My boyfriend and I were both banned by Airbnb. I’ve been a traveler with them years and have many positive reviews. I tried listing my guest house and they asked me to scan my drivers license. They used a consumer reporting agency and found an arrest from 7 years ago when I was a teenager, it was not even a conviction. I was found not guilty and charges were dropped. But because of this they denied me from using their website anymore, and when my boyfriend (clean record) tried to list our space they deleted it and banned him and said they did not have to disclose why they banned him. We already had 3 paid reservations that they canceled days before the first guest was to arrive. They wouldn’t return our emails, and who ever answered the phone was just trying to get me off the phone “I don’t handle these issues, they’ll email you”. This whole experience was just ridiculous and embarrassing. I’ve never been treated so horribly by a company.
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.
Contacting Airbnb is a waste of time
Contacting Airbnb is a waste of time. I’ve tried to contact Airbnb a lot of times regarding some severe technical issues (I could not receive or send messages to my guests), but there was no way I could speak to the technical department or the managers to get this fixed quickly, all customer service could do was to “submit a ticket”. And obviously my tickets were ignored for weeks and months, because no matter how many times I tried to contact customer service telling them how urgent the situation was, they could not help, just submit another ticket.
So – the Airbnb customer service can not help you, only produce tickets. And if the people behind this wall called “customer service” decides to ignore these tickets, well, then you’re screwed. There is no way you’ll be able to speak with the people responsible for your problems.
Airbnb technical hell
I’m running a small rental company. I’m an experienced host and I’ve advertised my properties on Airbnb since more than 3 years, in total 3 apartments and 7 rooms. I’ve received more than 500 excellent reviews from happy guests. Everything went well till the technical problems started to occur a few months ago. One day I suddenly couldn’t send or receive any messages from guests and potential guests. Nor was my calendar working properly. Being able to communicate with your guest and update your calendar is crucial to rent out, especially if you coordinate several properties.
Of course I immediately called Airbnb and explained the issues. A friendly customer service agent told me they would look into the problem immediately and she passed the case on. But as the days went by and the problems continued to occur, I contacted Airbnb again and asked about the status of my ticket. I was told my case was passed on to the technical department and I just had to wait. So I waited, for more days, and WEEKS.
And the problems started to pile up. As I could no longer communicate with guests through the airbnb system I had to make expensive calls to all guests to arrange their arrival and departure and other practical details. Worse was it to reach those guests with no phones and no visible email address on their profile, resulting in several lock outs and angry guests, and also bad reviews. Several times I tried to contact Airbnb regarding these severe issues, but all I got was the same response “we’re sorry for your problems, but we cannot do anything, you’ll just have to wait”. So I waited, for weeks and MONTHS. I wrote, called, yelled and begged, but no matter how much I stressed the urgency of the very bad situation I got the same answer from Airbnb customer service “we’re sorry, we cannot do anything, you’ll have to wait till the technical department decides to give your case priority”, and there was no way I could be put through to the people responsible for my problems. Those 3 months were a living hell, full of stress, angry guests and misunderstandings. Furthermore, my properties couldn’t be booked because of technical issues, causing a big loss of money.
Finally, after nearly 3 MONTHS the problems got fixed. I asked Airbnb to refund the extra expenses I had as a direct consequence of the technical issues, but those requests were ignored.
For those who doubt this story is true, I can provide screenshots of all written communication with airbnb customer service.
So, my message to you is: Never ever believe that Airbnb will help you if you need urgent technical assistance. You’ll probably be able to reach a customer service agent saying he / she is sorry, but you’ll never be able to get through to those people responsible for your problems.
I’m now using other, more reliable services, you can check them out on my website similar-websites-to-airbnb.fastweb.no
Host attacked and beaten by airbnb guest
Help,
I have no news for over 24 hours from airbnb.
Yesterday some very strange behavior form a married couple who reserved to stay in my home over 4 months ago.
They broke almost every house rule and i didn’t know what to do, so i wrote airbnb for some advice.
They never responded.
The next morning, the guests arrived home screaming and shout profanity from outside the window (i didn’t know they were out all night long), the door was open but the husband was too hysterical to try opening the door.
So stupid me, i let him in so he could collect their things and instead he punched me, then kicked me, then grabbed my throat… i had just woken up in PJ’s and did all i could to retreat to my room and fight him off to lock my bedroom door.
They eventually left after causing much damage.
What was I to do at such an unexpected human behavior?
What happened to them during the entire evening out in the city?
So i wrote airbnb… still no news of the official complaint of these guests.
I also went to the police and hospital, my friend took photos of everything.
Still no news from airbnb.
I have been an excellent host, and my profile (and life for that matter), show exactly what kind of man i am.
It is a huge embarassement that airbnb has still not taken this matter seriously to connect with me.
I am very dissapointed. (tired, frustrated, traumatized really)
Just trying to breathe… and relax…n i feel awful (and i’m not talking about the bad neck, marks, bruises), just feel violated.
Really, like what neanderthal does that?
And his wife did nothing?
What the hell happened to these people and why did they take it out on me?????
I haven’t been in a fight since grade 4 !!!
And it was obvious that he is a well seasoned physical abuser… no wonder the wife was the way she was.
Can anybody help?
No, i guess better to write this down and let it all go… bye bye
Airbnb is allowing illegal subletting!
Airbnb has some very serious due diligence problems. They obviously have grown too big, too fast and too greedy to properly vet Hosts who are illegally subletting, especially single family homes in R1 neighborhoods. Worse, airbandb seems only vaguely interested in correcting or taking down illegal listings, preferring to hide behind boilerplate excuses. The customer service reps are either total nincompoops or obviously trained to do as little as possible to fix problems. Calling 855 424 7262 is pointless, all you’ll get is a frustrating run-around. I am speaking from a very unpleasant experience where a tenant I am trying to evict for non payment listed with airbnb, even got their pro photos and a very exaggerated posting and is illegally sub-renting my property. At this writing it is reserved as a party house for New Years and airbandb has done nothing to help. Airbandb was a good idea now gone very wrong, more Hosts and Guests alike are going to be bitterly disappointed. But, the unaware property Owners are at greatest risk. Airbandb should check real estate title and contact Owners for permission and approval before accepting and posting renters who sublet. They don’t and this is bordering on criminal aiding and abetting. 855 424 7262 is useless BTW.
Advice for when your account is hacked
I am yet another host whose AirBnB account was hacked and whose payout was sent to an unknown bank account. My advice to other victims: call every single day until the situation is resolved. Do not rely on email. I did both. No one ever responded to an email and, every time I called, there was something else holding up the investigation process. Here’s the long version:
12/12-called and reported the problem
12/14-called for an update and was told that I had done everything I needed to do and the case was being marked urgent
12/16-called and was told I accidentally hadn’t been sent the email outlining the steps I need to take to start the investigation process (including changing my AirBnB password–this is important for later). Also told to upload a picture of a government-issued ID on my profile. She was going to mark my case as urgent (again, I guess).
12/17- called to make sure I had done everything correctly the day before, and to say that there wasn’t a place to upload my ID, so I had emailed it. Told that everything was done correctly, and the emailed ID was okay.
12/18-called and was told the emailed ID wasn’t okay. They changed my account so I could upload my ID.
12/19-wrote a long email detailing all the calls and emails (I had sent several–no response). Called and asked the representative to read the email and decide what to do next. He told me I needed to change my password. Told him I had, but did it again anyway. Apparently he couldn’t see the change on his end, and this was also holding up the process. As I was on hold I saw that they deleted the false bank account (I had left it on my profile so they could see it), and had paid me the stolen money. I received an email apologizing for the hack, but also saying that it was probably my fault. Apparently I had received a message with a link in it on November 27 and, if I had clicked it, this is how the hackers got into my account. 1) AirBnB hid the link they are referring to so I couldn’t click on it even if I wanted to and 2) I NEVER click on unsolicited links. Ever.
If I hadn’t called daily, I never would have received the email of next steps, found out that there was a problem with my account and uploading the ID, and that they couldn’t see that I had changed my password as per their request. AirBnB would have legitimately thought that I just wasn’t taking the appropriate action.
Call every day. Call every day. CALL EVERY DAY!
my airbnb account has security issues and been hacked 3 times in the passing week.
I opened my airbnb account around the 15th on September, at first everything seemed great. As I compared airbnb to his competitors online, I was actually impressed, it looked easy, simple, friendly….
After our first booking the problem started:
First we found out that our account has been hacked, email address has changed, payment method has changed to bank-wire to account: XXXX-9000 – Not my account, I can’t edit or delete anything and all in perfect timing with a schedule transfer of the last guest.
So, I send an email and I call airbnb after.
They said that they will “freeze” our account, so no money transfer will occur… so I don’t get paid until they resolve it. When will it be resolved? I asked, “it’s top priority” they said, so I thank for a good service and I waited.
To make it short, It took THREE (3!) days to solve until our airbnb account security issue.
Every day waiting on the phone with them, hearing they can’t do anything, and “we are working on it”, “it’s top priority”. Only at the end of the third day, after being with them on the phone during the day, I got a call!
A nice representative named Malena called and she said she can see that I have a problem with my account , and that she will solve it. It took her 30 seconds to solve it; 30 seconds, 3 days wait.
So the money was transferred and it was going well….. for about 36 hours, when all the messages in my account where locked.
I couldn’t access any of them and my listing didn’t appear on search results. I found out about all of it by a future guest that send me a scared email about him being unable to find us on airbnb… I felt bad.
I called them again, I told them that it’s a really big deal, and that I need to know what to do. I got no answers from them, the “urgent call” service can’t do something.
They don’t have any supervisors, managers, colleagues they can transfer you to, and they can’t help.
24 hours passed before they solved the problem… and another 24 hours passed until it came back again, the same problem , again my account is shut down, the only difference is that this time, I had no one to talk to.
The airbnb representative said that this department is Not available at the moment and they can’t say when it will be resolved, they can’t even say when this department will be available again.
The only thing that they will tell you is to wait.
So I wait, I have 3 bookings starting tomorrow… don’t really know what to do anymore…
Do you have Any suggestions?
Do you know a good alternative for airbnb?
Alon
ROBBED! Airbnb posted my exact address online
I have been a happy airbnb user and host for 3 years. A few months ago I saw that the address and map my confirmed guests would see after they booked was slightly incorrect. The FAQ said to click an “edit address” button but there was no such button, it only had a link to “contact customer service”.
I sent a message to airbnb cust service telling them the address and map was incorrect and gave them the correct information. Apparently they also changed the “public address” to reveal the FULL STREET ADDRESS WITH HOUSE NUMBER which obviously I did not request. I typically use airbnb app on my phone which does not show the same information as the full site so I didn’t notice this for some time.
That is, until my house was robbed and ransacked between guests. Upon visiting my listing I was horrified to notice that the full address was visible to everyone in the world. Along with a handy dandy airbnb calendar showing exactly when the place was vacant!
I could not have revealed the street address myself as the option to edit the public address is not available. There is no where that I can change these settings myself. Why a “customer service” representative would do this is beyond my understanding! Perhaps the US based company does not understand European addresses and entered it incorrectly into the “public” system?
Watch your listings carefully or any dummy with an internet connection can easily find out when and where to strike!