My disturbing story begins with hosting on Airbnb. I made my account and made the listing, with everything so precise. Then I added my transaction number (as a new customer I had no idea about these administrative things). After a couple of hours, a guest booked my place and I accepted. Everything was going in the right direction, then the guest told me that he would send the money for the transaction. Four days passed. I was waiting and always checking my account and the transaction history on Airbnb. Nothing came. In the meantime, I contacted my bank and they told me that the money could not be transferred because I didn’t activated my European account for international payments.

So I did that as well; I activated my international payment methods and they also gave me the IBAN and SWIFT codes (which Airbnb never told me I needed, even when they could see from which country I am). Right now I’ve settled everything with my bank but Airbnb didn’t give me the option to enter my IBAN and SWIFT codes. The money my guest sent me is nowhere: neither in my bank or in the Airbnb transaction history (it’s on the future transactions list). They just let me remain in this situation for days.

To be clear, the money my guest transferred could never have been on the transaction that I processed first without the IBAN and SWIFT codes, which now Airbnb doesn’t give me an option to enter, after everything else is filled out on my profile. I am from Macedonia (not a member of the European Union); our currency is denar and not euros.

Currently my money is in some virtual server, or maybe flying through space? No one can see it or find it. I’ve reported the problem to Airbnb and didn’t get any answer.