I loved the service back in the early twenty-teens, but I had a strikingly bad experience with a home I tried to book in Boston.
The owner found out her home listing had rats a few days prior to check-in, and admitted to not being able to get rid of them fully before the date, leaving the possibility of rats getting poisoned/killed by the traps she set up. All of the communication was via @airbnb.com emails I had responded to, but Airbnb's support couldn't find any records of these messages. It took multiple calls and entirely too much effort to get an eventual refund plus a tiny credit on their site -- not nearly enough to book a replacement property that close to the date anywhere within city limits.
Meanwhile, like I mentioned, the prices of properly licensed and managed vacation options have become competitive with Airbnb while offering more reliable and flexible wrt date changes and cancellations.
This summer I made a trip to Spain where we ended up staying on a 4 star hotel with breakfast on the beach we wanted for what would have costed to rent a house of similar feel.
Airbnb let the host write a review on us for the stay which we didn't even take, as when we arrived in the apartment it was in a such appalling state, dirty, broken - we had to spend 4 hours inside while looking for the replacement and trying to convince Airbnb this apartment is inhabitable based on their T&Cs. Yes, we managed that but couldn't find an adequate replacement for the same money and had to move into the hotel. At the same time, Airbnb let the host write a super-negative review about us for not taking this apartment and never sent an invitation to myself to write my own review. I could not even image it is possible to write reviews for cancelled stays! I was left with negative review and ruined stay just because the host could care less and because Airbnb protects hosts first and foremost.
Guess what? Most of non-scam non-inhabitable properties listed on Airbnb are almost always available on other sites, including a well-known booking site. Where you pay and receive service and have means to complain or at least write a review without the fear of being reviewed back for something you are not even at fault.
I had 23 positive reviews and that one last negative. When I later tried to book an apartment and started asking a few questions to host (have to be fastidious with the choice as I often stay for 2-3 weeks, so need to ensure there is no construction works around..etc) - the host has referred to my last negative review and told me I won't be welcome. And that was that proverbial straw.