Tag Archives: airbnb customer service

In Three Words? Unethical, Illegal, Unprofessional

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We’ve used Airbnb for years, both as hosts and as travellers across four continents. While we have loved many wonderful hosts and delighted in hosting guests, we have stopped using Airbnb in favour of booking.com due to Airbnb’s unethical management. You need to be aware that by using Airbnb you’re supporting a company that:

1. Has an arbitrary review process. We wrote a review of a nightmare host who had positive feedback. Our review didn’t appear, so we had to manually check for it. We had to contact Airbnb to ask why. They said that they ‘should’ have emailed us, and when it turned out they failed to, they investigated why our review wasn’t published. It turned out the host had objected; Airbnb had published her review about us, but not ours due to a technicality (we pasted a text message our host had sent us). We were happy to revise our review by simply removing the pasted phrase. Airbnb wouldn’t allow this. I don’t know of any serious site that conducts such a one-sided arbitrary (and faulty) review process. This was most likely the reason this nightmare host’s feedback didn’t feature anything negative – she uses Airbnb’s arbitrary feedback process to block reviews. So, you can’t trust reviews on Airbnb.

2. Sees nothing wrong with renting out properties that have been stolen. Yes, you read that right: stolen. Check out the campaign on SumOfUs and other sites. Airbnb will rent you property that by international UN law has been stolen in Palestine. Many have written or handed in petitions (over 150k signatories to date) and used other methods to get Airbnb to cease their unethical and illegal practice, all to no avail.

Airbnb’s Refund Policy is Absurd

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I made a booking using the quick book option a day before I was set to arrive in Nassau, Bahamas (a listing with a lightening bolt). My host emailed me a few hours later telling me the property was not available. I told her to cancel the booking on the Airbnb site so I could receive a refund. That was ten days ago and the host has given me nothing but excuses as to why she can not cancel. High fees, Out of town, money already sent to her PayPal account, etc. Clearly the host is a liar and a fraud but I have contacted Airbnb’s customer service via email and they told me to go to the resolution center, fill out a form, wait three days, escalate it, and then someone will make a decision regarding my refund. I’m certain I will get it but Airbnb tells me they will not refund the fees. How can this be? I did not cancel; the host did. Also, how can this be avoided in the future? If hosts do not actually cancel reservations from their end it leaves guests having to scratch, claw, and fight to get their money back. If hosts take the money and use it, Airbnb is the one who would have to pay me back out of their own pocket. Seems like this type of thing can happen frequently… Anyone have any info?

Airbnb Nightmare in Santa Margherita, Italy

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My daughter and I were traveling in Italy and we decided to spend our last ten days on the Italian Riviera. We found an apartment in Santa Margherita that seemed to suit our needs: walking distance to town, two bedrooms, nice views. Our host, Angela, was super sweet in her responses to me prior to booking, confirming that she has wifi (very important to both of us) and the town was within walking distance. She said her English was not great but she communicated very well prior to booking. After booking, I had to ask her for the address, twice, as it was not given to me through our Airbnb booking. She also told me to converse with her son via WhatsApp instead of with her through Airbnb messaging. I told her that I do not have WhatsApp and would continue to contact her through Airbnb.

Incidentally, my daughter was sick so I was anxious to get to the apartment and get her in bed. When we got to Santa Margherita after a long train ride (without wifi), I found a message from Angela saying that we needed to copy our passports before she would allow her cleaning person to let us in to the apartment. I asked her where we could have that done (at 4 pm). The only information she would give us was to ask around a certain piazza in town… which we did – two places – and were told that there were no shops that had copying services. So we asked Angela if she would please at least let us drop off our luggage before we continued to look for a copy place and to please give us an actual address of a copy place (nowhere on her Airbnb page did it say that we had to copy our passports). My daughter and I had to keep going to the harbor to get free wifi to contact her.

This was Angela’s reply:

“Sandy, I’m telling You the way to reach the House, not going around the city. Piazza caprera, via palestro, piazza mazzini, via belvedere. from Piazza caprera to Piazza mazzini there are shops for the copy. You had to ask , no sing out of door. I’m sorry for Your daughter but I give You phone of my son , he speaks well , Why you haven’ call him? Why You havent’ call taxi? with heavy luggages and daugther not in well? I in Liguria the streets are steep, no good for person not in well and heavy luggages. Yesterday i give You a lot of facilities, but you wat speak only with airbnb airbn site!!! I you want to help must help!!! In my ad I specified that it was necessary passport copy ’cause you did not before ? I suggested You different formulas but you refused, how may can help You if you don’t want?”

Anyway, my daughter and I went to the apartment, which was up an extremely steep hill (not advertised). Angela’s housekeeper met us, at which point I started to cry as my daughter was so sick. The sweet housekeeper asked me for five euros and went into town to copy our passports but asked us not to let Angela know that she had let us in. The apartment was disgusting. The “views” were of a parking lot and a construction site. There was white powder all over the tile floors; we assumed it was for ants, which were everywhere. The TV didn’t work (no biggie), the shower didn’t work (could only take baths), the beds were horribly uncomfortable, the apartment above was under being renovated so we heard nothing but saws, and we could only get one of the burners on the stove to work, which was enough to make my daughter tea (but there was no teapot).

Once the housekeeper returned, I went back into town to use the free wifi and asked Angela four times for her wifi address and password. No response. So, I contacted Airbnb. No response. The next morning, I got a message from Angela saying that we had to go into town and PURCHASE wifi! Airbnb finally wrote back saying that it looked like my problem was solved because Angela responded. I wrote back saying that we were in an Airbnb nightmare. Airbnb called me. Mick, in Ireland, took our case and told me that he was stopping payment to Angela. I told him, in that case, we needed to pack our belongings as her correspondence to me was so mean (I have many examples) that she would probably confiscate our belongings. So, my ill child did just that and went back into town. However, Mick never loaded the right page to my Airbnb conflict page so I was unable to upload pics of the dirt, the broken window, and the things that weren’t working. I was sobbing.

Finally, I called, again, and got Brittaney in Denver, who loaded the correct page. Once she had our pics, she helped us find another apartment in the next town, Rapallo, with our host, Luca, who was such a sweetheart. And we loved his apartment. He met us, didn’t speak English but had a friend on his phone who acted as our interpreter, brought us espresso pods, milk, bottled water, and croissants (none of which Angela provided). Luca, alone, restored our faith in Airbnb. However, Angela then tried to get 1500 euros from us, although our total fee for our stay at her place was a little over 900 euros. It took two weeks but Airbnb finally closed the dispute – my guess is because she never proved damages – which, of course, there were none. I know that this site said it doesn’t want too many curse words but — Angela, you’re an asshole and shouldn’t be a host! I purposely left out that I am an Airbnb super host: five stars, with 80 ratings. This type of host ruins things for the rest of us. Angela still has her listing and no one looking at her listing will ever know of my nightmare experience, unless they happen to look here. Thanks for letting me vent.

Awful Experience with Airbnb in Corsica

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We had planned our trip to Corsica months in advance and decided to rent on Airbnb. Two weeks before our arrival, the host canceled our reservation and it was impossible to find anything. Airbnb’s compensation was ridiculous (only 160 euros for 5 people renting a house at 2000 euros!) which didn’t allow us to get ANYTHING else on the website (either crazy expensive or not available anymore). We tried to contact customer service multiple times in vain, and the only time we had Airbnb on the phone we got asked to do as many requests as possible. They said they would call the next day to see how our situation progressed… which they DIDN’T. Nobody has helped at all (and as stated in their website policy they do specify they will help!). We searched nonstop by ourselves for three days to find a place that we ended up having to pay 1000 euros more because of that (and had to pay with another account because we didn’t have this amount!) and surprise… the 160 euros compensation coupon didn’t EVEN work! We tried to talk to customer support again to discuss the situation and nobody replied. Eventually, they REFUSED to talk. We believe this is EXTREMELY scandalous and a breach of contract from Airbnb. We would like Airbnb to reimburse the difference that we had to pay to get a new place.

Lying Host Leads to Last Minute Scramble in London

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So we have been using Airbnb for a few trips and all went quite satisfyingly until my husband, my 70 year-old mother-in-law, and I booked our trip to Europe. We always plan our trips a few months ahead just to avoid any unforeseen circumstances so we can sort everything out with the host earlier if something unfortunate should happen. The guy with whom we booked has a few properties listed with Airbnb and has remarkable reviews so we thought this one shouldn’t have any problems. Exactly a week before we arrived, I messaged him regarding exchanging the keys. He replied straight away saying he will give us the keys face to face. Then my husband started to realise that the address he put on Airbnb is actually not detailed, only showing the street name and the suburb. So I messaged him again requesting the address two days after our last communication (which was five days before we were set to arrive).

There was no reply for three days. We messaged him again… nothing. Obviously, we thought he was probably too busy to reply; we had his phone number so we thought we could call him when we arrived. While we were transferring from Dubai to London, we were informed that our Airbnb in London had been cancelled. Without a reason, without any messages from this host. We couldn’t do anything as we were about to take off. I honestly cried for the whole flight as we also booked a few other places with Airbnb for the rest of our trip in Europe. We called Airbnb again and again at the airport, seeking an outcome. Nothing. They only provided us a few links to similar properties (but cost much more than the one we booked) plus a 10% credit, which could only be used with Airbnb.

We eventually booked a hotel that cost much more, as around Europe in July everything cheap had already been booked. I was furious as my 70-year-old mother-in-law was extremely exhausted after the 25-hour flight so I messaged the host and asked him the reason he cancelled. He replied after my repeated not-very-nice messages, saying he found out Airbnb double booked him a week before we arrived and called them straight away to cancel but Airbnb got delayed. He wasn’t sorry. He also tried to make it sound like it was my fault blaming him during all communication (or should we say arguments). I then called Airbnb again but they told me a completely different story, saying that the only phone call they received from him was the day before and he asked to cancel without any explanation or reason. I cannot afford anything like this to happen again so we just cancelled my rest of our trips with Airbnb and deleted my account. I would rather pay the penalties than deal with these dodgy people. Such a relief. To anyone who is seeing this: please do not use Airbnb. Please also pass this on to your friends and family.

Negative Review: Host from Venice

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We were unlucky during our trip from Zagreb to Venice. We missed our bus due to some administrative fault with the bus company in Venice. We had no choice but to take the next bus which was at 10:00pm that night, so our timing was way off to check in to our Airbnb. We messaged our host about it in advance, telling her that we had no choice but to check in late. She asked us to pay an extra 40 euros for the late check in. Eventually, we paid. So during our stay in Venice, we paid the city tax (3 euros per night), cleaning fees (20 euros in cash), and 40 euros for a late check in. In regards to the cleaning fees, there’s a problem with her listing: she is NOT SUPPOSED to collect cleaning fees in cash, but she did. When I tried to resolve this issue with her, she just brushed me off by saying that the cleaning fees are to be paid to the lady who cleans the apartment.

I’ve submitted a report to Airbnb about this and they are still not getting back to me. Initially, I didn’t want to post this story over here but I’m left with no choice as she left me a negative review (which I couldn’t view until I wrote a review for her). I ended up writing a good review for her but was shocked to find a very negative review! Please, those who are going to Venice: DO NOT RESERVE THIS HOST!

Warning to Potential Airbnb Hosts

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This is a slightly different story. My husband and I have managed rentals for a number of years and we were thinking about signing up for Airbnb. I got an invite to an Airbnb meet and greet in our area. The location was at a house, which was hard to find; there were no markers outside, but we did find it. One of the folks attending asked the host if he had ever had his house damaged by guests. The host said yes. He then said that he contacted Airbnb, who told him he had to cancel the next guests, who were coming from out of the country, in order for them to process the claim. The host felt that would be unfair to the next guests and cleaned up the house with his own funds and kept that reservation.

Airbnb refused his claim for damages. Seriously? That’s the customer service you get with this company? Not only did they tell this host to screw the following guests, but they wouldn’t honor the host’s claim for damages? We asked what happened with the people that trashed his house. He gave them a bad review. Big whoop. A lot of hosts are hesitant to give a bad review because they don’t want to get kicked off the site. These folks are still renting and probably still trashing people’s houses. And this story is from a guy that works for Airbnb. We appreciate his honesty and we are looking into some other options for our vacation home.

Airbnb Nightmare in Downtown Indianapolis

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My daughter had a volleyball tournament in downtown Indianapolis in June 2016. The hotel I wanted to stay at, Crowne Plaza, where the team was staying, unfortunately was fully booked at the parent rate and a neighbor mentioned I should check out Airbnb as an option. I was surprised to find an apartment at only $100 a night about 1.5 miles from the convention center. Another mom whose daughter was also in the tournament agreed to split the fee with me and one of us would bunk on the couch since tournament days are often long with minimal time spent in the room.

My first red flag happened the night before check in. The host, Eric, asked me to give him a call when I had a moment to go over check in. At this time he revealed he wanted to be up front (nice of him to be upfront with less than 24 hours to check in…) as he had a small issue that “wasn’t a big deal” but that he wasn’t supposed to be subletting his apartment so if anyone asked who I was, to say I was a family member. That immediately made me uncomfortable as I had booked FOUR NIGHTS at his apartment. If something went wrong, what might happen? The “upfront” comment really pissed me off. There was nothing upfront about it at all. I was told last minute and not given the option if I wanted to be at risk in this way.

I called several hotels immediately but no one had any rooms available. The day of check in I contacted Eric to find out how to retrieve the keys. He had previously told me he’d have the keys available for me to pick up when ready. I wrongly assumed that meant he would leave the keys with a doorman, an apartment manager… but alas, I made an error in using common sense. What Eric sent me to show me how to retrieve the keys was a picture of the front of the apartment building where a red circle was placed on the left side of the photo indicating where I could retrieve the keys… which were hidden under one lonely slate piece of rock that stood out like a sore thumb next to the door.

I was in a rush to get my daughter to the hotel to meet the team so I rushed in, dropped off my bag, and left. I noticed the lock was difficult to handle and saw there was no metal casing where the deadbolt should sit, just wood roughly carved out that left the door closing very loosely. My friend, the mom of my daughter’s teammate, Uber’d back with me to the apartment and I showed her where the keys were left for us. She was shocked. We scurried to the apartment hoping no one was going to stop us on the way and we noticed a cubby door near the front door of the apartment. This was not mentioned in the listing, so we opened it.

The door fell off in our hands but we noticed when looking inside it looked vaguely familiar. No wonder – it led to the closet inside the apartment, which had no lock on the door, and was easily sized for someone to climb through. We pushed a chair up to the closet door for security measures. Two women in a strange city alone with a door someone could crawl through and wind up in the apartment left us feeling vulnerable and worried. Again, I called around to more hotels, and nothing was available. I went to the Airbnb site and couldn’t find an emergency phone number.

We then proceeded to look around the apartment and noticed what a sty the place was. The bathroom was disgusting! I was so grossed out I wouldn’t even brush my teeth that night because I didn’t trust the water flowing through the faucet. The shower was beyond human use but oddly enough the photos in the listing did not depict the nastiness; they were staged in a way to not show it. I had asked the host for a set of sheets for the couch since there were two guests staying. There were no extra set of sheets to be found anywhere, just a lone blanket with holes in it folded up next to a chair and a brand new thin blanket thrown on the couch, but no sheets.

The bathroom had ONE washcloth and three towels. That’s it. There was one roll of toilet paper. The floors were nasty; the edges of the entire place were thick with black grime from years of dirt and lack of scrubbing. I sat on the couch while my friend had an anxiety attack and used her inhaler. When I got up, cat hair was all over my pants (the listing did say he had two cats but I asked him to remove them because of my friend’s allergies – he insisted he cleaned the house the morning of check in for three hours – a total lie) The house smelled, just like the apartment building. I don’t mind old but I do want CLEAN. This place was old, dirty, and disgusting. I wouldn’t judge anyone if that’s what they can afford or for how they want to live but when you open up your place for others to stay at and risk their security, health, and sanity because you want to make a buck (or in this case, $400 bucks), I have a problem.

Did I mention we slept on the couch because we were too scared to sleep in the bedroom with the wonky cubby hole/door thing going on? I kept smelling something seriously rank all night and when light finally hit in the morning, I looked on the side of the couch and there were two wine bottles (which were probably not empty, by the smell). I finally was able to Google Airbnb and find a hidden phone number. I spoke to someone named Buster and uploaded tons of photos of our situation. I felt I should have been refunded the ENTIRE amount we spent. They did cancel our reservation which gave us back two nights and they proceeded to also refund the third night and our service fee.

I will never use Airbnb again. It was so stressful. We got two hours sleep total the entire night leading to the day our daughters played. Luckily my husband is a Platinum Marriott member and they were able to give us a room for the night about 15 minutes away from the convention center at a great rate. I seriously felt like I was walking into the Astoria when we got there. Coincidentally, I got a text from Eric asking “Hi, how is the stay going?” about two hours after the reservation was cancelled. I proceeded to block his number and enjoy the rest of my stay at the Marriott. Never never never again! Too risky and too much work to get a resolution. Buster was nice but I like the option of going to a front desk and speaking with a person for an immediate resolution at a hotel. Too much was left up for Airbnb to agree to despite how wrong the listing was and the security issues we faced.

No Country for Apartments: Airbnb in Berlin

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My 13-year-old son and I had the trip of a lifetime planned to Germany and Austria. I travel to Germany often so I know my way around. We stayed in Hilton hotels in most of the cities in which we only stayed for three or four days before going to Berlin. We both love Berlin and stayed in apartments the last two times we were there. Unfortunately, the company I used to use to book the apartments has gone out of business due to a new law in Germany restricting the renting of apartments due to tax issues. I decided to book through Airbnb and found a great apartment for 16 days. I booked with the owner and paid for the apartment several months ahead of time. I printed the instructions from the owners a week before the trip and started our trip to Germany on June 15th, 2016.

We were having an enjoyable time until we showed up to pick up the keys from a bar in Prinzlauerberg after a nine-hour train ride from Vienna. It seems that Germany, or at least Berlin, has just enacted a law that doesn’t allow people to rent apartments using any service like Airbnb legally for less than 30 days. Now, any company that truly cares about its customers would make sure it notifies you about a cancellation with more than an email to your account… which went straight to my spam folder. They would call to notify you of such a problem or at least make sure you got an email. Airbnb did nothing more than send an email, so my son and I were stuck in Berlin for 16 days with no apartment.

I want to be fair to Airbnb and say when I called them they tried to help and offered to pay for two nights here in Berlin up to $200. They offered to try to get us another place here but every listing that was available online was not able to take us. We tried eight new ones. They were sorry about the fact that I did not get notification of the cancellation but would not take responsibility for not making sure I got the notification. I had printed the instructions a week before I left and therefore thought everything was ok. The money was refunded but not until a month later and my wife just got our statement with the credit yesterday.

Luckily, I am a seasoned traveler and was able to get us in to a Hampton Inn for the last two nights and was able to book the same hotel for all but the next three days here. My problem with Airbnb is that they did not make sure I got the notification of the cancellation in the first place. This is my first and last experience with Airbnb. A company as large as this should make sure that customers get notification of cancellations and not blame it all on the customer. A phone call would have solved the entire problem. I will never use Airbnb again. They have ruined the experience that they so want you to have as advertised online and on TV. We were so looking forward to staying in that apartment in Berlin.

WARNING: If you are trying to reserve anything in Germany from Airbnb, don’t! The laws here have basically made it illegal to rent through Airbnb unless the stay is over 30 days. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER Airbnb or you will soon be the next Internet company to go bankrupt!

Airbnb is a Joke – Worst Experience Ever in DC

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I’m still trying to get a refund after an apartment host lied about his listing (in Washington, D.C.) I showed up to this piece of garbage apartment after a coast-to-coast flight (arrived at 9pm). The apartment was filthy, gross, and dirty: garbage overflowing in the kitchen and bathroom, bed sheets dirty and thrown on the floor, dirty socks and tennis shoes on the floor next to the bed, a wet dirty towel hanging sideways off the bathroom towel rack, etc. It was actually frightening.

I was shocked and not sure what to do. So I reached out to the so-called “host”… and never heard back. It took him 30+ minutes to finally contact me and proceeded to call me a “liar”, and that his cleaning lady had just cleaned the place. I sent him photos, and said I was leaving. He said he would like to “work it out” and offered me a $50 refund. I told him it was unacceptable and I needed a place to sleep that night. So I left (returned the keys to the doorman of the building). The “host” then texted me and threatened to sue me (he said he was an attorney) if I posted a negative rating on the Airbnb website. Ha! That’s a good one.

An official complaint (with photos and documentation) was filed May 19th, 2016. AMEX did a conference call with myself and Airbnb as well… to no avail. Anyway, there it is straight up. If you like this kind of treatment, then go for it. If you are a professional and expect good customer service from intelligent human beings, then run. Airbnb does not offer this. They hand you ill-trained customer service reps who lie, coddle you with a lot of false language like “Oh, I am so sorry that happened to you!”, and then NEVER DO ANYTHING to resolve the situation.