I immediately called the host and told him I was hacked and to cancel the trip. I then called Airbnb and it was like talking to a wall. They assured me my claim was a high priority and I would receive an email shortly with an update on the status. I never received an email from them. I asked them to help me secure my account so this wouldn’t happen again. They told me they couldn’t help me until they verified that this was fraud.

I had been signing in through Facebook, so never actually created a password. I highly recommend not signing in through Facebook as it was difficult to figure out how to create a login. I called my bank, cancelled my card, and disputed the charge. My bank was helpful. Airbnb was not.

I don’t plan on using Airbnb again. They have horrible customer service and it’s not worth the few dollars I would save by staying at a home rather than a hotel.

The post Airbnb Account Hacked, Only Bank Helped appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

Upon my return I noticed that there was a debit and a credit for a booking from what seemed to be someone in Glasgow on my account. It had nothing to do with me and seemed to be a failed attempt at fraud. The next communication I received said my account was being terminated with no explanation or dialogue about the fraud attempt. In fact, there was nothing apart from “goodbye, you are blocked forever.”

To say Airbnb customer service is a joke is an understatement. How the founders of this company can walk around in public without hanging their heads in shame I do not know. They have by proxy impugned my reputation, left me with a very nasty taste in my mouth, and now I have a burning desire to tell everyone who will listen not to use Airbnb. Don’t trust them and forget about customer service when dealing with them.

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I immediately called my bank (Barclays) and they were superb, immediately giving me direct phone numbers for Airbnb and PayPal. PayPal also dealt with the issue brilliantly, immediately freezing my account (which was up and running again within five minutes of calling them to let them know it was all sorted). For Airbnb – not so professional – it seemed to be out of their hands; everything I said was noted but it didn’t seem they could do much.

The account for our ‘host’ was obviously a fake one; I daren’t look to see if it’s still there. I have no idea how anyone got into my account but having seen other stories on here along the same lines I think something needs to be done at their end. Anyway, I was lucky. I noticed it just in time. I think some of you have lost money in this way. Watch those notification settings.

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Any guests with account issues must stay on the phone line until the problem is resolved, as they promise to phone you back and then don’t. I have phoned them again and again. The telephone line wouldn’t so expensive for a decently timed response but depending on how long you spend getting a human being… my average suggests at the very least five minutes to talk.

That’s not so bad as some of the people on here but I’ve now been around at least a couple of hours on the phone and that is not a free number. British Telecom charges around 3p per minute to connect to an 0203 number from my landline and Airbnb charges 7p, so 10p per minute. That is an obscene thing in itself. In the UK they make money out of folks’ misery. Why?

The issue is that for a guest, once your email and password no longer work due to hacking, you have no access to customer service. You are behind a wall… it feels rather 1984ish. You are locked out of any access. The only thing I felt able to do was open a new account with a different email address and using their online customer services “contact box”, I sent a note on the day I found I’d been hacked: “URGENT – MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED” at the top of the contact form.

Three days later and I have not even had a reply to that yet. After the relief of actually talking to someone, all I now get are emails from that link to my online Airbnb account, which won’t open as I can’t get into my account. The Customer Service manager finally dealing with my problem must be a moron as I have told them five times on the phone “my account has been hacked and I can’t gain access to your emails using my email and password.”

When I realised that nobody was responding to their consumer web page “contact”, during one of my first telephone conversations yesterday, the consumer department suggested that if she gave me the email that the hacker used (and she could see that email address), I could then gain access to my account. I very nearly did just that, then thought for a second about the risk of using it in order to get back into the account without their new password.

I’ve now found all sorts of scams written on various websites frequently happening as a result of this. People’s accounts are hacked in order to pay for bogus rooms in China / Russia / South America where their recipients receive the money. Many grim stories were also found on this site. It’s been three days and and there has still been no responsible conversation with Airbnb customer service. I still have no access to my account and no idea what is going on.

The post Long and Costly Contact on Airbnb’s Phone Number appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

I received a confirmation from Airbnb that I had “express” booked a deluxe room for five nights in South Africa, and a confirmation that the MasterCard that I had previously used for reservations with Airbnb was now registered for further purchases. I immediately logged on to my Airbnb account only to discover that someone from China (I am located in New York) had logged into my account yesterday, and someone from South Africa logged into my account today placing a reservation for a room in South Africa (total of $650) debited to my MasterCard.

My MasterCard details were now disclosed to whomever hacked my account. At the same time I called my bank making sure my MasterCard was blocked. The bank informed me, however, that the $650 had been debited. The bank urged me to call Airbnb and have them to cancel the reservation.

I tried to call Airbnb. Forget that; they deliberately don’t disclose a telephone number (Reason #1). I tried to find an email address; forget that – they only allow communication through your Airbnb account, making it difficult for you to record and keep track of the correspondence (Reason #2).

I wrote Airbnb through my account only to receive a standard reply that I could expect an answer within two days. Considering that someone with help from Airbnb (though Airbnb presumably was unaware) had stolen $650 from me, I could not accept waiting two days (Reason #3). I promptly replied demanding a call back. I got a call back within an hour’s time. The lady on the phone argued that it must have been me who did the reservation because hacking the Airbnb account was unthinkable. Basically she called me a liar (Reason #4).

I referred to the fact that I was located in New York and within 15 hours someone had accessed my account from China (a hacker), South Africa (a hacker) and New York (myself). She tried hard but couldn’t really provide a comeback. She tried though (Reason #5).

Then she argued that it must be a family member or friend that had accessed my account and that I should check up with them to make sure that it was not them who had made the reservation. Again I argued that no one but me has (legitimate) access to my Airbnb account and no friend or family member could ever dream of booking a room in South Africa on my account. I also (again) referred to the fact that the logins were made from three different continents within one day. She was firm in her “belief”, but her arguments were forced and it was easy to tell that she was instructed in “never accept liability or cause” and “always deny, deny and deny” (Reason #6).

After 40 minutes of telephone conversation, she came to the conclusion that my account may have been exposed, which most likely was due to the fact that I had either logged on from a public computer (and then forgot to log off) or responded to a “phising-mail” disclosing my password to the hackers, or that I in other ways had been careless (Reason #7).

I could easily dismiss all of her accusations, and as I was getting pretty exhausted by the whole conversation I stated that we did not need to discuss this further. If they did not cancel the reservation immediately and retuned all the money to me I would without further hesitation have a lawyer represent me. Not really because of the money (the fees would exceed those from Airbnb in no time) but because of the principle. After this I was told that my “case” would be “prioritised”. Conclusion: you need to actually make a “lawyer threat” to get serviced (Reason #8).

Later the same day I received an email in which Airbnb warned me that they had detected that my account might have been compromised. Is this really how they treat their customers? (Reason # 9). In the email they stated that they would try (only try – Reason #10) to return the money.

The above shows what I think we all now (but don’t like to admit): Airbnb (and similar super big companies) don’t care about their customers (or users as they tend to call us). They get maybe 10,000 or more new users every month. Their business model is based on the masses, not one or a few thousand that experience problems.

I’m not trying to get political here – but honestly I don’t think this would have happened if I had just stayed with small hotels and family owned shops. I have no doubt that should my Amazon, Facebook, Uber and similar accounts be hacked – it would be the same. These are my ten reasons for hating Airbnb (and similar super big companies) – but what I really hate is that I can’t stop using them. They know that all too well. I would really love if we all just gave up on those super big firms and regained control, respect, care, and decency in the course of trade.

The post Ten Reasons Why I Hate Airbnb After Account Hacked appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

After blocking my credit card I thought the next best thing would be to contact Airbnb and inform them. Easy, I thought. A big international company like Airbnb is bound to have state-of-the-art customer service with agents desperate to help me. I went to the site and was then told that I would need to log on to my account, the very account that had been closed down by my impersonator. No problem, I thought – perhaps I can phone them even though I am traveling with a pay-as-you-go card and ringing the US will be expensive. After several attempts, I gave up, tried to adopt a Buddhist attitude to the 500 euros I had just lost, and vowed never to use Airbnb again.

The post I’m Going to Bologna? That’s News to Me! appeared first on Airbnb Hell.

I tried to cancel the scam reservations only to receive an email that they wouldn’t refund the money because of the host’s refund policy. Really? I found myself in a loop of help commands that got nowhere, and certainly had no way to contact them to let them know that I did not make the reservation and my account had been used fraudulently. This morning, I received an email from Trust & Safety that I may have received a “malicious message” from another Airbnb member whose account was cancelled but the links in it were, again, a maze.

“At Airbnb, we do everything we can to create a safe and trusted marketplace. Rarely, fraudulent individuals misuse our site in the attempt to obtain offsite payment or to gain access to one’s account by communicating via personal email or phone, or by sending malicious links meant to capture your login credentials, and we wanted to alert you to the possibility of such a scam.”

I had responded to no links. They were not attempting to get “offsite payment.” They hacked my account. They took my money via Airbnb’s unsecured website. Today, my Airbnb account was cancelled, leaving me no way to contact them via phone without a “verified phone number” nor links that all require you to “log in.” Even the link “contact us anytime to reopen a canceled account” makes you log in. I’ve reached out to PayPal for help. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this a large-scale breach that’s not being made public?

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