Category Archives: Airbnb Host Stories

These are real, uncensored stories from Airbnb Hosts.  We encourage our site visitors to read and share their Airbnb Host Stories to help warn others of the dangers of using Airbnb, and consider using alternative options in the sharing economy.

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.

Guest Turns up Drunk Having Nervous Breakdown

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I was hosting my third guest. I live alone on 38 acres and have internet but no phone. The lady sounded fine on paper; I gave her very clear directions and my mobile number and she acknowledged she had received them.

I came back two hours later and the lady was extremely drunk in her car. She drank an entire box of wine cooler and appeared to be going through some kind of mental breakdown. Rather than going to her cabin down the hill, she had got a ladder and climbed my fence and ripped off my doorknob, trying to crack open my door, breaking the plywood. She swore at me and told me she had paid to stay in my house.

I told her she had to leave the property as I could not risk her damaging my property further. I assured her I would refund her. It’s a kind of yoga retreat and there is a “no drugs or alcohol” policy. There is a gas stove in the cabin and we are surrounded by world heritage forest — it’s too dangerous to have a drunk or unstable person around.

She became irate and said she was too drunk to drive away and that her dog was lost (we ask people to keep their dogs on leash at all times). I could see she was in crisis so I offered her a cup of tea and to drive her down the road to a free campground with a sleeping bag I would donate… more abuse followed.

I saw that this woman had a knife in her car. I no longer felt safe. The woman refused my help and refused to leave. I was left with no option but to call the police, which I have never done in my life. I went to my neighbour’s and called the police who took 40 minutes to arrive. They were very understanding and did not escalate the situation.

The woman suddenly became very agreeable, although it was clear she was still very drunk. They escorted her to town to sleep it off in her car and they took her keys for the night. I did not press charges as clearly her life was falling apart from her bad decisions.

Now I feel unsafe in my own home, have to change my gate code and buy a new front door. The help Airbnb has offered? A bot with whom I can register my complaint and a threat to my record if I cancel bookings.

Can’t Get Airbnb Supervisor or Anyone to Call Me Back

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I am a Superhost with Airbnb. I had a guest cancel a reservation on me the day before her arrival, by saying she had COVID. I called to see how to proceed from an Airbnb representative. I was told the guest needed to provide medical certification or proof that she indeed had tested positive in order to receive a full refund.

The representative then reached out to the guest and “supposedly” received this proof. He then called me back and told me he had received the required proof. I asked what kind of proof and he told me a certificate showing the proof, although it was in Chinese. I was leery and questioned this “proof”, as he had informed me a certificate with the date and her name along with the positive results was required and he had received such. I then reached out to the guest and asked her to forward to me what she sent to Airbnb, which she did.

I was shocked as she sent a picture of a COVID home kit box, certificate that apparently came in the box (in Chinese) and picture of the actual test: no names, no dates, no medical certification or doctor’s note or proof it was her test result. What she sent was a joke and would not be accepted by any company in the U.S. requiring such. I then reached out to Airbnb again and asked for a supervisor.

I finally received a message from Airbnb three days later saying “I have reviewed their case, we can confirm that the guest submitted valid documentation that verifies that the guest qualify under this policy. ”

I replied and said I was still waiting on a phone call. They then called me that same day. After explaining that I knew exactly what the guest provided as far as “valid documentation” as she had provided the same documentation to me also, and that the guest did not provide valid documentation. Airbnb then went on to tell me that actually no documentation is required and that a person can just say they have COVID and get a full refund and thus the host is basically screwed.

I then told her that two other representatives had said otherwise (and every other representative since has also said) that valid documentation was indeed required. She was supposed to look into it more and get back with me. I sent numerous messages after she did not get back to me: six, to be exact. After she did not get back to me, I called in again and was told the case was closed. It was never resolved. I asked for another supervisor to then call me.

I have called in several times since and have asked for a supervisor to call me back. Each time I am told one would call me back. To date, over a week later, I have still not received a call back from any supervisor. I have spent so much of my time and effort on the phone trying to resolve this or trying to get someone to look into this and call me back. There should be accountability for these employees.

So beware, apparently a person can just call in one day before their check-in and cancel by saying they have COVID and get a full refund. No proof required. No help from Airbnb for its hosts.

Airbnb Shut off Bookings over Local Registration Error

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When my city registration expired, my account was unregistered for one month while I worked on getting my registration renewed. Now I have the new registration, but Airbnb blocked the account from accepting new bookings, and won’t allow me to update the registration because the “local government has denied your registration.”

I contacted Airbnb four times to get this resolved. They always say, “regular support cannot handle this, it needs to be handled by a special team. I will forward this to them.” Then they close the support ticket. Here’s the furthest I got:

“My department conducts all of its correspondence via email, since we deal with sensitive issues and written documentation of our communication is required. We closed this message thread, and we will answer your request by email. I hope you can understand the need for this caution.”

It’s been two weeks with no reply. I’m a host of three years with 450 reviews and bookings of $60,000 last year, so Airbnb probably makes $15,000 per year with their cut while I do all the work. This is the service and support I get. Screw you Airbnb.

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Airbnb Refunded Guest After Telling Me They were Ineligible for Refund

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We received a booking in December 2020 for check-in on Dec. 25. The guest messaged us a few days before to say that they were nervous to come down as the COVID numbers had been increasing. We offered them a keyless check-in and to keep to all the COVID protocols strictly.

On the day before check-in, they messaged to say someone in their family passed away from COVID and they would not make the booking. Our cancellation policy is 14 days and strict. We offered to move their dates and they agreed. On the 25th, they said they could not make those days either (2 weeks later). So we lost on multiple bookings due to reserving these dates a second time. The guest then requested we refund him in full.

Airbnb got back to me to say that the guest does not qualify for extenuating circumstances after their investigation of the matter. The guest kept harassing us so we refunded him 50% through Airbnb and I notified the support consultant. We got a new booking in December 2021 and Airbnb deducted the full amount of the previous booking off of our payout. After knowing that they said he does not qualify and after knowing that I had also decided to refund him 50% as well.

The guest now ignores my messages requesting my 50% be paid back. Airbnb is pushing me from one consultant to the next on messages. I called them and they have the same story: pushing me from one consultant to the next. They did not notify me until a whole year later once my payout for my recent booking was processed, that they had refunded this guest.

This is daylight robbery and fraud in my opinion. If the guest was refunded, why would they have my account in a negative figure? What if I never got another booking or closed my account? This makes no sense. Someone at their accounts department is highly confused.