I made a reservation for a place to stay while traveling and using Airbnb. I had one trip in Barcelona from June 10th to 12th and Palma from June 17th to 20th. I arrived in Barcelona on June 8th, slept at another hostel, and had an Airbnb booking on the 9th for which I also had made a reservation beforehand. That night I could not log into my Airbnb account; it said my account was disabled. I thought it was a simple mistake and sent two emails to account.inquiry@airbnb.com, one around 8:00 PM and another around 12:00 PM. Because they were not responding to my 8:00 PM email and my check in for the Airbnb place was supposed to be the next day, I was in a hurry.
I made two phone calls to the US Airbnb customer service line (to communicate with them in English). They told me that it would be dealt with as soon as possible. The next day I still did not get a response. I called the UK line (which was cheaper than calling the US) at 7:53 AM and 7:58 AM. They said this problem is dealt with by a separate department and the only way to contact them is via email. I just had to wait but they alluded that since it is still very early, the problem would be dealt with soon.
An Airbnb customer service representative sent me an email at 8:23 AM saying that he was forwarding my case to a Trust and Safety case manager and that it would be dealt with as soon as possible; I should feel free to respond. However, I still received no response. I called them 10:45 AM, 1:08 PM, 1:11, 2:15, 3:06, 4:09, and 5:37. I sent six emails. All the calls and emails were sent in vain. The people I talked to did not have the authority or knowledge to handle the problem. The people who did never contacted me. I made more calls the day afterwards, all in vain.
UK’s Airbnb customer service even told me to try making a new account and finding a new place to stay, which is absurd because they blocked my account in the first place. Later I realized that they sent me an email canceling my reservation in Palma and Barcelona on June 9th around noon. The guy I talked to at 5:37 PM told me very rudely: “Don’t waste your time, and find a hostel. I am just being honest here.”
All the guys to whom I talked beforehand told me that the situation would be dealt with as soon as possible. I wasn’t trying to find a hostel, just resolve this situation. Then I had no choice but to book a hostel. To this very day, I have not gotten a single response of any kind from the department that was supposed to be dealing with my problem. I have done nothing wrong to breach any kind of contract between Airbnb as a customer. This experience has inflicted great psychological damage and cost me extra money spent on booking a new hostel and making international calls. The money spent on booking a place on Airbnb has been refunded but the other money has not reached my account yet.
Airbnb staff are by far the worst compared to other channels. They talk like robots, very rude and are completely unhelpful. I got hung up by their staff a number of times, just for asking on how to get in touch with my original case manager.
They need to sort their management system out.