Yep - I also used to use airbnb without even thinking twice about it in Europe. Last few trips have been getting steadily worse, culminating in a stay where the residence was completely unsuitable for habitation (extremely cold & heating was broken, no linens/towels, mold & damp issues) and airbnb caught us in some sort of bizarro catch-22.
Basically they said: "we can't refund you until you give the host a fair opportunity to address the issues, so get back to us in 24 hours if the host hasn't done anything". When the host failed to do anything and we re-contacted airbnb, they said that the period of validity for us to file a complaint and get a refund had expired, and they would not do anything to help us.
My wife and I fought this, HARD. One of the few times I've basically seen red while trying to sort out a simple issue like this. The host was contacted by airbnb and was livid, and became extremely hostile and unfriendly to us in communications. We ended up getting a hotel nearby and working out the whole thing through travel insurance. Honestly, fuck airbnb.