Tag Archives: airbnb booking problems

Guests Who Pay Are Your Only Customers — Airbnb Doesn’t Care

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I started using Airbnb in 2014. Recently over my last trip to Foster City, San Mateo, California, I picked an Airbnb apartment for a long term stay. The host operates as a leasing and servicing management team, who cared less about servicing or even providing amenities through the nearly two-month stay.

While in the middle of our stay, we wanted to extend for another eight nights. The host claimed that the property was available but Airbnb’s platform features did not allow them to extend. Airbnb chose to play in silence by not participating or responding to any requests. Communication to fix the platform and the host’s booking system issues went on for 3.5 weeks and Airbnb maintained selective silence and never replied timely.

The host proposed and continued to call through our stay, telling us to book directly with them. If that was the intent, then why did we need Airbnb to begin? The host has over 50 properties listed on Airbnb, which means Airbnb has a big supply of customers. Airbnb chose not to lose a supply partner over a guest. I wrote several times to Airbnb but they ignored all my requests with standard replies like “Can we do anything to make your stay comfortable?” and “Is there anything else we could help you with?”

Airbnb and hosts: you both need to know that I, the customer, is the one entity you both need to stay in business. Without Airbnb I would go straight to the host or the like for vacation or long term rentals. Why do I need Airbnb? The host forced me to sign up for an extension with them, so why would they even list on Airbnb? Market and sell your own inventory.

Airbnb is not a platform, not anymore. I deleted Airbnb from my phone before the end of my stay, and I am not staying with this host in the foreseeable future. Goodbye Airbnb. The question is how long can you continue this broken model. Eventually all the suppliers will leave because I, the customer, will not be on Airbnb to create demand.

Airbnb Screwed up and Charged me Twice

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I had been scheduled to go on vacation and had booked my flight. I went on the Airbnb app to book a four-night accommodation one day before my vacation. As I was making the booking and making payment, the app screwed up and rejected my booking. I then received an email from Airbnb stating that my booking had been cancelled and they were processing my refund. It stated that refund may take up to 14 days.

They had charged my credit card twice and cancelled the booking. Now I have to wait for up to 14 days for twice the amount for my refund. Now I’m short on money to use for my trip the next day as they had charged twice my planned four-night accommodation amount and processed a refund.

I called Airbnb. The call was almost an hour long and most of the time I was put on hold. I was calling from Malaysia and thus paying for the call. A manager was supposed to return my call within two hours but no call came.

It was a grave mistake on my part to book my accommodation through Airbnb. It has now screwed up my vacation as my money has been charged twice and its in the process of a refund that will take almost two weeks. Airbnb screwed up my vacation and they have no balls to take responsibility for their screw up. I believe there are many others who have the same experience that I have just gone through. Screw Airbnb.

Airbnb Booking and Reservation Issues: Can They Make Mistakes?

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It’s not my first time using Airbnb. So far our first experiences have been great so we decided to use it and tried looking for a place in San Francisco. Upon checking I tried to ask some questions from 2-3 different hosts, e.g. how far their places are from downtown since it was my first time visiting. Anyway, I tried to check the dates and I’m sure that I just wanted to hold them for our reservation. I was just surprised that after a couple of days both bookings had been made and our debit card was charged. The first one was fine and I got a full refund less the Airbnb fees, but for the second one, which was more expensive, the host refunded only 50% of our payment. I tried to ask for some consideration since Airbnb’s policy states the host has the discretion of refunding the full amount since it had only been one or not even one day after they confirmed the reservation without my knowledge. Now I am trying to contact Airbnb but I have had to wait 72 hours for their replies. I have a valid reason for getting a full refund. Someone in the family just died and I hope and appreciate that someone can help me on this matter. For some people it might be a small amount of money but for me and our family and as a single parent almost $400 dollars is a huge amount for us to lose. I would appreciate if someone could at least help me resolve this issue as soon as possible. Below are some of the conversations. I have a lot of photos showing that I didn’t book the properties; I got a pre-approval (e.g. 1:39 but on the same date they charged my card as well). Thank you very much.