Tag Archives: airbnb technical issues

You Aren’t Going to Believe This One About Airbnb

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So, someone else committed fraud against Airbnb, and they have apparently decided to make me pay for it, although they admitted to me that they know it wasn’t me. I had to stay a couple of days in Boston last month, so I thought I would try Airbnb since Boston is expensive. I had never used Airbnb before.

The day after my visa was charged for the stay, an additional charge for $471.01 to Airbnb appeared on my bank statement. Horrified, I contacted Airbnb and my bank and both opened investigations. Thankfully, both entities agreed that the charges were in fact unauthorized, and I got a nice email from Airbnb on September 17th, notifying me that the entire amount had been refunded to my account.

I went to Boston and had a very nice stay in a lovely brownstone near Harvard Medical School. The host and I both gave each other positive reviews. I figured I would give Airbnb another chance.

This month, I decided to rent an Airbnb in Austin. However, when I went to log in to my account, I was blocked. Even more shocking, I got a pop-up window from Airbnb saying that there were “security issues” associated with my account and that I needed to “upload a government-issued photo ID” in order to access it. What?

I called Airbnb and the rep said that there were actually “technical issues” associated with my account rather than “security Issues” and that Airbnb would get back to me to resolve them, but she wasn’t sure when. I told her I needed a room next week and availability was low, but she still would not give me a timeframe for a response from Airbnb. I demanded to speak to a supervisor, who told me the exact same thing. They both sounded like they were lying, to be honest. Also, why would the website demand I upload a photo ID over a technical issue, anyway?

It looks like somehow I am being punished for what whoever hacked my card did, since Airbnb’s own records indicate that they cleared me, at least according to the email they sent me. I am a 56-year-old woman who has never had a parking ticket, and they are talking to me like I am some criminal. They can’t seem to tell me exactly why. I’m also  locked out of my Airbnb account. This is near unbelievable.

I would love to attach documentation to support all this, but of course it has my personal information on it. I also think it is interesting that my card got hacked after I gave the number to Airbnb, and only after that. Ah, the irony of the fact that whoever hacked my card may have gotten the number from them, on top of everything else.

Technical Problems Keep me Signed out of Airbnb

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My problems started with my first attempt to set up an account with Airbnb a year or so ago. I started with the email I normally use. They somehow got it misspelled and started setting it up. I don’t remember why now but I was not able to complete the setup either under my correct email or the email they had on record.

Eventually I got them on the phone and tried all their suggestions. They could not make it work so I asked them to delete everything, email address and all, and I would start over. They said they had done so but anytime I entered my email it went to the incorrect address but wouldn’t let me set up under either account, as it had done before. I got a new email address and eventually got set up.

Now I want to get back into it and it says my password is wrong. I tried options to reset the password but it just keeps rejecting it or saying: “Something went wrong. Try again”. I made contact with Airbnb help via chat. They asked me to wait a moment. Before they came back it timed me out. They emailed and asked if I still needed help with a link to get back to them but it required my password to get in. Again, the reason I was trying to contact them was my password would not work.

I got in the first time through a link that said something about signing in instantly. I have not gotten that to work since. I had given Airbnb my phone number and said I would prefer to talk but they did not call me or make any attempt to get back with me, other than the one email link. I have two reservations set up through Airbnb but wanted to get back and get a phone number to confirm them and will soon want to make another if I can sign in.

From all the other complaints I see, it looks like they may have a poorly functioning website and are not trying to do anything about it. I have probably spent 20 or more hours altogether trying to deal with Airbnb. Total frustration.