Tag Archives: airbnb customer service

Airbnb Host Tried to Evict Me, Company Didn’t Help

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I’ve been at a reservation for over two months now in Washington. Recently the landlady tried to buy the entire house out of her contracts and everyone refused. She then proceeded to start construction which has resulted in utilities being cut off on a regular basis. I took pictures and videos of the construction and complained to Airbnb. Wanna know what they did?

They called me about a week later telling me I had to get out and I would be refunded for the time I haven’t stayed yet. I said “no”, that I wouldn’t be leaving, and any attempt to kick me out could be argued in a court of law as an illegal eviction. I told them because I was already there for over two months I qualified as a tenant I didn’t actually have to leave if they forced me out.

The Airbnb support person told me if I didn’t get out by the end of the day I would be trespassing and the police would get involved. I mentioned how I would be contacting the police and an attorney to sue them if they moved forward.

She responded: “This is our policy so it’s fine.”

Me: “If a policy is in violation of state law the state will just ignore it.”

Her: “You can contact your lawyers and do what you want. We are a 25 billion dollar company and this is our policy.”

Me: “What about the Airbnb policy that states that if a home is unlivable or there’s unnecessary construction the guest gets a refund? What about the Airbnb policy?”

Her: Makes a comment about my tone and says she will be looking at the pictures I sent.

She put me on hold and it became very clear she had no idea what she was doing. She offered me $100 and to pay me back for the nights I haven’t stayed yet. I told her, “No. I’m not going to accept that. You can’t force me to take compensation I don’t believe is adequate and if you’re going to move forward with these actions I would like an explicit email acknowledging the fact that I did not agree to your terms. I will be contacting the police and an attorney.”

She said, “Sure, whatever,” mentioned my tone again, and hung up.

In the meantime, I contacted the police non-emergency number and they said they would call me back. It had been about two minutes since I spoke with Airbnb and they called me back.

Same support woman: “Your host is thinking about changing her mind but she says construction will continue. You can stay if you’re okay with the construction.”

Me: “I’m not okay with construction but if you allow me to stay I will.”

Her: “Well, why do you want to stay if there’s construction? She said you can stay if you’re okay with it and she will continue to shut off the water.”

Me: “Because I believe what she is doing is illegal and if I stay I’ll be able to collect damages in a court of law. Additionally if you kick me out right now I’ll be thrown on the street so even if you allow me to stay I will be suing her at this point. You don’t have to mention how I’ll be suing her.”

She hung up again, and said she would tell the host I wanted to “continue my reservation.” What a nice way of saying I didn’t want to spend the night on the streets. How kind of her.

In the meantime I finally got in touch with the police and explained the situation: how she decided to kick me out once I complained about the construction, and how I’m a tenant due to the way I’ve rented. He asked if I’d received mail at the property. I explained I had received some mail there. He then got upset and said, “Okay, so who am I talking to? I need a phone number.”

I gave him the landlady’s phone number. He called me five minutes later and told me she was no longer evicting me and she “changed her mind.”

I’m going to be suing. At this point in considering suing Airbnb too. The dumbest part is I have pictures of all of the construction and even messages from the landlady confirming when I complained and that the construction is renovations and not repairs necessary to the property.

Airbnb Sends Link No One Can Use to Comment

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Airbnb sent me several emails asking me to post a review of an experience/tour we booked through them. I would have been happy to do that. This is the email I sent them, when I was finally able to get a hopefully workable email address:

I would have been happy to give feedback on this experience, but your completely dysfunctional system made that impossible. I received at least three emails from you asking me to post a review. Each time I tried to do that, I encountered the same impenetrable, multi-step barriers:

  • The first step asked to me to login to my Airbnb account; fine, I did that.
  • The next link asked me to click on an “I am not a robot” captcha; also fine.
  • This led me to a page where I could book a new reservation, but not a review, with the header: “Unable to perform action. Please try again later or contact support if you need immediate assistance.”
  • Unfortunately, contacting support requires logging in, and each time I attempted to do that, I was connected back to the same page: “Unable to perform action. Please try again later or contact support if you need immediate assistance.”
  • I tried to reply to the original email but of course it is a “no reply” email address.
  • I was only able to get the email address I am using now by going to a website aptly titled “Airbnb Hell.”

That allowed me to call a phone number in Northern California, where after 7 or 8 minutes on hold I was able to reach a customer service representative. She went around and around for several minutes attempting to verify the original reservation, which was done through another family member’s Airbnb account.

Please remember: you sent me the original email asking me to review the experience. If you cannot locate or track that, that is a failure of your system and should not be my responsibility. After several painfully futile minutes wasted on the phone, I asked the representative: can you give me an email where I can share my concerns with the company, yes or no? I had to ask directly at least four times before she gave me this email address. Next time I think we’ll use one of your competitors.

Airbnb Can’t Decide how to Verify Accounts

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I tried to log in to my Airbnb account of one year. Error: “There was a problem. Please try again.” I set up a new account with another email address: same error and no login possible.

I called customer service – the guy had no idea what to do. I told him my assumption was that I had too many similar accounts. I suggested a solution because he had none: deleting all older accounts and focusing on one. He did that whilst he was yawning loudly on the phone. I told him to please not fall asleep (I had still a sense of humour in the first hour of this Airbnb “session”). Later I tried the existing account and still got the same error: “Something went wrong. Please try again…”

I told the guy to also delete my last existing account and not to hang up because I set up a new account with a third email address while he was still on the phone, not to lose the person who knew the case when I would have to call again. After one hour, I could sign in.

The next and until now unsolved problem: verification. I took a photo of my passport, within that square thing on the screen. Next step: I saw half of my my face and the question: “Does this picture look good?”

No – it was only half my face. I tried three more times to take a picture of my passport where in the end I could answer with “Yes, I can see my full face.” Although it was really small, but maybe that’s a problem for later.

Next step: selfie for verifying my passport. I took a pictured and waited 15 minutes. I took another selfie, then another before calling customer service. The guy on the phone said I should use another ID, only he didn’t know how. Then he found out after reading an article about this problem: I should click on “submitting ID”, in the changing profile category.

I clicked on “submitting ID” and the system wanted me to upload a selfie to verify my ID. That was the problem from before. The guy said he would find out how to change the ID. He didn’t. I gave up, after three hours spending my holiday time in front of a screen.

Some hours later the same guy gave me a call and asked me if the problem had been resolved. He didn’t give me a solution – I don’t have one either. No verification, no reservation, no booking… there we are. I found a place to stay at the Airbnb I wanted to reserve via the old-fashioned way: talking to people in real life. I found the address via Google because the host had a public project. I told him about my Airbnb problems and we agreed on a cheaper price and to do it without Airbnb. Great!

Will I ever use Airbnb again? I don’t know, but the first thing I have to do is delete my existing account and set up a new one. Thanks to my own problem-solving competence which is obviously better than any of the people in customer service…

Horrible Airbnb Hostel, Horrible Service

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I suffer from middle ear issues which causes imbalance/vertigo, especially after long flights. I contacted a host prior to booking and asked if I could check-in early so I could lie down. She said that was fine. I booked at her place, but on arrival, she told me that someone was in my room and I couldn’t check-in. She wouldn’t even let me lie down in her house. Link to her room.

I was so dizzy I could barely walk. I had to leave my suitcase at her place and walk down and lie in an oval for six hours. While there, I had no water, food, and I was nearly mugged (I had my laptop out and a guy on a bicycle kept circling; I had to finally lie in the full sun because it was near a couple of other guys; I ended up sunburnt).

Airbnb contacted me and promised they would help me find other accommodation. I needed somewhere close by because I would be catching up with friends in that area in a couple of days. I couldn’t find any nice cheap accommodation in that area, so I sent a link for something just a little more expensive (not much considering what I’d gone through).

Airbnb stopped getting back to me and wouldn’t confirm if I could book. My phone was nearly flat and I didn’t know what to do, so I found another, cheaper, place in London and quickly booked (I didn’t have time to Google the address because I had 2% battery).

When I went back to get my suitcase, the host had locked me out of her house (I had a key, but she’d locked both locks). I then had to sit on her doorstep for long time. When she arrived she laughed in my face and said, “Because you asked me to cancel the booking, you can’t write a bad review.”

I began to cry. It got worse.

My phone went flat and then I had to walk my suitcase up a steep road to a cafe, charge it, and then call a taxi from there. It was then that I found out that my new accommodation was three hours on public transport from where my friends live (also a one-hour taxi ride which cost me 100 AUD; I sent Airbnb the receipt asking for refund and they have manually removed the receipt from the conversation).

I rang Airbnb and they told me that they would help. The gentleman said he would personally fix this terrible thing that happened to me and move me closer to my friends. He promised me that Airbnb would make up any financial losses. He promised me he would take on my case personally until it was resolved. Then I received a message through Airbnb, where he stated that he wouldn’t take on my case, and that it was being passed back to the person who didn’t fix things last time and who left me stranded in an oval, spinning like a top.

It has been hours and I still haven’t received any contact from Airbnb. Now I’m stuck on the other side of London, three hours on public transport from where my friends are. The first week of my holiday is ruined; and worse still, Airbnb is no longer answering my calls. I just want to cry. I wish I had booked a hotel room.

New Orleans Airbnb Host Lies About Capacity

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My family has been planing a trip down to New Orleans for a year now and part of that was finding accommodations. We have a large group of people (25) coming on this trip and could not an Airbnb that would accommodate us. We decided to speak to a host who presented us with links of what we assumed were to places that would hold all of us.

We inquired about a villa that was close to the French Quarter and noticed it said it could hold 9 people. So we asked him if we could still have 25 and he said “Yes, it is perfect.”

Once again, we assumed that this would work for our group. Upon payment we once again noticed that it still said 9 instead of the 25 we discussed so once again we asked the host why it didn’t say 25. He did not reply until five days before our reservation and now said “You can only have 9 people.”

We told the host that was not what was discussed and never once did he try to fix it. Instead he said here are some more places you can book for more money. We feel scammed and do not believe this host has our best interests at heart.

When we called customer service they took his side over ours even though we have a paper trail of conversations that are clearly misleading us, the customer. We are beyond frustrated. This is our very first family reunion as adults and aside from the hurricane trying to ruin it we now have Airbnb keeping us apart. I would give this company a zero if it was an option.

Using Airbnb Gift Cards Highlights Company Policy

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I turned 70 years old and received $400 in Airbnb gift cards from our sons. Now you would think – how cool! I did too. However, if you spend day after day trying to use them for accommodations in England on a much needed break and they never are applied, you may be about pull your hair out. At 70 years of age I am losing my hair so that is the last thing I need to happen.

Each day the bill is either charged or put in PayPal. As a minister, I teach and preach kindness and patience and to not let things cause a person to behave in a wrong manner. I am close to losing my cool.

Dealing with Airbnb on a daily basis has stressed us and now we have the added expense of paying out of pocket for our rooms. Then when I couldn’t access them for support and tried another option, my account was deleted and all my trips and records have now gone into Airbnb purgatory. Who knows?

Now I have no records nor a way to leave feedback or comments on my hosts. Some were really nice and would love a review.

So, am I happy with Airbnb? No way. Not at all. This has been the most frustrating experience while traveling. I was planning on being an Airbnb host, but this trip has made me wonder if that is a wise idea. I would want to use a company that had a good support system. Airbnb does not. So I still have Airbnb gift cards and cannot use them. I’m not impressed with Airbnb support. It doesn’t exist.

Can’t Travel Now: Airbnb Customer Service Hell

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The people in Airbnb customer service are rude idiots. I think the company must tell them this is the way they have to behave. I have written emails, called, been hung up on, and I am fed up. I have had injuries and illnesses this last year and haven’t been able to use my credit coupon of 170 dollars which would go a long way in Mexico, a place I love. I have asked Airbnb to extend it for me as I have impending wrist surgery, even sending an email from the doctors office. The call center is telling me that I have to have medical certification. Excuse me? I have to pay a doctor to write something so that I do not lose my credit in two weeks.

I think now Airbnb has gone public they are even bigger jerks. I did them a favor by referring people and because of my medical situation (sounds like discrimination), they are taking my credit away. I told them I had to move this month too, and they got the documentation, but they want more. I called again and they hung up on me. I was told someone would call me and it has not happened. I would rather couchsurf than deal with these idiots. No more referrals from me. Airbnb sucks. I hope they fail and their stock crashes.

Airbnb Strict Cancellation is not as Strict as it Seems

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Airbnb gives you the opportunity of choosing a cancellation policy. I have chosen a strict cancellation policy which, per their terms, means a ‘full refund’. A woman booked my house many months ago at a heavily discounted price for this week. I received a message from Airbnb today stating that they cancelled her reservation today as she didn’t complete the payment. When I called (the email had zero explanations and was automatically generated) they stated that they would pay me only $800 (payment due was $2450) as she didn’t pay in full. Essentially, even if you have a strict policy and no privity of contract with the ultimate guests, Airbnb asks the hosts to carry the burden of their credit risk. Of course, customer service is anonymous and miserable and they refused to connect me to their legal team to explain to them why their cancellation policy is currently wrong and misleading.

Airbnb’s Questionable Verification Process

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I used to love Airbnb, the website that offers me access to nice accommodations for my summer travel. But now I am disappointed and angry at how Airbnb has been treating me.

I used Airbnb for two years and had success. I received 4-5 star ratings from the host families I stayed with. Now Airbnb is refusing me service. Airbnb wants me to send them a copy of my passport or driver’s license. I understand the rationale behind this step; it was designed to increase confidence in both hosts and guests. However, their process of verification made me instantly uneasy.

First, it made no sense to ask me to provide this information when I am already an established and repeat customer. Airbnb has all the necessary information: name, address, sex, birth date, phone number, email address, credit card, past hosts’ reviews and a profile picture. My history should have established me as a trustworthy customer. It appears that being an established customer means nothing to Airbnb.

Airbnb’s verification process is unreasonable. I travel extensively during my summer breaks (I teach) and I am familiar with hotels, motels, resorts, B&B’s, college dorms and other host families’ accommodations. Travelling usually involves reserving accommodation with a credit card. Upon arrival, the facilities perform a quick check of the passport or driver’s license.

The difference here is that I’m uploading sensitive information to Airbnb. These days anything on the Internet is vulnerable. The difference between entering my credit card information and my passport data online is that my credit card has some pretty serious guarantees and fraud detection in place. If someone gets a hold of my passport information and my identity is stolen, this can take years to fix.

Airbnb also asked that I provide them my social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google) connections. A business has no right to ask for social media information. After spending ample time reading reviews and blogs on Airbnb, it appears to me that Airbnb should sticking to established customs and use common sense in business practices. Online there are numerous articles on Airbnb infringement and overcollection of customers’ personal information. Many people are questioning their practices and tuning away from Airbnb.