Tag Archives: airbnb payment

Airbnb Website Misleading Regarding VAT Charges

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I made a booking for a week at a hotel in London via Airbnb. All seemed fine, until arriving at the property I was asked to pay an extra charge for VAT — a government tax. I’m really happy to pay my bills, but not happy when I thought the tariff I paid directly to Airbnb included taxes.

I thought this for two reasons. Firstly, their booking website said that the quoted amount was “including additional fees and taxes” and secondly, the Airbnb invoice said “VAT is charged at the time of payment.” Of course, I paid them, thinking my payment was all inclusive.

I’ve had at least four exchanges with the help centre. No one answered my question why their website and tax invoice were inaccurate, and basically fobbing me off. After the fourth exchange my customer manager “closed the case.” Not good enough.

Any suggestions how I can take this higher up? At best, if they fix their website so that other people don’t get caught, it’s a start. The hotel also said that this happens all the time with Airbnb clients.

Airbnb Censored My Negative Review on Facebook

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On July 18, I booked a property in Ventnor City, NJ. I was offered and accepted the payment plan when I made the reservation. However, my credit card was charged the full amount of the rental rather than 50% then and the remainder due according to the plan.

I contacted Airbnb within 12 hours of having made the reservation when I saw my Visa card had been charged the full amount of the rental. Since that time I have been communicating with Airbnb’s associates to try to get the then pending charge cancelled and rebilled. The reply has been:

“Upon checking, yes you are correct. You have a point and you are totally correct, Right now, I can not give you details on why those things happened. You should get the partial payment plan, but we are also wondering how come you were charged in full. The system is designed that way if your profile and reservation details qualify for that payment plan, that option will show up. Usually if you are on the payment page, you will see that first. Looking on the details, our reservation is done already, and we don’t have a way to rectify it anymore. With this, thank you for your understanding and patience on the matter.”

Airbnb told me, “your satisfaction is our number one priority.” However, that seems to be a joke. This is the second time I’ve been royally wronged by Airbnb. The first time was when I made a reservation in London, which was cancelled by the host 24 hours before my arrival because he was evicted for illegally renting his condo. I got zero assistance from any Airbnb Support Ambassadors in finding another rental on such short notice. I had to cancel my flight at the last minute which cost me big bucks.

Concerning this reservation, I asked why Airbnb couldn’t just cancel the charge with my Visa card and reissue the charge, based on the payment plan? Airbnb refused to do so. Any other merchant in the U.S. knows how to do that type of transaction. It just seems Airbnb is continuing to hide behind policy and procedure and continue to ignore what’s in the best interest and satisfaction of its clients.

Airbnb’s latest response has been that it took note of everything and would forward this to the proper department to improve its process. After having admitted that its system messed up in charging me the full rental amount immediately, the only thing Airbnb plans to do is to try to do better in the future. The platform seems to have no intention of trying to reconcile the mismanaged charge on my credit card.

That’s extremely disappointing and I plan to refrain from ever booking a reservation with Airbnb again. There are many other booking agencies available who actually take the satisfaction of their clients seriously. My advice to future Airbnb clients is: buyer beware. If Airbnb messes up your reservation or mischarges it, they’ll do nothing but say that policy does not allow them to do anything for you.

Unfortunately, my Facebook post on the Airbnb Facebook page was removed when people started replying they would never use Airbnb again. I reposted the same message, and again, Airbnb intervened and removed the post saying my situation would be reviewed again for possible action. That was now two weeks ago and all the Ambassadors seem to have taken a vacation.

Five-Star Airbnb Host, Zero-Star Service

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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.

Fraudulent Post on Airbnb… No Resolution Obviously

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I reserved this apartment in Switzerland from a posting on the Airbnb site, and had contact with the host a few times. All seemed well until I made a payment through an external link (though the Airbnb posting indicated this was the way to go), which turned out to be fraudulent (as well as the posting). The address I was given once I made the payment (which is customary practice) did not exist but it was too late at that point anyway.

Over 1200 euros later, I reached out to Airbnb and — surprise — they couldn’t help me and were quick to deny any responsibility to do anything even if the ad was on their website with all the Airbnb logos. I proceeded to file a police report and contest the transaction, but they all say it’s Airbnb’s responsibility — which it is. We all know that Airbnb has the absolute worst customer service on god’s green earth, so I guess I’ll be boycotting them from now on. It’s just too bad they just dismiss clients like that without any recourse.

Never Received Payment from Airbnb

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I am hearing many other hosts have experienced this issue. I had guests stay at my Airbnb in mid-December, 2019. Their total was $500.52, which guests paid on time per policy. I should have been paid around the same time, but sadly it is now six weeks later and I still have not been paid.

I have spoken with customer service at least eight times in the past month. It’s always the same response: there’s a technical glitch around the time of booking that is preventing payment; IT is looking into it; a case manager has been assigned; will hopefully have that resolved for you soon.

I’ve tried to escalate, but they tell me there’s no one to escalate to. I’ve begged, pleaded, threatened to take legal action… nothing helps. I can only pray that some lawyer sees this and starts lining up hosts for a class action lawsuit. In the meantime I’m getting ready to dial customer service for the ninth time to hear the exact same BS they told me eight times previous.

Payment for Extra Guest was Never Released to me

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Airbnb let a guest stay in my home on December 21st. Come the 22nd after they checked out I didn’t get the payment deposited into my PayPal account. After trying in numerous different ways to talk to someone, I was told that the guest paid the majority of the fee, but when the guest altered the stay for more people they didn’t pay the extra $30.

Airbnb allowed them to stay in my home but refused to pay me my money. It’s been 14 days and I keep getting told someone is working on it and they will get a hold of me but no one has. When I ask to speak to someone above them they say they don’t have that information for me.

Problem Paying? Accommodation Cancelled

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I booked a place in Nottinghill Gate in the UK for three different dates in December 2019 earlier on in the year. Obviously they take off a certain amount of money when you book and the rest closer to the time of the stay. As the time came closer to my travels, they took off money twice for the first two accommodation dates. The third would be taken off during my holiday. As a responsible traveler, I had international roaming for WhatsApp messaging only. I just before I left, I changed my credit card in order to get a bigger overdraft line. That was the start of my nightmare.

The first attempt to take funds failed. Knowing that my accommodation would be cancelled, I attempted to contact them via the email that they sent the failure to collect funds to explain to them that the card they are trying to take funds from doesn’t exist. I tried several times to add an alternative payment card on the Airbnb app, it took days as it kept saying there was an error and I couldn’t. I

contacted the hosts via messenger to tell them I was having an issue, and to please not allow Airbnb to cancel my accommodation. Eventually, I managed to add the new credit card number and set it as the default. I felt relieved as I’d covered all my bases.

To my horror on December 19th, I got an email to say my accommodation has been cancelled and a refund of R4.01 was being deposited into my credit card (the card that I changed to the default one). So Airbnb can’t take approximately R1800 from the account, but they can give me R4?

It has become a nightmare since then. I’ve emailed screenshots of evidence of emails, messages, etc to both Airbnb and the hosts and each party says that it is not their responsibility to make a decision. Airbnb says that it is up to the hosts to give the authorization to refund me and they say I have to get Airbnb to refund me.

I’ve had to make alternative arrangements for my last three and a half days in the UK which was stressful enough. I have no words of wisdom here as things haven’t been resolved. All I can say is don’t change your credit card details; it causes a nightmare. You would think a mere £90 is not too much of a dent in their accounts. It is for me, a South African.

No Payment from Guests who Already Stayed

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Airbnb still hasn’t resolved my payout issue. They have taken funds from my previous guest and not provided a payment into my requested account. They seem to think it is acceptable for me to host guests but not receive any payout. I updated my payment details on their website prior to my guest arriving but often details that are updated do not save. I often find their site very glitchy.

After contacting them several times via their message centre they are still unable to resolve this and make payment into my proper bank account, one that is open and live. The customer service with this company is appalling. The open threads for resolving issues, though polite, are completely unhelpful and the message threads are closed every time without any resolution to my issues. The customer service is completely disappointing.

How do I go about getting payment for my previous guest? No one seems to be able to assist with this.

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.

Three Bookings in, Airbnb will not Pay its Hosts

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We have had three reservations with Airbnb that we just started a couple months ago and it has been a nightmare. We hosted a family on March 27th. In the past they usually posted the deposits to our accounts on a certain date, but as of today, we still have not received payment.

I have called numerous times with no resolutions being made. The first lady from Airbnb customer service (on April 2nd) said they had a “glitch” in their system and said it would be a few days. On April 13th, a gentleman could not figure it out still and agreed it was “ridiculous”. I just called and they won’t even talk to me because they now know that I record all my calls… kind of hypocritical that they can record but I can’t. They know they are in the wrong and don’t want to admit to it over the phone anymore.

Don’t use Airbnb as a host or guest. They should not collect money and refuse to pay the hosts. These are our five-star customer reviews:

A truly relaxing, inviting, and notable experience.

The only other review before this one is:

Quaint Midwest home with a perfect overlook of Broken Bow. Wonderfully remodeled with never ending stories throughout the entire home. The hostess was incredible and super kind to our children. Large spaces for evening get-togethers and great kitchen area for shared meals. For anyone looking for a memorable experience during their Custer County stay, this is the place for you.

We have multiple listing with VRBO and never had problems. We had three with Airbnb that we just started a couple months ago and it has been a nightmare.