I recently posted some criticism and some compliments on a host I stayed with on Oahu a few months ago. It was deleted within 24 hours of posting without explanation from Airbnb customer service. This host had nothing but odd rules rules rules and more odd rules. I always show respect and follow the rules of the house hence the many good reviews I received from previous hosts. This lady had nothing but complaints from the moment I arrived by taxi. Sounded like all of the guests she had were a bunch of idiots that couldn’t follow a single rule. It’s ok to compliment but not ok to criticize valid points. Shame on Airbnb for deleting reviews that are genuine.
Tag Archives: airbnb customer service
MAJOR AIRBNB FLAW EVERY HOST SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
I’ve been an Airbnb Host for over a year without significant problems, but this experience showed me that I’ve really just been lucky not having a nightmare hosting experience before now!
Long story short, I had a guest book one of my rooms for a 3 months stay, just like I’ve done many times before. I received my first payment from Airbnb as usual… but then when the second monthly payment was due, I received a crazy email message from Airbnb saying that they couldn’t process the payment from the guest! What’s even crazier, they didn’t cancel the reservation until 7 days AFTER the last date had passed that the guest had actually paid for, meaning that I was going to lose at least a full 7 days of rental income and presumably I no longer had any form of security deposit to protect me… ALL WHILE THE NON-PAYING GUEST WAS STILL LIVING IN MY HOUSE!!!
What sort of idiotic policy is that? Airbnb waited until the last minute to charge the guest, then waited an additional 7 days before cancelling the reservation with a message (attached) that basically said “sorry, but we’re not going to pay you anything else, beginning 7 days ago. Good luck getting rid of this leech of a guest!” Why wouldn’t Airbnb charge the guest sooner, so if there was a problem I could cancel the reservation and kick out the guest before their paid time expired?
I wrote back to Airbnb asking them to clarify the situation… but they never responded! I emailed them asking if they could use the $400 Security Deposit (my standard deposit) that they should have previously collected to at least pay me for the 7 days the guest had already stayed without paying before the reservation was finally cancelled… no response from airbnb after several days.
What a total scam airbnb has become! I thought it was a brilliant concept, and it is, but the execution abysmal and the policies lack any sense of foresight or basic protection of their CORE value, their HOSTS, it’s truly shocking to me that no competitor has destroyed them by now! It’s like comparing Facebook to Myspace. Myspace was “great” until Facebook came along and showed everyone just how horrible Myspace actually was! Who will be the new “facebook” of home rentals and put Airbnb out of business?
PLEASE share this story with any current Airbnb Hosts you know so perhaps they can save themselves from this type of horrible situation dealing with such a stupid and irrational company.
How to scam airbnb! Guest doesn’t pay, and airbnb waits 7 days before cancelling reservation. Host is left holding the bag and takes a total loss!
No response from airbnb! Host lost money because guest didn’t pay, even though EVERYTHING was handled through the Airbnb system!
Airbnb provided no help when needed
I tried desperately & for a long time to contact airbnb. My host does not respond to my emails and airbnb does not respond to my emails. What I get from airbnb (response@airbnb.com) is “Email not received”. I have to move in host place on 27 October and don’t know for sure if I have an accommodation there. I don’t have a phone and calling their number is another nightmare. What kind of business is airbnb running without online access to customer service? It is really become shonky, while they talk about trust & community. Shame on you, Airbnb.
Swindle through the Airbnb platform
My daughter found a flat in NY on the Airbnb website. She received an email from the ‘host’ of the flat and also one issued by a fake Airbnb email address (express@airbnb.com pretending to be the real Airbnb, used its buzzwords / terminology and carried the Airbnb logo. It said: “Welcome to Airbnb!” and added that to “get started” they needed her email address. It was signed “Thanks, Airbnb Team” etc. This started correspondence with a duplicitous platform whose sole purpose was to swindle my daughter into paying an Airbnb Inc account with Barclays Bank for a reservation it confirmed with payment instruction. By the time payment was made. We contacted Customer Support and we were told, after rigorous checking of our credentials (how ironic or cynical) that they consider the host to be a security risk – but that we would have to be informed properly by their safety team. There were a number of conversations – each with the same rigorous check (I wonder for what purpose?) and each ending with how they care about their customers; how sorry they are and telling us to wait for contact by the Safety department. This took about 2 weeks. Despite the statement about how much they care, no interest was ever expressed to view the fake exchanges and perhaps learn how their customers are being cheated. This is amazing because for a company that is valued as high as Airbnb, it is obvious that they are operating a platform that ‘leaks’. Either third parties, or perhaps third parties aided by insiders working at Airbnb or ex-workers of Airbnb who are familiar with the engagement process themselves operating these fake operations. We do not know – but it is equally obvious that this scam was not designed for single use but is intended to score many hits. Presumably it does. There is however no-one to talk to at Airbnb. There is no interest on their side to learn more. They continue to operate a leaky platform that confuses and dupes their customers and this can be remedied by regular pop-ups or the use of passwords that protect private information AND by checking their hosts BEFORE they support their fraud by placing their ‘property’ on their website. Is it stupidity or naivety on their part as business managers that stops them from doing this – perhaps it is all too much for them? In any case, Airbnb is remarkably similar to the fraudsters who work as parasites on their sites. Once there is a problem there is no-one to talk to and their use of ‘no-response’ mails has similarities to the email addresses used by the swindlers and purporting to be issued by Airbnb which eventually are returned with the message ‘your message to express@airbnb could not be delivered”. I think this level of care is the lowest I have encountered on the web. I think the disregard for customers losses is unequalled in a travel business. I believe that no-one should use Airbnb as it is a company that is not interested in advancing itself or improving its services to its customers. Its concern is to turn away from the deceit practised around its activity and tell us how much they care and how sorry they are. Don’t bother using them – and running the risk of a swindle that may be encouraged by a leaky platform. Use a hotel. The customer feedback on travel sites for hotel bookings I have found reliable and authentic. Moreover, in entering someone else’s property – God knows to what you expose yourself (leaving aside Airbnb’s platform abuses), especially when you know that (no matter what they say to the contrary) their level of care is abysmal and you are on your own. On the face of theirs appears a hopelessly defective model.
Guests tricked Airbnb into giving full refund – used false images
Hello all, My story : we rent a place perfectly advertised on airbnb. 4 weeks ago a guy contact us to rent the full place for 6 days (1600€ all in), asking also for a taxi and booking some stuff around our place. after some chat on airbnb and facebook (lot of pictures sent to him), he place a reservation (strict reservation). 2 days before he come, we proceed to buy all the food for his stay (full board here, for 8 person, for 6 day). we send him a taxi. even before seeing the place, he complain because of everything (too hot, too much people, not enough remote, fish in the sea …) and after one night decided to leave for a 5* hotel 200 km away … (without paying any taxi or the deposit he asked us to put on local sports operator). 3 days after, an email from airbnb : based on the pictures of your guest and the pictures on your advertisement, we can say they are not alike, and that the place is not ok with our policy … so we give a full reimbursment to your guest … nobody contacted us before taking the decision (as i’m sure the place is as described because i took the pictures myself, and I was there the week before). and the “case manager” don’t want to make any change to his decision the fact is that guest changed his mind from a bungalow on a remote beach to a 5* hotel in a touristic place and send to airbnb pictures from crapy place, but not from our place … and airbnb consider it’s actual pictures of our place ! the only thing the guest want is his money back … and he got it ! all together, this story will cost me about 2000€ (the renting, the food, the deposit and the taxi !) avoid airbnb, you are not sure at all to get your money!
Problems with Airbnb’s website – Glitches and lying rep
Has anyone experienced glitches on the Airbnb website? First of all, I have had at least 2 guests tell me they gave me all 5 star ratings. However, Airbnb’s system did not register the rating as all 5 stars. One ABB rep told me he was going to contact the guests to see what they intended to give me, and he would change it. However, then he told me yes the guest intended to give you 5 stars, but he did not so we can’t change it, which I knew was a lie because they have changed ratings that were wrong because of glitches in the past. I myself have had trouble getting the the curser to hit the right star and even went to the library to make sure the person got what they deserved which was all 5s. I do not know if everyone else will go to that trouble or notice that it is not falling on the correct star…. After he changed what he had told me to no we cannot change it I said can you at least tell me what the guest said and he said no, because of privacy reasons. So, I contacted the guest and it turns out the ABB rep never contacted him, and now I presume the other guests as well. After the ABB rep told me he would contact the guy and change the rating to what he intended, I told the guy that this ABB rep would contact him and change it to what you intended to give me and he was happy about that. Now, he is really annoyed with ABB because he knows how hard I worked to make everything great for them. Also, after this guy left me a review, at first the ABB system said he gave me all 4’s and one 5. Then the next day, it said he gave me all 5s and one 4. So, I asked ABB about this and to date, no response. The only response is that their is not a known glitch with their system. I also asked them if they could just tell me how many total reviews I got since 10/1/14 till now, and how many were 5 stars, and they will not give me this info so I can do a simple mathematical problem and see what my SH percentage in the review section will be. I think they do not know. In the past the reps would give me these numbers. Now, it is top secret so I figure they do not want to admit that there is a problem with their system. Since they are so full of transparency and honesty, I do not know why they either cannot give me the numbers so I can do my own division or tell me there is a problem with the system right now. Either of those answers would be fine with me, but the way they have been acting is just wrong, and weird. The way I found out the guest even gave me all 5s was because of the system telling me different things from one day to the next. I kept in touch with the guest of record’s friend and I finally asked him what was wrong and he said nothing. I suspected something was wrong with the system because another guest gave me all 5 stars and it did not register that way, and a rep with a brain contacted him and changed it. That is why it is hilarious that this other guy is lying to me and telling me it cannot be remedied. One hand does not know what the other hand is doing over there. Before that I gave the guy a list of other guests who had told me they would give all 5 stars and did not. Up until I started communicating with the guests post stay, I thought the other guests had lied to me so I would give them all 5 stars, because I could not think of any other reason why that would happen or why someone would volunteer that they were giving me all 5 stars when they did not intend to do so. Another reason I would like to do my own math is that everytime someone gives me an all 5 star review it goes up by 1%, and when it is not a 5 star review is goes down by 2%. My knowledge of math leads me to believe that this is not correct and if I had the numbers, I could do my own math. It all seems really fishy. Since that time, I have gotten 2 all 5 star reviews. I also have screen shots of these and it is still stuck at 78% and it has been a least 10 days since the 2nd 5 star review is posted. I am starting to wonder if they are doing this because I told them about everything I think is wrong with their system including allowing criminals to rent your space, and not having your back when they tell you that they do. BTW, I asked roomorama if the same exact scenario would occur and I had written and audio prove if they would review everything and they said yes. I took screen shoots of the conversation just in case. I do not know if I can trust them either. So, if anyone knows anything, pls let me know. Oh and another rep lied to me as well. Several guests have become so irate at the ID verification system taking so long that they almost did not book. One told me she lost money on the exchange rate because of ABB’s incompetence and they will not take responsibility for her loss. Anyway, one lady was irate with them because she really wanted to book my place and while she was submitting to the long ID verification system she kept getting messages telling her to look for a different place. The ABB rep told me that was for people who did not want to verify their IDs, but this lady proved to me that she was getting those messages while trying to get ID verified for my place. Then she proved to me that after she was verified she got a message saying she could now rent my place or another place. What? Thanks Airbnb! Anyway, she became so irate she found my listing on another site and paid more money to rent through them, and in my opinion this lady is not the type to easily part with her money. So, that tells you how mad she was with ABB. BTW, this other site lets you communicate freely with the guests without blocking out parts of your conversation. For example, if you say google earth, they will not block it out. Anyhow, I cut and pasted the translations of the messages this lady told me she was getting from ABB to look for another place even after she booked, and some other complaints refuting what the guy had said and he told me he would not communicate with me anymore and now if I email ABB my messages are blocked. LOL! The other issue is that I have my calendar synced with VRBO and other sites and one day I was bombarded with booking requests for days that are blocked with VRBO people. So, I had to spend about an hour declining and apologizing to people. I feel I have to be nice to them even though it is ABBs screw up because they may want to book again someday. Plus they all seemed desperate for a place, and I felt badly for them. So, anyway, I sent screen shots of all of this to the guy that lied about contacting my guests before I knew he had lied to me, and no response. I sent them because he told me there were no known glitches with their site. Oh really, then why do they have a page asking white hackers not to discloses the glitches without contacting them first. Oh alrighty then! I have also asked maybe times to different people why the suggested prices ABB gives are so much lower than other predictive pricing website. No answer…. Someone at price labs told me it was so the investors will see your place booked every night. Since, they will not respond to the question, I guess I have to option but to believe price labs. Another predictive pricing website shows how you can charge more, be booked less nights, and make more money. I do not understand ABB’s logic.
USD AMEX conversion SCAM
Several weeks ago I booked a trip for my family, we didn’t want to travel to the US like we normally do because of high conversion rates so we booked a “local vacation” on airbnb. Our account price is set to CAD and language to ENGLISH, we have a Canadian billing address and a CANADIAN issued American Express which we used to book. We booked a Canadian host. we just got our card bill and got a 200+$ conversion charge to USD (from $640 to $867!!) When we look at our AirBnb receipt and even in our transaction records it says it was 640 and our account profile is definitely set to CAD and the hosts currency is definitely set to CAD. I chatted with customer service and they said it was because we use an American Express card and it HAS to be charged is USD. This is ridiculous and I phoned American Express Canada and they said that makes no sense whatsoever as my card is a Canadian issued card and they have moved forward with disputing the charge and are going to investigate. I just can’t believe how ridiculous this is. I was a big fan of airbnb’s business and model and now I’m treated like an idiot because I foolishly assumed that if I booked a Canadian room on the Canadian site with my Canadian Billing address and my Canadian AMEX card with my profile setting set to CAD dollars and language set to English that I would be charged in Canadian dollars! C’mon air bnb!
Host account deleted by Airbnb but they forgot to tell guests
My host account was entirely deleted by Airbnb with no warning, no explanation, and any attempt to find out why has lead to the same automated email stating they do not have to give me any reason and will no longer communicate with me. Fast forward one week later (today) and a guest traveling all the way from Australia (and his wife traveling from Mexico) to my place in the US contacted me via email and phone this morning to touch base about their reservation with us this weekend. They obviously did not know their trip has been canceled. I’ve also been steadily receiving normal emails from Airbnb like “you have an upcoming reservation!” etc. I used Airbnb’s emergency contact phone number to try to sort this out and was told they would “put in a ticket about it” to another department and could not help me further because I “have no account”. A few hours later I got the SAME auto generated email about “your account has been deleted and we don’t have to tell you why” with nothing about the fact that strangers are planning to show up to my house. I call their emergency phone number again and had to explain the entire situation again and beg for them to not hang up on me or “put in another ticket” and they reluctantly told me their only advice was to contact the guest and let them know their reservation is cancelled and give them Airbnb’s emergency phone number. Which I did, and now i’m crossing my fingers these guests get the email and don’t show up to my house since they already have my address and all contact info. This is the most infuriating situation i’ve ever been through with any company of any kind. The lack of customer support, not just for me, but for guests that have already paid and are traveling across the world is utterly INSANE and dangerous! I feel very bad for this couple that had planned to stay with me, and I hope Airbnb does not completely screw them over too.
Airbnb Host kicked off of platform and never told why
Some background. I have no idea, whatsoever, why I was kicked off the platform. I had many excellent reviews and a 4 star rating. I had 6 properties (all owned by me and manged by me) on the platform. I asked repeatedly what I did and they stated “Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.” They would never answer my question as to why. I received a text from Daniel Rusteen on August 20th, who saw my Craig’s List postings for my properties and asked if I would like to use ABB. He was paid for and taxed with the responsibility of generating new hosts for ABB and would give me a $500 credit to be used as a guest at any ABB listing. I texted back how funny this was as they kicked me off. He stated he had “pull” with ABB and could definitely get me re-instated. He asked for my dirver’s license so he could establish a new account and used one of my properties. Long story short, once I went into the new account to add content to my listing (and then add my other 5 listings), I was blocked. When I wrote and asked why I received: Katie C, Aug 25, 20:46: Hi Lucia, Thank you for getting in touch with us about your account. As we mentioned to you on January 5, 2016 and then multiple times following that date, we have removed you from our community for violations of our Terms of Service. This includes any previous account you created on our platform, and extends to any future account you make. As per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and must inform you that, moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with your account issue. Please feel free to review our Help Center article for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432 Thank you for your understanding. Best regards, Katie C www.airbnb.com/help This is the same message I received in the past and the one to which I questioned the reasoning as to their decision making. As you can see, I still can’t understand what caused this to occur in January. Regardless, I moved forward with VRBO for some of my properties and moved to long term rentals for others (thus CL). I’m much happier with VRBO. They support the hosts better, have much better customer service that responds quicker and costs less.
A Breakup Letter to Airbnb
This was the last email I sent to Airbnb after significant frustration. It explains my story:
Dear Mr. Gebbia, dear Mr. Chesky, dear Mr. Blecharczyk, dear J. K., and dear Airbnb team,
I give up. I won’t write any more emails nor try to reach again any of your employees by phone. I stop thinking positive and being confident you people will clean the mess and offer me a solution. I give up on your intention of doing business properly and decently. I give up on the dream of a cool company offering cool places all around the world. I give up in trusting that you people know what you are doing. I give up on you.
What you do is purely unfair and fraudulent business: take the money and run, don’t look behind.
For the last two days my family and I have been living in a nightmare. We should have started today our holiday all together on a long drive from Spain to Austria. We had planned it months ago and had been finalizing the bookings until last Thursday. I had 3 previous experiences with Airbnb and I trusted the company. Everything would surely work well. Today we would stay in a super cosy place in Provence, tomorrow and for 3 nights we would discover Lago di Garda, we would end our trip on Saturday and Sunday visiting Venice and surroundings. Just perfect, don’t you think?
With all this great perspectives in mind I decided to book a holiday in London in October again via Airbnb. I tried to book it a few hours after completing my last booking in Italy. Suddenly it did not work as usual, I had to submit an official ID. Wow. Surprise. Not even hotels or traditional ways of booking ever required this from me. I contacted my Host in London and told her I did not agree with it and she was OK with my decision, she did not need my ID. We both contacted Airbnb asking for assistance. I only got contacted 2 days later. By that time I was already feeling not so good about the way Airbnb was handling troubles.
Your answer to my concerns was as you can see in your records: an explanation on what a trustful company Airbnb is, how much it takes care of its customers and what a wonderful world all this is. Still I did not agree to submit any ID or passport or driving licence because I don’t see the real reason for it. Airbnb has my phone number, my VISA number, my picture and my 3 successful bookings behind me, what on earth could identify me better for a potential host?
I communicated my decision not to book again with Airbnb and to stop being a customer in the future. I also requested a confirmation that my bookings for this week would not be affected since they were accepted before the new requirements came to place. You have an employee, J.K., who took the unilateral decision of deleting my account right away, without contacting me prior to this nor asking for my consent. Nevertheless he assured me “I have deleted your account, although the account is eliminated it will not affect your reservations”. In the same moment the cancellations for my 3 bookings entered my email folder. I just could not believe my eyes. J.K. had deleted my account, cancelled my bookings, made me lose a lot of money due to cancellation policies and lied in his email, or he just did not know what he was doing when he pressed the “delete” button??
So I started desperately trying to reach someone. J.K. never answered again and of course did not call to give an explanation. Between yesterday and today I spent a big amount of time and money waiting on your telephone line. I did manage to talk to 4 or 5 colleagues, in English and in German. They were all lovely, nice, young, enthusiastic, feeling so sorry about my situation, admitting the “mistake” that had been made by Airbnb, promising that my case was going to be handled with priority and I would get a call back. You know you never call back and I was not the exception: I never got a call back, although your employees tried hard to make me believe their promises (you apparently tape the conversations, so make sure to hear them). They are well trained in showing empathy for the miseries of the customers. By the way, were you aware that your managers are never in the office, never reachable, always in meetings or can not make decisions? gosh what a chaotic company I heard on the phone!
I even tried contacting you via Facebook, I thought you would maybe mind about bad news being spread in social media? Your answer was laconic. My last message was simply deleted. Censored. Great.
Here we are: my husband, my kids, my dog and myself. We could not begin our trip. Our holiday was ruined. We lost money. We have a big stress. We find no place to stay on the way. We had to extend our stay in Spain, look for new hotel. The extra costs are increasing each day. The damage is done.
I seriously expected professionals on your side. At least some decency. You don’t seem to care about the situation you put customers in and shockingly enough you don’t seem to have any intention to refund us the money you illicitly retained as cancellation policy.
I found out that there are thousands of other disappointed customers out there and I really wonder how can it be possible that this happens to so many people. What kind of company are you at all? A big shame, that is what you are. Was this the initial idea when you started this company? Cheat customers all around the world? Do you seriously think the internet is the no-law territory where you can get away with whatever you want to do?
I said at the beginning of my letter that I give up on you being professional enough to solve this mess. But I did not give up in justice being done. I give up in contacting you again. But I will contact my lawyer. The moment I manage to arrive back home I will initiate the legal measures to get a compensation for the damages caused.
Wish you a better future than the holidays you offered me.