Confirmed Booking Glitch Cancelled by Airbnb

Posted on February 5, 2020

I had paid for and confirmed a booking through Airbnb, which was cancelled due to a glitch in their system. On the night before my flight and less than 24 hours before my scheduled check in, I logged back into Airbnb to get my check-in information and the booking was gone. It took over an hour to finally get a person on the phone from Airbnb, and then another hour on and off hold.

All they could tell me was that I had a booking and now I didn’t. The host hadn’t canceled; it was simply an error in the Airbnb programming. Then it was less than 24 hours and I couldn’t book with the same host because he had a 48-hour notice rule. Airbnb issued the refund, but when I asked them to help with a new booking, the guy outright laughed at me.

I could not believe how awful the customer service was. This company simply doesn’t care about people, guests or hosts. They are completely profit driven. They pretend to be a brand that cares, but their actions speak louder. I ended up booking a last minute hotel for the same price.

False and Totally Misleading Mexican Listings

Posted on January 25, 2019

Where to begin? Since I had 2, similar, experiences in Mexico recently, back to back, I’m combining them into one posting.

The first occurred in San Cristobal and the second in Mazunte. Here is the listing for the Mazunte Airbnb:

La Pajarera
Entire cabin, Sleeps 4
https://abnb.me/JVdPBJ75LT

We had booked a two bedroom casita with kitchen and bathroom. Upon arrival there was only one bedroom apparently in use. The second one was up some dangerous steps and obviously not in use- no bedding on the bed, no closet, dresser or bedside table and a pile of broken tiles in the corner. My first clue should have been the fact that even tho 2 were listed, there were no pictures of the second. In addition, there was no shower stall, just a shower head in the ceiling of a very tiny bathroom. And the kitchen was dark and dreary. The pictures of this place had obviously been enhanced, making it look so much better than it was. And the amenities list had been embellished- to put it nicely!

The housekeeper greeted us and promptly called the host when we complained about the lack of a second bedroom and lack of amenities listed- especially a washer. I am on a 2 month trip and specifically look for a washer whenever possible.

When the host arrived she seemed shocked and embarrassed when I showed her the list of amenities. When it came to the second bedroom, she reasoned that since I had indicted there were 2 of us, we only needed one bedroom. WRONG! She offered to ‘make up’ the second bedroom or give us a full refund. We opted for the refund, since there was a perfectly acceptable, immaculately clean hotel right next door, where for about the same price, not only did we have our own bed, we had our own room with private bathroom. This turned out to be a god send when we later both came down with food poisoning, at the same time! The host even went with us and negotiated an even better rate then we could have accomplish on our own with our pigeon Spanish. She was willing to do whatever it took to make us happy.

At first AirBB refused to refund the service fee, but I pushed, didn’t ask, demanded and used terms like enhanced, false and misleading and they finally refunded the fee, also. So this one ended positively.

On to episode #2. The pictures tell the tale of this deplorable shack. I had booked for 14 days, once again based on enhanced photos and an even bigger list of lies, claiming to be the amenities. I actually didn’t believe there were the amenities listed, but hoped for a few. TV, washer, ac? give me a break- there wasn’t even a mirror on the wall! There was what looked like mold covering the shower drain, the sink was badly chipped and cracked, the beams were crumbling, the screens torn, and the kitchen dark, dreary and dirty and the cabinets indescribably gross. Once again my first clue should have been that there were no pictures of the kitchen.

I immediately changed my booking for 4 nights, instead of the 14 I had planned to stay at the beach. I should have left immediately and insisted on a refund. Yet, in my defense, I had just spent 10 hours getting there via taxi and overnight bus, I was still ill, and needed time to figure out something else for the 10 remaining days. We’re talking about the beach in January!

The host did replace the sink, the maid kind of cleaned the kitchen, and promised a mirror, but never delivered. I had booked this because it had a kitchen, but couldn’t even bring myself to go down there, let alone cook! New sink, but no water the following day! The maid did come and figure out how to get it working again. And, to his credit, the host was quick to respond and arranged for transportation from the bus to the shack, and to Puerto Escondido when I left.

I didn’t decide to insist on a full refund until I was leaving, feeling angry, traumatized and victimized. It is totally unacceptable for AirBB to be booking such decrepit shacks, passing them off with enhanced photos and lies! They need to be held responsible, and so does the host.

The host has refused my request, since I did stay there, so I have turned it over for mediation. Word so far is that it has been determined I am owed a partial refund. This was before I sent the photos! I’m insisting on a full refund, including the service fees. We will see……..

And as an aside- this is not my first rodeo. I have made 45 trips to Mexico during the past 30 years, so have a pretty good idea what I can expect for my pesos, when it comes to lodging. The shack was $40 a night and was worth about $10.

On a positive note- of the 5 properties I have stayed in on this trip, 2 were totally unacceptable, 1 ok and 2 were fantastic. I’ll just book with them directly in the future.

Welcome to Airbnb, where we don’t care about you

Posted on August 7, 2018

Here I am in Memphis staying at a record house hostel listed on Airbnb. At first, things seemed to be going okay. I have been doing this for about seven weeks now, traveling and staying in various hostels and Airbnbs. I arrived in Memphis and the house manager warned me that there was a homeless lady who was staying in the room next to mine and that sometimes she isn’t very nice. “Okay, cool,” I thought, “thanks for the warning… but why are you letting her stay here?”

Anyways, I went about my business. not paying this lady any attention. That was until she made me do so. I had put my things in the washing machine and ran up the road to the gas station. I wasn’t gone long enough for my things to finish. When I arrived back at the hostel, she had thrown her clothes in with mine. Immediately I was pissed. Obviously, I mean… who the hell does that?

I left a note on the dryer letting this person know that it’s not okay to touch other people’s things. When she saw the note a few minutes later, she flipped out. She started screaming at me, calling me racist, and telling me to go to hell. Instead of dealing with it, I just messaged the hosts and told them what was going on. They then called Airbnb and reported the lady.

The next day, Airbnb had removed that lady’s reservation and said that the host could remove her from the house. So they did. When they did, she was even madder at me. She threatened to slash my throat and she sat in the street waiting for me to come outside. I had to call the police to get her to leave. The police wanted the report that was filed with Airbnb, and guess what? They wouldn’t give it to me.

What the hell? Are you serious right now? I have the police in the yard, Airbnb on the phone (only after waiting for 45 minutes) and they won’t email me the damn report. What did they do? They sent me a form to give them feedback instead.

The customer service representative essentially said, “I’m sorry you’re having a bad experience with Airbnb. Here, fill out this form so you can waste even more time, explaining something that we don’t care about in the first place. “

Airbnb sucks. Aside from having poor customer service, they don’t offer anything after you’ve had a bad experience. It’s like the CEO’s just said: “we’ve got our money; let them fend for themselves.”

Welcome to Airbnb, where we don’t care about you: that’s what it should say on their website.

I’m Not Even a User and I Can’t Stand Airbnb

Posted on January 30, 2017

I’m not even an Airbnb user and I absolutely can’t stand them anyway. So many people in my building rent their flats to tourists who get insanely drunk, shout like crazy day and night, make a mess of our shared toilets, and won’t go to sleep cause they’re too busy shouting or taking drugs and yelling (I live in Amsterdam). This is a sort of mixed industrial area, and our walls and ceilings are pretty thin. There’s no isolation so since the whole Airbnb hype started, life has become so much less enjoyable, more like a living hell. Our building has now suffered from so many incidents: things get stolen, Airbnb people ring your doorbell at night because of course they have no idea which doorbell to ring when they’re so drunk and drugged.

Can anyone just sue Airbnb? The world was a better place without it. The worst part is that my “friends” don’t ever have space in their house for me anymore because they’re all renting their spare rooms to Airbnb users. When I’ve needed a place to stay, everyone says no because they have Airbnb guests. Honestly, that means those “friends” suck, but it’s also creepy that everyone is letting strangers stay in their houses. From what I hear, this site is way more expensive than most hotels anyway. Why not stay at a nice hotel where you’re provided privacy and security? People are weird.

Vacation Ruined: Airbnb Canceled Prior to Arrival

Posted on April 6, 2016

So, I was supposed to attend Bauma Munich 2016 in April. You know how Bauma Munich took up so many hotels and apartments in Munich? Well, you better book your hotels early. I booked mine very early, and you know what? They canceled six days before my departure to Bauma. You know what’s even more annoying? The hotel rates all went up sky high; if only I had known Airbnb was going to cancel, I could have saved so much on my hotel fees to go to Munich. But due to this incompetent Airbnb host and staff, my booking got canceled and I had to pay extra to book a hotel at the last minute. One more thing: one of the staff at Airbnb chose not to help me because I was assigned to another person to help out already. So, after wasting your money to call Airbnb, they refuse to help you because you were in contact with a different person before.

Can you imagine how bad Airbnb is? YES! It’s that Bad! So, I asked for a full refund. It’s still being processed, but really it’s a freaking nightmare. DO NOT BOOK VIA AIRBNB! I REPEAT: DO NOT BOOK VIA AIRBNB. IS IT WORTH THE RISK? THINK ABOUT IT AGAIN!

CANCELED TO AVOID PSYCHO RENTER – AIRBNB TAKES $100!

Posted on January 24, 2016

We accepted a booking from a young college student. Our rates are based upon number of occupants. Upon restating our occupancy rules in our acceptance email, the renter became rude. She wanted to know if we had cameras in the rooms or how else would we verify occupancy? She then stated in her next email that we were rude and had bad customer service skills. Well, that did it for me. If she was going to be that rude, pushy and obnoxious there was no way I would let someone like that into one of my properties. I sent her an email stating that we were not comfortable renting to her now and that she needed to cancel her reservation. She went ballistic after that. Airbnb penalizes the renter if they want to cancel and they penalize the owners $100 if they want to cancel. So, you see, no one wants to cancel their reservation. Even after I told her that I would refund her entire amount the lady refused to cancel. I told airbnb the situation and told them I WAS UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE GUEST they charged me $100 and said it was my fault for wanting to cancel!!! Airbnb has you by the balls. They control the money. They control the payouts. They control the security deposit. They control the contact information. You have all of the risk and they make all of the money. What a scam!!!! I never go thru this with VRBO because I am in control.

Horrible customer service

Posted on November 11, 2015

I stayed at an AirBnB site in Maui for 2 weeks. The host in the suite beside me was rude, drank nightly, and carried on loudly in the night and morning in her inebriated and hungover state. There were holes in the screens where the bugs came in, and when I looked closly at the mattress I could see it was not, it was a box spring. I had to use the wakeboard to sleep on. AirBnB did nothing to mediate, nor did they offer any sort of customer service. I recently found an unreturned refund amount, and they are handling like automons. When I complained about their communication they say “Thank you, have we answered your questions?” Its annoying, anything out of the simple monetary transactions are terrible. They deserve to fail as a business.

Horrible Airbnb Review – Guest unable to check-in, and no refund – BEWARE and BE WARNED

Posted on October 27, 2015

I booked a week long stay starting Monday night in Paris. My flight arrived in Paris Tuesday early morning, but when I tried to check in I was told that even though we had booked and paid for the full week, we were unable to check in until that night. When I asked to be refunded for the day that the host was not allowing us to stay in the room I was told that they can’t refund us anything and that I would need to cancel the whole week – WHAT? I called the Airbnb customer service line and was told that they would call us back within 10 minutes. Hours passed, HOURS!!! I had my sister call from the States to minimize international call rates and she was told they couldn’t hear her or speak to her, they could only speak to the person with the reservation EVEN though all she was calling for was to give them the reservation info and request that they call my cell phone with the update that they had said would happen after 10 min of my original call. One of the WORST staying experiences I’ve ever had in my life and I travel quite a bit. I will NOT use this company again – BEWARE and be careful – they just want to charge without good service. It could be that others had better experiences, but something like this would have happened at a Paris hotel. HORRIBLE SERVICE!

MAJOR AIRBNB FLAW EVERY HOST SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Posted on October 22, 2015

I’ve been an Airbnb Host for over a year without significant problems, but this experience showed me that I’ve really just been lucky not having a nightmare hosting experience before now!

Long story short, I had a guest book one of my rooms for a 3 months stay, just like I’ve done many times before. I received my first payment from Airbnb as usual… but then when the second monthly payment was due, I received a crazy email message from Airbnb saying that they couldn’t process the payment from the guest! What’s even crazier, they didn’t cancel the reservation until 7 days AFTER the last date had passed that the guest had actually paid for, meaning that I was going to lose at least a full 7 days of rental income and presumably I no longer had any form of security deposit to protect me… ALL WHILE THE NON-PAYING GUEST WAS STILL LIVING IN MY HOUSE!!!

What sort of idiotic policy is that? Airbnb waited until the last minute to charge the guest, then waited an additional 7 days before cancelling the reservation with a message (attached) that basically said “sorry, but we’re not going to pay you anything else, beginning 7 days ago. Good luck getting rid of this leech of a guest!” Why wouldn’t Airbnb charge the guest sooner, so if there was a problem I could cancel the reservation and kick out the guest before their paid time expired?

I wrote back to Airbnb asking them to clarify the situation… but they never responded! I emailed them asking if they could use the $400 Security Deposit (my standard deposit) that they should have previously collected to at least pay me for the 7 days the guest had already stayed without paying before the reservation was finally cancelled… no response from airbnb after several days.

What a total scam airbnb has become! I thought it was a brilliant concept, and it is, but the execution abysmal and the policies lack any sense of foresight or basic protection of their CORE value, their HOSTS, it’s truly shocking to me that no competitor has destroyed them by now! It’s like comparing Facebook to Myspace. Myspace was “great” until Facebook came along and showed everyone just how horrible Myspace actually was! Who will be the new “facebook” of home rentals and put Airbnb out of business?

PLEASE share this story with any current Airbnb Hosts you know so perhaps they can save themselves from this type of horrible situation dealing with such a stupid and irrational company.

How to scam airbnb! Guest doesn’t pay, and airbnb waits 7 days before cancelling reservation. Host is left holding the bag and takes a total loss!

No response from airbnb! Host lost money because guest didn’t pay, even though EVERYTHING was handled through the Airbnb system!

Airbnb Can Chose to Override STRICT Cancellation Policy!

Posted on August 15, 2015

I’ve been an airbnb host for four years with a total of 6 rooms for rent, so I’ve had hundreds of guests come and go, but I’ve never had an experience like this! Most of my rooms are rented several months in advance, and this case was no different. I had a nice couple message me a few months ago and ask to reserve my best room for a two month stay, beginning August 24th (a few days from now). I agreed, and the reservation was made without any incident… until yesterday when I received a message from the guest saying that they had a “family situation” and they would have to cancel their reservation. I immediately replied and said I was very sorry to hear that, but that I would try to find replacement guests for their long term stay right away and that I would refund them for each night that I was able to replace them with other guests (even though I have always had a STRICT cancellation policy set with Airbnb which entitles me to technically keep up to 100% of the guests money for up to one month if they cancel last minute like this). Granted I am a great host and have never actually taken a guests money or double-booked a room, but for the record I have that right when a guest cancels last minute. Well I never knew this was even possible, but somehow this guest contacted Airbnb directly and convinced them to OVERRIDE their own policy and my Strict Cancellation setting and give the guest a full 100% refund even though their move in date was only a few days away! How is that possible? What is the point of having a “Strict Cancellation Policy” with Airbnb if they can decide to override it at any time and completely screw one of their best and most loyal hosts?? At this point I should also mention that my wife is pregnant and due to have our first child on August 27th (of course he could come early or late) so now I not only have an empty room with zero money coming in for it, but I have to scramble around to find new guests to fill the same time frame when I should be focusing on my new family expansion!

The attached images show complete documentation of the messages I received, as well as my Strict policy and the crazy loophole that Airbnb has where they can just cancel any reservation at the last minute with a full refund without thinking twice about the impact on the host!

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to serious look into switching all of my airbnb hosting business to another service like VRBO or Roomorama etc.

SHAME ON YOU AIRBNB! Stick to your word and don’t screw your hosts.