No Response After Long-Term Guest Cancelled

Posted on April 6, 2020

My guest cancelled her one-year reservation on Feb. 26 after staying just one month, sent an email, and was gone the next day. I’ve contacted Airbnb and they promised to contact my guest.

Since then I haven’t received any messages from Airbnb. I did call twice myself (since I live abroad, it’s an expensive phone call) and got the same message: “We will contact the team involved and they will be back with you asap.”

I also wrote three emails asking about any kind of update. So far I haven’t received anything. I put my apartment on hold at Airbnb, and told them in an email that I would have a look at Booking.com. Now thanks to the coronavirus madness everything is on hold anyway, but boy I am disappointed about the attitude of Airbnb.

Airbnb Customer Service: Untrustworthy and Unsafe

Posted on July 29, 2017

The past couple of days have been a nightmare in dealing with Airbnb. My account had been compromised, but Airbnb never notified me. Someone had even changed my email address, but I was not notified of the change. They recognized that my credit card would need to be verified for security reasons, but again, I was not notified and had to discover this for myself when I went to make a reservation. I complied with everything asked of me to verify my credit card. The message I received after submission was that the issue would be resolved within 24 hours and “there’s nothing else you need to do right now.”

I could not make a reservation until then, even with a different credit card. Due to the popularity of the place I was trying to reserve, I contacted Airbnb to see if I could hold the reservation. They told me I would need to contact the host. They also assured me repeatedly that my case would be marked as “urgent” and that I should “keep the lines open” to hear from someone from the security department shortly. No one from Airbnb contacted me that night. Luckily my host was kind enough to put a temporary hold on my reservation for 24 hours. This was a relief as the issue was not only originally promised to be resolved within 24 hours, but the representative from Airbnb said she was marking it urgent to be expedited.

Nearly 22 hours after my initial submission to have my card verified, I still had not heard from Airbnb. I called two more times and was told that my case had not in fact been marked urgent despite the fact that each time I was incessantly promised by the representative that is would be. My issue was not resolved until 26 hours after my initial submission – two hours after the “regular” maximum wait time and after calls to over a dozen representatives and three supervisors. As I feared, my reservation was no longer available. I immediately searched for another, but the comparable reservations available were now twice as high. I lost about $130 in value of my reservation. Airbnb offered a measly $25 as a “thank you for waiting.”

Late Arrival, Host Abandoned me in Belfast

Posted on November 21, 2016

I was suppose to stay with a host in Belfast tonight. We agreed to check in at 8:00 PM earlier in the day. After encountering an accident in the highway I messaged to say that I would be there around 20:30. I arrived at 20:30 only to have him message me, saying: “You missed check-in. Your problem. You know the rules.” He then stopped responding to all forms of communication. Firstly, that is a shocking response. Airbnb hosts surely can’t be allowed to be completely rigid on precise check-in times, especially when you’re traveling from far away. And if they do need to go somewhere surely there has to be a way to come to a solution. I even offered to come and collect the keys from wherever he was and no reply. Secondly, having no way to contact anyone or to charge my phone, I was left stranded in the cold. Airbnb was also no help and the call center was unresponsive. I love Airbnb but now I can see that it’s a horrible service when they have not vetted the host properly – because central customer support is shocking. I didn’t even get a full refund; they kept the funds for future use. I’m inclined to never use the service again.

Thirdly, the “community” that Airbnb is supposedly trying to build surely doesn’t have room for this kind of host but it’s in moments like this that I see that they don’t do anything to vet hosts. Lastly, even after posting all of this, I’ve tried to find a way to contact Airbnb and complain; there is basically no way to contact them. It’s shocking. What are they taking the +10% service fee for? Surely there should be an email complaint service that all customer based organizations have – even terrible ones. The reservation was canceled and so trying to get help about it is no longer an option. Pathetic, especially from a company built upon an image of customer service. The minute you and the host can’t resolve an issue it all goes pear shaped. Airbnb, I hope being left stranded doesn’t happen often. You have no idea the emotional distress caused by being stranded alone, with luggage and in a foreign place especially when it’s dark, rainy and cold. I at least could afford a hotel – most people can not.

Hacked from China, No Help from Airbnb

Posted on May 27, 2016

I received about five emails in Chinese yesterday morning from “express@airbnb.com”. I marked them as spam and was about to go on with my day, when I checked my account. Someone in China had hacked my account and made a reservation in China (I’m in North Carolina). After a good amount of time searching for a number to call, I was able to reach Airbnb by phone and tell them the situation. The first person I spoke to yesterday was very polite, and seemed interested in helping: he said that the department that handles fraud would not be in for a little while and they would contact me within 2-3 hours. I never heard from them yesterday, so this morning I responded to their ticket confirmation email this morning (one was automatically sent letting me know the issue was being escalated) and let them know I was still waiting.

A couple of hours after this I received an email letting me know that they hadn’t heard from me and would be closing the case if they didn’t. I called and let them know that I still needed to correct the issue, but the person that I was speaking to was clearly in a training class (for every question I asked, I could hear someone else telling him what to say), so I asked for a supervisor. After twenty minutes of going back and forth (I was at work and had changed my password with a generator and wasn’t able to confirm these numbers, but offered any other personal information he would need), I logged on to my credit card company site and gave him what I assumed he might have.

After another wait, I finally had a supervisor on the phone who was short, rude, spoke over me and was consistently sarcastic, asking “why am I on the phone with you? Why do you think you need to talk to me? Why do you think that this had to come to me?” I continued attempting to tell her the issue, and she continued to speak over me. She flat out refused to help with the fraud that they allowed to happen. After the call with Airbnb – who has still not done anything about the charges they allowed to happen – I called my credit card company, who handled it immediately.

I regret having scheduled another booking with them next April (they have a strict cancellation policy, so I’m basically stuck) and will be letting everyone I know that this is not a company that can be trusted with personal information. I have tried to remove all credit cards from my account, but am unable to remove the default card. The level of disrespect and disregard for their customers is past distasteful.

Airbnb Direct Deposit not Available in Turkey?

Posted on May 24, 2016

I have been a member of Airbnb for many years. I almost forgot I had a membership, then someone wanted to reserve my room and I cheerfully accepted. I have checked my payment history preferences and changed it to accept direct bank transfers. My guest came and left, and everything was ok. Then I saw that my payment method had not been verified. I waited for a little while longer and then asked Airbnb. They kindly replied and asked me to wait a little longer. So I waited. After a week I asked again. Three different people replied: one said it could take time and I should wait; another told me that my account might have been hacked; and the last one finally told me that the direct deposit method is not available in my country- it is routed through Payoneer (which deducts money from the amount I should get) and I should contact them!

There is no information regarding this on their web site. This is total fraud: not informing me about what is available in my country, what is not, and having no interest in telling me why my payment preference has not been verified. Then I changed it to Paypal. I have a confirmed, eligible Paypal account. Still, there was no verification from stupid Airbnb. I asked again. The reply was a form letter teaching me about Paypal. My payment preference has not been verified yet and it has been two weeks since I started this process. They do not care about paying you your money. I have spent hours dealing with interesting answers and still could not solve my problem!

Airbnb: Lousy Customer Service and Booking System

Posted on May 15, 2016

The idea is great but the company leaves much to be desired. The listings are mostly beautified and nobody can guarantee what you get. When you ask for a refund you need to waste two days just to clarify why and what. The customer service sucks. The line was disconnected many times and no one called me back. I asked to cancel my reservation and they said they will get back to me within 24 hours. That never happens and I lost money. I highly recommend not using Airbnb and their system. The reviews system of Airbnb is confusing: regardless of whether you were a good or bad guest, the other person could write the opposite review and deceive others.

Speak to Real People with Airbnb Customer Service?

Posted on April 29, 2016

There is zero information available about contacting Airbnb to get help from a live person. This has been apparent to me on the pages of Airbnb as I attempted to learn precisely how to list my home. I even attempted to create a listing but the process halted after the system could not “verify” two different phone numbers. The Help Center is worthless to a person with a problem that does not fit the pre-configured scenarios the geniuses at Airbnb can think up. Most tellingly, no “Contact” button/menu item is available so it is apparent Airbnb is nothing but an extension of the Borg. Only this limited interaction “feedback” with zero interactivity is offered.

Well guess what? The sheer arrogance and/or elitism of Airbnb personnel simply screams from the site. No, you can not think of all issues and place them in an endless series of dropdowns, and no, like hell am I going to play Simon Says guessing games to pass through the hoops Airbnb has provided. The industry is flooded with venture capital to build systems to smash smug assholes who operate Airbnb and my money and more importantly, time, will be spent elsewhere. So, why am I bothering writing this here? Just using it as a temporary pad to jot down my review of Airbnb before finding a spot to publish it.

Horrible Airbnb Guests

Posted on July 9, 2014

My husband and I put our condo up on AirBNB and we VERY disappointed with the customer service. We had our place rents twice. The first couple were really friendly and left the apartment clean and as they found it. The second set of guys did not. Fair enough, we did put a large deposit to cover any problems – these students used our place to party even though we said no to parties. When we went to get the keys back there were 3 more guys there than what the booking stated. The left towels with stains in it on the bathroom floor like a hotel, put our wooden placemats in the sink and somehow chipped our floor!!! We contacted airbnb right away and received a notice saying it will take 48 hrs for them to respond – it has been ONE week and no one had contacted. Really disappointed. This has turned into a hassle more than a gain of extra cash!

I would never put my place up on airbnb nor would I use their service. This company has terrible customer service. We need to spread the word so people don’t get scammed into thinking its safe, trustworthy, and reliable. Horrible company.

Alternatives to Airbnb?

Posted on July 23, 2013

My friends and I went to Vegas a few weeks ago and tried to save a few bucks by staying at an airbnb place just off the strip. Long story short, the place was terrible! It was dirty, smelly, didn’t really look like the pictures… just awful. Long story short we filed a claim with Airbnb to get our money back, but it’s been over 2 weeks and we still haven’t heard anything back except a standard bs form email saying that they received the complaint. So annoying!

My question is: Are there any good alternatives to airbnb that treat their customers better? I realize there are always hotels, and that’s fine… but surely there is someone else out there running or building a better service than Airbnb’s terrible customer service right?!