I've stayed in Airbnbs across 25 countries - here are 5 red flags I now spot in listings instantly

Three years ago in Porto, I booked what looked like a perfect apartment near the Douro River. Great photos, solid reviews, decent price. When I arrived after twelve hours of travel, the building had no elevator and the "third floor" turned out to be the fifth by American standards.

My partner and I hauled our luggage up narrow stairs while I silently cursed my failure to read between the lines.

That was the last time I made that mistake.

After staying in Airbnbs across 25 countries, from a canal house in Amsterdam to a converted warehouse in Melbourne, I've developed a sixth sense for listings that promise one thing and deliver another. The red flags aren't always obvious. Sometimes they're buried in a single sentence. Sometimes they're hiding in what the host doesn't say.

Here are five warning signs I never ignore anymore.

1) Photos that only show wide angles

When every single photo uses a fisheye lens or extreme wide angle, someone's working hard to make a shoebox look like a studio.

I learned this the hard way in Barcelona. The listing photos made the bedroom look spacious and airy. When I walked in, I could touch both walls simultaneously while standing in the middle of the room. The photographer had literally shot from the doorway corner with the widest lens possible to create an illusion of space.

Now I look for at least a few photos taken from normal human perspective. If you can't find a single straight-on shot of any room, that's your sign. Bonus red flag: listings that show the same room from eight different angles but somehow never include a full view of the bathroom.

Real spaces don't need optical illusions to look good. Hosts who are proud of their place will show you what it actually looks like, not what it could theoretically look like if you were an ant with a GoPro.

2) Vague descriptions of the neighborhood

"Great location!" "Close to everything!" "Vibrant area!"

These phrases mean absolutely nothing, and hosts know it. What they often actually mean is "we're not going to tell you about the nightclub downstairs" or "the subway is a 20-minute walk through an industrial zone."

The best listings get specific. They'll tell you the neighborhood name, mention actual landmarks, maybe even note the walking time to the nearest grocery store. When a host writes "centrally located" without naming the actual district or neighborhood, I immediately switch to Google Maps and start investigating.

I once stayed in what was described as a "lively neighborhood in Lisbon" that turned out to be directly above a street of bars that raged until 4 a.m. every single night. My fault for not pushing past the cheerful vagueness.

Ask yourself: would someone who actually lives there describe it this way? Or does it sound like marketing copy written by someone who's trying to avoid saying something specific?

3) Reviews that praise everything except the basics

Here's what I do now before booking anything: I read the three-star reviews first, then look at what the five-star reviews actually praise.

If multiple glowing reviews mention how "accommodating" the host was or how they "worked with us to solve issues," something needed solving. If people are writing paragraphs about the host's communication skills but barely mention the apartment itself, there's probably not much worth mentioning about the apartment.

The reviews that matter are the ones that casually reference practical details. "The kitchen had everything we needed." "Bed was comfortable." "Water pressure was great." These throwaway lines tell you more than any five-paragraph essay about a host's wonderful personality.

I'm not saying avoid places with any negative feedback. But when the positive reviews sound like they're grading on a curve or compensating for something, trust that instinct.

4) Listings with multiple recent "house rules" updates

Check the house rules section carefully. If you see a laundry list of oddly specific prohibitions that reads like it was written by someone who's been hurt before, proceed with caution.

"No shoes anywhere in the apartment." "Guests must strip beds and wash all linens before checkout." "Kitchen use limited to heating only, no cooking." "Shower time limited to 5 minutes."

These rules don't appear out of nowhere. They're battle scars from previous guests, sure, but they also tell you something about the host's expectations and temperament. Someone who requires you to document the condition of every surface upon arrival and departure might not be the most relaxed person to deal with if something goes wrong.

My partner and I stayed in a place in Venice Beach, right in my own city, where the house rules PDF was eleven pages long. Eleven pages. It included instructions for how to position the dish soap bottle and which direction to face the toilet paper roll. We spent the entire weekend paranoid about accidentally violating some obscure rule we'd forgotten from page seven.

Reasonable rules are fine. A novel's worth of them suggests someone who doesn't actually enjoy hosting.

5) Prices that seem too good to be true

That gorgeous apartment in central Copenhagen for 60 euros a night? Either the photos are ten years old, the location is actually 30 minutes outside the city, or there's going to be a creative reinterpretation of "cleaning fee" and "service charge" when you try to book.

I've learned that hosts who undercut the market significantly are often compensating for something they know will disappoint you. Maybe it's construction noise. Maybe it's a bizarre layout. Maybe it's that the building has no air conditioning and you're visiting in August.

The worst version of this: listings that advertise studio prices but turn out to be somebody's living room with a curtain partition. I encountered this in Prague. The "private bedroom" was technically private if you consider a bookshelf and some hanging fabric to be walls.

This doesn't mean you can't find deals. But when something's priced noticeably below comparable listings, dig deeper. Read every single line of the description. Check recent reviews for any mentions of surprises. Zoom in on photos to see what might be hiding in the background.

Conclusion

Look, I still love Airbnb. When it works, it works brilliantly. I've stayed in incredible places that gave me a much better sense of a city than any hotel could.

But somewhere along the way, as the platform grew, the gap between expectation and reality got wider. Professional photographers learned to make 300 square feet look like 600. Hosts learned to write descriptions that technically aren't lying while also not quite telling the truth.

The good news? Once you know what to look for, the red flags are usually there. You just have to slow down long enough to spot them before you click "book."

Trust your gut. If something feels off about a listing, even if you can't quite articulate why, there's probably a reason. Your instincts are pulling from dozens of tiny signals your conscious brain hasn't processed yet.

And remember: the perfect apartment doesn't need tricks to look good. It just is good, and the listing reflects that honestly.