Ten Reasons Why I Hate Airbnb After Account Hacked

Posted on March 12, 2018

Below is my true and sincere experience with Airbnb. I will give you ten reasons why you should not deal with Airbnb, and I hope that governments and consumer protection organisations will do something about the ever increasing risks imposed on internet consumers. The big companies certainly will not.

I received a confirmation from Airbnb that I had “express” booked a deluxe room for five nights in South Africa, and a confirmation that the MasterCard that I had previously used for reservations with Airbnb was now registered for further purchases. I immediately logged on to my Airbnb account only to discover that someone from China (I am located in New York) had logged into my account yesterday, and someone from South Africa logged into my account today placing a reservation for a room in South Africa (total of $650) debited to my MasterCard.

My MasterCard details were now disclosed to whomever hacked my account. At the same time I called my bank making sure my MasterCard was blocked. The bank informed me, however, that the $650 had been debited. The bank urged me to call Airbnb and have them to cancel the reservation.

I tried to call Airbnb. Forget that; they deliberately don’t disclose a telephone number (Reason #1). I tried to find an email address; forget that – they only allow communication through your Airbnb account, making it difficult for you to record and keep track of the correspondence (Reason #2).

I wrote Airbnb through my account only to receive a standard reply that I could expect an answer within two days. Considering that someone with help from Airbnb (though Airbnb presumably was unaware) had stolen $650 from me, I could not accept waiting two days (Reason #3). I promptly replied demanding a call back. I got a call back within an hour’s time. The lady on the phone argued that it must have been me who did the reservation because hacking the Airbnb account was unthinkable. Basically she called me a liar (Reason #4).

I referred to the fact that I was located in New York and within 15 hours someone had accessed my account from China (a hacker), South Africa (a hacker) and New York (myself). She tried hard but couldn’t really provide a comeback. She tried though (Reason #5).

Then she argued that it must be a family member or friend that had accessed my account and that I should check up with them to make sure that it was not them who had made the reservation. Again I argued that no one but me has (legitimate) access to my Airbnb account and no friend or family member could ever dream of booking a room in South Africa on my account. I also (again) referred to the fact that the logins were made from three different continents within one day. She was firm in her “belief”, but her arguments were forced and it was easy to tell that she was instructed in “never accept liability or cause” and “always deny, deny and deny” (Reason #6).

After 40 minutes of telephone conversation, she came to the conclusion that my account may have been exposed, which most likely was due to the fact that I had either logged on from a public computer (and then forgot to log off) or responded to a “phising-mail” disclosing my password to the hackers, or that I in other ways had been careless (Reason #7).

I could easily dismiss all of her accusations, and as I was getting pretty exhausted by the whole conversation I stated that we did not need to discuss this further. If they did not cancel the reservation immediately and retuned all the money to me I would without further hesitation have a lawyer represent me. Not really because of the money (the fees would exceed those from Airbnb in no time) but because of the principle. After this I was told that my “case” would be “prioritised”. Conclusion: you need to actually make a “lawyer threat” to get serviced (Reason #8).

Later the same day I received an email in which Airbnb warned me that they had detected that my account might have been compromised. Is this really how they treat their customers? (Reason # 9). In the email they stated that they would try (only try – Reason #10) to return the money.

The above shows what I think we all now (but don’t like to admit): Airbnb (and similar super big companies) don’t care about their customers (or users as they tend to call us). They get maybe 10,000 or more new users every month. Their business model is based on the masses, not one or a few thousand that experience problems.

I’m not trying to get political here – but honestly I don’t think this would have happened if I had just stayed with small hotels and family owned shops. I have no doubt that should my Amazon, Facebook, Uber and similar accounts be hacked – it would be the same. These are my ten reasons for hating Airbnb (and similar super big companies) – but what I really hate is that I can’t stop using them. They know that all too well. I would really love if we all just gave up on those super big firms and regained control, respect, care, and decency in the course of trade.

The Airbnb Customer is Not Always Right

Posted on March 9, 2018

What a joke; I thought the customer was always right. Not in this case. I brought issues to a host’s attention about his place and the lack of help from his helper. Well, you thought I had accused him of fraud or something worse. Never had he heard this before, claiming he only had “happy customers”… just some of the responses he was giving me. He then went on to respond online about this, stating that I was impolite and rude to his assistant. If asking for someone to show their face and meet the customer to make sure everything is okay (finding where to go, making sure the room is suitable to enter, finding all the necessary items needed – towels, water, facilities to eat) then we must of been the rudest people ever.

The Airbnb response was even better, stating that we had been put on the “not providing a quality customer” category. Needless to say, we will not be using Airbnb again and certainly will not be using this whole building again, let alone this host. After reading some of the responses here, I know our situation is not that severe, but when you pay a decent amount of money to have a good holiday only to be treated like we had done something criminal it has an affect on you. I do feel better knowing we are not the only ones but feel sorry for those who have been put through this as well. Thank you for listening to my winge.

Airbnb Disavows Coupon, Accuses me of Hacking

Posted on December 3, 2017

I was notified about a coupon code that would provide a substantial discount to any stay booked with Airbnb. I went to check that this code worked as I wanted to book a mini weekend getaway and, with the code applied to the stay, it would have been very cheap, making the trip almost free. I selected a condo that was in a great location and entered the coupon code in the section provided on the pay out page. The discount was applied so I knew that the coupon code was valid.

I decided quickly to run the dates by other other parties who were planning to join on the trip before I submitted the payment. This in total took about four minutes from when the coupon had been successfully applied. I went to change the amount of guests as we now had an additional person who wanted to join. This reset the page; I entered everything again including the coupon code and the coupon now suddenly did not work. Just four minutes later, and Airbnb said the coupon had now expired.

I called Airbnb to inquire why the page reset and explained that I had successfully entered the coupon already a few minutes before and the discount has been applied – why it was now coming up as expired just minutes later? The agent then began accusing me of making this up and that they do not provide coupons (even though there is a spot for them on their payments page) and that a scammer must have hacked their system and created this coupon code to harm their company.

None of this made any sense. Perhaps the code was not meant for everybody and was a programming mistake by Airbnb that worked briefly and then maybe they noticed their mistake and retracted the offer or something. However, this was not the explanation given. They started interrogating me like I was the bad guy or making the situation up and needed to provide them proof of all of this like it was my job to to their job for them and report all my findings to their Trust and Safety Team who would now be investigating me. I said I had nothing to do with this and that the source was a reliable travel website showing the promo code. I was certainly not a hacker. If I were, why would I call in and report myself?

The whole situation left me feeling very shaken and angry. Not only was my vacation ruined as I could not afford the trip without this code that they refused to honor, I was treated like a criminal for even asking about it . What a horrible experience and abysmal customer relations provided by Airbnb. Shame on them for treating customers in such a manner. In the future I will be booking any vacation stays with hotels.

Incorrect Compensation for Working Hot Tub

Posted on July 26, 2017

We had been scheduled to host three people for a month. Before they checked in we asked them if they wanted us to fill up the jacuzzi for them but they said we could just show them how it worked when we met at check in. We instructed them about this the moment they arrived at the apartment. Two or three days later they contacted us again saying the jacuzzi wasn’t working so we sent one of our staff members to show them again how it worked and once again instructed them.

A week before they were schedule to check out we received an email from a case manager at Airbnb saying we needed to send documentation that showed the jacuzzi was working. I responded “How can I do this?”

The case manager said we needed to go and take a picture of the jacuzzi when it’s filled up and so on. We wrote the guests about this asking to come and do this but they didn’t respond. The same day they were supposed to check out we went there and took a video and pictures. However,t Airbnb sent us a decision before we had finished saying we needed to compensate the guests 691 USD because the jacuzzi wasn’t working. Now it doesn’t matter what I send them as they are saying our deadline has passed. It’s very frustrating and I can’t get in touch with anyone at customer service or file a complaint.