I am one of the oldest users on the Airbnb platform. I have been using it since it started. I am not going to lie, it helped me a lot. It changed my life in many ways. I used the referral program and sent many invitations to my friends and managed to earn around $500 in referral credit.
Yesterday while in Paris, at the end of my Eurotrip, I lost access to my account. I received an email saying I was probably hacked. I was like “okay, just fix it as soon as you can.”
They kept me locked until 3:00 AM the next day and sent me a message in Chinese saying that I can now book… at fricking 3:00 AM. The next day, I tried to contact hosts to book something; the messages could not be sent. I talked to seven support agents on the phone. No one gave me an answer or had a clue what was going on. They said “wait an hour – our system is jammed.”
I waited the whole day. I started tweeting about it. They responded to my tweets with their automatic replies. At 9:00 PM I received an email from the security team saying that I was removed from the platform and that Airbnb doesn’t need to tell me why.
In other words, I can go f&%k myself because I’m not owed an explanation. I counted on that referral credit because I am a student, still broke. I ended up spending two nights at the bus station. I will not let this slide, Airbnb. I am posting this in all of my social media platforms: Reddit, YouTube, Facebook… you name it. Airbnb, shame on you.
Airbnb’s software sucks. Period. Totally agree with that, and they have accidentally banned people and messed up their accounts, etc. many times. Seriously, it’s’ terrible and it sucks that it messed up your travel plans.
But, what does being one of Airbnb’s “oldest users” have anything to do with it? Let’s do the math. You can’t get an account until you’re 18, and Airbnb started a little more than 11 years ago, so, either you’re exaggerating about being with Airbnb “since it started”, or you’re at least 29 years old and you’re still a broke college student. And either way, if you’re a broke college student, you haven’t made Airbnb a ton of money that would make them kiss your entitled a$$ to keep you as a customer, have you?