Unhonored Airbnb Cards as Wedding Gifts

Recently married. On our registry we asked for Airbnb gift cards if people were inclined to gift us something; we love traveling and we’re in our 30s with most material items we could possibly need. A lot of people obliged and we received several gift cards in denominations ranging from $50-100/ card.

Today we went to load the cards to our account, and not one… not two… not even a few… but 13 of the gift cards aren’t able to be accepted. We called customer service and spent over an hour being told yes, we see seven gift cards accepted out of the 20+ new numbers you tried to enter (so they acknowledged the cards were only ever entered today, and that only a fraction were accepted). Then the rep proceeded to inform me she wasn’t trained or knowledgeable to assist us with this matter, and that we would ‘have to be escalated and transferred to payments center’.

I inquired as to whether I would be speaking with another person about this. The rep said “no, that’s not an option for customers” and that the only rep we would be able to physically speak with would be through the help center (which apparently was the number I had called to reach this rep). Okay… so then I requested to speak with a supervisor. I was informed there was none on site, or none with whom I would be able to speak period.

When in the history of business is there not a supervisor available to ever speak with? Then the rep informed us she never said she would transfer me, but meant that she would email the payment center. I asked when we could expect a response. She claimed within an hour (seemed really unrealistic especially since there was nobody but this person available to talk).

It’s been five hours, and I still have yet to hear from anyone. I have over $1300 in gift cards from family, friends, and coworkers that were given to us for Airbnb which this company has managed to swindle away somehow, and make unusable. There were zero real attempts to appropriately assist us. Highly unsatisfied here.