This is why I didn't jump to leaving a bad review right away. She had a very good rating (4.9) across hundreds of reviews.

I wanted to make sure I wasn't out of line or jumping to conclusions for thinking the worst. But, I have a hard time believing that she or someone she knew didn't get into the unit and go through our stuff. Especially after the surprise early morning "walk through".

TXCityAggie said:

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Airbnb in the U.S. has become a joke. Between the extreme prices and the laundry list of chores guests are expected to complete, I don't even use it in the States anymore. On top of that, there are these kinds of shenanigans, which seem to be becoming more and more common. Oddly, it feels very specific to the U.S., because I still find Airbnb to be a good value and a pleasant experience in other parts of the world.

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This is annoying to me also. If I'm paying a $175 cleaning fee, I'm not going to do the dishes and wash your sheets before I leave.

Update: Just spoke with AirBNB.

They said after reviewing everything and after speaking with the host, they found that no rules were violated and no action will be taken.

I asked them to confirm that there were no rules violated when we returned to an open door and found our stuff gone through. They wouldn't give an answer and just repeated that no rules were violated.

Wow.

As a host I can assure you that AirBNB "investigations" and "reviews" are a joke. I can also say 100% I would leave a 1 star review. Maybe the host did nothing wrong. But they offered little help and didn't do anything to make it right either.

If I have upset guests for things out of my control, I go out of my way to explain its not my fault/make it better/refund. Their lack of interest deserves the negative review. Maybe they are amateurs that thought STR was a gold mine. Or maybe they are total creeps. Either way bad reviews will make them move on.

Stories like this are why I wont use AirBNB any longer. Had a few bad experiences years ago and haven't looked back.

DeepintheHeart06 said:

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As a host I can assure you that AirBNB "investigations" and "reviews" are a joke.

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That's my lesson here as well. Pretty wild.

I'll use VRBO going forward and probably bring a small "ring" camera in case something like this happens again.

Hoyt Ag said:

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Stories like this are why I wont use AirBNB any longer. Had a few bad experiences years ago and haven't looked back.

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What do you use?

Hotels and occasional vrbo, but it is rare.

ok, hotels are a different product than entire houses.

I will reiterate - leave this in the comments at the end of your review.

Coincidentally, I am now in my own bad Airbnb situation. Had to book at the very last minute because the hotel we were supposed to be in had issues and the reservation was cancelled.

The ONLY way for people to know about the problems you had is to describe it in the comments. At this point, there is no recourse for you - all you can do is warn others. And those of us who read reviews appreciate it very much!

After reading the reviews of the place where I am staying, I am absolutely convinced Airbnb is hiding/obfuscating (if not completely removing) bad reviews. To the point where, when I tried to filter the reviews (after initially being shown the default "most relevant"), all of the most recent reviews disappeared from view. When I tried to sort by "most recent" the only reviews I could see were from 2019.

We didn't have a lot of choices, since I literally booked this place about 4 hours before we checked in, but I would never recommend it to anyone else. Funny thing is, the only two other options had ZERO reviews. I know better than to book that.

Also, the rating for this place is 4.6/5. There was a note with the rating that said it was "the bottom 10 percent" for similar properties. So, rating inflation seems to be a real thing.