I saw a house in Bellevue Wa area hosted by Kevin. Property was recently listed on the site, and I entered my dates, CC info, and provided a “story” that the site suggested to get accepted. I received a email from Airbnb stating it’s waiting host approval, then shortly afterwards a email from Kevin saying “looking forward to your arrival”. Assuming everything was a done deal I read the email on my mobile phone, and expected to be charged and planned the rest of the trip. I had left the page on my PC and this week I noted one of my dates were available. Confused I logged on to the Airbnb site and saw I was accepted, and to click on confirm. I never saw this from my mobile, and why they’d send SMS messages saying I’m good to go, but not to state I’m risking losing it. Kevin said “sorry, you can not book for that time”, and “Airbnb’s system is confusing”. I’m pissed off, but I’d be really torqued if I made it closer to the date wondering where my confirmation is. I’ll never use their system again, I should have gone with a hotel, and I will again.
Author Archives: David Bruce
Fake hosts..FAKE listing!!
I lost out on £2910 thanks to Airbnb. They had allowed a person to upload a FAKE villa, under a fake hosts details!! They don’t even check that the host is real…this is basic stuff here??! They offer the “option” that a host can verify themselves? this is SICK! I was communicating with the host, and told to wait until I had a confirmation from air bob before i went ahead with the booking. Guess what…I got the confirmation, which was from a AIRbnb email address. the payment details were at the bottom and i paid it! It was fake!! I called the police, air bnb and the banks immediately. Air bnb didn’t appear to be bothered and didn’t help AT ALL! Even though they cover hosts by £600k each in property damage, they don’t have the time or money to help the people whose lives have been upset because of them! The banks looked into the account and shut it down immediately, although the money had been spent, barclays offered my £27.00 as a good will gesture? Good will… damn insulting!! The police can’t track down the man in question, so have closed the case! I would feel a lot better if airbnb would admit they DON’T take their security seriously, and if they would help me out…but no! I have and am still in talks with solicitors, they cannot get away with this!!
AIRBNB Refuses to disclose reason for termination
In the past year I had signed up for using airbnb and had done a very large amount of business with them. ALL transactions were handled in less than 24 hrs, all fees and money handled according to policies and every request airbnb made for any verification, etc was completed in 1-2 business days. ALL feedback was extremely positive from guests. There was no reason for concern whatsoever. Suddenly I noticed that even though my listing was the only one in town my listing would not come up when that town was searched for. Instead the listings from all surrounding towns would show up and my listing would finally come up on about the 3rd or 4th page. I continued to get business so I did not try to address this. Then about a week ago I received an email that I needed to verify my account. So in less than two business days I uploaded my information… They wanted passport or ID and I received a response than my verification was complete. However that same day my account was froze and $4000 of bookings all received cancellation notices from airbnb. They were also told that if they booked with someone else on airbnb they would get an extra 10% refund for staying with airbnb. I can still to this day sign into my account and even message the people that were cancelled however the messages do not get delivered and my listing no longer shows online. After tons of calls to a terrible customer service department one person said Samantha was our airbnb agent and she quit that afternoon. Eventually we were referred to another so called division and Mark and Noah were supposedly working on it and that there were internal troubles that were getting worked out and we would get a response in 24-48 hrs. The 48hrs lapsed and not one contact was made to me. So I started calling again. This time I was told my account was terminated and was given false dates of emails that were supposedly sent but they do not line up chronologically with the sequence of events. I insisted that I be given a reason for termination and airbnb refused to give any explanation. They kept saying you have been terminated and we are no longer going to talk to you. I demanded to talk to a supervisor and was again told “no, your account has been terminated”. I was also given the game of if getting too pushy they put you on hold for a few minutes and then come back, and if you get pushy again they do it again… This is a new trick all customer service departments are turning to. Gone are the days of a company giving any credence to good customer service. I have one guest who stayed the weekend while things were transpiring and airbnb is holding their money and will not release it to me because they say they terminated my account… which according to them did not happen until 5 days later… I have managed to contact some of my cancelled bookings and they are extremely grateful for my efforts and they will never use airbnb again. Some of them use other sites and will not use airbnb again. Ironically a fellow host had an independent review agent who reviews several of these sites stay at their property and is disgusted with what happened. That person is going to try to at least get to the bottom of things. Hopefully that will help get the word out. This has apparently been happening for years with airbnb and one may wonder, with the other legal troubles they are having, what is really going on. My advice is RUN FROM AIRBNB AND TELL EVERYONE!!! This needs to be made known. If there are any efforts to pull together support to do something about this PLEASE let me know. I had a very upstanding cleanly ran relationship going and was terminated with no reason given. Dont think for a minute it had anything to do with the “video verification” they are pushing. Are they steering business? Was I too successful and they shut me down to play favortism? I have no idea, but I know other host accounts that are getting extremely uncomfortable with airbnb and will soon be leaving. That is one way to resolve this… Air their dirty laundry HEAVILY and leave them squandering in their legal issues they are already struggling with.
USE AIRBNB IF YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR LIFE COMPLAINING ON THE PHONE
I have never spent so much time on the phone complaining about other people in my Life.. Airbnb ruined my trip to LA I had 3 bad experiences one good and reviewed it honestly as I would want to know all the ins and outs of a place so I can make a valid decision if I want to travel to the other side of the world to stay in it! and pay my hard earned money on it. After finding a nice place that I actually wanted to stay in I stayed 2 weeks reviewed it honestly and now have abuse from the host for this.. Sorry but when I have guests staying at my house who are NOT paying me I have respect for them, I don’t go around shouting and talking loudly like they aren’t even in existence!.. Cleaning fees are charged.. Surely that’s what you are paying to use the room for? you don’t pay a cleaning fee when you stay in a hotel and you get the room cleaned every day, you get clean towels every day! I got them once I took them my self on the second week.. the bedding was changed once, I paid around $145 for the pleasure of this. This is the good review, the first place wasn’t fit for a dog to stay in, I left after 30 minutes and she kept my $180 , the bedroom looked like a hostel and it was described as a penthouse when it was a social housing block!!.. No one vets the places and no one cares less what they are like as long as Aibnb are making money.. I will never use it again to travel abroad, I will try it once in the UK then if that is no good it will be deleted along with the rest of the trash!.. I feel total sickened at the whole affair and it ruined 10 days of my holiday with all the problems caused by hosts..
Problems with ID verification, no help from AirBnB
I have used AirBnB twice without any problems. My third booking was with a couple and I believe they had no reviews yet (I don’t recommend booking with someone without (good) reviews). They accepted my three night booking and the money was taken from my account, but the lady immediately messaged me that the third night would not be possible. However, the money was already taken. I told her that I then was no longer interested and cancelled the booking, but this only gave me a partial refund. AirBnB was helpful and told me the host should have booked. AirBnB gave me a voucher which I had to use that day to book something else (nice gesture but I didn’t have much time that day) and I did. However, I had plans to go on a trip and took the week off. I wanted to make my booking but suddenly was asked to verify my ID. The site however states that they can’t send a message to my mobile phone number (not sure why). AirBnB has been extremely unhelpful and my planned trip I could not book, so I had a week off but no place to go. After weeks, I still have not received any help from AirBnB with the verification or why my phone number is not suitable.
Heads Up for People Looking for Hamptons Rentals
To people doing research on AirBnb: Avoid the East Hampton Get Away listing on Three Mile Harbor Rd by Bob Nicholson! He is highly unreliable – we paid for the listing two months ago for july 4th weekend, and were just notified yesterday (June 15) that he’s cancelling the listing, leaving the eight of us 2 weeks to find another place in the Hamptons. At this point, it’s almost impossible. All travel costs will be forfeited, making this a very expensive non-vacation.
What?!?!
I think this entire site is BS. I was hosting a few german people in my home during the the world cup. They got a little out of hand broke my 70 tv vomited on my freshly shampooed carpet. Airbnb with in a week deposited money into my account, I showed them the receipt for the shampooing i did the day before they arrived and showed sent them pictures of my TV and bam that was it. No making my life a living hell no submitting receipts for something ive owned for 8 years etc. So I cal BS on this entire site run by an Airbnb competitor.
***Editor’s Note: AirbnbHell.com is not associated with any competitors of Airbnb beyond the fact that they can advertise on the site just like any other site. We’re glad this particular poster had a good experience with Airbnb.com, and wish every experience were that way.
Airbnb feedbacks can be wrong
Our money (800 usd) were stolen in the flat which we rent on airbnb. We rent flat of Patricia in Prague on Neklanova street from 30 may till 12 june 2015 . Patricia met us in the airport with her boyfriend – Samuel. She took us from airport on her car. On the way to the flat they decided to show us place where we can change money without commission.
While we were changing the money (100 usd), Samy noticed small black bag where we kept the money. Total sum of money in it was 1000 usd with 0 balance debit card.
After arrival we talk a bit with them and they gave us keys. We decided to leave money in Paticia’s flat as it was was protected by 2 doors (entrance hall and the flat) in the luggage bag with code lock.
On Tuesday 02.06.2015 we took 100 usd (800 usd left). Next time on Thursday 04.06.2015 we decided to change another 100 usd and saw that there were no that little bag with money, and the luggage bag was cut in two places. Other things, even other money (700 euros and 4000 roubles), passports, documents stayed there. Other things like lcd TV’s etc were not stolen. Windows were closed. Door and windows were locked and had no any damages.
We called Patricia. She came later and called the police.
Police made photos of the cut bag gathered evidence and invited us to the police office on the next day.
After that Patricia changed the lock of the door. We asked Patricia – if someone had access to the keys except her ? She answered no. We suspected that it could be Sammy (her boyfriend) because he saw that small bag with money. We asked Patricia – could that be Sammy ? She told that Sammy had alibi because he left Prague on Tuesday’s evening .
On our arrival to their flat Patricicia’s told that it was so bad that Sammy could not find a job, but on Thursday she told that he left Prague for a work during Tuesday evening .
On the next day we went to police. During our talk to police we were informed that Patricia was before us in police station and gave false information. She said to police that we don’t remember where we lost our money and perhaps we lost our money on the way from airport to her house (though she took us in her car).
In Police we were informed that it look like a typical way of robbing the guests where host work together with criminals, covering them. That was typical for gangs from Romania.
Because the door was locked and there were no damages the only suspect was the owner of the keys.
Result. Patricia did nothing to settle that case and disappeared from the flat, so we left the keys inside and closed the doors on automatic lock.
Czech Police and Russian Embassy representatives gave us advice to spread information about that case as potentially dangerous for the guests. We want to warn potential guests of Patricia that they are in danger.
GERARDO E IRENE COLONIALS HOUSE B&B – ABSOLUTE CROOKS
Ripoff in Quito Ecuador I had booked 3 nights with Gerardo and Irene in Quito Ecuador. Of course they were replying to me immediately when I inquired and booked, but when I had to cancel for medical reasons (Cancer) – suddenly their replies were very well spaced so to speak. Rather than offer me a refund which was applicable in this case, or at least a partial refund, they changed and said basically too bad. They claimed it was their busy season but when I had someone check their vacancies for the same days they had plenty of room. No help from Air BNB – Irene and Gerardo in Quito are definitely crooks.
Airbnb discriminates against older folks
I sent this email to Airbnb: Thank you. I am 54. Your firm has a larger market cap than Hyatt Hotels. You took my $3,000.00 without any verification—no problem. When I tried to get the address of what I purchased, I had to be verified! Imagine Hyatt taking my money and telling me they will get back to me when they want to to tell me what I actually reserved. It is inconceivable. It took me TWO weeks and time I do not have to conform to YOUR system which is utterly incapable of working with someone who does not fiddle with Linked in, Facebook or gmail. This should be disclosed to unwary customers like myself that you really don’t have a way to serve dinosaurs like me. Do send this up your chain IF you truly want to be a customer focused firm and earn the market cap that you have not in my humble opinion. You and Jordan were attempting to be most helpful—this is no reflection on you two but you work within a system that is not meant to serve all consumers—only those that conform to Airbnb’s specific requirements. With kind regards, Jim Johnson