I never saw this coming. I have built up a fairly strong vacation rental business through airbnb. never had any problems I’m a 5 star host. Hosted over 1000 people in my time with airbnb. Then out of no where airbnb terminated my accounts and left me totally abandoned. I can’t get any help or answers its really unbelievable that airbnb can just decide overnight that you’re terminated without any explanation as to why. Airbnb has turned into the worst, unsupportive, horrible customer service company I have ever dealt with. Be warned building a business through airbnb because they can take it all away from you overnight and there’s not a thing you can do about it.
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.
Guests tricked Airbnb into giving full refund – used false images
Hello all, My story : we rent a place perfectly advertised on airbnb. 4 weeks ago a guy contact us to rent the full place for 6 days (1600€ all in), asking also for a taxi and booking some stuff around our place. after some chat on airbnb and facebook (lot of pictures sent to him), he place a reservation (strict reservation). 2 days before he come, we proceed to buy all the food for his stay (full board here, for 8 person, for 6 day). we send him a taxi. even before seeing the place, he complain because of everything (too hot, too much people, not enough remote, fish in the sea …) and after one night decided to leave for a 5* hotel 200 km away … (without paying any taxi or the deposit he asked us to put on local sports operator). 3 days after, an email from airbnb : based on the pictures of your guest and the pictures on your advertisement, we can say they are not alike, and that the place is not ok with our policy … so we give a full reimbursment to your guest … nobody contacted us before taking the decision (as i’m sure the place is as described because i took the pictures myself, and I was there the week before). and the “case manager” don’t want to make any change to his decision the fact is that guest changed his mind from a bungalow on a remote beach to a 5* hotel in a touristic place and send to airbnb pictures from crapy place, but not from our place … and airbnb consider it’s actual pictures of our place ! the only thing the guest want is his money back … and he got it ! all together, this story will cost me about 2000€ (the renting, the food, the deposit and the taxi !) avoid airbnb, you are not sure at all to get your money!
Roomorama vs Airbnb
Has anyone had any dealings with Roomorama? I told them my account of the AirBNB extortion story, and asked them what they would do. They said they would examine all the evidence. I said everything including the actual recording of the unveiled extortion attempt and they said yes. I still cannot believe that ABB told me they could not listen to the tape because I could have altered it, as if I was the criminal. Plus, they knew all along what was happening and they told me not to cave and not to give her the money. Then they abandoned me. They say that would not happen. Does anyone know how they operate?
Problems with Airbnb’s website – Glitches and lying rep
Has anyone experienced glitches on the Airbnb website? First of all, I have had at least 2 guests tell me they gave me all 5 star ratings. However, Airbnb’s system did not register the rating as all 5 stars. One ABB rep told me he was going to contact the guests to see what they intended to give me, and he would change it. However, then he told me yes the guest intended to give you 5 stars, but he did not so we can’t change it, which I knew was a lie because they have changed ratings that were wrong because of glitches in the past. I myself have had trouble getting the the curser to hit the right star and even went to the library to make sure the person got what they deserved which was all 5s. I do not know if everyone else will go to that trouble or notice that it is not falling on the correct star…. After he changed what he had told me to no we cannot change it I said can you at least tell me what the guest said and he said no, because of privacy reasons. So, I contacted the guest and it turns out the ABB rep never contacted him, and now I presume the other guests as well. After the ABB rep told me he would contact the guy and change the rating to what he intended, I told the guy that this ABB rep would contact him and change it to what you intended to give me and he was happy about that. Now, he is really annoyed with ABB because he knows how hard I worked to make everything great for them. Also, after this guy left me a review, at first the ABB system said he gave me all 4’s and one 5. Then the next day, it said he gave me all 5s and one 4. So, I asked ABB about this and to date, no response. The only response is that their is not a known glitch with their system. I also asked them if they could just tell me how many total reviews I got since 10/1/14 till now, and how many were 5 stars, and they will not give me this info so I can do a simple mathematical problem and see what my SH percentage in the review section will be. I think they do not know. In the past the reps would give me these numbers. Now, it is top secret so I figure they do not want to admit that there is a problem with their system. Since they are so full of transparency and honesty, I do not know why they either cannot give me the numbers so I can do my own division or tell me there is a problem with the system right now. Either of those answers would be fine with me, but the way they have been acting is just wrong, and weird. The way I found out the guest even gave me all 5s was because of the system telling me different things from one day to the next. I kept in touch with the guest of record’s friend and I finally asked him what was wrong and he said nothing. I suspected something was wrong with the system because another guest gave me all 5 stars and it did not register that way, and a rep with a brain contacted him and changed it. That is why it is hilarious that this other guy is lying to me and telling me it cannot be remedied. One hand does not know what the other hand is doing over there. Before that I gave the guy a list of other guests who had told me they would give all 5 stars and did not. Up until I started communicating with the guests post stay, I thought the other guests had lied to me so I would give them all 5 stars, because I could not think of any other reason why that would happen or why someone would volunteer that they were giving me all 5 stars when they did not intend to do so. Another reason I would like to do my own math is that everytime someone gives me an all 5 star review it goes up by 1%, and when it is not a 5 star review is goes down by 2%. My knowledge of math leads me to believe that this is not correct and if I had the numbers, I could do my own math. It all seems really fishy. Since that time, I have gotten 2 all 5 star reviews. I also have screen shots of these and it is still stuck at 78% and it has been a least 10 days since the 2nd 5 star review is posted. I am starting to wonder if they are doing this because I told them about everything I think is wrong with their system including allowing criminals to rent your space, and not having your back when they tell you that they do. BTW, I asked roomorama if the same exact scenario would occur and I had written and audio prove if they would review everything and they said yes. I took screen shoots of the conversation just in case. I do not know if I can trust them either. So, if anyone knows anything, pls let me know. Oh and another rep lied to me as well. Several guests have become so irate at the ID verification system taking so long that they almost did not book. One told me she lost money on the exchange rate because of ABB’s incompetence and they will not take responsibility for her loss. Anyway, one lady was irate with them because she really wanted to book my place and while she was submitting to the long ID verification system she kept getting messages telling her to look for a different place. The ABB rep told me that was for people who did not want to verify their IDs, but this lady proved to me that she was getting those messages while trying to get ID verified for my place. Then she proved to me that after she was verified she got a message saying she could now rent my place or another place. What? Thanks Airbnb! Anyway, she became so irate she found my listing on another site and paid more money to rent through them, and in my opinion this lady is not the type to easily part with her money. So, that tells you how mad she was with ABB. BTW, this other site lets you communicate freely with the guests without blocking out parts of your conversation. For example, if you say google earth, they will not block it out. Anyhow, I cut and pasted the translations of the messages this lady told me she was getting from ABB to look for another place even after she booked, and some other complaints refuting what the guy had said and he told me he would not communicate with me anymore and now if I email ABB my messages are blocked. LOL! The other issue is that I have my calendar synced with VRBO and other sites and one day I was bombarded with booking requests for days that are blocked with VRBO people. So, I had to spend about an hour declining and apologizing to people. I feel I have to be nice to them even though it is ABBs screw up because they may want to book again someday. Plus they all seemed desperate for a place, and I felt badly for them. So, anyway, I sent screen shots of all of this to the guy that lied about contacting my guests before I knew he had lied to me, and no response. I sent them because he told me there were no known glitches with their site. Oh really, then why do they have a page asking white hackers not to discloses the glitches without contacting them first. Oh alrighty then! I have also asked maybe times to different people why the suggested prices ABB gives are so much lower than other predictive pricing website. No answer…. Someone at price labs told me it was so the investors will see your place booked every night. Since, they will not respond to the question, I guess I have to option but to believe price labs. Another predictive pricing website shows how you can charge more, be booked less nights, and make more money. I do not understand ABB’s logic.
Extortionist still allowed to use airbnb while honest host loses money!
I have already started my quest to phase out Airbnb. In the beginning I thought they were this great company who would stand behind what they said, but um…. no…. I quickly found out that this is not the case at all. My first negative experience was when I was contacted by a guest with no photo or profile about renting my apartment. In retrospect, I should have realizedthe reason for this could be a criminal record. This was about the 5th month that I had been using airbnb. So, she ask ed me if the dates she wanted were available and I told her yes.So, then she tells me, okay my friend is going to contact you with her account. The friend contacts me. Also, no photo, but a photo of something else. I asked her to fill out her profile and put up a photo, but she tells me she is just to busy with work for that. So, I tell her that everyone in her party will have to give me a photo ID. Then she asks me if they have to pay everything up front which for some reason gave me a weird feeling, and I said yes she did. She said she would email the IDs. Then she books and no IDs. She then tells me they will give them to me when they arrive.
When they arrive they tell me that they went on Google Earth and search the area inch by inch to make sure it was safe. Again a strange feeling came over me, and then excuses about giving me the IDs later when the rest of the group arrives.
So, next thing I know I am eating Thanksgiving dinner and I get a call from her with this fake hyperventilating sound asking me if the cleaning lady had keys to the apartment. The answer to that question was no, because the company I was using at that time did not allow the employees to have keys. I am sure she had pulled that scam before because she was shocked when I said no. So, I turn to my friends and I say, this girl is going to ask me for money, I guarantee it. Then after dinner, I call Airbnb to tell them what is going on and they tell me to go over there, but not to give them more than 5 minutes notice and not to go alone. I brought a camera because I was afraid they were going to steal my stuff and I wanted to document the condition of the lock.
I get over there with the handy man from the building down the street in case the lock is broken. Upon arriving I see there has been no damage to the lock, and no evidence of a break in. When I get inside, there are piles of brand new merchandise and at least 10 wigs all over the apartment. At this point, I am really scared they are going to steal my stuff so I take photos of all my things in the apartment while they are boozing it up. Then they tell me their story which changed later, and I say okay lets call the cops so you guys can make an insurance claim(they had said they had travel insurance) suddenly the doom and gloom that had been hanging over their trip since this alleged $650 had gone missing was replaced by optimism that it would turn up. Then I remind them that I need their IDs and they tell me that they have decided not to give them to me.
During the entire time they stayed I keep getting messages from her saying that the missing money has really put a damper on her trip. Which I could already tell meant give me $650 or you are getting a bad review. This was not the only hint foretelling the actual extortion attempt that was coming, but I do not remember all of what she said now.
The first time I went there, I forgot to turn on my tape recorder which had a brand new tape in it, but the second time, I did not and the story of when and how the money went missing was changed. The handy man again was with me and he picked up on this as well. One thing I gotta say is these girls were very charming and impeccably dressed so watch out for the charming con artists.
Anyway, she keeps emailing me with the subtle threats and about how I needed to help them solve the mystery and problem of the missing money, and how this missing money is putting a damper on her “experience in my apartment” I told her that I was not a detective and she needed to call the cops.
The entire time I kept Airbnb apprised of what was going on and they told me not to cave and not to give her the $650. They expressly told me that they had my back. However, later they told me that she had told them that if I did not give her the money she would give me a bad review and they told her that was okay as long as she followed certain guidelines. What? They told her she needed to call the cops and not me about the money. She refused to call them, and then they tell her it is okay to give me a bad review. Way to go Airbnb.
So, then she starts demanding to talk to me in person on the Airbnb message thread. This is when I knew the actual unveiled extortion attempt was coming. One of the days shedemanded that I come, I could not come and she became belligerent about it. I told her I would come on check day to assist her in making a police report. I went on check out day and again she refused to make a police report. This time I had my tape recorder with a brand new tape in it going before I even got into the place so I got all of it.
She proceeds to tell me that if I do not give her $650 she will give me a review that will ruin my reputation and destroy my business. Then she goes to lunch after check out time and leaves her friend there who will not pick up her trash. So, I start asking the friend questions which were also recorded. I asked to show me any proof that the money ever existed and shetells me banks in St. Lucia do not give receipts. Okay, how about a receipt from the money exchange here in America. Nope, we would not have kept that. Alright then, no proof this money even existed. So, by this time it is way past check out and the cleaning person is having to clean around this girl and their stuff. The extortionist comes back and I notice that theyhave not given me both sets of keys back, and I have to run down the stairs with her to make sure she gives me my keys and she starts screaming about Airbnb in the lobby of my building. After she is gone I call airbnb. The rep agrees that the messages leading up to the actual in person extortion attempt already look like extortion, but they cannot listen to the tape because it could have been altered. Really, this girl told your employee that if I did not give her the money she would give me a bad review, and they can’t listen to the tape? Not, to mention it was a brand new tape and could be examined forensically.
After this my BF tells me probably nothing will happen and with the help of an airbnb rep, I decide not to give her a review unless she gave me one and if she did, I will do it at the last minute. I asked the rep when the last minute would be (and this is also in writing) and he tells me 11 am on a certain date. The morning of the date rolls around. I wake up and see shehas given me a review, but I cannot see it. So, I quickly write one up and try to post before 11 am, but the system tells me it is too late. Then I see she has given me a pretty debilitating review. She has done this before I am sure. So, I call Airbnb and tell them that the time they told me was incorrect. Well, guess what? They did not care and would not change it, even though the time and date they gave me was in writing. They also would not delete the review even though they were the ones who told me not to cave and not to give her the money. The next guy I appealed to read the messages and said he did not get it and she did not have to call the cops. It was as if he had no idea what had transpired, and did not know that theytold me not to cave and not give her the money. It was like he thought I was making the whole thing up because I got a bad review. I would have been better off to give her the $650 and I would have gotten a great review. I lost almost 2 months of business after that. So, the long and the short of it was that they told me not to cave and that they had my back, and it was really all just talk. One hand does not know what the other hand is doing over there.
I was so disgusted I paid $1000 to get on VRBO. So far, I have had no problems with VRBO except their guests book a lot more in advance so it took awhile to start filling my place with their people. I actually have many more horror stories about Airbnb including being lied to over and over again by their employees, and I think their website is messed up and they will not admit it, but this is enough for now. I really cannot wait to completely phase them out.
Host account deleted by Airbnb but they forgot to tell guests
My host account was entirely deleted by Airbnb with no warning, no explanation, and any attempt to find out why has lead to the same automated email stating they do not have to give me any reason and will no longer communicate with me. Fast forward one week later (today) and a guest traveling all the way from Australia (and his wife traveling from Mexico) to my place in the US contacted me via email and phone this morning to touch base about their reservation with us this weekend. They obviously did not know their trip has been canceled. I’ve also been steadily receiving normal emails from Airbnb like “you have an upcoming reservation!” etc. I used Airbnb’s emergency contact phone number to try to sort this out and was told they would “put in a ticket about it” to another department and could not help me further because I “have no account”. A few hours later I got the SAME auto generated email about “your account has been deleted and we don’t have to tell you why” with nothing about the fact that strangers are planning to show up to my house. I call their emergency phone number again and had to explain the entire situation again and beg for them to not hang up on me or “put in another ticket” and they reluctantly told me their only advice was to contact the guest and let them know their reservation is cancelled and give them Airbnb’s emergency phone number. Which I did, and now i’m crossing my fingers these guests get the email and don’t show up to my house since they already have my address and all contact info. This is the most infuriating situation i’ve ever been through with any company of any kind. The lack of customer support, not just for me, but for guests that have already paid and are traveling across the world is utterly INSANE and dangerous! I feel very bad for this couple that had planned to stay with me, and I hope Airbnb does not completely screw them over too.
Airbnb Host kicked off of platform and never told why
Some background. I have no idea, whatsoever, why I was kicked off the platform. I had many excellent reviews and a 4 star rating. I had 6 properties (all owned by me and manged by me) on the platform. I asked repeatedly what I did and they stated “Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed.” They would never answer my question as to why. I received a text from Daniel Rusteen on August 20th, who saw my Craig’s List postings for my properties and asked if I would like to use ABB. He was paid for and taxed with the responsibility of generating new hosts for ABB and would give me a $500 credit to be used as a guest at any ABB listing. I texted back how funny this was as they kicked me off. He stated he had “pull” with ABB and could definitely get me re-instated. He asked for my dirver’s license so he could establish a new account and used one of my properties. Long story short, once I went into the new account to add content to my listing (and then add my other 5 listings), I was blocked. When I wrote and asked why I received: Katie C, Aug 25, 20:46: Hi Lucia, Thank you for getting in touch with us about your account. As we mentioned to you on January 5, 2016 and then multiple times following that date, we have removed you from our community for violations of our Terms of Service. This includes any previous account you created on our platform, and extends to any future account you make. As per our Terms of Service, Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and must inform you that, moving forward, we will no longer be able to assist you with your account issue. Please feel free to review our Help Center article for further information: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/432 Thank you for your understanding. Best regards, Katie C www.airbnb.com/help This is the same message I received in the past and the one to which I questioned the reasoning as to their decision making. As you can see, I still can’t understand what caused this to occur in January. Regardless, I moved forward with VRBO for some of my properties and moved to long term rentals for others (thus CL). I’m much happier with VRBO. They support the hosts better, have much better customer service that responds quicker and costs less.
PAYONEER Never Sent Payment
Payoneer NEVER SENT ME THE PAYMENT NOR FOR WEEKS and they do not know about it, you call PAYONEER and their people always try to blame your bank or someone else for their mistake. They force you to get paid in your country currency even if you request to be paid in USD they want to make an additional profit with the exchange rates they are really BAD!! PAYONEER is the worst payment provider ever… I am thinking on dropping airbnb because of payoneer.
Airbnb Can Chose to Override STRICT Cancellation Policy!
I’ve been an airbnb host for four years with a total of 6 rooms for rent, so I’ve had hundreds of guests come and go, but I’ve never had an experience like this! Most of my rooms are rented several months in advance, and this case was no different. I had a nice couple message me a few months ago and ask to reserve my best room for a two month stay, beginning August 24th (a few days from now). I agreed, and the reservation was made without any incident… until yesterday when I received a message from the guest saying that they had a “family situation” and they would have to cancel their reservation. I immediately replied and said I was very sorry to hear that, but that I would try to find replacement guests for their long term stay right away and that I would refund them for each night that I was able to replace them with other guests (even though I have always had a STRICT cancellation policy set with Airbnb which entitles me to technically keep up to 100% of the guests money for up to one month if they cancel last minute like this). Granted I am a great host and have never actually taken a guests money or double-booked a room, but for the record I have that right when a guest cancels last minute. Well I never knew this was even possible, but somehow this guest contacted Airbnb directly and convinced them to OVERRIDE their own policy and my Strict Cancellation setting and give the guest a full 100% refund even though their move in date was only a few days away! How is that possible? What is the point of having a “Strict Cancellation Policy” with Airbnb if they can decide to override it at any time and completely screw one of their best and most loyal hosts?? At this point I should also mention that my wife is pregnant and due to have our first child on August 27th (of course he could come early or late) so now I not only have an empty room with zero money coming in for it, but I have to scramble around to find new guests to fill the same time frame when I should be focusing on my new family expansion!
The attached images show complete documentation of the messages I received, as well as my Strict policy and the crazy loophole that Airbnb has where they can just cancel any reservation at the last minute with a full refund without thinking twice about the impact on the host!
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to serious look into switching all of my airbnb hosting business to another service like VRBO or Roomorama etc.
SHAME ON YOU AIRBNB! Stick to your word and don’t screw your hosts.
An Airbnb Guest from HELL
Oh well,here is goes! A few month ago, I rented my GUEST house which was originally built for my parents to a male nurse from Michigan,his name Robert. He was my 1st Airbnb Guest! The booking and all the communication between me and him BEFORE he moved in was good! I thought that’s a really nice guy! When he asked me IF he can cool the house down to 68 F, I did not think much about it! I just wanted an additional 40$ for the 18 days of stay,and I thought that would basically cover it! (WRONG!) He agreed! So he and his future fiance arrived at my house. They moved in and the next day he told me that the drain is clogged in the bathroom.No problem, I thought! I entered the house and its freezing! All AC’s were going at full throttle! The girl was covered in a blanket! Again, I thought, oh well…but I checked the consumption of electricity and in 1 day he used more then 10 $ worth! So 18 days,that’s almost 200$ in electricity!! So I talked to him and he agreed to pay more! Great, right!? Well, when the guy and the girl moved out, I checked the house for “obvious damages” the ones YOU immediately can see, and did NOT start cleaning until a few days before the next guest arrived! And since this was my 1st Airbnb guest, I did not know about the 2 day CHECK for damages policy!! So almost 3 weeks later I started cleaning! We don’t have any professional cleaning in our city! Well, the WHOLE ENTIRE house was covered in a sort of redisch or brownisch film! So anywere you wipe or try to clean,the cleaning cloth is REDISCH! I mean EVERY WERE!!! The bath, the kitchen, EVERY WERE!!!!!!!! It took me and my wife close to 10 hours to clean! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT???? The only explanation was some kind of “TANNING SPRAY”!!! The guy when he arrived had a “weird” unnatural TAN! Then I discovered that the bathroom door was damaged! I did not see that before,since you have to go inside the bath and actually try to close it! So I had to basically replace the whole door! Another door were the handle is was also damaged,but that one I could fix! I contacted Robert, he DENIED all. Did not know what I was talking about! I contacted airbnb, but like always,first the tried to get the money from Robert, I was asking an additional 170$, but he refused! Then it was the usual from airbnb: After 2 days there is nothing we can do!!! What a bunch of BULL!! They dont want to get involved!! But IF it comes to their commissions, that they DO COLLECT an the day the guest books!! So they are NOT liable and ALWAYS get their commission!! Oh almost forgot! For WEEKS the house smelled like rotten or dead meat!! Maybe it was Robert…that rotten stinking son of a bi…!!! WHAT kind of people are these??? And HOW does AIRBNB let them get away with these things!! We the HOSTS, who are their INCOME source are just the suckers when problems occur! Well I did learn from that!! I copy an ID from ALL Guests! And I check the house every so often..Trip Adviser gives Hosts, 7 days to claim damages!