I joined last year as a host. I had a booming business for one year. Then in October I started noticing my listings were not searchable. I’ve now spent 3 weeks trying to get my listings to appear. They will appear sporadically, then disappear. Booking inquiries mostly zero. Is this due to AirBnB doing their “Personalized Search” for guests thing (i.e. also language that means they can show…or hide..your listing from whomever they want)? Would like to know if anyone else has this problem. And I know its not about filters searching or dates searching…I mean that when my listings should show as available – they just aren’t showing.
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.
Policy Allows Guests to Snoop Your Private Stuff and Write About What They Find
A guest retaliated about having to pay to replace my air mattress (a crucial item I needed for future guests) after they admitted, in writing, to damaging it so badly that they removed it from the property (threw it away) while I was not home (which is technically theft). Their retaliation was to write me a negative review, where they said they looked in my (closed) drawers and cabinets(!), and then revealed my personal items that they didn’t like or agree with its presence in the home. I asked AirBnB to remove or edit this review to take out the mention of my personal items. I had a year’s worth of entirely positive reviews and was nearly qualified for AirBnB’s elite Superhost status, and this was a first-time AirBnB user obviously seeking revenge for something they did wrong, but AirBnB’s customer service repeatedly told me they agreed my situation was unfortunate and morally wrong of that guest, but they stood by their policy, which goes like this: ANYTHING in your home is open for guests’ use, viewing, and mentioning in a review, so long as they do not reveal personally identifiable financial information (ex. driver’s license number, tax ID, or bank numbers). I had previously removed that stuff from my home, but I had no idea your guests can write about pretty much anything else, even if it is out of sight and in an obviously hidden or private place that most polite humans would never dare to look or publicly admit that they did look there. I specifically confirmed with AirBnB that their policy means guests CAN write reviews about your prescription medications, health info, religious artifacts, political artifacts, or any other object which someone, somewhere might find offensive, or that you might deem too “personally identifiable” or too private to be mentioned on the Internet. I could not believe a company knowing let go of one of their best customers in exchange for allowing an evil new customer to remain. This was not even ALL of the bad things that this one guest did or that I suspect they did, but those other issues are a one-on-one guest problem, not an AirBnB problem. The above described AirBnB policy and customer service issues are the reasons why I will never use AirBnB again and encourage all others to not use them for hosting or staying!
Airbnb Kicks Host After Sneaky Trap
I have been an airbnb host for over a year now. I have 73 wonderful reviews from my previews guests. One day, airnbnb customer service called me and told me they were taking all of my listings off of their site for no reason. They did not give me any explanation. The day before, I received a message from a lady saying she wanted to rent out my apartment but she wanted me to take my listing off of the airbnb site so she could do business with me. I clearly told her I will love to do business with her but she had to go through airbnb. THIS WAS A TEST CLEARLY FROM AIRBNB. I KNOW THIS PERSON WORKS FOR AIRBNB. They probably did not like my answer and kicked me off for no reason. This was a trap on airbnb’s side. I have never done any business outside of airbnb. Just because they did not like my answer they had no reason to kick me out their site. VERY SNEAKY WAY OF DOING BUSINESS AIRBNB. Its been a nightmare ever since. They will not give me any answers or list my apartments on their site. VERY UPSETTING.
Three bookings, three problems
I listed my house for rent on Airbnb for only one month and had three bookings. The first guest set a hot pot on my kitchen counter and melted it. The second guest dumped oil into the hot tub and broke the $200 handle, splitting the wood on the side of the spa. The last guest stole a white wicker storage chest with all the contents. I try so hard to make the house nice but why bother when three of three bookings ripped me off? I am ticked and disgusted. Now what do I do with the rest of these darned bookings? Cancel them? Grrrr…
Airbnb cancels your account without warning if your personal info is compromised.
I think Airbnb may cancel you if your personal info is compromised. Some of my info was compromised and VRBO sent me a letter so I called them. They did not cancel my account. Here is what airbnb says about canceling your account for no reason-
“Suspension, Termination and Airbnb Account Cancellation – We may, in our discretion and without liability to you, with or without cause, with or without prior notice and at any time, decide to limit, suspend, deactivate or cancel your Airbnb Account. If we exercise our discretion under these Terms to do so, any or all of the following can occur with or without prior notice or explanation to you: (a) your Airbnb Account will be deactivated or suspended, your password will be disabled, and you will not be able to access the Site, Application, Services, your Airbnb Account, your Member Content, or receive assistance from Airbnb Customer Service, (b) any pending or accepted future bookings as either Host or Guest will be immediately terminated, (c) we may communicate to your Guests or Hosts that a potential or confirmed booking has been cancelled, (d) we may refund your Guests in full for any and all confirmed reservations, irrespective of preexisting cancellation policies, (e) we may contact your Guests to inform them about potential alternate Accommodations with other Hosts that may be available on the Site, Application and Services, and (f) you will not be entitled to any compensation for reservations or bookings (even if confirmed) that were cancelled as a result of a suspension, deactivation or termination of your Airbnb Account. You may cancel your Airbnb Account at any time via the “Cancel Account” feature of the Services or by sending us an email. Please note that if your Airbnb Account is cancelled, we do not have an obligation to delete or return to you any Content you have posted to the Site, Application and Services, including, but not limited to, any reviews or Feedback. I read somewhere that they sent someone an email saying they were canceling the account for her security, then no further info. Lame! Recently, my 5 star rating was stuck at a certain percent for more than a month. It did not go up or down. I figure out the the percent was too high. They would not explain it to me. I do not get why they could not just be honest. Now, it has gone up 2%, so I figure it got caught up. These people at airbnb make me very nervous. Suspension, Termination and Airbnb Account Cancellation We may, in our discretion and without liability to you, with or without cause, with or without prior notice and at any time, decide to limit, suspend, deactivate or cancel your Airbnb Account. If we exercise our discretion under these Terms to do so, any or all of the following can occur with or without prior notice or explanation to you: (a) your Airbnb Account will be deactivated or suspended, your password will be disabled, and you will not be able to access the Site, Application, Services, your Airbnb Account, your Member Content, or receive assistance from Airbnb Customer Service, (b) any pending or accepted future bookings as either Host or Guest will be immediately terminated, (c) we may communicate to your Guests or Hosts that a potential or confirmed booking has been cancelled, (d) we may refund your Guests in full for any and all confirmed reservations, irrespective of preexisting cancellation policies, (e) we may contact your Guests to inform them about potential alternate Accommodations with other Hosts that may be available on the Site, Application and Services, and (f) you will not be entitled to any compensation for reservations or bookings (even if confirmed) that were cancelled as a result of a suspension, deactivation or termination of your Airbnb Account. You may cancel your Airbnb Account at any time via the “Cancel Account” feature of the Services or by sending us an email. Please note that if your Airbnb Account is cancelled, we do not have an obligation to delete or return to you any Content you have posted to the Site, Application and Services, including, but not limited to, any reviews or Feedback.”
MAJOR AIRBNB FLAW EVERY HOST SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
I’ve been an Airbnb Host for over a year without significant problems, but this experience showed me that I’ve really just been lucky not having a nightmare hosting experience before now!
Long story short, I had a guest book one of my rooms for a 3 months stay, just like I’ve done many times before. I received my first payment from Airbnb as usual… but then when the second monthly payment was due, I received a crazy email message from Airbnb saying that they couldn’t process the payment from the guest! What’s even crazier, they didn’t cancel the reservation until 7 days AFTER the last date had passed that the guest had actually paid for, meaning that I was going to lose at least a full 7 days of rental income and presumably I no longer had any form of security deposit to protect me… ALL WHILE THE NON-PAYING GUEST WAS STILL LIVING IN MY HOUSE!!!
What sort of idiotic policy is that? Airbnb waited until the last minute to charge the guest, then waited an additional 7 days before cancelling the reservation with a message (attached) that basically said “sorry, but we’re not going to pay you anything else, beginning 7 days ago. Good luck getting rid of this leech of a guest!” Why wouldn’t Airbnb charge the guest sooner, so if there was a problem I could cancel the reservation and kick out the guest before their paid time expired?
I wrote back to Airbnb asking them to clarify the situation… but they never responded! I emailed them asking if they could use the $400 Security Deposit (my standard deposit) that they should have previously collected to at least pay me for the 7 days the guest had already stayed without paying before the reservation was finally cancelled… no response from airbnb after several days.
What a total scam airbnb has become! I thought it was a brilliant concept, and it is, but the execution abysmal and the policies lack any sense of foresight or basic protection of their CORE value, their HOSTS, it’s truly shocking to me that no competitor has destroyed them by now! It’s like comparing Facebook to Myspace. Myspace was “great” until Facebook came along and showed everyone just how horrible Myspace actually was! Who will be the new “facebook” of home rentals and put Airbnb out of business?
PLEASE share this story with any current Airbnb Hosts you know so perhaps they can save themselves from this type of horrible situation dealing with such a stupid and irrational company.
How to scam airbnb! Guest doesn’t pay, and airbnb waits 7 days before cancelling reservation. Host is left holding the bag and takes a total loss!
No response from airbnb! Host lost money because guest didn’t pay, even though EVERYTHING was handled through the Airbnb system!
AIRBNB GUESTS BRING BEDBUGS
About a year ago, an Airbnb guest stayed for 2 weeks and left us with bedbugs that bit my daughter multiple times. We exterminated them and everything was fine for a while.
When another guest got bitten this summer, Airbnb refunded the guest more than 50% of her rent, even though I had a strict refund policy and denied their request for a refund since I know they started the new infestation!
If you can avoid it, do not host with Airbnb. Work with Craigslist, Zillow or other agencies or sites who let you make your own rules for when bad things happen.
1099 Tax Fraud
My ex-wife added me to her Airbnb account and somehow got the tax authorities to believe that I have received all the rental income from her properties and owe back taxes on it, which they are now trying to collect from me. This is a total fabrication and amounts to some kind of identity theft and fraud on her part. When I reported this to Airbnb, I asked for help in straightening this out, including things like reviewing and correcting the 1099 form they presumably send out each year to report income, and taking my name off my ex-wife’s account. Airbnb has been of absolutely no help in this. The customer service rep offers only sympathy, says they are sending the issue to the fraud department and that I should be patient. This has gone on for a month with no progress and no communication from them. My partner and I call almost daily. We get promises from the customer rep that it’s being taken care of and that this is an “urgent” issue, but there is absolutely no communication from their fraud department. The issue should take an hour to resolve. Look up the account of my ex-wife, review the payout method, revise the 1099 form accordingly and tell the federal tax authorities that they made an error. Then take me off the account. This has not been done and no one will tell me why. It’s rather stressful to have the tax authorities after you for money rightfully owed by someone else, and when you can’t get the help you need to fix the problem, it’s even more so. Airbnb appears to be rather unprepared to handle issues like this, surprisingly, so I’m posting this simply as a warning to others. Thanks.
AIRBNB CANCELED GUEST’S STAY AND GIVE HOST ONLY 50 PERCENT
A guest claimed that my villa with a swimming pool for 10 people was not good enough for them, even though it is always rented in summer times. The guests claimed that the wifi was not working , that TV was satellite instead of cable , and that glasses were not good, and as guests did not know how to use AC, they blamed me. AIRBNB canceled the stay and gave me 100 Euro per day for 10 people (half price of what was agreed) , which is very small. I finally was able to get an extra cleaning cost . I did not find it fair to receive half of the price . It seems that AIRBNB relocated the guests much more expensively. It was simply a trick from the guest who was claiming from me a half price refund to stay the two weeks. I like AIRBNB, but this time I was very frustrated.
Airbnb Tax Problems
I have just been notified by my tax office that they are conducting a tax audit of my tax returns, when I asked for further information I was told that AIRBNB have handed over my name, address and all payments made by AIRBNB to me to the United Kingdom tax authorities. Apparently AIRBNB has handed over to the UK taxman all the data they hold on UK taxpayers. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193503/Airbnb-landlords-face-huge-tax-bill-crackdown-Ireland.html