Has anyone used airbnb yet?

Yes. Used them for the first time in May to locate two places to stay while visiting London. GREAT website. Found excellent places. Hosts were stellar. In fact one of the places is where I will stay each and every time I visit London. The only negative press about Airbnb occurred last month when a young woman rented out her San Francisco apartment through the website and did not stay on the premises. She went out of town and when she returned her apartment had been vandalized. Items stolen including all of her important papers. She blogged about the incident. At that time Airbnb did not have a 24 hours number to call, was slow with their response and subsequently a bit insensitive to how this affected her mental state of mind. However, the owner admitted his company was in error, publically apologized and immediatley started implement new procedures. That impressed me so I sent Brian Chesky an email congratulating him for taking responsibility. He sent an email back. In the world of business that's a rarity, to hear from a CEO. I intend to use Airbnb each and every time I travel. No qualms whatsoever!

Wow, Claudia! Okay.... I may be sold just from your response! And you're right - I think I might have had a passive memory of what happened to that young woman, which was making me nervous. Thanks for the response!

I'm looking at using them for Russia next spring. What I'm most concerned about is how the site insists on having access to my Facebook account. I have registered, but I have not allowed that.

Don't fret about the Facebook connection. It's a marketing tool. Airbnb is trying to capture the young/hip demographic. Trust me I'll NEVER Facebook and didn't when I signed up with Airbnb.

Diane - Thanks for the heads up! A propos of nothing, I am getting SO aggravated with all of the various travel and retail and social and other sites that PUSH you to hook them up with your Facebook or Twitter accounts, after forcing you to register and create an account and give them oodles of personal information. This trend is making me CRAZY! So I am concerned to hear that airbnb is going to make me link my Facebook account with them. Yuck. I will still check them out, but will see if I can possibly get away with NOT giving them my Facebook info. Sheesh.

Kira, I did NOT link my account to Facebook. Claudia has reassured me that it wouldn't affect my ability to use the site's services - good! I agree, the huge marketing push on Facebook is getting annoying... I purposefully keep a "friends" list to under fifty people, restricted to just that: friends and family. FB is a good way for me to stay current with the little details of life - especially since my "tribe" is quite spread out.

Diane - phew! Thanks for responding. I didn't read your post clearly enough.

Hi; After carefully reading as much about Airbnb as I could find, I've booked a flat in London for this September through them. I think it all seems to be ok, and I certainly heard back promptly from the Host/Owner of the flat when I emailed her a couple of times. I also got hold of a couple of people who had previously rented this flat, through Airbnb; and they told me of their experiences in it. I think a service of this kind is long overdue, as prices are just ridiculous in the UK for accommodation. I will certainly review it when I return, and let people know how it went. I had contacted other agencies about renting flats there; and even with no bookings showing on their availability calendars for weeks on end, they refused to accept my politely offered lower offers for their flats. So, I guess they'd rather have no money coming in rather than lower their prices! I also emailed the CEO of Airbnb, and got a nice reply back right away.
Keep your fingers crossed that my place works out fine!

I also recently booked an apartment. I actually found it on Homeaway.com but there were no reviews, so the owner referred me to the property listing on airbnb. That website is easy to use, easy to contact owners via the message board, and I agree 100% with the aboove poster that although there was a bad experience, they handled it as best they could - I was impressed! Contact the owner first though because the owner of our apartment gave me a great discount which wouldn't have be available via the site. Also, I dont even and never did have a Facebook page so don't worry about that. Happy travels!!

On Frommer's Europe/Scandinavia board a regular and trusted poster has been having excellent experiences with airbnb. Check out his posts. He is at present in Stockholm in an apartment for $48 per night.