We booked a 10-bedroom home and paid our deposit. The leasing agency the host employs then called us to pay our rental insurance and pet fees… okay, no problem. I asked her to put the charges on Airbnb like the site says you should and they refused, stating they would need a credit card or my checking account number to pay the fees. They also requested I sign up on another site so we could communicate via their property management site. I refused as well, due to Airbnb’s strict policies about communication. I cannot trust this company and requested a refund. Each person I have spoken with has been horrible. No resolution or communication, just passing the ball to someone else. The worst customer service.
Tag Archives: airbnb customer service nightmare
Airbnb Account Hacked and Bookings Lost
My Airbnb account was hacked on May 17th. Six simultaneous bookings were made, my account settings were changed and the account closed. It was impossible to contact Airbnb as they like you to login to contact them, which is impossible if your account is closed and all of your details are not recognised.
Luckily my credit card company was swift to close my card and will refund the £1500 of fraudulent activity. However, I had a booking in place, for which I have paid a 50% deposit. As the account was closed the booking was cancelled and deposit lost.
I finally managed to contact Airbnb by the phone number above (not sure what country that goes through; I am in the UK). The guy who answered was really unhelpful and did not understand my issues so I insisted on being given a UK number to call (+44 8000315680). I have called that number three times and each time they inform me my case is under a ‘Case Manager’ and that they will call me back, promising it will be the same day. Surprise, surprise, no one has called me back.
They refuse to give me a case number or the name of the case manager. I contacted the host of the place I had booked via email from a different booking site for the same property and he informed me the booking was cancelled and therefore the deposit kept and someone else has now booked the property for those dates. This money appears lost as I can get no answers, and my husband gets no romantic birthday getaway.
Shocking customer service. I will never open another Airbnb account and I will raise this case with the financial Ombudsman to seek further advice. Fuming doesn’t even cover it.
Co-Host Account Suspended, Trip Tomorrow
About a month ago, my fiancé and I booked a stay in Toronto for May 22-25. This was our first time using Airbnb. We found a listing that was in the area we wanted and it was a better deal than the area hotels, so we decided to try it out.
The morning before our trip, at around 7:00 AM, I logged into Airbnb because I was concerned that we had not received check-in instructions. I clicked on the message thread from the host (last message May 8th) and received the following error: “This conversation is no longer available because Gaison’s account was removed for violating Airbnb’s Terms of Service.”
Now, a couple of questions spring to mind, namely who the heck is Gaison? We booked this with a different host. I immediately called the Airbnb customer service number. I told her what happened and she said, “I’m sorry, we can’t give you a refund for this reservation since it’s too close to the check-in date.”
I never asked for a refund or cancellation; I just wanted to be able to message my host and I had no idea who this Gaison person is or why their account was suspended. I reiterated that I was concerned about not being able to message my host and that my host’s account was possibly suspended. Customer service told me that my host’s account had been suspended. When I clicked on her profile, she was active and listed as a Superhost.
When I told Airbnb this, they were unable to answer why I could not message the host, and how Gaison was related to the booking. When I asked what they recommended, after a long hold, they said they would refund our reservation and rebook us. I’m looking at the rebooking options in the area while holding on the phone – all of them are 20-25% higher than what we paid.
After being on hold again, Airbnb said they would email me a list of options. I asked if it was necessary to cancel, or if there was some way they could allow me to message the host. They ignored my question and said they would process the refund immediately. Again I reiterated that I would prefer to keep my original booking as long as my host is active and in good standing with their Terms of Service. Instead of answering my question she said she would email me other listings and call me back in an hour.
I waited for an email. Two hours later I received a direct message through the Airbnb site with a list of options for rebooking. In the message she offered a 10% credit toward our rebooking. All of the options were 20-25% more expensive than what we booked. I quickly sent them to my fiancé to look at, we selected one, and I responded to the message within 15 minutes asking for more help meeting our budget – perhaps waiving the service fee. No response for two hours.
I called Airbnb back again and asked to speak to my case manager. Meanwhile, I was trying to find alternate solutions, hotels in the area, etc. The second person I reached at Airbnb wanted me to start from the beginning, and was unable to connect me to my case manager. I started to explain the problem with messaging the host. The person on the phone (didn’t get her name) immediately said “we can’t give you a refund.”
I never asked for a refund; I just wanted to know if this booking was still “safe” and if it was a good idea to keep it if we couldn’t even message the host. I asked the CSR to put me on hold and take a look at my entire case file so I didn’t have to explain the entire situation again. I asked her to look at the message from the host and then my response.
Once I was off hold, the new CSR said the host will call me back “in a few hours.” I asked to speak to someone who can help immediately and am put on hold again. The CSR comes back and says she can’t transfer my case to another case manager and I will have to wait for the host to call.
Meanwhile, as I was on hold with the new CSR, the host sent me a text message saying that she was unable to send me messages. I asked the host who Gaison is. Her response was that Gaison is an account that co-hosted other properties with her. I asked her for the reason that Gaison’s account was suspended. The host’s response was that “They are a property management service and was sending messages to hosts offering their services which is against Airbnb rules. They received a warning email that required a reply from them but they did not check their email in time and Airbnb suspended their account.”
Now, having spent four hours on this problem, I am growing concerned that this is Shady City. I want to reiterate that this is my first experience using Airbnb. I’m not confident that when I land in Toronto tomorrow afternoon I will even have a place to stay. If I had not logged in to message my host, how would I have even known there was an issue with an account suspension?
Awful Airbnb Experience, Terrible Customer Service
I recently had a nightmare experience dealing with a unresponsive host and entirely unhelpful Airbnb customer service. I booked a four-night stay at an apparent Airbnb in Cincinnati (here is the link to the listing – be aware this host has a number of listings) which advertised free parking on site
When we arrived, my friend had to go up to the unit to check in to get the fob for the garage so we could park; I was circling the block when he said the code to get in the unit was wrong. I tried to call the host and her phone went to voicemail after one ring. I messaged her on the app and didn’t get a quick response, so I called the emergency number which was a third-party answering service that could not figure out why we couldn’t get in.
The lady at the answering service finally said to try a shot in the dark with using a different code and it worked. This was worrisome because obviously the codes are constantly reused so the unit could potentially be accessed by any past guests. My friend then said there was no key fob for the garage so I finally found a street spot and parked and went up to help look for it.
This is when I realized the lack of garage fob was the least of our worries. The place was absolutely trashed. I would guess there was a bachelor party or something before us and it had not been cleaned at all. The floor was sticky, there was liquid running down the walls, there were multiple holes in the wall, none of the lamps had light bulbs, there were wooden chairs stacked against the wall but no table to go with them, there were crusty nasty stains on the carpet, hair all over the “clean” towels, no sheets on the bed and nasty white stains on the couch.
Since I still hadn’t heard back from the host, I called Airbnb and said we could not stay there. This is where the hours-long saga of us trying to find a place to sleep began. Meanwhile, this was at 9:00 PM and I didn’t find a bed – finally at a hotel – which I paid for out of pocket – until after 2:00 AM. I sat on hold with Airbnb for a while when they told me they needed to give the host a chance to respond before moving forward.
Two hours later, Airbnb finally called me back just to say they couldn’t get in touch with the host and there was nothing they could do yet, but they assured me they would fix this for me. The host finally reached out hours later to let me know she had another unit we could stay in. We went to look at it and it also was not clean, was unlocked, had a huge glass door that was open – again scarily insecure – smelled like weed, and had dirty towels on the floor (including one balled up against the door to keep the smoke smell out of the hallway).
Since it was around 11:00 PM we were desperate and said if it was cleaned we could stay there. The host said she would try to get a cleaner out there to get it ready. An hour later I still had not heard back from the host so I reached out and all she said was she had not heard back from the cleaner. Then all she said was she could not accommodate us.
This was about 12:30 at night now and we were just stranded: nowhere to sleep and no help from the host or Airbnb. I started looking for hotels. Meanwhile I had been talking to Airbnb through the app which was not helpful. The first person I talked to ended her shift and didn’t bother to pass this case on to anyone. I had to call back, sit on hold for over an hour again, and start the whole process over.
Needless to say I was frustrated at this point. After hours on the phone with Airbnb, no help from them or the host, we went to three hotels before I could find a room and finally had a place to sleep at 2:30 AM – already having paid almost $1000 for a room I couldn’t sleep in. I then had to shell out another almost $300 for a room. Airbnb promised me they would reimburse me $200 for the room and give me a $150 credit towards another booking, neither of which I have seen – shocking.
I have also been continually reaching out on the app messenger with no reply for days now. I am appalled at the fact that the host was at fault for having a place unfit for humans to stay and yet I am the one that has paid for it through hours of my vacation and money out of my pocket. I have never dealt with a company that cared about their customers less than Airbnb.
The host has never reached out to explain or help or apologize and couldn’t have cared less. Not to mention I had told her I was pregnant before we left and she couldn’t have cared less about being stranded with no options besides sitting at a bar – the only place open – until I found a place to sleep. I included pictures of the apartment as well as screenshots from the Airbnb messenger showing the payments I was promised that have not been received.
Account Hacked, Used and Deleted with no Contact
On May 5th, 2019 my Airbnb account was hacked. In the space of five minutes, the hackers had made five reservations for May 5th-9th, 2019. All reservations were accepted and charged to my credit card. On receipt of payment, they then cancelled all of the bookings (all had strict cancellation policies so I was not entitled to a refund), deleted my phone number from Airbnb and closed down my account.
They have managed to steal £1500 from me. My credit card company has told me that in the first instance this needs to be resolved with Airbnb. Because the hackers have closed my account, it is now almost impossible for me to contact Airbnb as you have to log in to access the resolution centre.
When I was able to get a phone number for Airbnb, I was met with an automated voice telling me that in order to use this service you had to enter the phone number that was associated with your account; my phone number and account had been deleted so I could not get through to speak to a human being. There was no other option but to enter a phone number so I had to hang up.
I am appalled that for an organisation as large as Airbnb this is the only way you can contact them on the phone. I then decided to use my mum’s phone number as she has a Airbnb account. This got me through to speak to an actual person however they were worse than useless: their English was appalling; they did not understand the situation and it took ten attempts to get them to take my details rather than looking at my mother’s account (which has not been hacked); they were just a triage service and the ‘team’ that I needed to speak to were unwilling to speak to me until they had investigated further.
I was told that I would be called back yesterday. I have had no phone call. I am going round in one big hellish circle. I have tried to reactivate my account. In order to do this you need to log on, which I can’t as my account has been deleted. When I try to create an account it tells me that the email address I am using is already recognised in the system. When I go through the ‘forgot my password’ option, I enter my email address and it tells me that email address does not exist.
This is absolutely atrocious and Airbnb need to rectify this immediately – it is not like they don’t know what is happening,;here was an article in the British newspaper ‘The Sun’ yesterday about this exact issue with Airbnb. Shame on you, Airbnb. I won’t ever be using your service again and will advise everyone I know to close down their accounts.
I Was Hacked… Airbnb Didn’t Delete Account
My Airbnb account was taken over by a hacker. Monday morning I got an email from Airbnb saying that my email had changed to something unrecognizable and that the person did it from a California location. I immediately contacted Airbnb, giving them the full rundown, the email I had received, and where the hacker was.
All they needed to do was delete that account. It was linked to my bank account and still had private information within messages to hosts. My guess is that this hacker was just looking for someone with good standing so that they could prey on hosts using my likeness. Airbnb auto-responded via message on their site saying “they forwarded my concern to the proper department and that I would expect a prompt and proper response.”
Days later, still nothing. I tweeted at them. Still nothing. I know they won’t respond no matter how much I bother them. All they have to do is delete that old account.
Do yourself a favor: delete your information and get off their platform. Also, don’t accept any guest accommodations from a thirty-something woman in Brooklyn who was last staying in Manchester, England, two years ago. It’s most likely my hacker. Stay safe, people.
Airbnb puts Owners on Timeout due to Guest Scam
I have been using Airbnb as an owner for the past year or so. All of my reviews have been excellent except for two. One complained about the furniture, comparing it to a college dorm after she left, but never to me during her stay. Then I had another two guests after her who loved the place and wanted to use it again in the future.
Then a scammer reserved my home for four nights. He asked me to let him check in earlier than 3:00 PM. I told him 12:00 PM would be ok. Then I did not hear from him again. At 7:00 AM, the day after his check in, I got a message he had sent me at 4:00 AM saying that he just got there and found a roach. Therefore, he could not stay there and wanted his money back.
This was a scam because the previous guest never saw a roach and I use a professional bug company to spray the home inside and out. Airbnb had two different staff members ask me to tell them what happened. I did. They asked me if I was willing to refund the money. I said no, because it was a lie. I personally went to the home the day I received the message and did not find any bugs. The Airbnb person said okay, and closed the ticket.
A week later, another guest checked in and had no issues. I also got a guest request for a two-month reservation. After I pre-approved the guest, Airbnb sent me an email stating that they had suspended my listing for one week.
I immediately called them up to find out the reason why. The agent said she could not help me but would refer me to a supervisor who will call me at some point in the future. She had no idea when. I asked her what will happen with the prea-pproval and the guest trying to book my home for two months. She said I will not be able to communicate with her until Airbnb decides to relist my house.
Really? I did nothing wrong. I want to see what kind of hosting business will Airbnb have without any hosts! Please do not use this company to list your properties. Go to VRBO.
Airbnb Took my Money and Gave no Refund
My friends and I needed a last minute apartment that we could spend the night in as we were going out of town. I found a very good apartment that was near the city centre and was available for the night we needed. I booked the apartment and the money got taken from my bank. Then the host messaged me saying that the apartment was now unavailable. This now left us with nowhere to stay and down £125. The host said to contact Airbnb for a refund. However, I am finding that their customer service is awful and the number I am ringing doesn’t recognise my booking. When I message them, they’re very unhelpful. It’s becoming very frustrating as I just want my money back.
We are not Alone in our Airbnb Complaints
As I have read on numerous posts on your site, we are not alone. Airbnb is annoyingly uncooperative in providing a refund based on two reservations. However, in this post, I will only discuss the first one. A reservation was made in error. In order to correct the situation, I reached out to customer service and had the agent told me that we would lose the bulk of the deposit, I would have never agreed to cancel the reservation. The excuse, repeated again and again from the agent, to the case manager, to the supervisor, is that’s the policy and they can’t do anything to help, no exception, not even a goodwill gesture. Now, we’re out of pocket for more than $1000 CAN.
Refund Madness Leaves me with Nothing
I have been struggling to get my refund from Airbnb for a month now. I contacted the host after I booked and explained how I had to cancel my reservation. He told me that I would be entitled to my full refund and that it would take up to 15 days to receive it. I patiently waited and it never came.
I then contracted Airbnb and was told I had to contact the host to get my refund. I contacted the host and he told me he had done his part; it was now up to Airbnb. This has become a joke. All Airbnb keeps telling me is the cancellation policy.
I have canceled within the policy rules and I am entitled to my refund. The host has agreed to give me my refund but I don’t understand what the heck Airbnb is doing. Do they enjoy stealing from people? This is a nightmare. I would never recommend this site to anyone.