I lost out on £2910 thanks to Airbnb. They had allowed a person to upload a FAKE villa, under a fake hosts details!! They don’t even check that the host is real…this is basic stuff here??! They offer the “option” that a host can verify themselves? this is SICK! I was communicating with the host, and told to wait until I had a confirmation from air bob before i went ahead with the booking. Guess what…I got the confirmation, which was from a AIRbnb email address. the payment details were at the bottom and i paid it! It was fake!! I called the police, air bnb and the banks immediately. Air bnb didn’t appear to be bothered and didn’t help AT ALL! Even though they cover hosts by £600k each in property damage, they don’t have the time or money to help the people whose lives have been upset because of them! The banks looked into the account and shut it down immediately, although the money had been spent, barclays offered my £27.00 as a good will gesture? Good will… damn insulting!! The police can’t track down the man in question, so have closed the case! I would feel a lot better if airbnb would admit they DON’T take their security seriously, and if they would help me out…but no! I have and am still in talks with solicitors, they cannot get away with this!!
This was sent to Airbnd with a net result of “we don’t care”. I even sent it to Chip Conley (Airbnb CPO) who was very polite and forwarded the complaint to customer services.
Airbnd’s official position (when something goes wrong)!
Airbnd is simply a referral service and will not take any ownership of the transactions that happens on our website, for whatever the reasons that may aris.
Sent directly to Chip C
“Not sure if you’re still with AIRBND… In case you are and care,
I was a huge supporter of Airbnb until recently, when I used the service for a family trip and experienced a multitude of difficulties. I took my family to Europe this summer for a vacation, and booked several nights through an Airbnb location for our Amsterdam visit. This had unfortunate consequences, and ones I never would’ve expected from your service. The first apartment had bedbugs in one bed and the other had a leaky air mattress. Second reservation that we made was a phony listing (we finally got it refunded after many calls and once Airbnd confirmed it was part a larger scam operation) Our third reservation, claimed that there were two beds included, with child-friendly access to the second floor. In reality, when we arrived we found that there was one extremely dirty bed, and an even filthier standard sofa in the living room that held the “second bed” title. The “kid-friendly” access was a set of very narrow and steep stairs in a hallway that was pitch-black twenty-four hours a day with no windows. We had to use our phones’ lights just to navigate up the steps—needless to say, it was about as far from safe for my children as possible.
Here are my questions, Chip:
1. Why didn’t Airbnb refund my reservations? I documented the entire set of issues with detailed explanation and pictures including a copy of the false Airbnd listing claiming to have two bed etc etc.
2. Why doesn’t Airbnb require third party certification on all of its listings, so that unsuspecting customers like myself can search through listings that include this certification? HUGE opportunity for AIRBND and also the biggest threat.
3. The Airbnd customer care rep Martha left me feeling that it was essentially “take it or leave it” when it came to my family’s rentals in a foreign country, and that was very sad indeed.
Ultimately, I must say that the lack of customer service I ran into coupled with the many issues we had does not represent the company well. Airbnb will likely lose out to competitors if you remain on the current path.”
Regards,
Marcus