I cannot stress this enough: if you see your Airbnb notification settings change, then change your password. I spotted that my notifications had been switched off a few times and put it down to Airbnb playing up as I know that are phasing out emails and text messages. Yesterday by pure luck I went into the app and saw a message I had sent to another host saying that we would ‘be arriving tomorrow’. It was a 16-day trip to France costing £1117 that I hadn’t booked. The payment was at ‘pre-approved’ status in my PayPal.
I immediately called my bank (Barclays) and they were superb, immediately giving me direct phone numbers for Airbnb and PayPal. PayPal also dealt with the issue brilliantly, immediately freezing my account (which was up and running again within five minutes of calling them to let them know it was all sorted). For Airbnb – not so professional – it seemed to be out of their hands; everything I said was noted but it didn’t seem they could do much.
The account for our ‘host’ was obviously a fake one; I daren’t look to see if it’s still there. I have no idea how anyone got into my account but having seen other stories on here along the same lines I think something needs to be done at their end. Anyway, I was lucky. I noticed it just in time. I think some of you have lost money in this way. Watch those notification settings.
I’m a host and I was complaining to a manager about how their site sucked and was unsafe. I’ve been hacked and it took them months to get my account somewhat fixed. I’m not joking. She said wait, you think our site is unsafe? I was shocked! Uh! Hello! I said, yes, it’s unsafe! I’ve been begging you guys since I was hacked, about 3 years ago implement dual factor authentication.
It’s like the employees there are brainwashed or something. One time another one told me that they did not collect interest on the money they have for months in advance of the booking. She told me that they kept it in an institution that doesn’t collect interest. I asked the name of the place and she said it was confidential. LOL! She put me on hold for some reason and when she came back and said everyone was shocked when she mentioned interest. Ha Ha! At some point, she asked me if I thought she was lying and I said no, I think all you guys have been lied to about a lot of stuff. I told her in a capitalist society and even in a communist society there was no such institution. I recommended “Free Market Enterprise” by Milton Freedman.
Where in the heck do they find the people they hire? One employee told me some of them haven’t graduated from high school.