Airbnb Falsely Accused Me of Having a Criminal Record

Posted on December 25, 2021

My account was deactivated and I couldn’t figure out why. I only have received good reviews from the places I have stayed at. I called Airbnb’s customer service line and they also could not give me any information. They just stated they would have it escalated and I would receive an email with more information.

When I received the email it was only referring to a past email I had never seen or received. Finally after contacting Airbnb support through Twitter, they were able to get the email I was missing resent to me. It stated:

“We’ve recently completed an evaluation of your Airbnb account, which included a consumer report generated using the Inflection SafeDecision API product offered by Inflection Risk Solutions, LLC. We regret to inform you that Airbnb, Inc. has decided to permanently deactivate your account due, at least in part, to the following information contained in that consumer report: Criminal Records Match.”

Let me be clear: I do not have a criminal record. Never have I even been arrested. Worst I ever got was a speeding ticket and I also got a failure to stop ticket when I was making a right hand turn on red without fully stopping. Nonetheless these tickets are not criminal so how I got deactivated for a criminal record is beyond me. I would be curious if this is an opportunity to see a lawyer about.

Host Cancelled My Reservation One Hour Before We Arrived

Posted on June 14, 2021

I reserved a nice house two months in advance and had everything confirmed with the host. We arrived in the city and while attempting to grab an Uber, I received an email that my account had been deactivated and that a refund had been issued to me (this left us homeless for several hours). The email showed the reason for cancellation was for a criminal records, but I have a clean record.

I attempted to call customer service and was on hold for over 30 minutes just to speak to someone foreign and with virtually no power to do anything. I then reached out to customer service via email. The only response I got was from multiple “ambassadors” saying the same thing: “We have forwarded this to the correct department.”

Later that day I received an email stating they were messaging me in the app but unfortunately I cannot open the app because my account was terminated. This continued for days and I did not hear back from anyone. I simply emailed them one more time to ask if they could temporarily activate my account so I can give them a card to refund the money back onto. There was no answer.

I then took to Facebook to comment on my experience. After maybe 20 minutes, I tried to get back on the page to find out they blocked me from their public page, so they weren’t even visible in a search. Days went by. I still had no response from their team, so I decided to call my bank and initiate a chargeback to reverse the transaction.

This is robbery in plain sight. This company is so arrogant in the way they handle customers. After looking at all the reviews similar to my experience, I will be boycotting Airbnb. I also would like to get together with others to begin putting together a class action lawsuit against them. They messed with the wrong person and I will do everything in my power to deal a devastating blow to them. If interested please comment and we’ll connect.

Account Locked In Error for Almost 3 Months

Posted on December 27, 2019

My account was locked in error for three months. This is my response to the agent after it was finally resolved, explaining my situation.

Thanks, this is great to have figured out. After almost three months. I’m sure you’re not personally responsible for this insanely long delay, but the reason I opened a duplicate account is because I had given up (after two and a half months) on this ever getting resolved.

In the meantime I have had to plan two trips without using Airbnb, which sucks for everyone. In the course of these three months, I’ve called in and spoken to four different customer service agents, all of whom informed me that my request was elevated to ‘urgent’, and I would hear back within 24 to 48 hours. I haven’t heard back until this email from you.

I’m not sure if this is standard protocol, but as far as customer service experiences go, this is by far the worst customer service experience I’ve had, in any category. I imagine Airbnb has the resources to do better. If there were another comparable option, I would stop using Airbnb simply because of this experience.

I have an extremely low opinion of the company now. I’ve only had positive experiences within the Airbnb community, but this direct experience was really, really bad. And it was a fluke on your end. And not even a ‘sorry about that’. Maybe a $5 voucher? Gimme a break.

Again, I’m sure the blame doesn’t lie on you personally, but the company should have a higher standard than this. Now all I can do is just hope my account isn’t accidentally locked again for another three months.

Airbnb Took Our Page Down, Cancelled our Reservations

Posted on April 11, 2018

Unbelievable. We have been Superhosts for several years and when my father in law passed away, he had a man running his Airbnb. No problems. Until… we tried to switch him over as the official contact. That’s when things went from bad to worse. We have since been locked out of our account, our customers have been contacted and had their booking cancelled. Without our permission or consent our whole page has been removed from Airbnb.

We are at the end of a full week of trying to resolve this. We have spent hours and hours phoning Airbnb Customer Service. Every time we call, it’s 15 minutes on hold before we speak with someone. The person we get doesn’t know anything about our file, doesn’t have any idea how to help us, apologises profusely, and promises to get a supervisor to call us back, which never happens.

They “accidentally” disconnect from us, and even though they know it will be another 15-minute hold for us to phone them and that we won’t ever speak with the same person again and have no way to reconnect with them, do they call us back? No. Do they have our phone number? Yup. So, we call back again. A full seven hours was spent in this pointless loop Sunday.

My mother-in-law is losing much needed income and has had her reputation destroyed. Our customers have received unauthorized cancellations as close as the day of their planned vacation. How horrible for them. I have now contacted the CEO’s and sincerely hope to get somewhere today. I will repost this accordingly. I’m not happy at all. The competition will come and that old adage “be careful how you treat people on your way up because you don’t know who you will meet on your way down” will come to fruition. They obviously can’t handle the responsibility of no competition.

Beyond Words After Customer Service Nightmare

Posted on March 23, 2018

I moved from California to Oregon. I did not tell Airbnb of my move. I did not even think about it until I wanted to go on a trip several months later. A lot of things changed with the move: my old phone number, a landline, changed. The credit card used for the Airbnb account was changed as I had a new address. So now I am locked out of my Airbnb account. The only verification they will accept is to send a code from my now defunct phone number. I have called their call center three times. The second time I was given a ticket number. I received an email from the Trust and Safety Team; they told me to log on to my account:

Someone accessed your account with the correct login credentials, but our system indicated that it might not have been you. I’ve taken steps to reverse those changes and notify any affected hosts or guests.

1. To regain access to your account, log in and follow the guide that will help you reset your password: https://www.airbnb.com/login. For tips on making a strong password, visit: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/980

2. Change your email password.

3. Change passwords on all accounts linked to Airbnb. That can include Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or Twitter.

4. Complete our verification process with your valid government ID, a selfie taken at the time of verification, and your profile photo. Complete these steps here: https://www.airbnb.com/account-verification Paying or communicating outside of Airbnb can put you at greater risk for fraud and phishing.

When I tried to do as I was asked the same thing occurred. The only way to verify my account is by a defunct email, so I replied:

When I did as you suggested and tried to reset my password, what happened was the only way to check my verification is through my old phone number. As we have moved states, this is impossible. I do notice that there is another phone number, which I do not recognize. I am unable to access my account because of this, therefore I am unable to change my password. I suggest you put a block on this account as I do not want someone else using my information. Can I open a new account?

Any emails I sent were returned to me as unable to deliver. This is how Airbnb helps its customers? I am beyond words.

Not Able to Login into My Airbnb Account Without Phone

Posted on August 24, 2017

I have been trying to get into my Airbnb account to see the messages and to change some details, and I’m not able to do this because every time they’re asking for my phone number which I have changed and no longer have access to; I don’t even know my phone number anymore so I cannot login into my account, contact the help of Airbnb, or call them even. Even when you call customer service in three different countries they request the same information: my phone number, which I don’t know and no longer use. There is no other way to contact them – not even an email address listed on the Internet. Can somebody tell me if is this normal, and why is it such a secret? The Airbnb website is obviously BS. I’m sorry for my language, but there is no point in using a site you cannot login into or contact help or assistance at all. What else is there to do except delete it and stop using their services?

Airbnb Customer Service is an Utter Disgrace

Posted on May 25, 2017

This company needs to be sorted out. They are an absolute disgrace. They have blocked my account – also those of people I know – without giving any reason whatsoever. They are disrespectful and unprofessional. I am actively boycotting them and encourage everyone to do the same. Here was a message I received from Airbnb customer service:

Hi Jon,

Thanks for reaching out. As previously mentioned, we regret to inform you that we’ll be unable to support your account moving forward, and have exercised our discretion under our Terms of Service to disable your account(s). This decision is irreversible and will affect any duplicated or future accounts. Please understand that we are not obligated to provide an explanation for the action taken against your account. Furthermore, we are not liable to you in any way with respect to disabling or canceling your account. Airbnb reserves the right to make the final determination with respect to such matters, and this decision will not be reversed. We’ll contact you if anything changes in the future, but until then, we won’t be able to assist you any further with your account issues. Please see our Help Center for further information.

Thanks, Alex.

And my response:

Dear Alex,

First of all, please refer to me as Mr. ___. I certainly do not know you and I expect to be respected. How on earth can you possibly think this is the correct etiquette in business and moreover, customer service? I will do my utmost to pass onto everyone I know to boycott your company as you are unwilling to provide an answer to my questions. There are many more companies that provide the same service as you do, that are of no concern to me. But I will be contacting the ombudsman and also look into contacting the CEO of Airbnb. This situation cannot be accepted and I will not tolerate such unprofessionalism and disrespect.

Airbnb Account Locked without Warning or Notice

Posted on March 10, 2017

On February 8th I noticed I couldn’t log in to Airbnb. It said my account had been locked and I should send an email to account.inquiry@airbnb.com. That’s what I did because I wanted to know what happened. We’ve been on Airbnb for seven years, and hosted for 3-4 years with 4- and 5-star reviews and more than 150 happy guests. There was no answer to my emails. I wrote again and again – nothing. I phoned on February 13th and was told my case had been sent to the “Trust and Safety Department”. I asked for a written confirmation and received the following:

Hello Caroline & Jérôme, We’re currently forwarding you to the correct department to make sure you receive a prompt and proper response. If you have any details to add or update, please let us know by responding directly to this email. If this is an emergency or you feel your personal safety is threatened, contact the local police or emergency services immediately.

I emailed again a week later – nothing. I phoned again on March 7th – same answer. Why on earth has our account been locked? Why didn’t they notice us? Even our next reservation in London is locked; we cannot use Airbnb, even as travelers.

A Host is Posting on my Account from China

Posted on February 14, 2017

I started using Airbnb right out of the gate since I travel a lot. It’s been a lifesaver, but somehow about 18 months ago I started getting emails (in Chinese) requesting to book my apartment in China. Since I do not own an apartment in China I immediately contacted Airbnb for help. Crickets…for about 12 months. During this time I was not allowed to use my account. Because I was in the process of trying to get this resolved, my account got locked. I have emailed them dozens of times but to no avail. You’d think the smart person would just open a new account. I did, but because my identity is tied into my locked account I can’t get around the system. Of course, I can’t even find a phone number to call and resolve this issue. I just keep getting emails saying we think your account is compromised, please email us to resolve and then crickets… again. They have absolutely the worst customer service ever. Thankfully I have found this site and maybe I can call and resolve the problem but after reading all of the reviews, I expect more crickets.

Potential Account Hacking – No Way to Contact Airbnb

Posted on January 12, 2017

It looks like someone tried to access my Airbnb account last night. It was no big deal as it happens all the time. I decided to try and reset my password this morning and that’s when the issues started. Their system asked me to verify my email. Again, no big deal. I clicked on the link only to be presented with the same steps again. I continued, and received the same email to verify my email. Multiple times. At no point did I actually get access to my account. I tried to use a different PC (at work) and now my account is locked due to suspicious behavior. I sent an email to contact Airbnb. With no link, no phone number or anything telling me how to contact them. I went to the website and tried to find a way to contact them. It turns out you need to be logged in to be able to contact them, and obviously I can’t log in. So in short: my account is locked and there is no simple way to contact them or even delete my account. Customer service certainly does not seem to be their strong point.