Airbnb Support: Kafka Meets 2001’s HAL 9000

Posted on June 27, 2018

Fictitious conversation between two Airbnb upper management staff. Disclaimer: This conversation has no relationship to anyone or any company, living or dead.

UM Staff 1: Hey, I’ve got a great idea for saving money!

UMS 2: Yeah?

UMS 1: We just set up a support team that basically blocks customers from causing us hassle and money.

UMS 2: Ok… but won’t there be problems?

UMS 1: No, no… you see, we keep the customer absolutely powerless. Sure they will get frustrated and suicidal and their finances will go down the toilet, but they will have no way to get past the wall that we set up, so they will never be heard. That way we can keep the commission low on the vast majority of hosts, the vast minority will sing our praises, and the minority who complain will be drowned out. Even if the customer threatens legal proceedings we can cover it from the vast amount of money we are raking in. The complaining customer will never be able to compete.

UMS 2: Hmm, sounds a little risky.

UMS 1: No, see I’ve read Kafka; you just basically gaslight the single customer, suggest their reality (fairness, morality, responsibility) is completely wrong. As for the people who have to actually interface with the… ‘customer’ we set up the HAL scenario.

UMS 2: What’s that?

UMS 1: Well just get the support staff to repeat ‘Siri-like’ computer generated phrases like “we have a team working on it 24/7” and use passive statements like “it has been reported to a team (that I cannot tell you the name of).”

UMS 2: Beautiful. Let’s do it!

I was delisted on June 3rd (wrongly). I can’t enter the details of my license (first attempt June 11th) into their network (computer error they say). I have been given the runaround ever since, with the last ‘senior customer service staff’ member being the least helpful. No surprise there. I am exhausted, beyond frustrated, angry, and depressed.

$1500 Gift Card Funds in Deactivated Account

Posted on June 20, 2018

This is a copy of the email I finally wrote out of utter desperation to hopefully get the attention of someone with some authority to resolve my issue. The letter is self explanatory. At this time, I haven’t heard anything back. I’ll repost and hopefully have some good information to share whenever I finally get some attention and a resolution. I addressed it to Aisling Hassell and Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb.

Here is my issue in short: Airbnb is holding $1500 from gift cards in my daughter’s disabled account and I have not been able to get these funds transferred to my account after four calls to your customer service reps for over a week. A year and a half ago, my then 15-year-old daughter opened an Airbnb account with my knowledge and permission. She entered her information correctly and accurately, and supplied a picture and information from her passport as her identification.

Nowhere in the process was she eliminated as underage. She was allowed to proceed and went on to make two reservations for trips she and her father, and she and I took. At no time was her age an issue. If it had been, she would have told me and I would have opened an account for us to use.

Last Monday, June 11, she was attempting to make a reservation in Chicago for our trip in July, and entered $1500 in Airbnb gift cards for the planned two-week stay. She was promptly contacted and told her account was deactivated due to her age. The $1500 is locked in this inactivated account.

I immediately called your customer service number on Tuesday and explained the problem. Your rep said she was unable to resolve my issue and I was assured that someone with that level of authority would call to rectify the situation. When no one had contacted me on Friday, I called again that morning and was advised to open an Airbnb account so the funds could be transferred. Again, I was told that the person on the phone had no authority to help. She said another, higher-level person would contact me within the next half-hour and help resolve this problem.

Once again, no call or email came, and I called back Friday afternoon. For the third time, the rep said she had no authority to help, and the situation had been communicated to another department and I had to wait to be contacted. There was no way for me to contact them, and they would contact me at a later undetermined time. I finally called again today, Tuesday, June 19th, and got the same story from yet the fourth customer service rep.

He had me add a payment method to my account. I’m hoping that is only to have a way for the $1500 to be transferred to my account. Beyond that – same song, 4th verse – he cannot help me and has referred my issue to this mysterious department that can resolve my problem, but just never does it. On top of that, he insinuated that my daughter had been dishonest in the information she originally entered to open her account.

This infuriated me; she used her passport information. Airbnb allowed her to open the account and successfully make two different reservations for stays in New York in February and Chicago in April this year. This is due to Airbnb’s oversight in not recognizing her age. Please look into this. I now have had $1500 tied up in an account for over a week that I still cannot access.

It is unbelievable that there is no one in your first line customer service representatives who have the authority to truly help your customers and not just have to pass us along to another, unreachable, unanswering department. I would appreciate any help you can give me in resolving this issue as soon as possible.

Airbnb’s Unfair Resolution Centre Believes Hosts

Posted on June 17, 2018

I have been a Superhost for five years, and Airbnb has been great in the past. When guests have asked for refunds, I have done my best to be fair. When the dryer broke while gests were staying, I replaced it; I know amenities have a shelf life. It was my understanding that we are part of a nice, fair community.

However, I went to Nice for two days. I’m a single mum and needed a short break away. The second night we couldn’t pull the sofabed out; something was wrong with it. We got home and the host wanted us to buy a new one for €1,200. I am not strong enough to bend metal and damage a sofa, so how is it that Airbnb customer service has given me robotic, copy and pasted emails that day stating I must pay?

There has been no explanation, no kindness… they just took money from my account and have threatened me with ‘removal from the community’. I feel wrongly accused and let down. I still have many Airbnb guests booked for the next few months, and am trying to give them a good travel experience. I can’t believe how cold and unjust customer service has been this time. They won’t answer any of my questions. I don’t know what to do.

Airbnb Charged Full Amount… And Then Kept Charging

Posted on June 6, 2018

When booking an apartment through Airbnb, I chose “payment in installments” but was charged the full amount of about 1500 EUR by Airbnb from my PayPal account, immediately. I only realized this three weeks later when I was charged by Airbnb, again, from my paypal account. That time it was the first installment of 770 EUR which is to be followed by the second one in a few weeks.

I contacted Airbnb several times via telephone and messaging explaining that they had charged the full amount by mistake and asking for them to transfer the amount back to my PayPal account. So far, one week has passed and I have not been helped at all. On the contrary, one Airbnb person wrote to me that the amount of 1500 EUR was shown but not charged, which is a lie. All transfers are documented by PayPal.

Yesterday, I insisted in speaking to a person with more authorization. Finally, I was called by somebody who literally hung up on me in the middle of our conversation. This morning, I received a message telling me that if I have an issue with a suspicious credit card transaction I should first check on family members who might have used my card information. This was totally off topic as the charges for my booking were made from my PayPal account. I have the feeling that there are very limited means to get any further than the “customer support shell” which is doing anything but solving problems for Airbnb customers.

Long and Costly Contact on Airbnb’s Phone Number

Posted on April 25, 2018

I found on the weekend that I couldn’t actually get into my Airbnb account as it had been hacked. After the most bizarre few days, there was nobody from Airbnb dealing with it as of this morning. They do not have a customer service outfit that can cope with demand. The only way a guest can complain is via a phone number that I eventually found (for UK users): 0203 318 1111. This number is not available on their website. I found it by Googling and finding angry people who posted it on their own Community Forum.

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.

Unethical Practices Towards Airbnb Hosts and Guests

Posted on April 21, 2018

Airbnb does everything they can to misguide you as a host. Their policies are not clear. They tell you their assurance protects guests in your home but they don’t tell you that they protect items missing or damaged. When you come back and file a claim, if it’s not within 14 days of the checkout or before someone else checks in, they don’t cover it.

What’s the point? I have missing technology someone stole from my home, bleached towels and sheets that someone ruined worth over $1000, and nothing is recoverable. Airbnb doesn’t give a crap about you as a host or you as a guest. They are especially dishonest and unethical to hosts. Here is an email I got recently:

“Please be advised that, per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with regard to these disputes. We are unable to reconsider the decision made in this case we’ve issued our final decision and will uphold it accordingly. As further communication will not change the outcome of this case, we must respectfully disengage from further discussion.”

Airbnb is more concerned with getting you to just roll over and get over their BS than actually helping you resolve the issue. Does this seem fair to you? If you are looking to host your place with Airbnb, don’t. If you are a guest with Airbnb, be kind to the home owners and don’t expect a hotel experience. If you want a hotel for ten guests, go rent five rooms and pay what that is worth instead of giving hosts crap.

Airbnb Took Our Page Down, Cancelled our Reservations

Posted on April 11, 2018

Unbelievable. We have been Superhosts for several years and when my father in law passed away, he had a man running his Airbnb. No problems. Until… we tried to switch him over as the official contact. That’s when things went from bad to worse. We have since been locked out of our account, our customers have been contacted and had their booking cancelled. Without our permission or consent our whole page has been removed from Airbnb.

We are at the end of a full week of trying to resolve this. We have spent hours and hours phoning Airbnb Customer Service. Every time we call, it’s 15 minutes on hold before we speak with someone. The person we get doesn’t know anything about our file, doesn’t have any idea how to help us, apologises profusely, and promises to get a supervisor to call us back, which never happens.

They “accidentally” disconnect from us, and even though they know it will be another 15-minute hold for us to phone them and that we won’t ever speak with the same person again and have no way to reconnect with them, do they call us back? No. Do they have our phone number? Yup. So, we call back again. A full seven hours was spent in this pointless loop Sunday.

My mother-in-law is losing much needed income and has had her reputation destroyed. Our customers have received unauthorized cancellations as close as the day of their planned vacation. How horrible for them. I have now contacted the CEO’s and sincerely hope to get somewhere today. I will repost this accordingly. I’m not happy at all. The competition will come and that old adage “be careful how you treat people on your way up because you don’t know who you will meet on your way down” will come to fruition. They obviously can’t handle the responsibility of no competition.

Canceled my booking while I was on my way

Posted on April 10, 2018

I would not book with this host or Airbnb ever again. She canceled on us five hours before our planned check in. I reserved her apartment eight months in advance. She had even confirmed with me three days prior to the cancellation. I got the text message canceling our reservations on my way to the airport. I was baffled; I thought this must be a mistake.

I called her and she said there was “damage” to the apartment. Airbnb did credit my account and gave me a larger credit than the original price but other than that their customer service was a total fail. I called them three times and spoke to three different representatives; I was disconnected twice. The representative who finally did help me told me to open the app or the website and use the credit to find a replacement myself.

This would have been okay even 24 hours in advance but I was basically at the airport now for a 45-minute flight. The customer service representative asked me for the URL of the other apartments I was looking at. I was using the app; there are no URLs in the app. I told her the name of the listing and she put me on hold for 13 minutes. In the meanwhile, another friend of mine coming on the trip called and booked two rooms in a hotel.

The woman I got on the phone was trying to help me but it was clear that the customer service representatives are not trained in troubleshooting a cancellation on the day of. I was very lucky that we were able to get a place to stay on such short notice. It was high travel season for the city. Most of the accommodations on Airbnb that were available were too small or huge and expensive which the $80 bonus credit was not going to cover.

I really wanted to like Airbnb, but the experience made me appreciate commercial hotel chains. I do not plan on using the app again unless I have a backup place to stay. It’s been four days and I am still waiting for my refund. Even though this cancellation was the fault of Airbnb and they couldn’t adequately address the issue, I still have to wait up to 15 days for my refund.

Airbnb Keeps Putting Funds into Another Bank Account

Posted on April 9, 2018

When I listed a new property on Airbnb – seeing as I had listed once before, but had since changed my address, phone number and bank accounts – I sorted the new information about me, on my Airbnb page. Lovely, or so I thought. Then I got to the ‘preferred payout’ page. I attempted to change my bank details, and the gates to hell opened and welcomed me in.

First I tried to delete the defunct bank account, in order to put the new one in. No way. Impossible. Then I clicked on ‘add payout method’ (or whatever it says), and I felt so happy that I was able to do this. I added my PayPal details, and then my life took on a role that no horror movie comes close to; not even hell itself matches this. In fact, I think I need a month in a sanatorium to help me get well (if I ever recover). The message I got was ‘we will call you to verify it’s you.’

The problem is I cannot change my phone number (the new one) on their payout page. Interesting that on my profile page it was simple, just a new phone number. However, when it came to the payout page, it was impossible. Not possible in any way shape or form to give them my new number to verify me. Why? because very smartly, from my profile page’s new phone number, they have not simply changed my number on the payout page. I guess this would force them to pay me right?

I have recorded the amount of messages, and phone calls (to and from people who cannot speak English employed in their ‘support’ department). As it’s obvious, Airbnb is shipping their ‘call out’ problems to places like India. Phone companies do this too. It’s not unusual; it’s just hair tearing, mind-blowingly insane, and annoying. So far, and still going. I’ve contacted them over 52 times, messaging and calling… impossible. In the meantime, I had a guest and was owed money, hence my frantic efforts. Would I get the money? Heck no!

I decided to write another message to some poor person, who struggles to write in English, never mind understand it, and is obviously trying their best – needs the job and all that. I get it, but I need the money due to me. I translated my messages using Google into every language it allows. In the desperate hope that one, just one of the ‘helpers’ would get the message in their language, and so could not possibly misunderstand me. I also used English often. Nothing happened. I kept getting the same message, which caused me to take tranquilizers. ‘The money has been paid into xxx bank account, and you should have it.’

What do they not understand here? I’ve explained why I won’t get my money. I’ve explained clearly that it’s impossible to change my phone number on their payout page. They’ve blocked that one. I’ve explained that I do not own that account and haven’t for over ten years. I’ve explained that the bank has not got me on their books (they keep asking me to call the ‘bank’?) and I cannot add my new account either.

I then started writing to their ‘help centre’, using very simple language, like children speak. I put a full stop between every word to help the poor person, who cannot easily understand English, to take it easy and read slowly. I was hoping I’d get some luck. Doing it this way took a lot of time and effort. I even Googled easy words, so as to make it as simple as possible to understand only two things: I do not have that bank account. Closed. Gone. Unknown. Impossible. I cannot change my phone number, because Airbnb has blocked that part. Impossible. Cannot. No way on the planet to do this.

Still, this very morning, I got another message from another person (not their fault, I get it) to tell me, in the best English he or she could put together, which was only just understandable, (I’m educated, and I had to reread the drivel over three times to understand what on earth was being written) that the money due to me, is in my xxx bank account (the closed one, to which I don’t have access)… and would I please call my bank (not my bank, explained over 52 times and translated into every language, plus used very simple language a nursery school child would understand to help whoever has to deal with this).

So where does this leave me? I’ve now eaten an entire cold pizza, because I’m trying so hard to keep calm. I could bite my own arm off. It’s impossible. I’m not going to try again. I’m going to somehow get these people to pay me, in whatever way it takes, and I’m now searching for a new hosting company. The fact that every single day, a new message in broken English is sent to me makes me not want to open my computer, because the rage it incites is destroying my life. It’s not worth it. They know it. I know it.

They are hoping, if they irritate me enough, that I’ll just leave this, and move on, right? I don’t think so! Here comes every single social media platform open to me, including a letter to Trump for what it’s worth. I will not stop, and in fact, hit ‘send’, on my messages to social media about ten times a day. Just to cheer me up and help others avoid these thieves, and because they should not get away with their scamming people. If it were possible to speak to someone who had a brain cell, this could be sorted out easily. So easily I wouldn’t be in this horrific position or frame of mind.

Please if you wish to host, for whatever reason, stay clear of these people. Unless you want to host for free, get your place torn to pieces by the ‘visitors’, without compensation from Airbnb, and are hosting for charity. The likelihood of being paid, if there is even a slight problem on their side, is almost nil.

Extremely Bad Airbnb Host Protection Experience

Posted on March 28, 2018

I wanted to share my extremely bad experience related to Airbnb. I just recently started hosting and had my first bad guest. The guest stayed for two nights, she violated multiple housing rules (that they were supposed to agree to and comply) and damaged my property. After the guest left, I noticed the damage they caused to the bedding and found out from neighbors that the guests didn’t comply with my house rules. I didn’t know how exactly I was supposed to ask for so-called host protection and it was not properly explained on the website, so I asked Airbnb support how I was supposed to file a claim for damage to items in my apartment.

I had to wait for almost three days before getting a reply, even though they promised to reply within 24 hours. When I finally got a reply explaining the procedure, I opened the claim. Here I must mention that guest checked out on March 18th and the claim was opened on March 21st. I couldn’t open it earlier, because I didn’t know how. My claim for a refund of the damaged items was immediately rejected by the guest (didn’t expect anything out of that, but this is procedure), so I escalated it to the host protection request.

Little did I know my request got denied on March 23rd (the same month, I must mention) because I didn’t submit it within 14 days. Ridiculous, you would say? No, not for Airbnb. Apparently, I had 14 days to submit a complaint and I didn’t follow this timeline, when there were just five days that passed between the guest leaving and the answer to my request for host protection being received. I have contacted Airbnb to inquire why they gave me such a ridiculous answer that didn’t make any sense.

After two days of silence, I received a message saying they declined my host protection request because my next guest had already checked in and I had to submit requests only between the check-out of one guest and the check-in of another. Here comes the interesting part: the guest who caused the damage checked out at 11:00 AM on March 18th, but next guest checked in at 11:30 on March 18th. As per Airbnb policy, I had precisely thirty whole minutes to:

• Discover the damage

• Document all the damage

• Find similar items online or buy new items that needed to be repaired or replaced

• Submit a claim via Airbnb

• …apparently also have time for cleaning and greeting the new guest

Who they think I am, Barry Allen? Airbnb rejected my host protection claim on bogus reasons like these. They left me to pick up the bill, they made up ridiculous excuses not to assist me in any way and this is how their host protection works.

As an employee of quite a powerful Belgian law firm, we already had to deal with multiple complaints against Airbnb showing total disrespect for personal belongings or damages caused by guests towards the hosts. It doesn’t matter how severe the damage is and what kind of proof you have, Airbnb will always find the way to dismiss your claim and to not give you deserved and promised protection.

What is interesting is that once hosts start to file complaints, lawsuits and go to the press, Airbnb immediately settles cases, pays the demanded compensation and then begs them not to leak the story to the press any further. Anyway, if you have problems with Airbnb, my advice is complain, complain, complain. The best way is to complain to the California Better Business Bureau, then your complaint will be published in multiple places and will be forwarded directly to Airbnb headquarters. They will have to read and act on it. To lodge a complaint, you don’t have to be in the US; it’s enough that business office is there. We have to force them to respect hosts’ and guests’ rights and stop treating us like cows to be milked.