Damage Deposit and Support Ambassadors

Support ambassadors are a joke. The only people they “support” is Airbnb, by inventing creative excuses for avoiding paying out money to aggrieved customers.

We had guests from hell. Four couples arrived when our villa was booked for two. They hosted a pool party for 20 and checked out on time but remained by the pool and then moved back in after our cleaner had finished cleaning. They damaged the furniture and forced her to return the following day to clean again.

After constant communication with Airbnb to elicit their support, none was forthcoming. They gave no compensation whatsoever for the extra nights, extra cleaning, extra guests, and damage to the property. The ambassadors are trained to feign concern but do absolutely nothing to help. How did they become such a global powerhouse? It’s quite unbelievable.

Five-Star Airbnb Host, Zero-Star Service

I discovered in July that I was not getting paid for my reservations. I also discovered that Airbnb was paying some of my funds to a bonus bank account which listed my information. I had no knowledge of this and did not authorize it.

It has been two months of almost weekly emails demanding to know what Airbnb is going to do to resolve this. I am now owed approximately $12,000. No one seems to understand or want to deal with the problem. I am now forced to file a superior court breach of contract and fraud case to attempt to get resolved.

My home is rented almost 90% of the time and now I can’t pay the taxes or the property managers. If you have any comments which would assist me, please feel free to make them. I have even suffered a stroke trying to get Airbnb to do something.

Airbnb not Paying out more than Four Months

I own and rent out an apartment, mostly through Airbnb, in Budapest, Hungary. I realized only in January that the last payment I received was on November 11. The business is being managed for me by a company who specializes in this and who have been doing a great job. They have registered/contracted with Airbnb — not me — but Airbnb has been paying my account directly.

The management company has been in contact with Airbnb customer service — as difficult as it is to make meaningful contact with them — but only told that we need to wait for some payment system issue to be resolved. Then of course nothing happens for weeks and weeks.

As I personally am not even a client, I am unable to contact Airbnb directly which is incredibly frustrating. Having managed to get through on Airbnb’s phone line, they managed to set up a call with a CEE regional manager, who promised to investigate and get back to me.

This was three weeks ago and obviously nothing has happened since. Airbnb has been holding my money ($6-7000) for more than four months now and seems to be ignoring its obligation to immediately resolve this situation that is clearly in conflict with their contract and with the law. Their behaviour is just unthinkable and unacceptable in every way. Any help with what the hell I can do would be greatly appreciated.

Need Support after Getting Robbed of over $2000 by Airbnb

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I have been a host in Kobe, Japan for several years with Airbnb and as a Superhost, I had many satisfied guests and enjoyed very decent reviews. Around mid-January this year, Airbnb sent me a notice to do a verification of my account, threatening to block payouts if I did not complete it before February 4th.

I immediately sought out help from Airbnb support staff who walked me through the entire process and helped me fill in the form until the support staff himself was 100% satisfied that everything was in perfect order. He also confirmed clearly that any payout would not be blocked as the verification process was successful.

Below is proof of that chat where he congratulated me and confirmed that the payouts would not be blocked at all. I received a booking for 220,000 Japanese yen for check-in on February 11 and check-out on February 27th (a 17-day booking) with a specified payout date to me for February 13th. Today is February 17th and the nightmare I am facing is already four days into the process of dealing with the most incompetent so-called case managers and support staff.

The experience I am having in trying to collect my money is abusive, and nothing short of real torture as they are all behaving like thugs sitting on my money illegally and giving me the royal run around while whistling Sweet Dixie. No host should ever have to be subjected to this kind of torture I am facing just to try and collect what is rightfully due to me.

This kind of behavior from Airbnb usually comes as a prelude to bankruptcy. I am alerting all hosts to please be cautious because the tactics Airbnb are using here to rob me of my money are nothing short of gangster ones. I have no idea when I will see my money, I have no idea when my nightmare for chasing for my payout will stop, and I have no idea of what options I have.

I am reaching out to all the hosts reading this to please share your experiences with me if it can help me get what is due to me from these thugs. The guest from this payout is still staying in my property and Airbnb is threatening that if I use the option I suggest, i.e. ask the guest to cancel her reservation with Airbnb and demand a refund as I will waive all cancellation fees, to pay me directly, then they will penalize me for trying to deal directly with the guest and bypassing them.

The guest is still staying in the property until February 27th. I do have time to seek some sort of agreement with her but I don’t want to do anything to pay a hefty price later. Any advice on this matter would be highly appreciated. I just want to warn all hosts now and in the future to be totally aware of these gangster tactics by Airbnb to sit on your money whenever they feel like it, as if they have a right to take your funds. This is tantamount to stealing. Please be careful not to get trapped as I have been.

Right now I don’t know what more torture I have to endure from these thugs and their team of the most incompetent staff on the planet. I keep banging my head against the wall trying to recover my money from them. Any advice or helpful comments would be highly appreciated.

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Robbed as an Airbnb Host, No Payment Coming

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I have been hosting on Airbnb for quite some time now and I had a reservation for January 22nd-26th. My transactions say that I was supposed to receive a payout of 1600 USD on the 23rd. It is now February 8th and I still have no idea when or if I am going to receive my payment. I have had at least a dozen incompetent case managers that have different stories on why I did not receive my payment and how they are going to help me. No one knows how long it takes for them to process my payment because it is a “technical” issue and that is a department only they have access to.

What should I do… call a lawyer?

Airbnb Allows Fraudulent Host to Rent out Property

I had the pleasure of dealing with Airbnb; what a horrible business. I will never use them or suggest anything but staying away from them. I had hired a property manager who did not manage the property and basically disappeared: no communication, the cleaners did not know when to clean, and I was scheduling myself out of desperation during Christmas.

I could see three reservations that were on the calendar for after Christmas and New Year’s. Finally I got a text from the manager to enter information for a co-host on Airbnb so I could see the reservation information. That was the last communication I got. The guest came and went, damage was done, submitted pictures to her… crickets.

I called Airbnb as no money had been deposited into my account. They said I wasn’t the host so I couldn’t input the bank information. I sent the bank information to the manager… crickets. I called Airbnb; they assured me I would be paid, so I let the next guest stay… no money.

Finally after five more phone calls, I cancelled the last reservations. Airbnb didn’t care that the guests’ vacations would be ruined, not their concern. That’s why you shouldn’t do business with these people. They refused to provide me any way to get my money except to confront the person… unbelievable. If I could sue them I would. They are worse then any criminals I have ever dealt with.

Airbnb will suffer… in this life or the next

I have not been paid as a host for the last two months. Despite calling about three times a week to their customer service, there has been no resolution nor are they making any effort to come to one. The amount owed is more than £1000. Airbnb is simply not interested. Customer service opens a case then does nothing to resolve the issues. They even find excuses for why the payment has not been sent then once the issue has been solved they find something else. I think Airbnb policies are truly evil, misleading and thoroughly dishonest. The people that devise this evil will be brought to account for their actions… in this life or the next.

Cancelled by Airbnb a Few Hours before Guests’ Arrival

At 11:45 PM on the 5th of August, Airbnb cancelled my first ever reservation, a few hours before my first hosting. The reservation was validated on the 27th of July, so it was more than a week before Airbnb decided to cancel for no reason… or at least none given to me until today. Here I am with four adults and a baby, who showed me the transfer to Airbnb on their bank account and cannot understand what is happening when they drove for five hours to enjoy a few chilled days at the beach.

I sent an email, then another one, then called one operator, and then a second. “We will get back to you before the end of the day,” they all said for four days. Well after four days of vacation for free, I had to ask my guests to leave. I had no answer from Airbnb until today. At least I’ve learned my lesson and not only am I taking off both my listings on Airbnb, I’ll certainly try my best to prevent every person around me from ever using their services.

Run Away from Airbnb to get Paid on Time

It’s peak football season in Russia. I provided my townhouse to Airbnb guests from China. It is in Sochi. I was also helping my guests from the beginning with some situations when they mailed their football badges to the wrong address. I helped them with taxi as well. It was a lot of work, but it was okay to me, because I wanted to see my guests happy. It was my first experience with Airbnb as well… and the last one.

I have hosted my house through other websites and I have always gotten paid. But Airbnb refused to do so. First, they called me and said they would be paying me within 24 hours after the guests checked in. Later that same evening, they called me and said, “No, we will not pay you until Monday,” which is 60 hours after check in and my guests check out on Monday at 12:00 PM. Since I read too many hosts complained about not getting paid at all, I said that that was not what I agreed to. I had no trust in that system.

My guests contacted the company and offered to pay me cash and to get money back from the company. Airbnb replied: “We will not give you money back. You should not pay her any money.” Airbnb also switched my banking details from “verified” to “not verified,” which was a total lie. My banking details were good and other sites have use them with no problems.

The bottom line is: hosts have to provide a free place for their guests, guests have a ruined vacation, and then Airbnb gets away with this scam, keeping my money. Unfortunately I have more people coming though Airbnb for the FIFA games, and I have to email my guests and tell them this story. I will have to cancel their future plans to stay at my house so I don’t deal with rude customers to survive; I do not provide free housing and will not deal with this scam. I feel bad that football fans will get a cancellation from me, but I have no choice. Run from this company and never deal with them.