[abreu]

Had my first bad experience with Airbnb just recently. The property turned out to be in a horrible state (I could write a long list) even though it had very good reviews. I did book three months in advance. Bad idea. When the issues started becoming apparent, I was already behind the one-day limit for the Guest Refund Policy to be applicable (that is, if you encounter any issues, you must inform AB on the check-in day, or the policy doesn't apply).

So I lost a lot of money. Long term policy specifies that you must pay 30 days starting from the cancellation day.

And I was stuck in Morocco with my 12 month old.

Luckily we found a better property. However, Airbnb not refunding me showed that 1) They have no actual understanding of the state of the property 2) They don't care.

The disproportion between the reviews and my experience and their unwillingness to be fair totally ruined my faith in Airbnb.

[gnarbarian]

This is likely to protect landlords from tenants who would break shit during their stay and then claim it was broken before they showed up to get a refund.

[abreu]

Maybe. The main thing is that Airbnb keeps the payment for 24 hours after check-in, then it's released to the host. That means any complains within 24 hours will result in the payment being frozen. At the point it reaches the host's end, it's impossible to get the payment back without the host's approval.

Some things you simply don't notice at first sight (e.g tiny painting particles falling from the roof, cockroaches, a broken dishwasher..).

If Airbnb's review system were honest, this wouldn't be an issue, probably. In my experience, hotel reviews are magnitudes more reliable.