My partner and I both have Airbnb accounts. About two weeks ago we were looking for a place to stay for the weekend in Scotland. We found one place we were interested in that said there was a fireplace, but it wasn’t shown in the pictures.
I sent a message to the host to ask if it was a wood burning fireplace or gas or a stove. Shortly afterwards or maybe the next day I went in to check for messages and I couldn’t get into the account. It kept putting up this message stating the following:
“We’ll get back to you shortly. Someone from our team will review the information you provided and follow up with you soon at [my email address].”
At first I didn’t think much about it, but then realized I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t search or make reservations. I’d been blocked.
I was able to get into the help area and sent an email asking about the issue. That’s when they told me that they had cancelled my account. This is the second email they sent which is basically a duplicate of the first email. Both said the same thing: they don’t have to give a reason and their decision is final.
Thank you for contacting us about your concerns. After a thorough review, we have decided to uphold our original decision to remove you from the Airbnb community. We consider this decision final. Regarding your question, please refer to our previous email. In addition, we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the action taken against your account.
Unbelievable — I really don’t know what to do. The thing that is really aggravating is they will give no reason, which seems terribly unfair.
I swear we have always left every place we stay very neat and clean. We recycle where they make it available, we even make the beds and be sure to clean all the dishes before we leave. We have received and given good reviews and never had a complaint. We’ve never cancelled a reservation or not shown up. Payment is always as agreed.
We’ve used Airbnb for our trips and trips with friends all over Europe. There is absolutely no reason for them to take this action.
I’ve gone round in circles with their help pages, and with a phone number I found here. Their system disconnected me after going on and on about coronavirus. It mysteriously happened after I entered my contact phone and then confirmed the email they sent for identity confirmation.
I’ve never seen a company take their terms of agreement so seriously regarding they can basically do whatever they want with no regard for their clients. There’s no obligation to respond or provide any reason.
Since I’ve never had a reason to contact Airbnb directly, this is the first experience I’ve had with their behavior. I find it exasperating, disappointing and frankly the worst customer service I’ve ever encountered. It’s a terrible shame that the company can continue to rake in millions of dollars for basically providing only servers to match people to rentals. There certainly isn’t any customer service dollars spent out of that income.
I only wish there was some recourse for these situations. I wish there was a wider audience to hear about their behavior and business practices. I know nothing will come of this and I’ll try to use one of the other competitor sites found here as well. I appreciate that list.
I have just had my airbnb account shut down with 14 future reservations a loss of $18,000 no explanation or email, I tried contacting airbnb but couldn’t even call a number to get through to anyone. If you’re a host be very careful. Bad company awful customer service.
I have just suffered the exact same thing in the UK. I simply cannot fathom the decision making at board level that has led to this level of poor customer ‘service’ . . .I haven’t experienced communication this thoroughly bad
I know it is their company and their rules, but is there a higher power that can get involved? Those this meet the criteria for a class action lawsuit?
Just got my account cancelled today for similar things. 100% positive review from previous booking and canceled, reinstated, and cancelled without any reason. I got a call a couple days ago when my account was first re-instated, the person couldn’t really tell me why but did tell me.
Me toooooo. Like way to take away my viable forms of living when I’m not working at my remote fishing resort…. no explanation at all, just copy and pasted the same email every time. Such a joke.
The same exact thing happened to me!! I used Airbnb for a long time and one day I went to sign in to browse rentals and it said the same message. I hadn’t even booked a property in over year and it disabled my account forever. And they won’t tell me why! It made no sense at all and no one could help me. When I did talk to someone they said they reserve the right to disable my account at anytime and do not have to give me a reason why. It has been two years and I still am so confused.
We booked a trip in January 2020 for a wedding in June 2020. Because of Covid, the wedding was postponed a year and we negotiated with the host to merely change the date of our reservation. Fast forward to January 2021, my account was fraudulently charged almost $1,800 for a trip to Peru we did not book. After my credit card company detected fraud and refunded the amount (with no help from AirBnB), my AirBnB account was locked/suspended shortly after. With a suspended account, all upcoming trips are automatically cancelled. The trip we paid for in January 2020 for almost $900 was now refunded to us (no reason provided), and the host re-posted the listing for almost $1,500 to reflect today’s prices.
After 10+ phone conversations with different AirBnB representatives, the customer service is horrendous and I would not recommend anyone to ever use this service again. They will not re-book our trip for the original price we paid, they will not eat the difference and pay the higher price due to their error, and they will provide absolute NO REASONS why my account was fraudulently charged, why it was suspended, and why our future trip was cancelled. Nobody has an answer to anything and I keep getting promised call-backs, yet nobody has called me and I have engaged every conversation. On top of a fraudulent charge, our trip pre-planned over a year ago is now cancelled with no resolution. A Double Whammy!
Today is Sept 19, 2020. My daughter booked a condo. The owner agreed to let us have a family dinner of 10 guest. Suddenly, my daughter was banned. She never used RBNB before. So disappointed!
I had the same thing JUST happen this morning! Totally ruined my wife and my plans this month! No explanation at all! And your correct no way to contact them immediately. I have been scrambling to find another accommodation and debating whether or not to try and create a new account with this company?
I am honestly dreading this happening to me. As a traveler and as a host its worrying.
My account was cancelled November 2018, and I had a reservations for january the 5th 2019. and… funny how they didn’t even change the message they sent you, I0m sorry you0ve been through this, I had a reservation for a flat in london, and my account got suspended, when I try to contact they told me to send them a scan of my passport, so I did, they told me they sent me an email, they NEVER did, I was only left able to contact them through facebook,( because there are basically NO phone numbers for my country) and a very rude person said to me that I was ban for ever having an account again, and they never explain why did they close my account. I read on this website a lot of people complaining about airbnb closing their accounts for no reason at all, and worst no explanation at all. So, I would say that is quite common that airbnb does this sort of things, it might be related with the fact that they have the WORST custom service at all…IF THEY HAVE ONE AT ALL….