Tag Archives: airbnb no contact

Not Airbnb Hosts, but Still on Mailing Lists

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I pity the poor investors who will eventually be parting ways with their money when (and if) Airbnb gets their act together to file for an IPO. Today I received the Airbnb Magazine in the mail. I am not a host or guest. The name on the “To:” portion of the address label was to a Mr. Richard Fabian. Mr. Fabian was the supposed “host” of our home when he set up a fake account portraying my family as Airbnb hosts.

The outcome of that story is buried somewhere in the Airbnb Hell server but basically we had people dropping by the house unannounced looking for their key. The fact that we never heard back from anyone at Airbnb regarding this fraud does not surprise me now that I’m receiving their magazine. Throwing away money by mailing on what looks like an expensive rag to a fraudster is par for the course of this organization.

Airbnb, you grew too big too fast. Stop for a moment and count the bedbugs.

Left Homeless in Philadelphia after no Contact

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My credit card was charged for a five-day rental in Philadelphia. The host emailed me through Airbnb that the entry code to the property would be sent to me 24 hours before I arrived. I was sent a file through Airbnb’s system, since all communication must go through the service. The file was sent, but couldn’t be opened. The host couldn’t be contacted by Airbnb’s case manager. I was told to go get coffee while Airbnb tried to contact the host. No contact was made. I was homeless, 3000 miles from where I live. Airbnb admitted to the error, but merely wiped the charges from my credit card; there was no effort to compensate me for a very expensive last-minute hotel. They referred me to their legal team, and all communication stopped.

Host Guarantee Means Nothing to Airbnb

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I will be talking about the devastating and very much time consuming that I have been through since August 1st until today. Almost 40 tiring days have passed with no result but that feeling of being very much ignored with many saved responses by the case manager from the resolution center remain.

I had a guest who robbed my apartment, taking an expensive Canon camera 50mm f/1.2 lens and an ironing machine. I overlooked the ironing machine and the fact that she had left permanent stains on the bed cover which I bought new right and I considered them collateral damage after the one-month reservation.

However, the 50mm lens was $1,472. Thus I have reported this incident to Airbnb support center on the phone and by messaging from August 1st until the 10th. I talked with tens of agents and case managers and I sent them all the photos and documents that they needed. They told me they would contact me soon.

Anyway, this was a lie from all of them and my first experience with such an incident. On the 11th of August I called again and a case manager told me that I had to request a refund from the guest who robbed my property. I have done so and she denied it, so I got the resolution center involved.

They automatically send you an email that it should take seven days to have your case resolved. It took until today, which is 25 days. This required all the patience that I had. I sent all the documents that they requested with every tiny detail and I waited and waited. Then they requested a police report which was a very strange thing to ask for after 25 days (I had four guests in my apartment since then). Why didn’t they request it when I called, messaged, and reported this incident?

I managed to go the police station and told them every tiny detail. They gave me the police report. By the end of that day I thought Airbnb would honor their Host Guarantee. I then resent all the photos, conversations, and documents.

Since then the case manager took five days to respond to my emails. He emailed me very strangely as if he knew nothing about my case. He said – and I’m quoting from his mail – “Thanks for your response. In order for an incident to be eligible for Airbnb assistance, the reported damages must have been caused by a guest or an invitee of the guest. You are free to pursue reimbursement from your guest directly. However, per this requirement, this case is not eligible for reimbursement. You may review the Host Guarantee terms here. If you have other questions about the Host Guarantee and what is covered feel free to respond.”

As if I didn’t involve them after I requested the refund from the guest directly. I emailed him back and he didn’t answer of course. Then I called Airbnb and after a very long conversation – thirty minutes – in which I had to tell the whole story from the first detail, I requested that they change the case manager who is investigating my case. He responded shortly by email: “After a thorough review, we have decided to uphold our original decision. We determined that a payout could not be processed in this instance. We consider this decision final.”

I will unfortunately be un-listing my Airbnb apartment. Although I met with many great guests, I would never have done this if I hadn’t been that ignored.

Cynical Refund Policy around Father’s Death

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I had made a booking at the beginning of August 19th for a room in Amsterdam. Four days before we were to leave for Amsterdam my dad died so we could not go. The long and short of it was we were charged for the booking. I informed the host and Airbnb my father had died and they appeared very sympathetic. The host immediately agreed to give our money back but never did. Airbnb asked for the obituary, which we sent, but nothing happened.

We received about six messages from Airbnb saying they had tried to call but they hadn’t. The email with a reply button had a no-reply email address. No one had ever tried to call. Then I received a message stating they had no details of the trip, so I sent them. The follow up was to send me back into the circle of death of emails stating they had tried to ring, etc. I only managed to find a contact email address through Airbnb Hell. I have seen some cynical things in my time but this one beats all. Very dodgy crowd – be warned.

Ripped Off After Host Lied About Location

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I am disappointed with Airbnb. I made a reservation for September 9-12 on the basis the apartment was in lively location above a trendy bar. I found out this was not the case, and cancelled having discussed with my host who agreed to a 50% refund immediately and 50% when she re-let the property.

I searched in past few weeks and again today for the property and it does not appear coming up as being available for rent on those dates, which leads me to assume it is no longer available. Having read the latest review of the property, it was shut down recently by the fire officer due to dangerous gas smells. If this is the case, I presume it’s not available (quite rightly) but why should the host get to retain my deposit?

Airbnb had no reply for me. This is grossly unfair and borders on fraudulent. I’ve tried to call and speak to the help line but am getting nowhere.

Airbnb Wouldn’t Send Messages from Guests to Hosts

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We are new hosts and had a really bad experience with Airbnb. Airbnb didn’t send us SMS messages from guests, not even for one. As we are not on the Internet all the time (and we didn’t get those SMS messages from Airbnb), of course we didn’t respond to guests. The guests didn’t book, we lost at least 250€, but also lost other guests, who had to book another place, which was more expensive (we had the lowest price in the city: 13€/person/night) and of course with a bigger service fee for Airbnb only.

Maybe the reason was just that: for guests to pay a bigger service fee. That takes us to this conclusion: for just a few euros or dollars more, everyone loses, guests and hosts. You can just imagine what could happen if some guest (maybe you) booked instantly: Airbnb wouldn’t send you an SMS, the guest would face closed doors as the host might not be home that night, and the guest would be in the middle of the street in one of most dangerous cities in the world. Who would care?

Airbnb didn’t gave me any answer as to why they didn’t send an SMS from guests to me for one whole week. Because we didn’t respond to guests (as we didn’t know about their questions before booking) we also had a really bad response rate, which Airbnb didn’t correct as promises. Guests base their decisions on the response rate too. We lost a whole day due to talking with Airbnb staff, but nothing happened: he just talked and talked.

Be aware when you search for a place on Airbnb: the cheapest ones are never on first listing page. It is a shame for such a big and rich company to make so many ugly mistakes in year 2019.

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 in Miami Beach not what I expected

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I booked a seven-night stay at an Airbnb in Miami Beach in May. The place looked nothing like the pictures: the hotel was rundown and old; there were garbage bins at the front and back of the building; they had smelly elevators and smelly hallways. My mom found bugs in the kitchen, and people were doing marijuana at the pool. The customer service sucked.

I contacted the host right away and told her my concerns. She decided to stop replying to me and I didn’t hear back from her. I contacted Airbnb for help. They were terrible at handling this case. It took over a month. I had to keep calling them. No case manager called me back and when I got a hold of one he was nasty, rude, and unprofessional; he even lied to me on the phone about a conversation we had before.

This whole experience was really bad, from the terrible host to the terrible Airbnb service. Don’t ever book from here. The host may give you a description of the place and when you show up it may not be it and no one holds them account. Do not book with Airbnb. I expected average. This was a Motel 9 experience: below average and I never got any of my money back.

Airbnb: Worst Customer Service Ever

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We booked a 10-bedroom home and paid our deposit. The leasing agency the host employs then called us to pay our rental insurance and pet fees… okay, no problem. I asked her to put the charges on Airbnb like the site says you should and they refused, stating they would need a credit card or my checking account number to pay the fees. They also requested I sign up on another site so we could communicate via their property management site. I refused as well, due to Airbnb’s strict policies about communication. I cannot trust this company and requested a refund. Each person I have spoken with has been horrible. No resolution or communication, just passing the ball to someone else. The worst customer service.