So, my story begins when I showed up to the door of what was supposed to be my Airbnb in Santiago, Chile. I called and emailed my host several times until I finally got a response. Her response was shocking to say the least. She told me she never accepted the booking and, in fact, she wasn’t even based in Santiago. Well, needless to say, I was pissed and panicked. I called Airbnb only to be put on hold for an inordinate amount of time. I was told that this was classified as an emergency and I would be contacted very shortly. Three weeks later… I still haven’t heard from them and I’m still being charged for the stay. That incident made me decide me to research my account. I saw a charge from Airbnb for $454. I never stayed anywhere that they would need to charge me for that amount. I called and told them so and, again, was told this would be an emergency response. That made me concerned, so I started digging through my bank statements to find that Airbnb has stolen $5500 out of my account over the past year. Now I can’t get anybody on the phone to talk to me about it. But, it’s good to know that it is a priority for them to get this resolved.
Tag Archives: airbnb customer service
Crazy Host POUNDS on the Door for a Simple Message
Airbnb sent me a review reminder stating clearly that I had through September 9th to post it; I tried to do so and the website wouldn’t let me post a review. When I spoke to customer service on the phone the agent said that there is absolutely nothing they can do to help: the company’s program code is the code; this is just the way it is and there’s nothing anyone can do to change anything in it (and it was more than clear none of them care to, no matter what problems it results in). The email reminder I received gave the wrong information, since in reality, customers only have 14 days on the clock to submit reviews, starting from some nebulous time of day that was never made clear to me throughout the entire 24-minute conversation. In short, their website actually shut off the possibility to post my review sometime part way through the 9th. When I said that sending emails with dated statements like the one I got is plain misleading, the agent repeatedly weaseled out of agreeing and kept either referring to the company’s terms of service – which according to him mean we agreed to everything and anything the company does – or saying the meaningless phrase “I respect your opinion” and nothing else, in an annoyed tone that made it more than clear that he absolutely does not.
There isn’t even any option to file complaints at this company; they only “take suggestions.” You can probably guess how likely I think it is that they ever do anything about any of these suggestions. In short, sometime back in the dark ages they had programmers do the original code on their website, and ever since then everything is set in stone. They just don’t feel like paying anyone to do any additional work to fix anything, and never will.
Why do I want to post this review so much? I had a hellish experience that ruined nearly my entire vacation, and I wanted to warn other users from suffering the same fate. It was so bad that I needed a lengthy mental break after this so-called vacation and didn’t feel emotionally ready to compose my review and go over the whole traumatic experience again until the last day – what should have been the last day I could post it where it rightfully belongs, on that host’s listing.
Below is the original review I was going to post with a 1-star rating. However, I’d like to add something here I didn’t write in the original review because it seemed almost too crazy to be believable, given that this host (somehow) has a very high rating on Airbnb. About a day before I was scheduled to leave the place, the host came up and suddenly started pounding on the suite’s door, shaking the wall so strongly that I thought she must have been using a bat or a brick. As I was in the bathroom at the time, I was unable to come to the door for 4-5 minutes. She kept pounding on the door nonstop the entire time, so violently I was certain she was going to break it down; it seemed she really intended to do so. The noise and duration of it, even through my earplugs, was sheerly unbelievable. The experience for me was like unexpectedly finding myself in a scene from a movie when police are trying to break down a reinforced door. Just about the last thing you want or expect to experience on any vacation. I thought for certain there must, surely, be some terrible emergency going on to justify her doing something so unprofessional and frightening to a paying guest.
When I answered the door (as soon as I humanly could and wearing only a towel), I was first shocked that the woman turned out to not be holding some sort of blunt object with which she’d been performing that violent pounding, and secondly that her hands were not bleeding from it. I asked her if there was some kind of emergency. She said “no,” with an oddly matter-of-fact tone and facial expression of the kind you’d expect to get from a neighbor who’s politely asking to borrow a cup of sugar after having daintily and briefly knocked on your front door – as if what she just did was absolutely normal and she does it all the time. She claimed she was only “concerned” that I hadn’t answered her numerous calls, texts and emails. She didn’t apologize for the insane pounding or seem to realize that she’d just done anything odd.
It became clear during the following conversation that this entire scary episode was only because she wanted to know exactly when I was leaving; she wanted me to clear out as early as possible the next day so she could have time to bring in cleaners before the next guest showed up. She told me that the check out time was 11:00 and I should leave by then, even though her listing clearly states that it’s 12:00. Apparently it was my problem that she had back-to-back guests and scheduling difficulties. The weirdness and unprofessionalism was plain astonishing given the very large number of years she’d been renting out the place, and just how much money I’d paid for this rental in a private residence. She sent a terribly phony sounding apology a full two days after the incident (half blaming me for not answering her mountain of calls and messages on my vacation), clearly because she was wary of a very justifiable negative review or even a complaint to the website.
This incident was just the icing on top of an entire cake of unpleasant things that filled my stay at this place. The original review:
Well, it is a beautiful house, and it is actually within close walking distance of Middlebury town center, the university, etc. (unlike many other Airbnb offers in the area that claim to be close and turn out to be miles away.) & the 2-room suite looks nice. The bathroom also looks nice but certainly not close to hotel standards, as some of the plumbing is noticeably old: the toilet has to be flushed multiple times. Shampoo, conditioner & bodywash are provided, but the towels are the most harshly starched, wooden pieces of fabric I’ve ever touched anywhere – bringing your own is a must. More significantly, if you’re looking for a restful vacation, you’re highly unlikely to get it staying here: – The bedroom has no blackout curtains like in hotels and the windows face east: in summer that means you get to wake up around 5:30 am and be tired all day, every day. – The house is on a heavily used road and traffic starts up early: heavy, noisy trucks and the like drive by all day. – There are frequent emergency sirens heard as well – surprise: the place is near a police station. – There’s a very active business running in this house: employees and customers are in and out all day during the week, including on the 2nd floor right next to the guest suite; the acoustics and creaky wood floors of the house mean that you get to hear non-stop noise anytime you’re there morning to evening.
After I left I discovered a small mountain of emails, calls and texts – some sent before 6:00 AM; I’m glad I had my cell silenced – that the host sent me during the last two days of my stay, most of them desperately wanting to know when exactly I was leaving (apparently they’re not even aware of their own listed check-out time). I didn’t see these at the time as I don’t check my phone or email while I’m on vacation – being as it is, in fact, vacation. But you can judge for yourself how pleasant that kind of thing will be when you’re meant to be resting and relaxing on your rare time off. I would have thought that a note under the door would have sufficed for any urgent communication – like they do in hotels – and been more sensible and professional.
Airbnb Representatives Ruined my Vacation
What a nightmare I had with this company. I had guests flying in from Atlanta and we planned on spending the weekend in NYC. I live in central New Jersey. The original house we rented was in Bayshore and totally misrepresented on the Airbnb site. There were holes in the walls, trash on the floor, large dead insects, exposed electrical wires, and dirty overflowing laundry baskets. The pool we were told we could swim in looked more like a black lagoon. Hence, we never even bought our luggage inside. As we were entering the house, there was a young man with a barking dog exiting. Did he have a key? Was he coming back? Was he coming back with friends? more dogs? Was he staying in the house at the same time we were? We had no idea who he was nor did we feel the need to ask.
We were a party of four girls and extremely concerned about our safety. After calling Airbnb right away to cancel, the four of us went out to dinner and tried to find new accommodations with the help of Airbnb. This was the true beginning of my hell ride with this company. From this point, I spent the next three days speaking with representatives. They called and emailed all hours of the day and night. Although I paid in full, there was a problem getting me verified. This verification process took no less than five representatives and had me at a near mental breakdown. Several times I could not continue the phone conversations which I now viewed as a barrage of harassment from the representatives.
The constant calls and emails ruined my vacation. I did not spend a lot of time with my guests because Airbnb took most of my time. Twice I had to get my guests to get on the phone with them because I could not allow them to continue to consume my time. Each day I logged almost 8 to 10 hours dealing with multiple representatives. I was getting emails at 3:00 AM and phone calls before 6:00 AM. On the fourth day, my friends left for home and I never got to spend any quality time with them. I was able to find another location, which was fantastic. The constant communication via email and phone, being placed on hold, taking photos, sending photos for which they “never received”, getting verified, getting a refund from the first location, finding and making a second reservation in NYC at midnight, and taking almost two days to get verified ruined my entire vacation with my friends. My three girlfriends are also doing their part in spreading the word on the incompetence of this Airbnb’s representatives.
Crazy Airbnb Host in Bologna Keeps Calling
Recently my boyfriend and I stayed in an apartment in Bologna, Italy. We had a rather unfortunate start with poor communication from the host about arrival times and confusion about who would be greeting us, leaving us stranded outside the apartment block for over an hour in 34-degree Italian heat with no water, no access to a toilet, and no contact from our host in response to our phone calls and messages. The stay itself was relatively good once housekeeping had let us into the property, though we had some slight issues with the area around the apartment being quite dodgy; this left me in particular feeling quite unsafe.
We returned home yesterday and I wrote a review about my experience. This afternoon my boyfriend received a missed call from our host. Confused by this, I emailed the host asking why he had been calling my boyfriend from Italy. At around 10:00 PM English time I received a barrage of messages from my host, whereby he advised he was calling to “thank us” for the bad review and continued to shout at me about my review, how he felt it was not accurate. When I tried to explain I felt I wrote a fair assessment of the situation that happened he then called me a “ugly little princess” and told me to “stay away from my balls.” He stated that I was not attractive to him and never will be and he has better things to do with his time than talk to me… when he took the initiative and went to the effort of contacting me from the start.
I have since had to contact Airbnb to ask them to intervene as the correspondence is becoming prolonged and making me feel uncomfortable. They say they will investigate. However, I don’t have high hopes after a brief dalliance with their customer service department while staying in a moldy apartment in Tokyo; at that time, they essentially told me that the host had such amazing reviews they felt my opinion went against this and they didn’t personally agree. Even though I had photographic proof of the endless black hairs in the bed and the mold in the bathroom.
Negative Airbnb Review in Middle of Investigation
Airbnb customer support is horrific. Every time I have sought help, I found no help whatsoever. I have been cut off, told investigations have been opened which resulted in negative reviews, and they do not consider them in violation of Airbnb guidelines. They treat their customers with disgust. I will not be making money for their company any longer. When I unlisted my account I was told to send an email which brought me to a support page that purposely deters people from actually contacting customer support or leaving feedback. The pretense that they are here to help is false, and obvious. They do little to nothing to help, let their agents give horrific advice and support, and let their customers take the fallout for it, all while taking their money.
Their business practices are shameful. I was told to open an investigation with my guests about stolen headphones, which resulted in a negative review (a direct response to the investigation I was directed to open by Airbnb’s support team). The evidence that the review is negative due to this is written in the review. I do not see why that is acceptable. If somebody steals my things and I have to look into it, they are apparently allowed to write that as a negative for their stay. It violates Airbnb’s policy but they have no issue with it. They are making me do this despite the fact the headphones were not in a common area, and should be covered by their host guarantee, which you can never seem to avail yourself of. It is a lie. I do not see why once an investigation is opened, a review can still be left reflecting that. The only reason is simple: they do not want hosts (or guests) to open investigations because it causes them more trouble. They want you to accept your losses as your own and not start an investigation. “Be a good little customer, and there will be no bad reviews and no trouble.” It is that simple.
They deter you from using customer support and their guarantee as much as they can. I was directed to open investigations by their support team regarding my stolen headphones because they stated it was necessary to do so to reclaim the loss. I have now done so, and received negative reviews as a result. This is a direct result of their support team’s advice, and they do not consider it an issue that this is easily possible for reviews to be left in the wake of open investigations that they told me to open. The review does not directly state the entire issue, but does most certainly make reference to it. As Airbnb policy states, a review is disallowed when there is “content that refers to an Airbnb investigation.” It most definitely does refer to it. It is not hidden. And it is through their support that this has occurred. Contact with Airbnb has been meaningless at best. They will not honor their guarantee and they will not honor their own policies when their policies support you. However, they will take 20% of the total booking income, and do their best to make it look like they don’t. I think they need to seriously rethink their policies and staff training.
Airbnb lost my trust. Where do we go from here?
This is a story about an unpleasant experience but more so, the entire loss of trust in a like home sharing platform like Airbnb. To me, it raises questions regarding the future of the sharing economy. My girlfriend and I stayed in a private room in a house in a large southern California city. All names have been changed in this story. Tom was the host. We saw a very well-priced private room available, and pristine and luxurious photos of a beautiful very high dollar home. The pictures included the bedroom, the front of the home, two patio areas, a large kitchen, an entry area room with sofas, and a living room with a sofa and fireplace in the background. They looked like pictures from a realty company. The written content looked like it was promoting a high dollar hotel. He wrote – in my opinion, not very clearly – that the kitchen was not available to guests. But the other areas looked nice, and the place had good reviews. We expected a nice place where we could enjoy some calm comfortable down time in the city for a few nights. We were wrong.
The nice description and pictures of this home were like a nice façade on the scammer’s hotel. We learned that by canceling our stay here, we were not able to write a review to warn others about our experience. This threw all my trust in Airbnb out the door, as people who cancel their stays at questionable places are not represented in the review system, leaving a bias of only good reviews at each home. I’ll never use Airbnb again, and I write here because of how disappointed and frustrated I am that people can take advantage, by taking a cool idea and using it in such a horrible way.
We arrived to find an older man and a kid there, and I guess that they were guests there for a month while their other home was being remodeled. Then later we learned that the man was actually the owner. He was there with his kid for a month. I was a bit confused. He didn’t seem like he wanted to converse at all. In our room there was a welcome book like you would find at a hotel. In the book there was a written introduction to the house, as well as any restrictions – not using the kitchen, no control of the air conditioner (we felt too hot) – and how much they loved their previous guests. I was surprised because the laundry was an amenity listed on Airbnb, but in this book it was written it cost 6 USD. It felt like we couldn’t use as much of the home as we expected. In addition, I thought it was strange that we were only given the contact information of the host, who turned out to be the person in charge of bookings.
There was a noticeable lack of information or even a name of the owner who seemed to be so happy to have all these guests stay at his home. You know that feeling in your gut when something is wrong. I felt that and still do today when I remember this experience. Tom arrived later that day and I talked with him about what we could do and places we could use. From this discussion, we understood that the owner reserved the living room in addition to the kitchen for himself, meaning we were not welcome to use that living room either. This was not understood from the posting. I was surprised as there was a picture of this living room on Airbnb and nothing was written that we couldn’t use it. We learned that the home was for sale, but taken off the market. The owner is moving out, and they plan to turn it into an “Airbnb hotel.”
Every room was listed on Airbnb, and no rooms had keys, meaning people were coming and going each day. I thought about how safe my belongings were. I felt like the aim and motivation of the host and owner was to get people in and out and collect the money quickly. Normally, Tom said, people come and stay only to sleep. Unfortunately, that was not what we were desiring or expecting. The next morning we packed our things and left. We took a close look at the listing and found several things that we felt misled by. This included the washer and dryer cost, that all the rooms of the house are offered, and guests are coming and going each day; there was nothing mentioned about this in the listing. There were no locks on the bedroom doors, we expected a level of comfort that upon arrival was not available, the noise outside of planes passing by was there even though he wrote that they were quiet and could not be heard, and the feeling of not being welcome in the home all added to our feeling of being misled and used.
I sent a message to Tom telling him about all of this, that we would be cancelling the stay, and requested a refund within 24 hours of arrival. In order to cancel, you have to call Airbnb. I called and told the customer service representative Andy about what happened. He said he would look through my messages to Tom and talk with Tom to see if I was eligible for the refund. It was during this communication with Tom that I learned how little support Airbnb offers to guests. In order to get the refund, they need to verify if there were areas shown to be available to guests that actually were not available. He confirmed that the kitchen was not available. But Andy said that when he talked with Tom, all the other areas were available. This is not what Tom told us. Andy took Tom’s word for it over the phone.
Thus, Airbnb cannot override the host’s cancellation policy, and I only received a refund for Airbnb’s fee, less than 30 USD. This really surprised me: It didn’t matter if I thought the host’s listing was misleading. I told Andy from Airbnb that what Tom said was false. Andy said that I need to provide written documentation evidence that the host told us something different than what he told you. Shall I bring a camera and record the entire experience at each stay? Or am I supposed to communicate only through Airbnb’s messaging system? No verbal communication? How is this even possible when the whole idea is to stay in someone’s home?
This is clearly impracticable. Tom was not interested in the other points where I felt misled either. The fact a host can mislead a perspective guest into booking an experience that the guest finds inaccurate upon arrival has made me loose all trust in the host listing and the Airbnb community. That he can do this while running it as an “Airbnb hotel” scares me even more. And now I have lost trust in Airbnb guest support. Where is the accountability? To add to the frustration, Tom sent a long and very nasty message to me on Airbnb’s message service regarding the entire ordeal. In my opinion, it was very defensive and immature. It seemed like he had a lot to lose. After his rant, and in the end, he did mention that he would not refund the money. But he would offer a refund if the room were rebooked. I have to rely on his good nature to see if this happens. After everything we went through I doubt anything will be refunded.
I didn’t wait around; I canceled my Airbnb account immediately. I am done with them. Where does this lead? In the wider perspective, I can see how there will be more and more hosts like this one, basically offering an “Airbnb hotel”, moving guests in and out, collecting the revenue while Airbnb collects the fees. All the while this leaves hosts unaccountable for poor service and underperforming experiences. From the hosts’ and Airbnb’s perspective, I guess it’s pretty good for them in the short term.
Now that the stay has been canceled, I’ve learned that I cannot leave feedback for future guests! Thus, I lost trust in the entire Airbnb rating system, because poor or negative stays that are cancelled, which would warn perspective guests, cannot be posted. In my eyes, this creates a biased system that favors hosts and Airbnb’s interests.
This system works on perceived trust. I’ve lost all trust in Airbnb. They have just lost a few customers for life. I cannot recommend Airbnb to anyone anymore. “Book homes from local hosts and experience a place like you live there,” Airbnb says in its app: a meaningless, disappointing and misleading statement in my opinion. My experience probably wasn’t a common one, but these little abnormal, extraordinary experiences are what can cause the most frustration, the most interesting stories, and in the end, I hope they will be a force to bring about positive change.
Guest Breaks Furniture, Leaves Early, Demands Refund
My guest – let’s call him Jake – was supposed to stay from July 10 to July 18. Instead of staying for the entire trip, he had to take a flight back to the United States. He had to resolve an issue with his embassy after his passport got stolen. I was not notified of his change of plans. I repeat: I was not notified. My partner and I came back to find the toilet seat and the armchair broken (after warning Jake that the armchair was fragile). After attempting to reach my guest numerous times, he wrote me on July 18th (the day of his scheduled departure), stating: “Hi, I emailed you multiple times informing you that I left the apartment last Tuesday. I had to leave earlier based on the embassy’s guidelines. I left the keys in the mailbox as instructed.”
This was puzzling, because I had received no email, either through my personal account or through my Airbnb account. No message was sent to me between July 8th and July 18th. Had I been notified of his change of plans and had he asked for a refund in a timely manner, I would have done so. But, since he had to leave early due to unfortunate circumstances and since I didn’t ask for a security deposit initially, I decided to let the matter drop. Suddenly this former guest (over a month after the end of his reservation) messages me on August 25th, noting his “surprise” that I did not refund him for the days he did not stay. Also on August 25th, Jake began to complain about the supposed unacceptability of my Airbnb listing. However, the other guests who have stayed with me after him have been satisfied. Rather, this is a clumsy attempt to steal money using scare tactics and playing the victim.
So, on the whole:
1. The guest only notified me of his wish for a refund over a month after the fact, after not having followed any of the cancellation procedures during his reservation and having failed to contact me to inform me of his early departure.
2. We know that his allegations regarding the problems and presumed “dangerousness” of my listing are false, since other users have been satisfied. Rather, he is dishonestly claiming that the listing is unsuitable to justify a full refund.
3. This guest alleges to have not caused any damage when I have a dated photograph stating otherwise. He even claims to be offended, and has called me a liar numerous times. He is playing, simultaneously, the role of a victim and a bully.
4. He may have been dissatisfied, but considering that he didn’t cancel in time and that the damages he caused have cost 200 euros overall, I think this is a fair trade.
5. This guest is manipulative, vengeful, dishonest, and petty. He is hysterically implying that I broke host rules and that this justifies me refunding him for the entirety of his stay. He, and the obtuse labyrinth that is Airbnb customer service, is making me reconsider staying on as an Airbnb host. Airbnb hosts, beware of an overweight dark-haired guest in a penguin suit. He doesn’t know how to respect property and will use any manipulative tactic imaginable to bully a host into a refund.
Airbnb Account Hacked, Booked in China
My Airbnb account was hacked. I received a text message in Chinese from some unknown number, then I received an email from Airbnb confirming a reservation to check in today in China. I live in the US and never made this reservation. I checked my account through the Airbnb app. Indeed, there was reservation showing I needed to check in today in China for $555. I also noted two recent searches on my account for homes in China – that was not me. I called Airbnb immediately to let them know someone had access to my account. They “opened a case.” Over three hours later, I heard nothing. I cancelled my credit card which was charged for the amount. So now some idiot has my account information in addition to my credit card number.
I called Airbnb again and they said there were working on it. While they were working, never once did they suggest I should block my card nor did they seem to care that my account was compromised. I was told they have millions of people with cases open and escalated my request. These people should not be allowed to do business. Now their lack of security is my problem and they could care less. I have never even rented a house through them. I reserved a house a few months back and then cancelled the reservation when my plans changed – I paid a fee for the cancellation. I wish I had closed the account then, since apparently they have no information security standards to protect consumers’ information.
Airbnb Theft: Montreal Penthouse Hell
Guests beware: you are not protected by Airbnb if your host enters unannounced and without consent. I had the left the residence for a few hours only to return to find out the host had entered the property while we were away and had gone through our belongings and left a visibly noticeable mess. My first reaction was to take photos of everything, email Airbnb and then text our host to notify him of what we had occurred. The reaction from our host was blasé; he had forgotten some of his belongings and was in a hurry so he came back to his apartment to find them. After confronting him about why this was unacceptable, he tried to justify his actions by telling us that he also came home to give us quilts…. the weather for that scorching July summer day was 33 degrees Celsius without considering the humidity and the lack of any central air conditioning.
We were robbed of our money and a few pairs of ladies underwear according to my female friend. What did Airbnb do? Nothing! I consider myself to be fairly progressive with my use of user driven business applications such as Uber, eBay, and Stubhub, and for the most part have had extremely positive experiences. However, in the rare case when I, the consumer, have needed assistance to protect my well being, they have always been incredibly responsive and empathetic to my customer experience. I have yet to hear from Airbnb, and its been three weeks and counting.
Does Airbnb Protect Hosts’ Neighbors?
My neighbor is an Airbnb host, not me. I tried to contact Airbnb regarding issues and questions I had related to my neighbor’s hosting, and it’s impossible to contact them through their website without providing the host’s listing information. Seriously? There is no email listed on their website. So, my questions relate to Airbnb’s verification process and how they protect neighbors if a guest damages the neighbor’s property, attacks the neighbor, steals from the neighbor, etc; and so, I called Airbnb. They planned to refer it to their legal department, but they refused to do so unless I provided my neighbor’s information. Seriously? In what universe would I trust Airbnb with my privacy if they can’t even provide an email or phone number on their website in which to contact them? I can’t allow my neighbor to know I contacted Airbnb. So, I asked to speak to the customer service representative’s supervisor; until I through a complete and utter hissy fit and repeated over thirty times “I need to speak to your supervisor” did I get to speak to someone who could take down my information to get back to me. I wasted 32 minutes on the phone trying to get a few simple questions answered on top of trying to go through their website.