Airbnb Claim Problem with Bank Account

We have been hosts for Airbnb for two years and pride ourselves on making sure our home is in a ideal state for guests. This year on the day our first payment was due Airbnb contacted us with a claim that our bank details were incorrect. We were surprised, because nothing had changed since our last payment, but responded as requested immediately afterwards. Now it’s been three weeks and there is still no sign of the $5000 we are due. We tried to call the company, due to the fact no email address is available. We have had to phone four times now, each time waiting in a queue for over 40 minutes, all on our bill. We asked to speak to the relevant department, but was told they don’t have access by phone. Because of this, we asked to have their email address; they avoided answering this request. Basically you receive lip service but the person at the call centre has no understanding of anything. I was told I should use PayPal, however I informed customer service it would incur a cost to us. They didn’t care, just saying, “well, if you want the money.”

On my last call I was in control and explained I wanted to resolve the problem so therefore I needed to speak to someone who would be able to help and understand the process. Eventually the help centre representative informed me she would be terminating the call. I was left speechless, put out of pocket for thousands of dollars with no way of getting any assistance to resolve our situation. We literally have no other phone lines to which to turn. Other than Airbnb being a very corrupt company, I don’t believe this level of looking after your customer service provider is the norm.

Early Contact with Aggressive Airbnb Host

After great experiences with Airbnb 95% of the time, I had a truly horrible experience with a host today in Brisbane. I booked an apartment automatically – no contact with the host – so I then messaged them to confirm I would collect the key on Thursday afternoon and also ask what time we could leave on Sunday. There was no reply and I was flying up to Brisbane at lunchtime to stay with a friend. I wanted to have the details on the keys to print before I left – I called the number given and left a message. Then a man rang back on my phone. He did not introduce himself but was very rude about the fact that I called and shouted, saying “he would call in a few hours.” I asked why it was not possible to confirm the details on getting the keys now. He replied they would “get back to me when they felt like it.” Then he accused me of being “too wound up for their liking and I should cancel the booking.”

His tone was then very aggressive, very rude, and to be frank, scared me. Details of access are usually provided asap after the booking so I was not being unreasonable plus this man really frightened me especially as he now has my mobile number and has rung twice and hung up then rang again and yelled at me for having the nerve to message the site to say I felt I was put in a position where I had to cancel and I was advising Airbnb that another person was accessing the account and making rude phone calls. I therefore will have to pursue a formal complaint as it looks like this is the only way I will get my money back given their unreasonable behaviour and cancellation policy. Anyone thinking of booking in Brisbane: message me first and I will advise which apartment this is, so as to not give yourself the scare I had.

airbnb scam, airbnb hosting

MAJOR AIRBNB FLAW EVERY HOST SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

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.

 

airbnb scam, airbnb hosting

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!

 

airbnb ran away and hid behind it's horrible policy

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