Author Archives: Harlan Bleecker

Airbnb Customer Service Line ‘Disconnected or No Longer in Service’

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I made (and paid for) reservations for a farmhouse outside of Frederick, Maryland for a weekend stay in summer 2020 so that my siblings and their children could all be together when we buried my mother’s ashes at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Frederick. The pandemic caused us to postpone our stay until the summer of 2021 (after paying an additional amount representing the difference between the 2020 and higher 2021 rates).

Several months prior to our 2021 stay, my brother-in-law informed me he had a scheduling conflict, and because he is a preacher and my mother specified that she wanted him to officiate at her burial, I informed my host that we had to postpone until summer of 2022. She said she had no problem as long as dates were available (and they were).

Using Airbnb’s website, I attempted to make the date change, fully expecting to pay an additional amount representing the difference between the 2021 and the higher 2022 rates. Once I started the process of making the change, the website informed me that the stated rates were only good for a short specified period of time, and if I didn’t complete the transaction within that time, the rates would go up. The problem was I could not complete the change-of-date transaction without first paying full price for the new 2022 reservation — the website was not giving me the option of applying the funds from the fully paid-for 2021 reservation.

I sent the host a message asking for guidance, and while she had always gotten right back to me prior to this moment, for some reason, I did not hear back from her prior to the transaction deadline. I went ahead and charged the full 2022 reservation on my credit card, assuming that of course, the already paid full 2021 reservation amount would be refunded to me. I wasn’t trying to rip anyone off, but at this point, I had now paid the full amount twice for a weekend stay at the farmhouse. I thought surely I’ll be refunded the funds for the cancelled 2021 stay. I mean, I was using Airbnb’s website and the host didn’t respond to my request for guidance.

I contacted Airbnb’s customer service department who told me the host had to agree to me receiving a full refund of the cancelled 2021 reservation. I contacted the host who agreed to the full refund, and I informed Airbnb’s customer service of the host’s agreement. The customer service representative explained how my full refund would consist of two amounts: the amount paid for the original 2020 reservation ($1,980.87) and the additional several hundred dollars I paid for the 2021 reservation, representing the increase in rates between 2020 and 2021. The customer service representative repeatedly used the term ‘full refund,’ which frankly were the only two words I was listening for.

Within minutes, I received a full refund on my credit card for the smaller, several hundred dollar ‘increase in rates’ amount. As the minutes ticked by and the bigger $1,980.87 amount never showed up on my credit card account, I started to get worried. When I called Airbnb customer service back, I was informed the ‘full refund’ of $1,980.87 was actually a credit for future use. I told them I’d like to take that ‘credit for future use’ and apply it to the 2022 reservation. I was told that couldn’t be done. So my promised ‘full refund’ morphed into a ‘credit for future use’ — a future use of their choosing.

Airbnb customer service did suggest a possible resolution: I could cancel the 2022 reservation and make a new reservation and apply the ‘credit for future use’ funds toward that. I pointed out that their suggestion would certainly resolve the ‘credit for future use’ funds left over from the 2021 reservation, but now I’d be stuck with a new ‘credit for future use’ from the cancelled 2022 reservation. They suggested I work it out with the host. I called the host, and explained to her what had transpired. She seemed to be sympathetic, but she asked me to have Airbnb customer service call her and walk her through the process of fixing the situation because she didn’t want to make any mistakes, which I could understand after trying to use the badly coded ‘change of reservation date’ section of the Airbnb website.

When I contacted Airbnb customer service again, I pointed out that this all could be resolved within seconds, but the customer service representative insisted it couldn’t be done. The next time I called Airbnb customer service, I got a garbled recording stating that the number I was calling had been disconnected or was no longer in service. I figured I must have made a mistake punching the numbers when I made the call, so I called again, and again got the garbled recording.

Once I picked my jaw off the floor and pondered the thought of a customer service department of a major American corporation having a disconnected number and no apparent new or forwarding number, I was at a loss; it just didn’t make any sense. Then, a truly ridiculous thought entered my head: they didn’t block me, did they? To shoot down that ridiculous notion right away, I decided to call Airbnb customer service using my landline phone and not my cell phone (the number on my Airbnb account). Bingo: no garbled disconnection message when I called using my landline.

I got into customer service — that is, if you call answering a few questions put to me by a machine and being ultimately referred to an online FAQ page as ‘customer service.’ That is pathetic: I was blocked by Airbnb customer service.

Now I know what you’re thinking: I’m a hothead and I was speed dialing into Airbnb customer service 24/7, hurtling expletives at meek and mild customer service reps. Not quite. I called Airbnb customer service maybe four times total. I was always civil, and most of the time I was simply requesting information. The most confrontational (if you can call it that) was when I was told by the customer service representative “It can’t be done” in reference to the promised full refund. I very politely pointed out that actually it could be done — it was promised. A partial refund was accomplished within seconds after the first time I called in, and a full refund of the remaining funds could be done within seconds.

So as it stands now, I supposedly have a ‘credit for future use’ for $1,980.87, even though there is nothing in my account that indicates that. I guess I’d have to contact Airbnb customer service in order to access that credit, except they blocked me. I didn’t go to business school, but I can’t imagine there’s a business school out there that teaches business people that it is better to lie to and cheat a customer — a customer who is using your services so that he can bury his mother’s ashes and turn the customer into a lifetime enemy of your company than to put in perhaps twenty seconds worth of effort to push a button to issue a refund check. Whenever I hear someone utter the word ‘Airbnb,’ believe me, I let them know of my experience with them.

Mislead by Rental Description of ‘Entire Home’

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At the end of January 2022, I reserved this place under the search setting “entire cottage.” I expected this cottage to be entirely available to us for two weeks.

At the time of the reservation, there was no mention on the description that this was a four-bedroom apartment on the main floor of a house. There was still no mention in this description of a tenant living upstairs. This was information buried under a large amount of text under “house rules” at the bottom of the page.

On the reservation page, the description said only “entire home”, “entire cottage” and ” you’ll have the cottage for yourself”. The picture of the entire cottage was there on the main page. The rental also came up under a search for “entire home”. There was no mention, in the description, at the time of my rental, that this was a four-0bedroom apartment on the main floor on a house.

After a few days, I accidentally found out on the web, looking for the address, from an old sale listing, that the cottage actually has two apartments. I went back and searched on the site of the cottage and I found the “house manual” where it was indeed mentioned under a long text about house rules that usually is read just before checking-in that there was another apartment upstairs with a live-in tenant.

This is not what I wanted to rent for two weeks as a cottage retreat. By then the cut-off for free cancellations had passed by a few days. I contacted the host and told her that unfortunately the cottage is not what I had in mind when I rented, and that I would like to cancel. She said it was fine and I went on and cancelled. Then I asked if she could confirm that I can be fully refunded, given the situation. The host did not answer for three days and then I requested the refund through the resolution centre.

I was charged 1,600 Canadian dollars although I cancelled 23 days prior to check in date and the host rented the unit for the majority of the two weeks to other people. I cancelled three or four days after the cut-off date and I explained what the misunderstanding was. I was left with this huge bill for nothing, while the host got $1,600 and rented her cottage for additional income during that timeframe.

What followed was a two-month long exchange with different employees from Airbnb: ambassadors, supervisors and I was told a manager, although I could not verify that I was indeed talking to a manager. I have asked to escalate the case further at each step. I have now waited for almost another month for someone to contact me to no avail. At all these levels I was told that the host did nothing wrong, that Airbnb allows for such important information as the type of the house to be under “house rules” and that I am to respect the Airbnb cancellation policy and that Airbnb apologize for the “inconvenience” — the inconvenience being that I am left with this huge bill.

I have been made to wait, to start talking with ambassadors all over again. In one case I had to insist to have my case escalated and in the last instance the case had been closed even though I had requested to talk to a higher employee. It has been a nightmare to deal with Airbnb employees for the most part. I have asked for verification that the description did not contain the information “apartment on the main floor of the house” at the time of my rental. Nobody followed up on this.

I find this situation deeply unfair to me. I have been an Airbnb customer for ten years, have excellent reviews, and could very well be called a “superguest” if such a category existed. I know how to look for rentals on Airbnb and never had any problem. I was misled by the description on this rental property. Never in my ten years of experience was such important information — the type of lodging and whether there were other tenants — hidden under house rules.

A quick look at this category over other rentals showed that usually house rules are additional rules for when entering the house, while the description part — at the top of the page, right next to the rental details — contains all that is essential to know. I have never expected a cottage listed as “entire cottage” to have another unit in the same house.

While I understand that the host is protected under the Airbnb policy, I feel that customers are not. This is a case that might be okay by the Airbnb book, but it is a case that shows how some loopholes in the Airbnb policy can be used, intentionally or not, to mislead customers. If the host is not at fault in this case, I feel Airbnb should take responsibility and reimburse me. I also feel Airbnb should apologize to me for the way I was treated: lack of transparency for the most part, having to go in circles and explain my case all over again, no follow-up of simple verification demands.

It’s been three months of dealing with incredible frustration, loss of money, long wait times and frankly quite poor customer support and understanding.

Airbnb Bait and Switch Ruins Miami Birthday Trip

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I posted a review on Airbnb of the drama but they took it down stating I posted ‘sensitive content’ but have yet to tell me what that is. The host sent me an email with an address that was not the actual address of his unit. He lied. There were multiple codes to enter the elevator and the unit that didn’t work all the time either. There were also signs posted at the elevators stating that they do not allow Airbnb.

Our flight was delayed due to weather issues. We had to overnight in Nashville. I told the host and he said to call when we arrived in Miami. A full day after our initial check-in time, we arrived. It was when I called a second time notifying him of our arrival that the host revealed that he purposefully emailed me the wrong address. The real address was two blocks away. Not only that, he said we could not all enter the building at the same time, could not bring all of our bags in at once nor could we talk to the staff. If they did speak to us, we were to say we were his cousins. The Airbnb ad also said there was free parking; there was no free parking on the street or in the building, just $45 per day.

There was pubic hair in the sheets and pee stains on the mattress. Fingerprints were on most surfaces, the light switches were dirty, there were wet towels in the washing machine, years of dust and dirt buildup in the louvered doors to the laundry closet, the bedsheets were dirty (crumbs, specks of glitter, pen and marker on sheets), and makeup marks on the doorframe of the master bathroom. The toilet cover and seat looked around 50 years old. The toilet bowl was not completely clean. There were dry food pieces in the microwave. The high chair back had no screws. Refrigerator was dirty.

There were fingerprints on the sliding glass door to the balcony that had two metal folding chairs. Blinds were missing pieces and not even long enough to cover the glass on the door that lead to the master bedroom. A few random suspect sheets to change out but nothing matched. The towels looked recycled. There were only three washcloths, recycled from a car wash I suspect.

The host had the nerve to tell us his ‘man’ who was supposed to clean did not have time to finish. How is that even possible when we were a day late? He had the nerve to ask us to wash the sheets and finish drying the wet towels. We immediately went to Walmart and picked up sheets and cleaning supplies. Beforehand he promised to reimburse us for parking, the day we lost and Walmart costs. The time we lost doing this and standing in the longest line ever can never be repaid.

We told Airbnb about these issues but the first thing they said to us was we should have called within 24 hours of check-in. How can we call when we didn’t find out until after the time expired? Despite proof of the legitimate flight delay and proof that he waited 24 hours to reveal the real address, Airbnb refused to refund us outright. Instead they said the host would have to agree. Which of course he did not. The guy even sent me a threatening text message a week after his refusal.

I put up a review, they take it down. Do they take down his bait and switch post? Nope. Airbnb is completely complicit in his scam.

I am going to pay the arbitration fee and go through the process which is required by their terms of service before you sue Airbnb. I will never use this service again. To make matters worse, the unit wasn’t even cheaper than a hotel; it was just a busy weekend in Miami and we couldn’t get anything else close by all of the events we were going to for my sister’s birthday trip.

Worst Airbnb Host Ever: Kicked Out for ‘Party’

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Save yourself the time, money, and joy you will be stripped from. I’ve traveled around the world, stayed in hotels, hostels, and Airbnbs but have never in my life had such a terrible experience. What happened? Grab some popcorn, because this is a long one.

In all my years on Airbnb, I’ve only ever received five-star reviews from my hosts. Why is that? Because I’m a respectful, young adult that was raised with a sound moral compass.

The situation: I booked a stay at an Airbnb home in San Diego to take a break from work and relax for the weekend. The host had a pool, big backyard, and a nice home so it was the perfect scenario.

Little did I know that I was walking into a trap. From the moment I walked up to the house I was being watched and listened to on the ring camera and backyard cameras. Not only that, but within an hour of me being there, I get a text from the host stating that she was concerned because there was “a lot of movement” in the front yard. What was the movement? Myself and my friends unloading our groceries and bags going back and forth from the car.

Now I understand that hosts may get paranoid from time to time so I sent her a very nice text letting her know that we were simply unloading our cars. I even offered to give her a call so she could talk to me and have peace of mind that that was the case. After speaking with her for about 15-20 minutes, the host was supposedly relaxed.

The next day, we planned to sit by the pool, play corn hole, prepare some BBQ, and listen to some music from a small portable speaker. Just about what you do when you’re on vacation. To my surprise, I get a message from the host telling me that she got a noise complaint from the neighbors because we’re having a “party” and have too many guests. Keep in mind, I had let her know that during the day, we would have an additional two couples (four people) join us to hang out that were local.

If that’s a party, then don’t even bother bringing your family here because your kids might get arrested for having too much fun in the pool. Not only that, but I find it disturbing that we were constantly being watched through the camera. It felt invasive and weird. I felt like we were walking on egg shells the entire time instead of enjoying our stay.

I’ll finish with this. The host sent me a message on Airbnb mid afternoon telling me that we have to leave the property due to the complaint. No warning, Airbnb doesn’t contact me (which they have to according to their policies), nothing. So now we’re stranded in San Diego.

We end up having to book a hotel and still proceed to clean the house and grab our luggage so that it’s left in better shape that it was before. Our entire trip was ruined and on top of everything, the host is requesting $800 for “extra people and linens.”

P.S. She told us that she isn’t allowed to host vacation rentals in her neighborhood… weird.

Airbnb Asked Me to Cancel Non-refundable Booking

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I booked an apartment for a week in London through Airbnb: $2,800 non-refundable because I knew I had to be there that week under any circumstances. About eight hours later, the host messaged me asking for my phone number and clarifying that the listing was for private rooms in a shared space and not an entire apartment. Then he called me explaining in detail how to cancel and request a refund via resolution center. He refused to cancel on his end because of the penalties.

I contacted Airbnb support instead of cancelling (I am not that dumb) to resolve this. They verified that canceling was the only way for me to request refund. So I cancelled even with the text ‘$0 refund’ staring at me (I am that dumb). Now I have no reservation, no refund, and can’t leave a public review against the host since I have no reservation. I am down $2,800 within eight hours — not sure about my mistake or a listing created for a scam. The host has 14 listings running in parallel for the exact same room… how many rooms does this house have?

This was his first message to me to after about eight hours:

1. You booked two private bedrooms in a shared apartment with strangers you do not know (other guests/ my co-host/ family/ friends ). There is no private entrance to the listing.

2. You will share the bathroom and other common areas with others, not from your group.

3. Shared kitchen/living area/balcony are only accessible during daytime, as written in “other things to note” and are occupied by the host.

I want to make sure you are 100% satisfied with my service, even if you change your mind about this reservation, so please tell me if you have any questions.

Athens Airbnb Host Harassed Me Two Times

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My Airbnb host accused me of bad behavior, being crazy, and other stuff but left perfect feedback. I’m tired of hosts abusing me in all ways possible and then leaving me perfect feedback. The last one I got was my first negative feedback from a host but even that was not truthful. I asked Airbnb to look into it and provided ample photos too.

My main concern is my former host from a previous booking. He left perfect feedback on my profile since I paid through Airbnb for new linens and a mattress. All of these were ‘spotted with blood’ according to the host (a minor pinkish spot that what I remember) after I personally spent hours cleaning before check out. But okay: he has the right to get 70 euros for new linen and stuff. I paid him.

I bought a brand new expensive electric blanket as the listing’s heating didn’t work although I had it on all day (and was paying extra for electricity). I left that in the listing, I also left a brand new radio-clock that I bought during my stay. I bought utensils for the kitchen as the others were old. I stayed for more than two months so I treated the place as my home.

The host said I never informed him and that I’m a ‘mad person.’ He initially got 50 euros for cleaning fees cause he provided proof to Airbnb I did not leave the premises spotless. Indeed I didn’t, so I paid. But I did clean as I usually do. Then, and only after I got my first negative feedback by the host claiming I was very dirty and not a communicative person, he asked for 70 euros for broken or dirty items (linens with blood stains and a foam mattress that I had to clean at the last minute and dress up which took hours). I don’t even want to add here that I had medical issues that are not going to kill me soon but make me suffer, like high hypertension.

I paid again but I don’t get that if he saw the blood — it was a month ago when I left the listing — why didn’t he ask for money for the blood stain back then as opposed to now (it’s one tiny pinkish area that I actually washed a lot before checking out)? This was on a blanket that actually it slides into a duvet and I did not soil his duvets. I thought I would get away with it since he can slide the washed up blanket into a duvet but nope, I have to pay 25 euro for 1 tiny pinky and washed in washing machine blood stain.

I could involve Airbnb as mediator but I’m afraid of him. He seemed from day one an extremely aggressive person and has some sort of issue against me which I cannot explain. I’m not responsible for the misogyny of Airbnb hosts. If they want to harass a woman, claiming she is a horrible dirty woman, I think I’ll paid what they ask, but I have lots of complaints too. Nothing worked in that apartment. I was freezing: the boiler for the shower didn’t work, the heater didn’t work, and I had to fork out 80 euros just for a heated blanket to survive the snowy days. I left that in the listing plus a brand new 30-euro alarm clock. All that did not make the host relax a little about his hate towards me, which I don’t get.

Airbnb ‘Staff’ Tried to Commit Fraud Around Situation in Ukraine

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I wanted to send a host in the Ukraine money by booking a room (obviously I wasn’t going to stay). For some reason it wouldn’t go through due to an issue, so I contacted Airbnb Live Chat.

I was speaking to a representative when I received a call from them. Now I’m generally suspicious but they were able to tell me the other host’s name and the exact amount I wanted to transfer: basically they had access to the system. They explained that there was a problem with the other host’s account which was why I couldn’t send the money easily. However, I could do it with the assistance of Airbnb. It sounded a little strange and I insisted I wouldn’t do it over the phone, that there must be a financial transaction trail and then he said he would send the request through PayPal from Airbnb.

I logged into PayPal and saw that it was a personal account request and nothing to do with Airbnb, so I said “This isn’t right; I don’t think so” and hung up. I tried to log back in at that point to discover my account no longer existed, completely wiped from Airbnb’s system.

It’s been almost two weeks now. The problem is still not resolved. Airbnb customer help is basically nonexistent. I have been hosting since 2016 (a Superhost with all 5-star reviews) and as recently as the middle of February had someone staying. I have provided reference codes of those stays in order to help them “find” my account which I was able to access from my email but still have had no success.

Either their system has been hacked or they have some very unscrupulous people working for them and they do not do any kind of background checks. I no longer want to even host with this company after this experience as the trust factor has vanished. The client care is completely nonexistent. Most chats through Facebook and the live chat have been with bots. The general public needs to be warned, especially as people are handing over their financial information for bookings.

Someone from the same number called again today pretending to be Airbnb with a baby crying in the background — definitely not a call center. Airbnb has lost my business for good.

AirCover: Pretty Webpage, No Substance or Truth

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Airbnb’s “AirCover: Top-to-bottom protection” is a load of lies. Most of what is on the website is completely untrue. “Host damage protection covers you if your place or belongings ever get damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay” — that’s the protection promised by Airbnb. The host damage protection Airbnb says it has is 90% of the reason I felt comfortable enough to list on Airbnb. But as I’m seeing from all the comments, it’s all completely untrue and just a scam from Airbnb to get us hosts to list with them.

I had a guest damage the washing machine making it completely inoperable. After submitting every single thing required as listed under the reimbursement process on the host damage protection page, I was told that wasn’t enough and they needed a “damage report from a reputable company.” They then told me that the first one submitted wasn’t good enough because it didn’t say with “certainty” how the guest broke it.

It took me almost a month of going through every repair company in the city to find one that was willing to guess with “certainty” how the guest might have broken it. Most companies either told me that wasn’t their job, or they didn’t want to guess in writing due to liability issues with the third parties involved. After getting a sufficient damage report submitted, I was told “we will proceed with the payout.”

“Oh great,” I thought.

Five days later I’m told because the washing machine was ten years old that it has no value and they will pay $0 for its repair or replacement. Why did they jerk me around for a month to get a damage report if they had no intention of paying in the first place? Then said they contacted their supervisor and will pay 20% of the repair.

Basically the fine print under host damage protection means for my listing that, with the exception of the new fridge and hotplate, the guest could destroy every other appliance and piece of furniture in my unit and Aircover would pay me $0 to repair or replace the damaged items because of the “proper deduction for obsolescence and physical depreciation.” This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if they were just honest up front about it, instead of telling hosts lies like “host damage protection covers you if your place or belongings ever get damaged by a guest during an Airbnb stay.”

In Canada I could not find a home insurance company that would cover anything to do with Airbnb. I had an almost impossible time trying to find insurance that would cover just me because of the Airbnb rental under the same roof. I finally did, but they won’t cover anything related to the rental. I foolishly thought that would be fine because Airbnb offers and brags about their “$1M damage protection,” which doesn’t actually exist for hosts.

Lesson learned. I will keep looking to find insurance to cover my listing. In the meantime I’ve taken down my listing and am trying to decide if I even keep using a company like this that lies up front to their hosts. I will probably end up switching to another company that is at least honest up front about what they cover and don’t cover.

False Advertising for Unsanitary Airbnb in the Mountains

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I stayed at an Airbnb for a family ski trip with adults, children and grandparents age 6 to 70. This trip was a Christmas gift to my family.

Upon check in, I advised the host that there was an entire dishwasher with unclean dirty caked-on dishes. She apologized, said she hired new cleaning ladies and would talk to them, stated she would send someone over the next day to empty the dishwasher but never did. I cleaned other people’s dirty dishes before we even dirtied any.

The property was run down and not the cleanest, and became unsanitary when the snow melted on Feb. 16. There was no Xbox as advertised, and the pool table not functional. The hot tub was dirty and cloudy and not full. The host sent over a maintenance man who put chemicals into the hot tub and said he would be back in the morning to fill it and never came back or fixed anything else. The hot tub was cloudy, remained dirty until the day we left and was missing a foot of water.

The property advertised a large deck with mountain views which was full of snow, not shoveled or maintained and not usable. The snow began to melt and when it did there was about 20 piles of dog feces all over the deck, becoming unsanitary. The host refused to take responsibility or acknowledge the issue and even went as far as falsely claiming that I left the dog feces — we do not own a pet or a dog and did not bring a dog on this property. Airbnb also did not care about this issue.

The conditions of this place were very embarrassing and became absolutely unsanitary. What was very sad were the tactics and nastiness the host has used against me. She went from apologizing to bullying when she didn’t get her way. She called me a disgusting human, a liar, a hypocrite, and a scammer and accused me of planning this to try and get a free trip.

I am a professional person, an ambulance communications officer and investigator and of good moral character. I did not want a free trip; I wanted a clean Airbnb with everything as advertised and just some respect and fairness and truth. I have absolutely no words to describe how sad this makes me and how disappointed I am in the accommodations but moreover how the host treated me as a customer, how she bullied me and was completely dishonest to try to push her agenda against my claim.

The worst part was that there was zero accountability from the host and Airbnb in regards to this which inevitably means they face no repercussions and will do it again, which does not sit right with me. This was my first vacation since COVID started and I don’t want anyone else to get sick or have their time ruined by unsanitary conditions.