Author Archives: Nick

Nor’easter Doesn’t Count as Extenuating Circumstances

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My flight got cancelled to Boston due to the Nor’easter that hit the city on March 14th. Thinking I could beat the storm, I booked an Airbnb for the night before the storm. That night my flight got cancelled and I tried to cancel my Airbnb post. The hosts had a strict cancellation policy and I am trying to get it waived because it was out of my hands on why I could not get to Boston. This is the email that Airbnb sent to me saying that I’m not eligible to apply for a refund under extenuating circumstances, because my flight was not affected by the storm. Are you kidding me? This is how it all started: my flight to Boston got cancelled because of the big snowstorm.

Impossible to Speak to an Airbnb Decision-maker

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Airbnb has insufficient customer service: everything is automated, and the staff has changed from the US to an overseas call centre where nobody has any authority to handle anything but straightforward cases. There is no email address, no complaints department, and no phone numbers a robot company with incompetent employees. There are two issues with this system:

1) My previous guest did not check out, left half of his stuff in the room, and took the house key to my home where I live with my family. This is a major security issue because a stranger is somewhere out there with the key to my home in his pocket and nothing has been done from the Airbnb side. I spent the whole evening on this speaking to four people. Now it is 10:00 PM; I started to ring them at 6:00 PM. To change a door lock in Australia costs $350. That’s not enough cover for damage done by guests.

2) Photographers. After I moved houses, it took nine months to finally get someone to take an accurate photo of my single room. Because I have no fish eye lens I was not able to take a decent photo of the room from an angle where everything is visible. After the photographer finally arrived (three hours late) he took photos and downloaded them to the wrong listing. This was four weeks ago. In the meantime I got bad reviews of guests who thought rightly, that the advertised photo (room in the old house) is inaccurate, even though the same furniture is in the room. I called Airbnb four times where I was left waiting for hours. Despite this, nothing has happened. Airbnb threatened to cancel my listing because I do not have five-star reviews due to the inaccuracy issue.

In addition, the expectations that hosts have to provide five-star accommodation and service is unrealistic. A hotel room in my area starts from $180 per night and I charge $26. I provide low cost accommodation in an almost brand new, meticulously clean home in a beautiful area. 98% of all my guests were very happy with my service and facility. Surely one cannot expect butler service and five-star accommodation for $26 per room per night in an expensive tourist area in a western country like Australia.

Ring Stolen by Host Leads to Customer Service Nightmare

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I rented a condo in Panama City Beach, Florida in January 2017 to visit an old friend with terminal cancer. Upon arrival, everything was fine. When I returned home I realized a diamond ring that belonged to my late sister-in-law was missing. As you may imagine I was sick. I have never lost anything and that would be the worst thing to lose. I sent a message through Airbnb to the host, asked them to please look for it, and reminded them in what bedroom I stayed. Low and behold, they found it on January 31st 2017. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was. They asked for my address and for how much to insure the package, and I provided the information.

It is now March 14th and I still do not have the ring. I contacted Airbnb on February 10th after multiple attempts to communicate with the host to which they would no longer respond. Airbnb reviewed all the messages and opened a case. I have not been contacted by Airbnb once. I have called multiple times, been on hold for 30-45 minutes, spoken to someone who stated that my case has been assigned to someone and they would be contacting me, and to date there has been absolutely no contact. Every day I call Airbnb, hold for a long period of time, speak to someone and that is it. I have asked for a manager or supervisor each time and was always told they were busy. I have insisted that I speak with someone and have been hung up on three times now. I am not sure what to do. I have contacted the local police department, filed a report, and also reported Airbnb to the Better Business Bureau. It’s bad enough I lost the ring, but the worst part is lack of help from Airbnb. I will never use them again.

Not even a Response from Airbnb Customer Service

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Don’t trust the information on the Airbnb website. I have had three good experiences with Airbnb in Australia so I thought I would use it for a recent overseas trip. Two of the four were terrible. The Dublin accommodation did not mention it was a very old building with no lift and the room was on the third floor; not even a mention of the unit being an apartment, just ‘self contained accommodation’. My travel partner was unable to use the stairs so we had to cancel. We cancelled before the cut off date for a 50% refund but the host refused to process the refund. We contacted Airbnb with absolutely no response.

The second experience was in Edinburgh. The room was uncomfortable and the host rarely spoke. When he did, he was very rude. We paid top dollar for this property as it was central, but we were very glad to get out of there. We contacted Airbnb and once again, there was no response. Absolutely no response to disputes and concerns is extremely poor customer service. I will never use Airbnb again. I would rather pay extra and feel confident in my choice of accommodation.

Airbnb Scam: Blaming Guests for Bleaching Sheets

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I stayed in a very nice Airbnb in Majorca a few weeks ago. Everything went perfectly and our hosts were very helpful. However, after giving them a good review, we had problems arise. The host claimed that we bleached some towels and pillowcases, and was requesting $361 CAD as compensation. After dealing with Airbnb instead of the host, they are still requesting that I send $156 CAD for a few linens. However, we did not wash any of the linens, nor did we bleach them. Furthermore, that is a ridiculous amount of money for a few linens. There is no proof that we bleached the linens (because we didn’t), and they are still accusing us of this, Make sure that if you are staying at an Airbnb, you document everything, because you never know what they will accuse you of.

Not Able to Find Airbnb Host, Cancelled Stay in Dublin

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I booked an Airbnb in Dublin, outside the city center I believe. I drove because I thought I could stop somewhere and ask for directions. I had Googled the trip directions and followed them. About 7 km from the destination things went wrong. At a cafe I rang the host for assistance. She basically left me there to fend for myself. I clearly said where I was. According to her, none of her guests had had this problem, so why couldn’t I put an address in Google? What about herself? After asking the girl in the cafe for directions, also assisted by a customer, I got new directions. I was going the right way. But with all the traffic and side roads, road works, etc, I got totally lost and ended up in the city center. The end of the story is that I never reached the place and got so stressed I decided to return home. There was no respect or any kind of understanding from the host. Apparently people are all the same and can handle everything.

Tenant Hijacks Property, Airbnb Refuses to Help

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I’m not really a guest. I am an owner whose tenant decided to operate an Airbnb even though it violated his lease and is a breach of our agreement. When we asked Airbnb to take the property down from their site they refused, indicating their arrangement with our tenant and stating only the tenant can take it down. The tenant has refused to do so, so we served him with a Notice to Quit, the first step to eviction. The process could take four to six weeks if we are lucky. Until he is out, we can do nothing about him continuing to be on Airbnb. Last weekend he rented out to a party of about 200 people. We are in California, where tenants have more rights than owners and when the state needs money they turn to the owners to provide it. We need better laws to defend honest citizens from the leaches that some Airbnb hosts are.

Host Cancelled my Long-Term Booking in Sri Lanka

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Last November I booked a long term stay in Sri Lanka. I wanted to stay for ten weeks in order to have some time to write, as well as to look at properties to buy as I hope to move there eventually. I found the perfect place, booked from June through mid-August, and all seemed well. The place had very good reviews and seemed perfect. Last January the host began emailing me: Why was I staying so long? He didn’t think it was a good idea; better to stay a week in different cities; he didn’t serve breakfast. All of this was in short, separate messages. He wanted me to cut my stay to a shorter one and he would refund my payment. I explained to him that I am a retiree and did not want to move around; I wanted to stay in one place, relax, write, and look for a property to buy. He sent about ten such messages. I did not hear back from him and assumed he had accepted.

Then, recently I decided that I would indeed prefer to go in July not June so went to let him know this. I found that my entire reservation had been deleted from Airbnb, as well as all messages and notifications from him. I looked at his reservation calendar, and I saw that the months I had booked are now mostly open again. I booked for two weeks in July, which at first were accepted. I then wrote him to ask why he had cancelled without letting me know, and what we were to do about the down payment I had made. At first he seemed confused; maybe he did not realise I was the same person. Then he declined the reservation, and wrote me to say I had not paid. I have searched the Airbnb site up and down and there is no way to contact them about this. Since the reservation itself is not there any more, I cannot complain. They only allow discussions on reservations that are on the site, but mine has been completely deleted. I need a contact email ASAP. I live in Germany so calling is a bit of a hassle. What can I do?

Airbnb Booking and Reservation Issues: Can They Make Mistakes?

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It’s not my first time using Airbnb. So far our first experiences have been great so we decided to use it and tried looking for a place in San Francisco. Upon checking I tried to ask some questions from 2-3 different hosts, e.g. how far their places are from downtown since it was my first time visiting. Anyway, I tried to check the dates and I’m sure that I just wanted to hold them for our reservation. I was just surprised that after a couple of days both bookings had been made and our debit card was charged. The first one was fine and I got a full refund less the Airbnb fees, but for the second one, which was more expensive, the host refunded only 50% of our payment. I tried to ask for some consideration since Airbnb’s policy states the host has the discretion of refunding the full amount since it had only been one or not even one day after they confirmed the reservation without my knowledge. Now I am trying to contact Airbnb but I have had to wait 72 hours for their replies. I have a valid reason for getting a full refund. Someone in the family just died and I hope and appreciate that someone can help me on this matter. For some people it might be a small amount of money but for me and our family and as a single parent almost $400 dollars is a huge amount for us to lose. I would appreciate if someone could at least help me resolve this issue as soon as possible. Below are some of the conversations. I have a lot of photos showing that I didn’t book the properties; I got a pre-approval (e.g. 1:39 but on the same date they charged my card as well). Thank you very much.

No Solution to Accidentally Using Instant Book

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This is only the second time that I have used Airbnb. I understand the process to be: I message the host and the host returns the message and you both decide if there should be a booking. I thought I was messaging Dorothy, based in Washington DC. There is a new feature to automatically book. So that’s what happened; I didn’t want to automatically book. She has been a host since January 17th. I messaged her instantly that this had been a mistake, and requesting that she return my funds. I called Airbnb to return my funds. There are no features on Airbnb to correct this mistake. I cancelled the booking, but both Airbnb and Dorothy are refusing to give me the money back. The charge was $3389. Then I got a message after my multiple calls to Airbnb over a week and a half later that I would get a partial refund of $2477. Then I received another email from an Airbnb representative saying I would only get $2161. I said this was unacceptable. I did not agree to a partial refund, which is what he was trying to state in his email. I said I wanted a full refund. They insinuated that I couldn’t get a refund. They will not return even a partial refund if I don’t agree to their terms. This is how they trick you.

The thieving host and I texted a lot. She was trying to convince me she had nothing to do with the transactions, but as I found out later the hosts have the power to issue a complete and full refund; she is just refusing to do so. She lied and the amount she can steal from me is over $600. All because there is no recourse for correcting the automatic booking process. This is wrong and it’s stealing. I think this new feature is a scam on Airbnb’s part and the hosts (at least my thieving host) don’t care if they harm customers financially. Airbnb’s customer service is not helpful and difficult to reach. The representatives will not speak with you or hear your complaints. Then if you don’t agree with the resolution, they threaten you with getting nothing back. Dorothy from Washington DC is a scam artist because she knew this was a mistake. I tried to send her a message. I told her the second it happened because there is no feature to undo the automatic booking. She made a fast $600 with no regard to the harm she caused. I’m a hard working woman with four children, two in college. For Airbnb to have unhelpful and threatening customer service agents and thieving hosts keep these funds and not correct this mistake immediately is egregious. Beware of the instant booking. Thieves like Dorothy use this as a means of stealing your money and customer service representatives will not help you. If anything, they will actually threaten to withhold partial payments if you don’t agree with the resolution. I don’t agree with their resolution. I want and need all of my money back.