I've had good luck with AirBnB, but did have one similar experience, and there's no chance the place genuinely had reviews as good as were on the site (it was damn near a perfect rating). It was gross, plainly violating fire code (basement-of-a-house "apartment" without a single smoke detector anywhere in it), cluttered with the owner's (?) extra junk, tons of half-finished DIY work everywhere (exposed wires sticking out of open switch boxes and empty ceiling light boxes!), actual no-bullshit graffiti on the ceiling(!?). It looked like a friggin' trap house.

But it had damn near a five-star rating and the reviews were like "great place for my family!" et c. Something shady was going on, both with the host and with AirBnB, to make that happen, I'd say. It was shockingly bad.