It used to be that if you wanted to travel somewhere and needed a place to stay, you had to stay in a hotel, but websites like Airbnb have changed that.

Now, there are a lot more options!

The problem with sites like Airbnb is that not all rentals and not all rental hosts are created equal. I’ve used Airbnb multiple times and had great experiences, but there have been a couple times I thought, “I’ll never stay there again!”

Thankfully, I’ve never had an experience as bad as the guy who wrote this story.

His experience is so bad that he had to complain to Airbnb about it multiple times to gets the problem resolved, but in the end, it did get resolved in everyone’s favor except the Airbnb host!

Let’s see what happens.

Don’t let us stay in your AirBNB after accepting our booking? Fine, get banned from the app then!

In around 2019 I had a friend coming to visit for Paddy’s Day.

Now I’m Irish, but he’s actually from Hong Kong.

Given that I’m local, I said I’d take care of booking accommodation etc.

I went on and of course as usual everything was like half a grand (welcome to Dublin…).

Obviously things were maxed out due to it being Paddy’s Weekend.

But I found one spot in Blackrock, which isn’t in the city centre but is only a few stops away on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit), that was going for €68 per night!

I booked it right then and there.

Then something weird happened.

The following morning I got a notification from AirBNB saying the host wanted to up the price by €288.28, and if I would accept that.

I clicked no and figured hey, he’s already accepted our booking, I don’t have to say yes to this!

I waited the few weeks until the weekend in question, and then it came.

My friend landed at Dublin Airport, we made our way to Blackrock, got to the door, rang the doorbell, and… nothing.

This is even weirder.

There was no car in the driveway, nobody was home.

We hung around for forty minutes until the host arrived, and he wouldn’t. Even. Look us in the eye.

I said hi, we’ve a booking to stay here this weekend?

And he mumbled something about how no one was staying there sorry and he went inside.

Airbnb tried to make it right.

Well I got straight onto AirBNB.

They offered us our money back, and I said no, that’s not good enough, everywhere else is half a grand what are we going to do with €68?

So they offered us double, and I still said no, we need a place to stay!

So they booked us into a lovely house elsewhere that was closer to the city centre.

It gets even better!

But that’s not all.

I made an official complaint about the host and how he screwed us over, and they booted him off the app!

For trying to fleece a couple of twenty-something lads, he had to stop renting his place out entirely!

I’m a petty guy, so every couple of months I randomly think about this and check to see if he’s back online yet.

As of May 2025, he’s still not.

So I’ve cost him over six years of AirBNB rent (and counting). You love to see it.

That Airbnb host really should’ve just let the guys rent the place for the agreed upon price.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Here’s the perspective of someone who hasn’t used Airbnb.

A former Airbnb host shares hatred for the service.

This person finds the request to pay more pretty unusual.

It’s possible the host listed the unit somewhere else.

Or maybe the host sold the rental.

At least Airbnb made it right for the renter.

That’s something.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.