We have been Airbnb hosts for many years, but we are also Airbnb guests as we travel the world. We have had mostly amazing stays in many countries, unfortunately we’ve also had one or two horrible stays. These bad Airbnb guest experiences shape how we host and serve as an example of what not to do!
We had been traveling around Europe and then arrived in Turkey. Our first Airbnb we stayed at in Antalya, Turkey was amazing. We had a great location. We had to get used to the Ezan from the local mosque 100 meters away, but other than that the space was perfect for our family of five. Our next airbnb we booked seemed great and it had ok reviews. It was a new listing so we didn’t think much about the lack of reviews. It had an amazing sea view and the photos looked great. We soon found out looks can be deceiving.
We arrived by taxi to the apartment. The building seemed a bit rundown but we tried to stay positive. We met the host’s representative. He was smoking and continued to smoke the whole time even inside the apartment. The apartment seemed older than the photos, but we took the keys and tried to settle in. We tried to ignore the smell of smoke in the apartment. We opened our phones to connect to the wifi and realized there was no functioning wifi. We then noticed the kitchen cabinets. They were 1 inch off the walls. We started to feel a bit worried. Then we saw a random hole in the wall. We went to the bedrooms and found extensive wall damage as well as mold on the walls. The space looked like it had been half renovated in a bad way then they stopped halfway through.
At this point we decided we had to cut our losses and get out of this stay. We had rented the Airbnb for 1 month and were afraid we couldn’t get any of the money back.
While Camille searched for new Airbnb’s for the night, I messaged the Airbnb host about the situation. He didn’t agree with our assessment or that we should leave, but we said we had already checked out. He did give us all the money besides one night, which was at least more fair than he could have been.
We found a temporary small Airbnb apartment with a very nice host, and stayed for a few days before we found another monthly rental.
We know many people have unfortunately had even worse situations, and that is sad to think about.
A host should offer a space as listed and try to solve any issues that come up during the guests stay. Our goal with our airbnb’s is to try to listen to our guests because it helps us improve our space and make it better for the next guests.
We’d love to host you soon in our Airbnb in Greer, SC. See you soon!
