My ex-wife added me to her Airbnb account and somehow got the tax authorities to believe that I have received all the rental income from her properties and owe back taxes on it, which they are now trying to collect from me. This is a total fabrication and amounts to some kind of identity theft and fraud on her part. When I reported this to Airbnb, I asked for help in straightening this out, including things like reviewing and correcting the 1099 form they presumably send out each year to report income, and taking my name off my ex-wife’s account. Airbnb has been of absolutely no help in this. The customer service rep offers only sympathy, says they are sending the issue to the fraud department and that I should be patient. This has gone on for a month with no progress and no communication from them. My partner and I call almost daily. We get promises from the customer rep that it’s being taken care of and that this is an “urgent” issue, but there is absolutely no communication from their fraud department. The issue should take an hour to resolve. Look up the account of my ex-wife, review the payout method, revise the 1099 form accordingly and tell the federal tax authorities that they made an error. Then take me off the account. This has not been done and no one will tell me why. It’s rather stressful to have the tax authorities after you for money rightfully owed by someone else, and when you can’t get the help you need to fix the problem, it’s even more so. Airbnb appears to be rather unprepared to handle issues like this, surprisingly, so I’m posting this simply as a warning to others. Thanks.
One hand does not know what the other hand is doing at Airbnb.
They are not prepared to deal with any issues that they claim to take seriously. They knew my airbnb guest was attempting to extort $650 from me. The guest named Michelle Lucien aka Michelle Mich claimed someone broke in and stole $650 from her. However, no evidence of a break in. She told me she had travel insurance. I told her to make a police report and so did airbnb. She refused. The rep I was dealing with said she was not acting right, and if money was stolen from her she needed to call the police. He also said he could tell the messages on the airbnb were leading up to the actual extortion attempt. Airbnb told me they had my back, not to cave, and not to give her the money.
Then they allowed her to give me a bad review. In her recorded extortion attempt she told me that if I did not give her the money she would write a review that would ruin my reputation and business. Airbnb refused to listen to the tape saying that I could have altered it, treating me as if I was the crook. The higher up then read the message thread and said he did not get it, and she did not have to call the police, and she was writing about her experience, and they allow freedom of speech. He acted like he did not know what had previously transpired. This company offers the illusion of safety and protection, but it is a sham, just an illusion.