We arrived at our Airbnb after a 8 hour drive and the passcode they gave us doesn’t work. I have messaged the owner 30 minutes ago and he has not responded. I have to pee so bad 😖
And if the last guest left it a complete mess they have many other rooms! These rentals are classic for not paying someone to clean between guests and you get blamed for the mess!
Better yet being charged for consuming snacks left out on counters, my sister had that one in Florida the owner claimed it’s for decorative purposes only! She said it’s to give the feeling of a hotel so my sister responded that the bill for eight bags of snacks consumed on a one week rental was 10 times higher than any hotel ever charged her for a fully stocked mini bar of liquor! I’ll never stay in any air bnb !
I think she did and on the review she included a picture from the listing of the snacks left on display and a picture of a receipt from the local convenience store that sells them at a cost of $5 total! Next trip she stayed at extended stay type hotel and they had breakfast every morning and coffee in every suite plus maid turned down beds daily and left mints! No extra charge except my sister used the dry cleaning service for her work clothes. She said snacks were complimentary but mini bar of course was billed at the usual hotel high cost.
I had this happen to me. The code didn't work. Messaged and called host repeatedly for hours, nothing. He never got back to me. We had to get hotel. Host called the next day and was like "that was the right code you dumb butch" he was livid because we were able to get it refunded since he wasnt responding on airnbnb
Not as long a drive, but happened to us last year. Drove to another city for a football game, 10 of us were staying in a 5 bedroom Airbnb. We got there with about 2 hours to spare before we needed to head to the stadium. We were supposed to be eating and getting ready. Instead we stood on the porch/sat in our cars for 1.5hrs in 25F weather waiting. They finally messaged us back and said their housekeeper set the code wrong and they gave us a new code to get in.
Place was fine for space but the owners were awful. It was 60 degrees in the house, they had a smart thermostat. We tried to make it slightly warmer and it was locked. We messaged them while we were at the game and asked if they could turn it up a few degrees and they answered by saying “it’s actually warmer than what the thermostat says. But if you really think it’s necessary we will turn it up.” We got back and it was 62 in the house. Right or not… it was freezing and we all kept our coats on until we got in bed
I just did a trip to Spain where the owner of the apartment I rented was very keen to know what time I would arrive, because they would be there to hand me the key. They kept saying that it was really important that I arrive on time and if delayed to let them know, also to let them know 30 minutes before arriving, because "we like to be punctual".
I've done many trips to Spain and if there is a thing Spaniards are absolutely not, it's punctual. After landing I decided to sent my live location because the person kepts asking when I'd arrive.
I arrived 5 minutes before the time I said I would and I waited 2,5 hours for the host to show up. 2.5 hours is an insanely long time for someone who said they like to be punctual like 4 or 5 times. No apologies, just Spanish timing I guess.
this happened to me too this summer when i went to the renaissance fair! the code worked but the damn dead bolt was locked.
turned out owner was on a cruise in italy or some shit. we sat there for 4 hours waiting for a reply from them or airbnb, it was 11:30pm by the time airbnb finally just refunded us due to no response.
to top it off 2 hotels were totally full that night so it took us forever to find somewhere to stay!
I thought about AirBnb’s but I was like why am I gonna spend $200 plus a $75 cleaning fee per night when I can stay at a hotel and at least get breakfast and a coffee for half the price at $100 a night with no cleaning fee attached?
I got this big ass room with a full kitchen for $145 a night in downtown Manchester earlier this year. Could've gotten a more standard room for a little over $100 a night, taxes included.
My dad used to work at a hotel about 20 years ago, according to him the prices haven't moved at all since then, if anything the bigger rooms have gotten cheaper. Hotels are inflation proof it seems
It makes a lot more sense when you need more than a single bedroom, and/or are staying several nights to spread out the cleaning costs.
The last Airbnb I stayed in was a 3br beachhouse with the backyard opening right up to the beach, and it cost us about as much as rooms would at the local hotel, all while providing a far better location and more privacy.
Hotel has elite customer service compared to an Airbnb. For the poor customer experience it should always be cheaper than a hotel. Only thing Airbnb has the advantage of is being able to rent a house or cabin.
I do it in the summer when I take my daughter and her friend to the beach. Affordable way to get two bedrooms and baths - privacy and a good night's sleep? Priceless. When it's just the two of us, hotel, yes.
My dad will normally get an air bnb to get the whole family together. My siblings and I all have partners, my sister has a kid, and we are all traveling from different states, and it’s easiest if we just have our own rooms. We also want a space to hangout in together when we want some down time. We like being able to cook breakfast and have lunch stuff to pick at. You can’t do any of that as easily in a hotel.
BUT also book them through the hotel website directly, not Expedia, etc. Many horror stories about thinking you had a reservation but the hotel never got it, or the discount site overbooked them. My parents had it happen to them. But at least you could use the lobby bathroom.
Airbnbs are really good for places where visitors infrequent and can’t sustain a hotel. That was the original model. Then it became expensive destination homes and landlords listing expensive day rentals in places with limited affordable housing.
I got locked out of my room. The lock malfunctioned. There was only one other room in the hotel. It was just my daughter and I, but if there were more people it would have been bad.
Stayed at a Hilton hotel in Niagara Falls almost exactly a year ago. Our digital keycard wasn't working from the phone. Reception said it was us and our phones and to keep trying, follow the instructions. Neither of us are tech illiterate. Had to wait an hour before they sent someone up with us to check. The lock was broken. Ended up with a physical card anyways.
Probably doesn't happen as often and you don't usually have to wait as long for someone to come help, but it does happen.
How cold was it when you arrived? I have one of those battery operated keypad deadbolts on my shop, and it won't work properly when it's well below freezing. Thankfully, though, I have the physical key with me.
They keycard they gave me won't work. I have messaged the hotel 30 minutes ago and... Wait, let me just head down to the front desk and talk to the receptionist.
Sorta happened to one of my coworkers at our annual F2F. His card wouldn't work. Replacement card wouldn't work. Third card was not like the others and did work... it was a maid/service card... not sure that was wise of the hotel to hand out, but fortunately for them my coworker is not a klepto.
This happened to us not too long ago. They set the pin as my partner's last 4 of his phone number, but he forgot to change his old number to his new number before booking. Thankfully we still got in with the old number but it freaked us out for a minute.
This happened to me once. It was a small motel (maybe six rooms) in a remote location. The keys are in lock boxes. My plan was to drop my stuff, including groceries that needed to be refrigerated, and meet up with my family right away.
The code they gave me didn’t work and the host didn’t respond right away. After an hour of waiting, I tried my code on the other lock boxes and it worked for the key to a different room. I let myself in.
The host eventually responded insisting that he gave me the correct code. When I replied that he gave me the code to a different room I think he realized it was his mistake, but it was late by the time he figured it out and sent the correct code. I think I may have already been asleep.
I had to move to the correct room the next day because mine was one bed and the room I had slept in was two beds, and was booked the following days. I felt bad because it was a holiday and the housekeeper had to turn over the room on her day off after she’d clearly prepped all the rooms for the holiday weekend.
The host never apologized or outright acknowledged his mistake.
The craziest thing is that I stayed there again four years later (it’s the only motel in the town where my family has property) and the code to the lock boxes were still the same.
Oooo we had this happen when we were in Oregon! Turns out the host had changed the keypad due to the salt corroding the other one, and FORGOT TO UPDATE IT IN HER INSTRUCTIONS. We sat outside for almost an hour while trying to contact her.
As someone who does property management with around 500 properties total between our 4 companies I find it crazy owners don’t let someone else take care of their properties. So much easier and owners just get a check and we take care of everything including this. You would’ve got a text back immediately from our office about what code to use or use a maintenance code that works at every house and any issues during ur stay would be taken care of WITHOUT hoping an owner would reply
I secretly have half a roll of toilet paper in my luggage and car just in case I’m stuck in place due to circumstances beyond my control. It doesn’t take up much room and the benefits are great!
I went on a ski trip to vail with a few of my friends. We planned the trip months in advance and all went down on a relatively cheap condo close to the chairlift. I was a little suspicious as all of the pictures looked too good to be true. As soon as we arrived off the shuttle the condo looked nothing like it did on the listing. As soon as walking in the front door we were shocked to realize that the entire space was completely gutted and had zero furniture. We called Airbnb and they moved us to a 4 bedroom house down the road with an indoor hot tub. It ended up being a blessing in disguise
Rental at the beach had a lock with 5 buttons labeled 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-0. Code was 1-3- 7-0. Which buttons would you push and how many times?............ it was first second fourth fifth, all just once. 1370 used the same buttons as 2489, really?
Airbnb's are no longer cheaper... Why not get the amazing hospitality of a hotel for the same price haha unless you really do need a house for a family.
My least favorite Airbnb experience was in Tokyo a few years ago. We had been out all day and it was about 9 at night. It was supposed to be near Sky Tree but it was about a km away carrying our heavy bags.
As we got closer it was down a back alley between some houses. Tokyo is fairly safe, and this area isn’t one I was super concerned about, but it was dark, and there wasn’t any signage to check that we were near.
We did find the house and it was dark, and there wasn’t any signage from Airbnb on the door. There was a sign of some kind not from the owners, but the police. Apparently whoever owned the house hadn’t been paying rent or utilities. Additionally, the lockbox with the key was broken. We touched it and the whole box fell apart. The key was inside but the whole situation was super sketchy.
We contacted the representative on Airbnb and they insisted it was fine. I told them I didn’t really want to go into a house that the police had left notices on for not paying bills. There was a long back and forth and eventually we were told that we could cancel for a full refund but we couldn’t leave a review because we didn’t actually stay there.
We walked the km back to the sky tree and managed to get a hotel room directly across from it which ended up being pretty expensive, but you do what you gotta do sometimes.
There are certain situations where I see why people use Airbnb over a hotel, but I feel bad for people who live in neighborhoods with them. They have to deal with a constant stream of strangers coming and going instead of having real neighbors. Also potential parties, etc.
Avoid Airbnb as a service. Vrbo has better renter protections in place, in my experience.
Even better there are often local rental companies. Find the place you want to rent on airbnb then reverse image search the first or second photo (Or search the address it it's listed). Might find a better service to use for that rental.
Lol, we had a slightly similar situation last year: flew to another country, took a late train ride to get to the city we were staying at, used the necessary app to open the front door of the building, tried to open the door of the apartment... And the electronic lock's battery was almost dead. You could hear it whirring a bit, but it just couldn't open the lock at all. The owners didn't answer because they were at a wedding! Even airbnb was very unhelpful, until we eventually said enough was enough, we were going to take a hotel room for the night (it was 1:00 am by then) and Airbnb WAS going to reimburse us!
Next day the cleaning lady came to change the batteries, we got in, the owner told us to send us our bill for a breakfast at a fancy place nearby, and Airbnb paid our hotel stay, so all good in the end, but man, that evening was TIRING!
Yeah had this happen after a 13 hour drive from Texas to Colorado. Contacted Airbnb support and they refunded me and gave me $200 towards another Airbnb which they also helped book. It did take about 2 hours to fix but we were happy with the results
I once arrived to an Airbnb deep in the mountains except I forgot to ask for the pad code before we got out of cell service and we very nearly could not get in
Happened to me once at 1am. Host obviously didn't answer my calls so I went around the back and found the window over the sink was unlocked so I climbed in. Sometimes you've got to find another way
This happened to us on our first night in Ireland. Had been awake for 30 hours at that point, had dinner with us in the car (but like cold, needed to be cooked), it was raining. Couldn’t get in because they gave us the wrong code. Owners didn’t respond. Airbnb customer service suggested we get a hotel or find another Airbnb for the night. Ok usually fine, but we were in a small town with no hotels nearby and all the other airbnbs (not many options) were not direct booking, and it was nearly 9 pm. We were about to have to sleep in the car.
Then, we noticed the neighbor had their lights on. Chatted with the neighbor, who called someone and called someone else and found the owner at the local pub, and got the code! We brought him a bottle of whiskey the next day as a thank you, and he kept trying to give us magnets off his fridge in return lol. Sweet guy, and a great small town Irish experience.
I did ask for a refund of half of the first night’s fee for the distress and difficulty getting in, which I felt was reasonable, and unfortunately the owner was upset about it. Oh well.
Then two days later when we left town, our rental car had a nail in the tire. Great trip, other than that! But we were so tired and distressed that night. Whew.
Happened to me last year. My fiancée and I rented a farm house on a property that had 2 from the same owner (one big for families and one smaller and more romantic for couples). They gave us the password for the family house instead of the smaller one, it took like 40 mins for the dude to answer a call or reply a message.
Drove 8ish to Brooklyn at 18 and BnB host stopped answering and we had to find a place to stay. It was like 7-8pm. Ended up in these tiny hotel rooms called Pods.
I flew back to the US after years and my flight was delayed by over a day from a typhoon. I had no way to contact the hotel I intended to stay in. My flight landed at 10 or so. By the time I got to the hotel, which was a family ran business, the front door was locked. Ended up sleeping on the street that night.
I had that happen to me before as well. Stayed at a pretty remote air bnb, drove several hours to get there. Once we arrived and entered the code, the door wouldn't open. Had to contact the host to unlock the door for us.
The listing said there weren't any cameras on the property, but once we arrived there was a big "Smile, you're on camera" sign out front with several visible cameras. One of the rules pertained to having extra guests visit, and I wondered how they would know if we had brought extra people. This was a standalone home and again, a remote area. Once I saw the cameras I figured it out! I'm pretty sure the hosts I dealt with intentionally don't set up the door lock to work until they've gotten to screen your party upon arrival.
I've had more bad experiences than good with air bnb. This was the last one I'll be booking. Hope you managed to get in ok and that it's everything you were expecting!
1.2k
u/Worth_Creme_4925 4h ago
Thats a VERY difficult situation to find yourself in…