Last November I booked a long term stay in Sri Lanka. I wanted to stay for ten weeks in order to have some time to write, as well as to look at properties to buy as I hope to move there eventually. I found the perfect place, booked from June through mid-August, and all seemed well. The place had very good reviews and seemed perfect. Last January the host began emailing me: Why was I staying so long? He didn’t think it was a good idea; better to stay a week in different cities; he didn’t serve breakfast. All of this was in short, separate messages. He wanted me to cut my stay to a shorter one and he would refund my payment. I explained to him that I am a retiree and did not want to move around; I wanted to stay in one place, relax, write, and look for a property to buy. He sent about ten such messages. I did not hear back from him and assumed he had accepted.
Then, recently I decided that I would indeed prefer to go in July not June so went to let him know this. I found that my entire reservation had been deleted from Airbnb, as well as all messages and notifications from him. I looked at his reservation calendar, and I saw that the months I had booked are now mostly open again. I booked for two weeks in July, which at first were accepted. I then wrote him to ask why he had cancelled without letting me know, and what we were to do about the down payment I had made. At first he seemed confused; maybe he did not realise I was the same person. Then he declined the reservation, and wrote me to say I had not paid. I have searched the Airbnb site up and down and there is no way to contact them about this. Since the reservation itself is not there any more, I cannot complain. They only allow discussions on reservations that are on the site, but mine has been completely deleted. I need a contact email ASAP. I live in Germany so calling is a bit of a hassle. What can I do?
My sincerest apology. All you Jens and Jan’s look the same.
Great outcome. Jan?
Ah Geez David Aaron – can you PLEASE grow up. I’m not even involved in this feed and here you are whining about me again. WHAT exactly is your problem? Never mind – don’t bother answering that – as I am done having any type of conversation with you and any and all negative remarks that you continue to spew out about me WILL be ignored. Good luck in life my friend.
Glad to hear Airbnb is looking into it. I hope it gets sorted. Im also glad to see Jan’s credibility once again get smashed.
Oh dear. I have layers of egg on my face. It was all a misundesrtanding! I have now found out that the booking was made through my daughter’s account, as she was staying with me at the time and I had not noticed she was logged in to airbnb. The booking has not been deleted. No wonder the host was so confused! I have apologised to him and hopefully all will be well now. The good thing is that I can now confirm that airbnb DO help. They replied to my Tweet very promptly, and asked me to DM them through @airbnbHelp. I did so and they were immediately on the case, and helped solve it. So kudos to them, and hopefully that link can help pthers.
Not sure if the above post should be deleted; I think it should, but you should add that contact possibility to your home page, Thanks a lot! And actually airbnb hell did help because of someone who replied to your tween who suggested I might have accidentally uswed a second account.
Please let us know if you’d like it deleted, Sharon.
Thanks. In the meantime I was able to contact bnb help through twitter — they responded right away and are looking into it. It’s just weird that the entire booking has vanished from my account; I don’t even have the reservaqtion number! But I do have the long list of messages he sent me. He is now claiming he has not cancelled. Yet there is no longer a reservation, and the place is open for further bookings. I also have the credit card debit on the day of the booking.
Airbnb isn’t in the hospitality business or any business other than making money at everyone else’s expense. You can try googling their number but last time I used that horrible site and needed to contact them I was only able to do it because I had a reservation number I could enter into their automated system.
Move and look for a place another way. Airbnb gives zero darns about you.