Tag Archives: airbnb customer service

Drunk Guest Scares Female Host -No Support from Airbnb!

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The night before carnival, I was supposed to host a guest from New Zealand. On the photo he seemed friendly and well-traveled but he didn’t have any sense of direction and ended up in different parts of town even though I always give very precise directions from the airport and the main station to my guests. So he started sending me messages saying he’s upset, confused and lost, and that I should pick him up. By that time it was around 10 pm. As a solo-female host I did not consider this a serious option for security reasons and I told him to take a taxi. He also called me several times and spoke to me very unclearly and sounded a bit aggressive in his voice.
Luckily I was with an English friend who also listened to the guest’s tone of voice, his mumbling words and confirmed that the guest must have been drunk or on drugs to speak that way. When he made me talk to a German bartender, I told her that I felt uncomfortable hosting this guest and asked her if my reservations had any grounds or not. She confirmed and said she would not host him! So I cancelled the reservation on the airbnb site, on the phone with airbnb, and then as demanded by airbnb, in a descriptive email. This took several hours.

The next day I got an email from airbnb saying that they were not going to “punish” me this time and that they of course cannot pay me for this booking. To the second part, I can agree even if this guest caused quite a bit of trouble for me, to the first part, however, I don’t agree at all and would expect a different reaction than that!

So now I’m hesitant about future bookings through airbnb because I feel unsafe and abandoned if something bad happens!

First Airbnb Experience – WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!

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I wanted to book a place to stay with few of our friends.

1. We booked the first place: We let all our friends know and planned everything, then the host contacted me asking for more money!  I had already invited all of my friends and had sent them pics of the place so reluctantly I agreed to pay more!

2. The day after, the host told me that she would be home with her daughter (staying in the same place)!! So to clarify, I had paid twice the price of a 5star hotel to spend the weekend with her and her daughter rather than having the place alone with my friends like we thought —–> AWESOME

3. I cancelled that booking (at this point I still didn’t know that airbnb had already charged me the service fee and would not refund that)

4. I booked a new airbnb place and I sent a message to the owner and he confirmed.   I paid for the booking.  One hour later, he told me that I have only paid for 1 person and asked me for more money. I had paid $500 and apparently it was only for 1 person!  I wanted to cancel the booking BUT I WAS ONLY GETTING BACK $50 OF THE CLEANING FEES OUT OF $500 + lots of stress as I already had invited everyone to fukkn Blue Mountains!!! What am I going to do???  I had to contact Airbnb to cancel, but there’s no number listed.  After 20 minutes of searching I found a phone number —> Called >>>> 30 minutes wait … My case was sent to a “case manager”.

So after wasting 3 hours, lots of stress, and $1200 of my money ON THE AIR (still not refunded), I have absolutely nothing to show for it!  I have invited all of my friends to the Blue Mountains and I’ve sent them the pics and address of the place, BUT I HAVE NO ACTUAL BOOKINGS and I wasted all this time and effort. NOW IT’S TIME TO BEG TO RECEIVE MY MONEY BACK!!

VERY RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE ON AIRBNB CHATROOM

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My wife tried very hard to contact Airbnb via their website…. there is nothing there to complain against them. We had a coupon code issue that needed help, so they put us onto a chat room where their customer service guy called Dennis typed in responses. Dennis was very rude to my wife. Saying he insulted her intelligence etc. Later when I asked to speak to someone on the phone, Dennis gave me the real phone number and we talked to a real person. The other guy managed to resolve our issue no problem. It turned out that it is airbnb’s software problem. You cannot input a coupon code on instant booking.

Regardless of the issue, there is no excuse for a customer service representative to be so rude!  I’ll be taking my business elsewhere!

Airbnb is a nightmare when something goes wrong!

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Being a host on Airbnb since 2013 with 4 houses (I have only received 2 confirmed bookings via Airbnb since I started – all my other bookings have come from other sites that look much more sufficient, honest and effective), I unluckily went on to book a flat in Paris for a month through airbnb. After a very long search around the site I managed to book a property and fully paid for it in one go as was the owner’s policy. This was done in early October for a check in on the 19th of December 2015. One day later the host came back to me asking for more money (137 eur) with the excuse that she had not considered the Airbnb commission. I refused to pay extra money so the host threatened me with a cancellation of my booking. I didn’t really believe her (it was a young girl from Morocco who apparently had not a clue of respecting my trust) – being a host myself, I have never cancelled any booking from my side. I was surprised to receive the host’s cancellation 2 days later! Airbnb hastenned to propose me other apartments more expensive and promised me a bonus of 49 eur on my behalf. I finally booked another property which cost me an extra 88 eur charged on my c.c plus the 49 eur of the bonus. You will not believe what happens since then! I receive every single week (since october 2015 and till now) an e-mail from AIRBNB that I owe them 49 eur and this is under the reference of the cancelled reservation by the host. I have sent them copies of the invoices paid with 0 balance due again and again explaining the facts to them and asking them why they keep on annoying me, but no reply from them! They keep on sending me this stupid outstanding bill and I have found no way to stop them. I had to change my c.c used by them as I am afraid that they would charge me and now they send me messaging “problem with payment” all the time! I have searched everywhere to find a real telephone number to call them from Greece but I got one in USA which will cost me a fortune. After so much trouble faced being a guest, I seriously think I will also stop collaborating with them as a host – I really feel pity for AIRBNB guests trying to deal with it. Also, the host who cancelled my reservation does not have the automatic review mentioning the cancellation – normally this should appear at the host’s profile reviews, no?  How else will future guests know what this host did?

Someone illegally listed my house, Airbnb won’t remove!

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I have rented my house to a Chinese woman for residential purposes only and the contract clearly states that she’s not allow to sublet my house in any way. A couple of months after signing the 2 years contract I found out that she listed my house on Airbnb.   So, I got my lawyer to terminate the lease contract and while this is in progress I also contacted Airbnb, providing them will all the evidence including the house deed, lease contract, images, etc., to ask Airbnb to take down the listing. The response I got from Airbnb is that they cannot take down the listing because they are just the “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, so they are not able to close the listing unless the hosts do it themselves. In my opinion, this is ridiculous…so I asked their customer service, Julie, if I am allow list a government building or a palace on their website? Or to list someone’s house without the owner’s consent just to con money from Airbnb guests’ money? So Julie replied “we will not verify, evaluate or arbitrate the terms you identify”. I understand that they are just a “platform and does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations”, as Julie kept repeating during our telephone conversation, but is it right for them to ignore criminal activities to go on on their platform? I have never used Airbnb, (I don’t even have an account with them) and I never will nor recommend to anyone.

AirBnB Customer Service – Slow and Rarely Helpful!

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Each time I reach out to AirBnB, I lose great amounts of faith in their ability to realistically support their hosts on the expectations they set. They have INCREDIBLY dis-empowered customer service, proven from their resolutions and answers that provide pretty much no expectations and then a surprise outcome. None of their staff apparently have the power to do anything when helping you, and I’ve had several seemingly simple issues take over a month to resolve (3 times). From my understanding, they have only a few services that they provide that are crucial to a host’s success and integral to their role: – put your listing in front of interested travelers – manage guest/host refund and payment expectations – facilitate a good experience for hosts and guests. In these areas, they kind of suck. No, seriously they kind of suck. If it was out of 10, I’d give them a 4 or lower in each category. Here’s why:

“Put your listing in front of interested travelers” – I was one of the most searchable and highest ranking results in my area until a mystery shift happened about a month ago, and I suddenly went from top 3 results in a blind search, to almost being the 40th ranked result. No one could explain “why” this happened, and would only point me to their list of “improve your ranking” bullet points (which I easily satisfy and exceed all of them) and instruct me to share my listing on social media. After much prodding and time wasted on calls, I finally learned that brand new hosts get special treatment and a boost in rankings in their first month or two. So a successful acquisition campaign of new hosts in popular areas will push experienced and hard working hosts down in the rankings. Really!? This sounds like a horrible experience for guests and hosts. Push guests onto new hosts who have no experience, and punish good hosts for having experience and increased pricing. hmmmm

“Manage guest/host refund and payment expectations” I’ve had 3 issues in my 9 month history as a host get pushed to the resolution center and required AirBnB intervention. Both times it took over a month to resolve (a current one is now on a month). The current one, I recently discovered, froze a $650 payout and has been frozen for over a month with no understanding of why from anyone I speak to. They tell me it’s not protocol, it’s unusual, and that the “trip experience” team will have to look into it. If it’s unusual and not protocol, and AirBnB manages this portion of my business, it is their responsibility to fix it ASAP. This = disempowered employees who don’t even understand their own system but have no process to escalating potential technical issues that are impacting hosts tremendously. Imagine your job just taking $600 out of your paycheck and not understanding why it happened or helping you with it for a month?

“Facilitate a good experience for hosts and guests” They do a mixed bag of a job here. Lots of resources all over the place for guests and hosts, but they don’t focus on how important it is for guests and hosts to go through them. Should ANYONE just be allowed to host without any test/briefing on how to host well? Should all guests have to blindly fumble into the unique AirBnB’s without any expectations that these are small, 1-person run businesses sometimes but they expect it to be on par with hotels? AirBnB could do a tremendously better job here on creating quality filters for both host and guest, but I guess that would stifle their acquisition campaigns for new business. It will bite them in the butt in the long run, and a smarter competitor will surface to challenge them here and take market share…. and I will gladly join them 🙂 AirBnB is not a reliable business to count on for income, and I would not recommend anyone do it full time. At all. Only do a room in a house you live in, here and there maybe. Nothing more. For true vacation rental hosts, find alternatives or learn to market the listing yourself and compete.

How To Recover Your Money from Airbnb

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Here’s a warning and hopefully some help for others in the Airbnb nightmare club. I recently used Airbnb for the first time. I have several friends that rent their houses through this service so I though I’d try it. This review does not pertain to every person on Airbnb. There are good people there, I know some personally. However, there are bad people there too and I just got a lesson in how far Airbnb goes to protect known scammers. If you read to the end I’ll explain how I unscammed myself.

Ok, I rented a room in Bozeman for 12 days. I paid for it in advance of course. Now, Airbnb claims they don’t charge your account until you check in. What they don’t mention is that for them “check in” occurs 24 hours before your rental starts. The host already has your money and has possibly spent it before you arrive. Possibly on drugs that make them crazy when you get there. Just saying. Apparently this happened to me. When I showed up, the hosts were super sketchy. The house smelled like people just pee in the hall rather than going all the way to the bathroom. There were people sleeping on every couch and piece of free carpet it seemed. The room was in the back. It had probably never been cleaned since the last junkie died there. I mentioned I was disappointed that the house was not as described and not the one in the pictures. They asked me to leave. I couldn’t have been happier to get out. Really, it was a health hazard. I called Airbnb and they said they would help. They’d call back in 5-10 minutes. They’d help me find another place and we’re sorry. I said ok, I’m sitting in my car in a blizzard so somewhere close would be best. They said if it was more than 15 minutes they’d call with an update.

They called almost 4 hours later. They said that since I’d already talked to another employee there they couldn’t help me. I never talked to anyone else. I assume the host called pretending to be me. They said that their hands are tied and they can only do what the host wants anyway. I said that is says clearly on your site that in extenuating circumstances or if the rental isn’t as described, Airbnb will override the host’s policies. He said he doesn’t think it says that. I explained where to read it. He said, well I don’t have the authority to do anything like that. I asked to be transferred to someone who can. He said there is no one who can. ??? He then said the only way is to contact the host and ask for a refund. Really? The scammers make the rules? By this time the hosts had “canceled” my reservation. You’d think this means a refund. You’d be very wrong. What it means is I can’t leave feedback about the host because I no longer have a reservation. If I go to my emails and click the links there it says that reservation does not exist. So, if the host has any clue you will leave a bad review, they can block you from writing one. Also, read through the Airbnb policies on the website. First it says all reviews are honest and from real renters. Keep reading. Wait for the part where they say they erase and or modify the reviews as they see fit. Seriously? Honest reviews re-written by marketing experts. Seems like a real nice version of honesty to me.

Ok, so what to do if this happens to you? Well, hopefully you reserved your room with a credit or debit card. Call your bank. Ask for the fraud department. Maybe even the Airbnb fraud specialist. No joke Wells Fargo said they think they need a few. The guy that helped me said this is the 4th similar Airbnb scam he personally helped with today. At this point, if they hear Airbnb they just shove the money back in your account. He said sorry this happened, and I had my cash in about 12 hours. Don’t try and deal with Airbnb if you have a problem. Well, you can try but do it with the expectation that they won’t help. So, I want to say once more that there are good people on Airbnb. You may rent a place and love it. But please protect yourself in case you do get initiated into the Airbnb nightmare club.

AirBNB – WORST COMPANY (and customer service) of ALL TIME

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I’ve had SEVEN, count that SEVEN experiences with AirBNB customer service. They have the worst customer service you could possibly imagine. They are getting worse and worse and worse. Last night I was locked out of the reservation I arrived at and was supposed to be staying at for 11 nights when I arrived late. I stood outside in the cold for 2 hours and then was told that I had to get a motel with my own credit card and ask for a refund after the fact. When I told them I wanted a refund because under no circumstances would I pay to be locked out in the cold in the middle of the night and then have to rent a room, they WITHHELD $100 FROM ME IN THE REFUND. In otherwords, they MADE ME PAY $100 TO BE LOCKED OUT IN THE COLD WITH NOWHERE TO STAY FOR 2 HOURS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. They refused to do anything else.

Airbnb SuperHost raised price after guest arrived, and Airbnb did nothing!

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Airbnb customer service lies to its customers and is useless. I filed a complaint against a host in Oahu because she decided to change the rate after arrival. She wanted $30 more per night saying Airbnb made the mistake. Since Airbnb didn’t accept the price increase, the host demanded I pay in cash for the next 7 nights. I telephoned right away to file a complaint with airbnb. The host violated one of the most critical rules. Her listing was to be removed as Airbnb said as a super host and as a general member. Well it never happened. Her listing is still there and it is still shown as a super host. I visited all the way from Europe and was disappointed that I had to deal with this crazy host and lousy Airbnb customer support. Be careful of some hosts and their listing price. Once you have arrived a host may speak of excuses why the price has gone up and Airbnb couldn’t give a damn.