Homestay.com Reviews 

They are a robber! They take advantage of the situation of the pandemic and they don't refund the booking fee even if it's for extreme reasons like the situation in England it's catastrophic and we can't get there. That's really disappointing and it's even not legal. DUE A COVID RESTRICTION YOU HAVE TO REFUND ALL THE BOOKING MONEY.

I booked with Homestay.com months ahead to secure a nice place in London. The host accepted my booking on the condition that Covid-19 is under control as my arrival date approaches. As London is under lockdown now, I sent a reminder to the host that cancellation would have to be made so I could get my booking fee back. Homestay.com refused to refund me, citing only my reminder at the end of the conversation recorded on Homestay.com, but totally dismissing the initial condition my host stated! I am writing to warn people not to book with Homestay.com, thinking the company will honor their promise to refund and protect consumers. The company took 30 pounds from me, while my host and I did not receive anything. Airbnb refunded me without batting an eyelash when my booking was cancelled. Never will I use Homestay.com again.

Beware Money Scam. Lie about the price as advertised say $26 per night then when book it changes to $76 a night. When I contacted homestay customer service and spoke to management all they could do is deny it and say you will have to pay $75 even though I have proof with phone screen captures.

Iam a host and had just problems. The support people were unprofessional and accuse you of cheating.
I got jammed with non sense emails and one was blaming me for not being enough productive.
Some students do not want to pay the value of the room and I had too many experiences being a superhost on Airbnb. So Iam careful.
Email support of this company is short and cold.
If the person who is in search of a room does not reply to my texts I should not be the one to blame.
Anyone looking for a room in Zurich can contact me!

26.7.2021
I just see your reply! I am definitely not dumb writing bbb and aaa like you mentioned! Support is not good with you guys and that is why I don’t work with homestay. Wish you all the best. Cheating was never my thing!

26.7.2021
I had 2 accounts with homestay because we had two households. Guest would reserve „Happy Room“with the wrong pictures. Acct. to that pictures I could not log in and numerous times tried to reset it. I contacted Homestay at least with 5+ emails and talked to not really helpful Eva. I even called homestay and explained the situation and still could not log in.

Please submit what makes you feel better and I do the same. Homestay needs to support host. I was was not heard and did nor feel supported.

Brilliant organisation. Chance to meet different students from different countries, different culture,with different point of view. It's a learning point to know how young minds works.

The support is very bad. I have booked two rooms with the website and both has been uncomfortable hosts.
The one was alcoholised very often and ripped me off with 600 € the other one canceled my room 1 week before I arrived whiteout any reason.
In the first case I moved out after a few days because it was horrible and the host hugs me unasked every time he has seen me.
As I left his house and moved into a other accommodation he hires the room a second time. So he gots 2 times the cash.
There was no support of homestay because of my money. They maintain this kind of business.
I can not recommend to anyone else using homestay.

In general the basic idea behind the business is fantastic, however, the way they run the business is the problem! The problem is their hands off approach: No rules and regulations, no clear guidance, no control mechanism…

My first experience with the place and the host was basically outrageous and scary, you can find out more about it below, in my letter to the Management of Homestay that they never replied.

Hello Lorenza,
First you made a mistake in my reservation, Second, I am paying my host in Dollars NOT Euro!
I have also had very negative experiences, each time I use Homestay services, because of lack of standardized rules and regulations and requirements. For example, the first time my room was in a business/commercial high rise building with no residential unit in it. After 7:00 PM I was left alone in the building, with only the concierge living in the garage. It was devastatingly scary. Plus after 7 PM TILL 7 AM the air condition system was totally turned off and I had to tolerate the unbearable heat in the hottest month—August. Plus the host was nowhere to be found. The concierge was basically playing the role of the host. Also the kitchen had no appliances, because the host did not want the smell of food drowse attention of people in offices to the fact that someone is actually residing in one of the units. In addition, after telling friends about the situation, I discovered that living in an industrial/commercial building is actually against the laws.
This event shows the Homestay failure in adopting a set of effective control mechanism and standardized measures to protect the safety of its clients.
Last year—was my second homestay experience, my host was extremely nice, however he left me alone, house watching, and traveled overseas 3 times. The last time he actually moved out of the country for good, 2 weeks prior to my departure. This put a lot of unnecessary responsibility on my shoulders. Plus the first night, when I entered my room, I found the room filthy and covered with dust, the sheets were so dirty, as if they were not washed for years; the bathroom was covered with mold. The only good thing was that he was willing to bring in a cleaner the next day to clean the place and gave me clean sheet and had the molds covered by putting a layer of cement on it. Yet the apartment, though in a nice building and was relatively new, it seemed it was neglected for a long time. I was constantly worried to get sick, because the sink, the refrigerator...all were filthy, yet the price they asked for the room was extremely hefty compared to the city’s real state standards and other Homestay Units.
They are also other less problematic issues involved, which are annoying. Things like not being very welcoming when it comes to sharing the living room, TV or kitchen, which becomes a burden when you stay in a place for a month or two. Or the breakfast not being standardized give the host the liberty to do whatever she wants. Right now, on my third homestay, she basically rationing everything by leaves 2 small pieces of bread and offer a bit of cheese and a glass of tea for breakfast, which is not enough for even a child. While she is getting paid 12 times more than the price of one room here. This time too, my host went vacationing 4 times during my 2 months stay, and twice left her severely sick husband in the apartment. One should simply wonder who is the “HOST” here.

All the above demonstrating the failure of Homestay and the absolute needs for some kind of regulation and control mechanism in order to protect the clients and the guests!

Good booking platform if you are looking for something a bit different i.e getting first hand local advice from the hosts you are staying with. Not for those wanting complete privacy or the hotel experience...more for those wanting to immerse themselves in the country or city they are visiting. Not all hosts and places are the same as some may wish, consistency is not the requisite here, but very varying experiences. My advice is to read the host testimonials carefully and choose from there. Highly recommended from my part.

Never use homestay.com again, it is very unreliable service, there is no security for booking at all. The web provider taking your booking fees, they will not refund money back regardless you can book a room with host or not. This site has many hundreds of hosting families and take booking fees from their customers without any customer care services. I had a very bad experience with homestay.com . If you want to make contact with any registered host, then you have to pay for contact details, no matter you are successful with the booking or not, you can never claim your money back. You will not receive a reply with regards to any issues related to service failure. Therefore, I consider this is a very untrustworthy website, it is necessary to raise alert for other browsers avoiding any bad experiences from homestay provider, NOT fall into an hole like me !!

Cathy

Never again, too risky. If you book a room inside a house, basically, you don't have any rights during the stay no matter the duration of the agreement. The owner can enter into the room as many times as they want without notice and when you are absent. You cannot put a claim anywhere because this is not a hotel and you are not in a separate dwelling either. The owner took a personal item of my property from the rented room without my consent, I prefer not saying anything to let end the accommodation period, as I don't have anyone to complain and I don't want problems. This is an extract from the Irish citizen website: "Renting out a room in your home: you are in the property by the landlord’s consent or invitation", which also means that if the owner wants can ask you to leave the place without reason nor notice. I read another review from the LGBT community, as you are staying in the owner's house you are not protected against discrimination either by the Irish law. I had problems to cook and wash my clothes too. Even one of the owners bullied me to be out of the house on weekends. The website will not protect guests, as there are no policies or regulations especially in the owner's house, but will charge a commission of 15% of the total price only to advertise a place that no one knows if anyone verifies. The host will not offer detailed descriptions so you make a booking without much knowledge of the conditions under which you will be in their home. Stay away from homestay which is only a transactional website and save yourself bad experiences.

Bottom line is Homestay was supposed to secure my payment of the deposit as was confirmed. There was some issue with the payment coming through however I felt secure with Homestay's security. So the guest didn't pay anything out of pocket. Then Homestay removed their responsibility to the payment while this guest had keys to my home, made no payment and stayed 20 days and left while not making a payment. This is a serious security issue as it was also an international visitor with whom I didn't even have access to his identification or any written document as Homestay decided to remove my account.. because... While I was completely transparent with my guest about being out of state and the primary host would be my trusted partner/housemate in new york. .. The guest didn't want to stay for various reasons, the room was too small and too far away from his work. So.. while I thought I was offering what was in alignment with Homestay philosophy.. that the guest was living with a local host and local housemates (being that it was a shared apartment) because the guest wanted to leave so he complained and my account got deleted. Homestay didn't care about my security at all, or the other housemates for that matter and that place has been my primary residence for over 14 years .. I was only out of state trying to secure a move to raise my son in a better community. As a single mother I don't take it very lightly to be put in such detrimental position. It is the principal of the situation. While luckily several days after the guest left he did follow through with a payment, despite it being one third of the expected deposit and little notice to fill the room.. I can at least say that the guest had integrity to give something for his stay. Homestay has what I would consider a hands off approach.

I had a lovely stay in Ballinderreen which is a good location to tour the south region of Galway bay and parts of Co Clare including the Cliffs of Moher . The Burren is a magical place to visit . The host of the house was friendly and gave good information on the places to visit .
The house was very comfortable and spotlessly clean . And Lara the dog !! such an entertaining pet .

Everything regarding the stay has been awesome. Very good Villa for most comfortable stay for the family. We are ten in number, all of us ,including one child, felt very much satisfied during the stay.

Very friendly and competent people.
They respond fast as hell and they fixed all the problems I had with the site. (Problems caused by myself)

Best temporary accommodation site out there.

Rudi

We faced discrimination as an LGBT couple by a host.
There is no T&C regarding anti-discrimunation on the site.
Update: Homestay.com has written back saying they are looking into adding anti-discrimunation clauses in their T&C. I look forward to review them.

I am so frustrated in using homestay.com. During my messaging back and forth with a host regarding a misunderstanding of checkin date, the system suddenly stopped sending my message back to the host with a warning saying "several messages waiting for review by the homestay.com team". I had tried numerous times, spent a lot of time on it, but no luck. Then I called the customer service in Ireland as well as in US, there was nobody answering the call but a recording telling me to write to a support email. I wrote to the Support then was replied the time window to be taken care of is 48 hours. What is unbelievably difficult is, even I have an account with email registered with homestay.com, I cannot contact the host by email. Now I am totally isolated from the host I had been contacting with for a few days. There is no way I can move on. The only channel for communication is now blocked by Homestay.com ITSELF.

If you want to taste the real experience of living with a typical kerala family you must visit jeen wilsons homestay. Besides the perfect location which mean that all tourist activities are on a walking distance the homemade food is delicious!! You will not reget your stay, it wil be a memory of a lifetime.

I will never use Homestay again. I had a horrible experience. I booked an accommodation in Budapest in April, which is called BAUHAUS VILLA IN EKO GARDEN, and the room and bathroom were very filthy and the whole place was very cold even though it was very hot outside. On top of this the host was very rude and aggressive. All he cares about is taking your money straight away and then not willing to do anything about the issues. I wanted to cancel my booking on the first night, so I went on the Homestay website, but didn't find the 'cancel booking' button anywhere anymore, which was there before my booking started. It was too late to do anything else as it was after 10pm. I wrote a review about my bad experience on Homestay so people are aware of this horrible place. I had no idea that hosts are also allowed to write reviews about their guests. I found out when I received an email from Homestay stating I received a review, which was of course full of lies from the host denying everything I wrote and calling me a liar. So Homesaty allows this, but doesn't allow to reply to defend yourself. Only one review is allowed and that's it. I find this cruel. No other booking sites let hosts do this. Only customers can leave reviews about their experience. If you let hosts do this then at least allow guests to reply back to these kind of allegations. Also when I contacted them about my experience I waited for a week for a reply and didn't receive one. Then a week later I received an email asking me to leave a feedback about their customer service regarding my actual enquiry, which didn't get a reply. I replied to this email and their reply was very unsupportive. No way I will use Homestay.com again, especially after having all those lies about me on their website. I stick to other websites where hosts are not able to write lies about customers and put them in a bad light, and where cancelling a booking is straightforward. I lost a lot of money by not being able to do it straight away. I don't recommend Homestay.com at all.

Homestay.com you could have done a better job with your website to make sure the cancel button is visible and not hidden and to display a chart which shows all the star ratings so we could see there are one star reviews. Then I wouldn’t have booked it in the first place. As for the review I left about Mihály and his accommodation on your website you have no right to criticise it and compare it to the host’s review about me. His review is a pure lie and it’s all about patronising me and put me in a bad light. I only told the truth to warn others not to book a horrible accommodation with an arrogant host who lies about many things and makes out that the guest is to blame. You have a horrible attitude, too and your comment proves it, which proves my point that your customer service is really bad. All you do is patronising me, the innocent guest and protecting the sneaky lying host. It says a lot about you. I have already got my account deleted and will never recommend your website to anyone and will warn against using it.

very happy
would recommend
easy and efficient!