranged my groceries every day, and I didn’t even get cross-eyed when I met the guy she had living downstairs. The shower was too small, but I endured it. And yet, of all those things, the only thing that made the review was the one time in a month she asked me to tidy up. I know many people don’t like to leave dishes in the sink overnight, and I get that, but I had been the only person for so long I figured it wouldn’t matter until it mattered. It’s not like I pushed back on cleaning; I got right to work. 

In my last stay, which was the worst one by far, I was greeted by the host, and the first words she said after “Hello” were, “I hope you’ve improved on your cleanliness habits.” These people had precise instructions for everything. I could never figure out how to throw trash away, and I just took it with me to a gas station. It was too confusing. I did not understand that after each use of the toilet, I should clean the entire toilet after each use. This came to a head one day when their cleaning person had cleaned the bathroom. I used the bathroom and went back to work. I was hauled out to the bathroom and basically ordered to scrub the entire toilet. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt the need to clean the toilet after each use. I clean my toilet once a week. Their cleaning person cleaned the whole house a couple of times a week. Even with 4 guests at the time, it seemed to me that there was plenty of cleaning going on. I know to wipe down a seat and all that sort of thing, but I’ve never cleaned the bowl after each use. That seems excessive. Either way, I was tired of being berated and treated like an errant child when it seemed like no one else was being treated this way, and I left minutes later and lost 3 days’ worth of money on the stay. I contacted Airbnb about the situation, and they told me to leave a review. So I left a long review and gave them a low rating. That was the best that I could do. No refund for the partial days and not great support reply times from Airbnb, either.  I was humiliated, and I was depressed about the situation for several days. 

Would I Stay Again? 

Dealing with people is always tough. There’s not much trust at first, and the hosts are not professional hoteliers. You’re just a random person staying at an inn, and everything is completely at their discretion. They get to set their own rules, and while most of my stays didn’t have any exotic rules, the last place, I stayed, where I was humiliated twice, had plenty of rules about what you could and could not do, where to park, even how to park. There’s minimal trust between the Hosts I stayed with and the guests. Some people I’ve told my story to think there’s a racial element involved, and that’s a possibility, but overall, I think staying in people’s homes while they are there, while cost-saving is probably not a really good idea. 

My basic conclusion is this: if you’re using Airbnb to book a house or an apartment and you’re by yourself, then it’s probably a good idea, especially for vacation destinations. However, if you’re booking rooms in other people’s homes, I would say that Airbnb is not a good option. You’re probably better staying in a hotel, a cheap motel, or doing some camping (weather permitting).  Obviously, this is a situation where money matters. If you can afford higher prices, you’ll probably get better quality lodging, so be prepared that this is a market where the amount of money spent is directly proportionate to quality.