Renting out on Airbnb: how my first attempt turned into a nightmare

Piper Terrett explains how her experience on the platform has put her off renting out her whole property again – although she feels renting out just one room can work effectively.

Whenever I see the TV advert suggesting people rent out their own homes on Airbnb now, it gives me the shivers.  

Yet, a few months ago, I suggested in an article that people should do exactly that to earn back money while they’re on holiday.

I have since changed my tune once I’d tried it myself and it backfired. 

Renting out a room on Airbnb is one thing, but, from my experience, renting out your entire home is quite something else.

We’ve now done both. When money was a bit tight this Summer, I decided we would give it a try.  

My husband wasn’t keen, but how hard could it be? After all, we knew someone’s girlfriend who did it regularly. I took photos and wrote some descriptions and popped it all on the Airbnb app. 

Nothing happened for ages, so when someone booked it for a long weekend, I thought we were in luck. This could be the first of a few bookings each year while we were on holiday, which could help pay for them. 

I was surprised when they told us they had booked it for a special occasion, given we had no reviews whatsoever – I never book any accommodation myself without it having several good reviews. I should have sensed the warning signs then. 

Getting your home Airbnb-ready is a challenge

It’s much easier to get and keep an area clean when it’s small and when there is no foot traffic through it as it’s not being used the rest of the time. Our small one-bedroom and bathroom Airbnb let did relatively well. 

But trying to empty out an entire house is much more difficult. We spent days filling cardboard boxes with our stuff, ironing bed linen and trying to clean the house. 

Halfway through, I began to have doubts we would pull it off. Indeed, we should have pulled the plug on the project instead of going through with it but, by then, it was too late.  

We almost killed ourselves trying to get the house ready for the guests, it was such hard work - especially as we have pets. 

We really should have hired professional cleaners, but for just a couple of days’ bookings, it wasn’t financially worth it.

In fact, after we’d spent out on new duvets and other items around the house to improve it, and make sure there were enough kitchen items, we’d probably spent as much money as we would be getting. I told myself it was an investment for future bookings. 

Obviously, we would also have to be away for it all to work. So, we arranged a weekend away staying with friends. We were hours late getting there, as we were so behind on cleaning and clearing the house. 

I lay awake the first night away, worrying about having total strangers staying in our home. What would they do to it?  Was it really worth the cash to let someone I didn’t know sleep in my bed?

Disaster strikes: the guests won’t stay

In the event, I needn’t have worried. The people called around check-in, furious, saying the place wasn’t clean enough and they wouldn’t stay. I felt terrible and promised an immediate refund. 

However, the worst was yet to come. In a panic, I tried to work out how to give the people a refund as quickly as I could and hit a few buttons on the Airbnb app as it wasn’t very clear. 

The next thing I knew, I had sent them the refund directly from our own bank account. I’d forgotten that Airbnb effectively holds their funds in escrow until the guests have officially checked in.

In fact, as the Airbnb host, you don’t get the money until about a week after the guests have checked out. 

Once I realised what I had done, I contacted Airbnb, assuming they could give me a refund.

The first two agents said that they could not because it was of my own doing, and that there was nothing they could do. 

Airbnb’s resolution centre

Eventually, I got through to a more helpful lady who said that she could do something for me, but that I would have to reach out to the angry guest through the resolution centre on the app to ask for the money back. 

This is an area on the app where you can request cash for additional cleaning or breakages, as well as give guests a small refund. 

Terrific – so, I’d ruined this person’s special occasion, and now I had to crawl back to them to ask them to return the cash I had mistakenly sent them. 

However, I did so because I had no choice and eventually got back exactly the kind of response I thought I would.  The guest also said that they hadn’t had a second refund, only the first (presumably mine), and hit the button saying they refused to return the cash. Great. 

I went back to my helpful agent at Airbnb, who personally called the guest and made them promise faithfully to return our money once they had received the second refund.  We would have to wait for them to return it, she said, but she “had our back”. 

Fast forward three weeks, near the end of the holidays, when it was quite clear our almost-guest had no intention of returning our money.  

There was no sign of any of the cash in our account. 

Finally, a refund!

I contacted Airbnb for the fourth time, expecting very little help. However, the agent said that, as the guest hadn’t returned the money, he could now give us an immediate refund.

Imagine my disbelief when the cash appeared within hours, let alone days, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

Perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, as there are many other far worse things that can happen when renting out your home, such as damage or vandalism and guests who refuse to leave, but it took a long while to get over the horror of this experience – even down to the thought of these people in our home, not really knowing whether they were genuine.

While we had been away and the guests had refused to stay, I had got our dogsitter to go into the house and check whether the TV was still there and the place hadn't been wrecked… 

It wasn't until several weeks after, and after a few friends had visited with their kids and exorcised the place, that I began to feel normal again. 

Airbnb nightmare: the aftermath

The guilt I felt at it all dissipated after the experience of them pocketing our accidental refund to them.  

However, I even lost a friend over the whole experience, who told me we were being taught a lesson by them. 

If it were a lesson, we have certainly learnt it and will never Airbnb our home out like this again. 

We found it was simply too difficult to get a property that’s occupied in mint condition. Especially, as someone I know remarked, “People want perfection - what they’ve seen on Tiktok.”

However, we will continue to rent out our smaller suite. It’s not a licence to print money as we are a bit too rural to be popular, but it has brought in some small additional income this year, which has been more than welcome.  And we have also hosted some other guests who were lovely. 

So, do think hard before you take the risk of renting out your whole property on Airbnb and other outlets if the benefits will really outweigh the potential downsides. 

They didn’t in our case, but, as our handyman pointed out, it could also have been an awful lot worse. 

We contacted Airbnb for comment for this piece, but received no response.