When Airbnb launched, it appeared to be an exciting alternative to hotels, allowing one to rent apartments and other living spaces in the short term with ease.
Now, however, there’s been a growing backlash against the company. Some are blaming the rise in the service’s popularity for increasing rent prices around the country, while others are simply noting the many downsides that a network of individually-run rental units can have.
This isn’t even mentioning the many internet users who have gone viral for revealing their own less-than-positive experiences using the service. One family found themselves locked out of their Airbnb due to an issue with the door and were told to wait in a cafe at midnight for the situation to be resolved. Another claimed that a host harassed them after they left an honest review, while a further user simply documented how one of the bedrooms of his rental was in the garage.
Now, a user on TikTok has sparked discussion after sharing her own Airbnb experience. In a video with over 1.9 million views, TikTok user KoKo (@kokeeezyy) shows a group of people enjoying a meal at Waffle House.
“We drove 3 hours and the air bnb host never gave us the door code,” she wrote in the text overlaying the video.
According to Airbnb, check-in details and instructions should be available 48 hours before the check-in date on your reservation’s itinerary page. If one does not receive check-in details, they can reach out to the host directly with the provided phone number; if they still do not hear back from the host, one should reach out to Airbnb.
In the comments section, users said that, in their experience, they were usually able to receive check-in information within Airbnb’s supplied timeframe.
“My bnb host sent ours right when the payment went through,” said a user.
“Don’t you get it atleast 24-48 hrs before? I’m saying cause this is how I experienced the whole code thing w Airbnb,” stated another.
“Airbnb should be able to provide rebooking assistance if your host will not answer. They will provide a credit,” detailed a third.
@kokeeezyy waffle house baddies 😍😍 #fyp ♬ SpongeBob song – chris talbalz
That said, some claimed to have had similar experiences using the service.
“This happened to me!!! and when I contacted support they seen the same thing!” shared a commenter. “I get a messages 7AM the next morning saying they gave me a door code! im like nawww even customer support saw THEY DID NOT!!”
“Our air bnb didn’t bother to tell us their account got suspended 30 minutes before we were supposed to check in,” offered a second.
“Happened to me in miami and i got there at 2 in the morning. He stopped replying. I had aidbnb refund me and pay for my hotel,” explained an additional TikToker.
Update April 15, 9:02am CT: In an email to the Daily Dot, an Airbnb spokesperson shared the following: “While we’re not able to verify if this is connected to Airbnb without more information, our Aircover for guests provides protection against issues like trouble checking in. If the Host cannot resolve the issue, we’ll find the guest another place to stay or refund them, and our customer support team is on hand 24/7 to help. More on this here.”
Update April 15, 3:11pm CT: In an Instagram DM exchange with the Daily Dot, KoKo says that she and her group of travelers were not able to check in to their Airbnb after all.
“They said we had not filled out a final registration form with a list of all of the names, and once we did so, we would receive the code,” she recounted. “We did several times and still received nothing.”
From there, the group tried contacting the host and Airbnb. While the host did not respond, Airbnb was eventually able to reach them, at which point they decided to not give KoKo and her friends the code for reasons the TikToker still does not understand.
“This was a condo that fit up to 12, we paid the full price, and to clarify, there was no Ring camera and not all of us went up to the floor of the condo so there was no way he knew our race,” she detailed. As for why the host chose to not provide the group with the code, the TikToker could only speculate: “We are a group of black women, and seeing the names [we] booked under may have gave him that impression, or us having people over the age of 21 but no one 25. Other than that I do not have an exact idea for such a uncalled for act.”
Airbnb offered to resolve the issue by refunding the group, though their last-minute hotel costs were higher than the Airbnb refund.
“They tried to allow us to book again for the same days in hopes that it would automatically send the code but the same days would not pop up,” she wrote. “I would have preferred if the host would have allowed us to receive the code seeming that we had already paid a generous amount of money and drove numerous hours.”
Despite this, she says that the group “can live with the outcome,” though the response from TikTok commenters left her dismayed.
“I posted the TikTok to make light of an unfortunate situation that we were put in and it turned automatically turned into a racist war zone,” she stated of the response. “At the end of the day, we were just college students trying to have a good spring break and not [get] attacked because of the stereotypes based on our skin tone.”
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