Products · Product
Airbnb
Raised as a usability problem by 196 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 135 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
- 2Map view is hard to find in some placesUnreviewed
- 1
- 2
- 3Map view is hard to find in some placesUnreviewed
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7Dark patterns push people into choicesUnreviewed
Every issue, all time, most people first
Price omits cleaning fees and taxes until checkoutUnreviewed
20102026- Search results hide fees, so the displayed price is not what you pay2025-08-28
- Listed prices show per-night-looking amounts, but the real total is double after clicking through2025-07-21
- Total cost with fees is hidden; the upfront total option is not the default2025-05-14
Can't sort search results by price while bookingUnreviewed
20102026- Can't sort results by price; categories vanish once a place is searched2023-05-08
- Can't sort search results by price, forced to use ML ranking2022-06-22
- Can't sort search results, forced to wade through many poor listings2021-06-16
Map view is hard to find in some placesUnreviewed
20102026- Map moves reset paginated results; map shows only current page listings; pages load slowly2025-05-14
- Map is slow to load and scroll, hides cheaper places by default2022-11-16
- Can't search by amenities like lake view or sauna; map view is hard to filter2022-05-12
Can't delete account in settings; must email support for weeksUnreviewed
20102026- Deletion option missing for German accounts; deactivated accounts hard to reach support about2021-02-05
- Can't delete account in settings; must email support repeatedly for weeks2020-12-10
- Deactivation instead of deletion; deletion form requires login that deactivation blocks2020-08-12
Support replies come from a bot, blocking real resolutionUnreviewed
20102026- Support replies come from a bot, making it hard to get a real resolution2022-10-21
- Support replies don't address the specific complaint raised, so issues can't be resolved2020-02-11
- Support messages are confusing and hard to understand, with broken English2018-02-22
Dark patterns push people into choicesUnreviewed
20102026- Airbnb uses dark patterns that push users into choices they did not make2024-05-20
- Commenter asks for dark patterns to be fixed but does not say what pushes them into choices2022-05-05
- Relies on user interface dark patterns that push people into choices2020-08-19
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Audio alternative always reports failure, even when the CAPTCHA was solved correctly2026-05-26
- Notifications nag about cancelled bookings and saved searches are broken, making the site hard to use2025-08-29
- Search results hide fees, so the displayed price is not what you pay2025-08-28
- Listed prices show per-night-looking amounts, but the real total is double after clicking through2025-07-21
- Mobile app resets search queries, unlike desktop where multiple searches stay open2025-07-16
- Settings are hard to find and features get lost between inconsistent pages2025-06-24
- Account creation fails with unhelpful error for emails containing 'airbnb'2025-06-08
- Site takes years to load, runs slowly, and wrongly machine-translates the page2025-05-27
- Booking page hides key booking information on an iPhone 13, and texts omit important details2025-05-27
- Glossy "new" tags look like buttons, confusing users against flat buttons2025-05-27
- Animated tab icons are laggy and slow to respond on the user's device2025-05-27
- Total cost with fees is hidden; the upfront total option is not the default2025-05-14
- Login fails for no clear reason with only slow email support as the fix2025-05-14
- Hosts cannot escalate technical issues or reach any individual at Airbnb2025-05-14
- No consistent check-in method, and address hidden until after booking2025-05-14
- Can't search for the 'well reviewed by families' tag, so must click through many listings2025-05-14
- Map moves reset paginated results; map shows only current page listings; pages load slowly2025-05-14
- Experiences upsell pushed in front of users every time the app opens2025-05-14
- Search and booking flow is worse than competing sites2025-05-14
- Cannot filter or search listings by host rating, forcing risky guesswork2025-05-14
- Low advertised rates hid high fees until checkout, pushing people into costlier stays2025-04-22
- Error-handling flow for resolving booking problems is frustrating and hard to get through2025-04-05
- Airbnb's host app is so obtuse and clunky it's hard to operate2025-04-04
- Vouchers expire in seven days and cannot be applied to existing bookings, so recipients can't use them2025-01-28
- Hosts get emails ignored, long phone holds, and staff who cannot resolve basic issues2025-01-09
- Ratings are all clustered 4-4.8 and the workspace filter is unreliable, so listings are hard to judge2025-01-09
- Enter adds a newline instead of sending, and sending doesn't scroll, so messages get sent repeatedly2024-09-18
- Links lack pointer cursors and the page interferes with scrolling2024-05-21
- Airbnb uses dark patterns that push users into choices they did not make2024-05-20
- Irrelevant search results pushed on users with no way to turn off2024-05-20
- Search is hard to use; finding a decent place requires basic filters and manually going through listings2024-03-11
- Total price including cleaning fee only appears late in booking flow2024-03-11
- Cleaning fees only appear at the end, making the total price hard to see early2024-03-11
- Struggles to change fields, find booking info, and track current page2023-11-07
- Instant book is hidden in the UI, so bookings wait 24 hours for host approval2023-11-07
- Can't tell if a listing is instant book, and 'Reserve now' is ambiguous2023-11-07
- Kitchenettes in Airbnb listings are barely usable for cooking2023-10-08
- Can't pay by credit card; verification requires bank login, and PayPal is denied2023-10-03
- Customer support is awful and time-consuming to deal with2023-09-21
- Took five or six attempts to pass the CAPTCHA just to log in2023-08-23
- Can only sort by nightly price, hiding cleaning fees from comparison2023-08-11
- Total price shown is misleading; real cost hidden until later steps2023-07-31
- Basic functions are missing and the app feels bloated2023-07-10
- Wrong lockbox code with no cell reception, and hosts unreachable on the app2023-06-29
- Chat agents kept handing off the case without resolving anything, so the problem never moved forward2023-05-30
- Feature and cookie popups appear after the base page loads, slowing use2023-05-18
- Dark patterns around fees push guests into costs they didn't expect2023-05-11
- Can't sort results by price; categories vanish once a place is searched2023-05-08
- Guests must sign up for extra apps that share private data just to check in2023-05-04
- Cleaning fees hidden from search, so total cost can't be compared2023-03-18