Airbnb
reviews and complaints

We rented our 4 bedroom 3 bath villa on HHI to a guest for the week of 11/21/2020-11/28/2020 using AirBNB, as Host. As of today 12/18/2020, we have not received the pay-out of over $2400 for the rental income. AirBNB sent the pay-out to our closed bank account; our bank returned the payment on 11/27/2020 with a Return Tracing number & document to AirBNB to re-send to our open bank account (default). After multiple phone calls; online chats; and messages, AirBNB support has not sent our pay-out or have given us resolution to the payment for our rental guest that "have come and gone" from our villa. This is our first rental guest from AirBNB, as a Host... very disappointed, as a Host.
(We use VRBO, as a Host... love this vacation rental platform! Host get paid at time of reservation and final payment 30 days prior to check-in)

NOT SIMPLE AT ALL! What a horrendous experience. I opened a ticket 7 days ago to have a simple issue regarding occupancy taxes addressed. Not a single person has called me back. And every time I call customer service, the answer is the same: sorry, the team that is supposed to address your case has not responded yet. That's it! No escalation. No recourse. No email to send mail to. No number to call. Nada.

Case# is [protected]

Absurd and unprofessional.

TO ALL AIRBNB HOSTS: BEWARE YOU CAN BE CANCELLED BY ONE COMPLAINT!

I joined AirBnB in 2014 as a host and began building my listings. I started with one house and have built it up to 7 listings, 3 houses I personally own, and 4 properties that I represent for other home owners. I have 483 reviews with a 4.98 star rating, out of 5 stars. I have been a perennial super host for 5 years running. I advise others on hosting strategies and promote AirBnB as a great business opportunity to anyone that will listen. I am proud to be a 5 start Super Host. The reviews I receive from my guests demonstrate how much care I put into my properties. Here is a link to these reviews.

https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/10977064

On September 7th 2020, a guest by the name of Aubree Lennon checked into one of my listings under the booking ID HMCSBPW9MZ. She had several issues starting with unlocking of the door. She entered her personalized digital code into the door lock incorrectly 3 times which sets off an alarm and forces a lockout for security. I resolved this for her remotely. Then after she showered she complained that the shower wasn't draining fast enough, which was caused by her hair clogging the screen at the top of the drain. I helped her resolve this too. She then sent a photo of the drain that had a small amount of sediment in the corner, with a photo of the shower door with water spots on it, AFTER she took a shower. Her complaint was that the house was not Covid clean. My housekeeper follows the Covid clean guidelines and follows the American Hotel and Lodging Association, see the link.

https://www.ahla.com/sites/default/files/safestayguidelinesv4_102820_1.pdf

My housekeeper also cleans for a hospital 4 nights a week, my homes are absolutely covid clean, my reviews speak to the cleanliness of my homes. Nevertheless, I refunded her $500 for her concerns.

On night 2 of the guest's stay, Aubree (the guest) called me and complained that one bedroom has a large volume of flying insects, and because of this, she wanted to cancel the booking and stay elsewhere. It's notable that this complaint came on day 2 as opposed to day 1. Meaning, the guest was the cause of the problem, by leaving a door open after dark with the lights on in the house. The house is located in the mountain woods where there are billions of flying insects, any adult would know to use the screen door to keep them from entering the house after dark. After receiving and resolving several self imposed problems from this guest I realized it was best to offer her a full refund and allow her to move on. At the time she said she would not leave a review and I told her I would refrain as well. Clearly this was an unsuccessful stay, nullifying it was in both party's interest.

I promised her a refund after my housekeeper confirmed the condition of the house as she left it. In the days following her departure she relentlessly messaged me demanding her refund, insulting me, and sending derogatory comments. I have these messages saved if they need to be reviewed. I kept telling her it would take a couple days to get my housekeeper to the house to review its condition, as she was originally scheduled to clean upon the guest's original departure date. The guest continued to pursue, insult, and deliberately annoy me at all hours. I refunded the guest the full amount including the cleaning fee, which I paid, on the day of her original departure date as promised.

All was good, until she left a review on the last minute of the review period. Her review was a single star and made false claims. In her review she also suggested future guests stay at my neighbors house instead of mine, and promoted my competition's home while insulting my home at the same time. In addition to this she must have called AirBnB and told a tale of vermin infestation (AirBnB never completely told me what the complaint was about) subsequently causing AirBnB to remove this listing claiming it violated their pest policy.

Once I saw her review I called AirBnB and discussed the guest and the experience with the AirBnB service professional. It was determined that the review violated their policy as it promoted another host property in the review. As a result the review was removed and the house listing was activated again. Here is the comment from AirBnB:

Blair, Oct 1, 2020, 19:41 PDT:

Hi Christopher,
My name is Blair with Airbnb. Upon further review of the report and gathering documentation, we have restored your listing access and you should be able to navigate the site normally.

I thought everything was good until I started to notice multiple cancellations coming in from all properties. I called AirBnB to find out what was happening. I thought my account was hacked and taken over. I called at least a dozen times trying to get an answer to why this was happening and no service professional could help me or tell me what was going on. The best I was told was that they would put in a service ticket and I would get an answer in a couple days. Meanwhile over the next few days, the cancellations continued to come in and guests were beginning to get very upset. Since I didn't know why this was happening I told the guests to contact AirBnB to find out why their reservation was cancelled. The cancelled guests ran into the same problem as I, nobody would explain why. One guest shared an email they received from AirBnB notifying them of the cancellation and it was stated that AirBnB was the source of the cancellation. At this point I also noticed that all my listings became un-reservable. The listings would show up on the site but nobody could book them. This added layers of frustration on the guests and myself. In all, over $80,000.00 of booked reservations were cancelled including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve across 5 active home listings. This amounts to hundreds of people who had plans for these important holidays seeing their plans destroyed. Needless to say I had more than a truckload of angry guests calling and messaging me, many of them very distressed as they spent much time looking through properties to settle on mine, and many of them having gone through the process of convincing everyone else in their party to accept their choice. It was a bombardment of problems on a scale too large for any one person to deal with. Yet I persisted to find an answer.

Then the answer came. I found it in my junk mail in the form of a simple notification from AirBnB. The answer was short and to the point. I have copied it for review here:

Ajmal C, Oct 6, 2020, 9:59 PDT:
Hi Christopher,
I'm Ajmal with Airbnb. We're reaching out because we received a report of discrimination based on gender.
After a full review of the incident, we have decided to remove you from the Airbnb community. This means you can no longer access your account and cannot create a new one.
You were removed because of the language you used, which violated the Airbnb Nondiscrimination Policy. Specifically, when you called your guest a "[censored]" via a text message to them.

This came as a shock to me. I hadn't messaged this guest since I returned her money on September 14th. I considered it a completed transaction. I was shocked to see that this guest returned and filed a false accusation against me and AirBnB made a unilateral decision to cancel my account without ever consulting with me. I can only guess that this person who stayed with me a brief couple nights was upset that her review was removed and therefor returned to make additional claims against me. I also have a suspicion that this guest could be working with my neighbor (my competition) to sabotage my success, because the review she left both spoke ill of my listing and promoted the other.

I began doing research into the guest to try and understand why she would be so intent on disrupting my success. It was clear by my interaction with her that she was an unstable person, but I didn't understand why I was targeted. I discovered that she is a photo editor, I am a photographer. I have found that most photo editors are failed photographers, perhaps there is professional jealousy. I have not contacted her and do not wish to, I have known people like this and it is best to stay far away.

However, this one person was able to strangle my success and do so with no due process. AirBnB claims gender discrimination, yet the guest stayed in my home for 3 days and was given all her money back, what discrimination is evident? She left a derogatory review that violated terms, made a false claim against me that was rebuked by AirBnB, and somehow AirBnB lets her come back later to file a manufactured complaint against me. This person is mentally unstable and has the ability to make anything up and provide fake evidence through the use of photoshop and editing software. She claims I messaged her using a foul word, yet I see nothing like this in the messages on AirBnB between us.

I have built a $500k annual revenue stream through AirBnB. The action they took was unilateral and based on one false accusation from one guest. I was never given a chance to give my side of the story, or see evidence. I cannot get anyone from AirBnB to discuss this with me. This action by the guest and subsequent response from AirBnB is causing me to restart my entire effort. I was a 5 star super host for 5 years and have booked millions of dollars in stays through their system. There was no hearing, no arbitration, no offer of such, no phone calls, no detailed explanation, no proof, no evidence, nothing from them except a short email telling me their decision is final and permanent. I would like to get my account re-instated or pursue AirBnB for the loss of bookings and cost to rebuild my stellar reputation.

On the 16th of september I made a booking.. For a few nights stay in new york. However after booking my best friend that was suppose to go with me bailed out because she couldn't afford the plane ticket and I cancelled the booking the very next day. I have been struggling ever since to get the refund.. I worked hard for the money and I didn't cancel because I felt like I had no other choice as I could not stay on my own in new york for safety concerns amongst other. This is unethical for a business to do this

I want my refund as promised on May 30th

I reserved a place and within 1 hour of being told an additional person would cost $200.00, I cancelled my booking. Within the accurate time frame to receive full funds back, I was only given an extremely small amount, $50.00 and this was a booking near $1300.00.

I have reviewed the cancellation policies thoroughly and contacted the resolution center as the host was not easy to work with nor accommodating whatsoever. The comment, "I live next door and will know how many people are there" made me uncomfortable resulting in an immediate cancellation (1 hour after the booking).

This is my first time using Airbnb and definitely last. I've been waiting for resolutions to call back or any communication and nothing. This is ludicrous and a lot of money for my trip that I am now stuck until somebody provides accurate customer service.

I hope someone can resolve this complaint or give suggestions asap.
Thank you.

Be careful Airbnb & Scammer Host. Share whole world 🌍 to save from scammer please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AmcTM4VFH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZZjNEobeEc

Here I would like to Share about whole World 🌍 the people who using Airbnb for accommodation.
Scammer Host Name - Kenneth
Details Contact - +1 (347) 582-5571
+1 (913) 3037213

The Address given by Host on Airbnb
162 India 🇮🇳 Street, Brooklyn NewYork-11222 USA

It's so shameful situation we book our accommodation for one month, as per the rule before check in Host not should took money our account but he took all money our account & keep asking like begging to deposit refunded Extra Money 💰, we thought. Airbnb is must host trust worthy people so my husband pay by pay pal. He keep said money didn't reach his account so my husband paid again.

Money goes from my husband account already we call my bank credit card Bank of America they said money can not come back then call my husband account ICB bank that money didn't back
Finally we reached there., that already family living last4 years so she call landlord lady she said she never give info Airbnb.

It's clear scammer are in Airbnb - 😱 OMG
Then I sms Host, he text me back said forget about money...
now people trust - we should learn other people mistakes so please whole world 🌎 be careful Airbnb & Scammer Host
Regards Renu Gihar
www.Globalgetconnect.com
www.oil-fielddirectory.com

Airbnb has failed to refund my $1, 418.44 deposit on a stay which was cancelled due to COVID, in violation of their extenuating circumstances refund policy. The reservation was made on December 31, 2019 for a stay in Ocean City MD., which was to be June 21-June 28, 2020. The firm's policy covers my stay and reservation date (see attached). Several email and phone conversations with the company have yielded no results.

My confirmation code is HMZE5YPMPR.

My desirable solution is to have Airbnb issue a refund to my credit card in the aforementioned amount of $1, 418.44.

I have filed formal complaints with the BBB, California State Attorney General's Office, and the New Jersey State Attorney General's Office. Airbnb is headquartered in California. I am a New Jersey resident.

There is an un hosted Airbnb in our condo complex that is noisy, has animals and does not follow house or condo complex rules. The guests smoke drugs, are loud all hours of the night and have ruined our peaceful home. They also have pets that are defecating in our common area. We have filed several complaints with airbnb and heard nothing back. The current guests use extremely offensive language that is loud and rude and destroys our neighborhood. We and our neighbors constantly fear for our safety living here next to this Airbnb.

Made a reservation several months ago for an AirBnb in Marin county for my entire family to attend a family event. Because of Covid, Marin County is not permitting such gatherings and the event was therefore cancelled. The owner of the Bnb easily understood and agreed to refund. my deposit, but indicated that the money was held by AirBnb. She would contact them.
AirBnb refunded the deposit minus their service fee of $268+. This seems unreasonable and counter to most travel industry provider policies. A refund is a refund, and not a refund minus an exorbitant service fee. Beyond that their communication has been terrible. I telephoned and was put on hold for over one hour and then disconnected. Second time I called I was on hold for 1'15" and finally connected to a person who then put me on hold a second time. 2nd person said he would pass on my request for refund of service fee and said it would be routine under the circumstances. That has not come to pass.

Airbnb has falsely implemented a refund policy regarding trip reimbursements due to COVID-19 and travel plans.
Airbnb is refusing to issue a full refund as stated in their policy. I receiced a partial refund but not the full amount I paid. I've tried numerous times to request full refund and they are giving me reasons as to why I'm not eligible. My extenuating circumstances clearly meet the policy. I was traveling on the dates listed on the policy and to a location that has one of the highest COVID-19 Cases and Deaths.

Airbnb refuses to fully refund my money from a reservation I made in january for may. I, like many cancelled my reservation in march after the stay at home order was placed. The hosts, like airbnb were of no help... Even before I cancelled as I reached out asking what my options were. I received 20 dollars out of 300. It's unfortunate they are stealing from guests as well as hosts.

I am one of many who had to cancel an Airbnb stay because of travel bans/shelter in place orders due to coronavirus pandemic. Airbnb and their hosts are taking advantage of this situation. I understand the initial agreement of non-refund on cancellation BUT this coronavirus is a completely different circumstance out of our hands. Airbnb and the hosts are blaming each other while their customers have to pay the price.
(I also have a job that was impacted by coronavirus but I am in no way expecting my customers to continue to pay me for no services rendered. And this is exactly what the host is expecting.) It is disappointing and disgusting that host would be so selfish and think their situation is different from anyone elses. We are all suffering from the pandemic but Airbnb hosts think somehow this should not effect them (even though they are in the travel business) assuming their guests should just continue to pay as usual with no concern for what is currently going on with people not traveling to control spread of disease. I hope Airbnb and their hosts goes down for this.
Will never use them again and will advocate to others about Airbnb host inconsiderate and unethical behavior.

When I got to the apartment I booked through Airbnb, I was shocked to find that it didn't match the website description at all. Not only that, but there was also construction partially blocking the entrance to the building, the elevator I needed for our stroller was out of service (due to the construction), and the toilet seat in the apartment was broken. I reached out to our host only to be told that he knew about all these problems but still hadn't seen fit to update his listing. Not only that, he was extremely rude when my mother-in-law spoke to him, even though she never raised her voice and simply calmly asked him to fix the broken toilet seat. He told her he couldn't take care of it, which I'm sure is a lie.

Fed up with our host, we booked another apartment and asked him to cancel our reservation as of May 14, about a month early. He said it wouldn't be a problem, since he found other guests who wanted to book it, and he asked Airbnb to update our reservation. The host also said he'd refund us the balance of the unused reservation. But, when I logged on to Airbnb to accept the changes, all I could see was an error message (attached). I attempted to explain to their customer service department that my name is Furkat Kasimov and that they had made a mistake with my reservation, but they said they couldn't fix it. This was a very frustrating user experience and made me feel upset.

Finally, Airbnb contacted me to say that I didn't owe anything else, which was a relief. But, then another customer support person (or perhaps the same one I initially spoke with) contacted me to say I owed $1, 896.63 and that my case would be sent to a collection agency if I didn't pay up within 24 hours. This made no sense because the rate I originally agreed to when I make the reservation was $84.77 per day, which included the tax and cleaning fees. What Airbnb was now saying I owed was much higher than what I agreed to when I booked the apartment. Anyone with common sense could see they were scamming me. I suspect that the Terms of Use, which was quite long, might have stated that Airbnb could change the daily rate whenever they choose. If that's true, that is a scam and not fair to customers. Scammers operate like that, Airbnb is supposed to be a legitimate company, but now I'm not so sure.

Something else odd that occurred during this time was one of the Airbnb customer support people referred to the host as my "owner," which seems inappropriate since it implies I am his slave. Who says that to a customer? It felt very rude.

Even though several months have passed since this Airbnb scam I still am woken by SMS messages and phone calls at 2 a.m. from Airbnb's support center in Russia. They spam me and demand payment for what they insist is the unpaid balance on my canceled reservation. The spammer who calls claims I owe money, but never bothers to verify the details of my stay, including the fact I canceled early. I am very tired of all these early morning phone calls, SMS messages and spam emails. I know that those are normal work hours in Russia, but it's the middle of the night in the U.S. where I live! I'm disgusted by my experience with Airbnb and hope no one gets taken advantage of by these scammers like I did.

Sai from India.
Iam a host and hosted 10 guests on 22nd and 23rd December 2019.
Name of the guest: Arun Elangovan
Amount: INR Rs. 15434.64
This pay out is still pending and it is more than 50 days now.
I have made several calls to Airbnb customer service. Have messaged and mailed them. The only response I get is there is a technical error and they are working on it and time frame for the payout cannot be promised.
The technical team has not responded yet. These are the replies I get.
They say they understand our issue they are sorry about it.
But they understand our problems. We have bills to pay and there is an expense incurred in hosting.
Hope this issue is resolved at the earliest and looking forward to receive the payout with interest and penalty. How can Airbnb hold our money when the guest has paid 40 days before the stay.

Name: Sai B
Property: Enchanting Woods. Kotagiri, India
Ph: 91 [protected]
Email: [protected]@gmail.com

Warm Regards
Sai B

I reserved a house for a month for 950.00 I spoke with the owner (Host) and found out that the room he had listed was no longer available because he was moving back in his house. He offered me the apartment he was moving out of and I declined and canceled my reservation. 2 weeks later the charged my credit card for $950.00 They paid the owner who took the money knowing I never spent one night in his place. The owner said tough [censored] - air B n B paid me - go after them.
Air B n B says go after the owner.

I had to pay $950.00 and never spent one night in the place
I have been scammed

Hi everyone! I've been using Airbnb for several years now and all of the reviews submitted to me by hosts have been great. Never had a problem and always treated the places I have stayed in with great respect and cleaned up after myself to leave things nice and tidy.
I recently booked an apartment in Berlin and the only place I found which was close to work and looked nice was an apartment hosted by a guy with no reviews. I read on the description that there was ‘potential noise' and so before booking I wrote to the host to find out what the situation was in detail and I was assured that the apartment was quiet. When I got to Berlin late at night my host told me that the apartment was not where it was shown on the marker but further down the road. When I got there the place was on a main 8 lane crossroads with heavy constant traffic all day and all night and it is so loud outside that it is impossible to get any sleep, and not on the quiet part further down the road shown on the marker. In the morning I woke up to see that the apartment was filthy and had not been cleaned. Stains and debris on the floor, smelly towels slung over doors and tables, disgusting stains on the pillows, dirty kitchen and more. I immediately made photos of the uncleanliness and videos to show how incredibly dirty and noisy it was and called Airbnb for a refund so I could leave. To cut a very long story short I have been in contact with ten different people from Airbnb. All of there people have been kind and supportive of my claim except for one who hadn't read the case properly. Four days have passed and I am still here and have not slept a wink. They keep passing my case onto another person when their shift runs out and I have to explain the situation again from scratch. I read the terms and conditions and the host has failed under two aspects: cleanliness and failure to describe the real situation. I even tried to propose an early checkout with the host because one of the people at Airbnb advised me to do so before taking more serious measures but the host was unwilling to accept this compromise. I have been on the phone all day and night to organize a refund so I can book another place and get on with my business trip. Also the guest left me the keys in a bar to pick up and hasn't even checked me in yet. This has truly become a nightmare and I don't know what more I can do. Would appreciate it if anyone had some advice. Thanks guys!
Taddeo

As Airbnb.com host for two years now, I'll tell you my complaints. The reason I'm writing here is because Airbnb.com by violating human rights "right to have information"

1. They close my account because of two guest complain to me with no reason and Airbnb.com just sent me a mail regarding close account.

2. With new account I have host a lot guests and one day I discovered a promotion that if I sent refeal links to my friend that they give €90. That was make sense and I started to sent my friends and 10 of them has been host. It was well working in the begining but after 4 refeal Airbnb.com sent me a warning mail that I violate their conditions and asked me to read again and confirm it. Everything was okay as I started because since I am law student I check every conract that I am member. Anyway I asked please inform me what I did? Because what I did just sent to refeal link yo my friends and help to them to rise their guest. After 2 weeks they sent mail "sorry we close to account in order to violate our cond. and term.." I replied them to explain me what I did? No answer. 10 times after callong them they sent same mail. Sorry and removed account. But why? I sent refeal link amd and made my friends to provide their id, bank account even its hard to make people believe Airbnb.com is safe app. But no no anymore. They didnt payout me that I deserve with almost 6 person altough they completed first booking well. Airbnb.com is terrible account that made me to alternatives; homeaway, expedia...

These case manager of Airbnb.com unrespecting to their host. And I feel deeply cheated by them that I waste effort for nothing.

I have complaited to Competitors Instition (Tursab) that had ban to Booking.com and they now sue Airbnb.com. I am supporter of that action on social media. I never ever forget these behavior. Airbnb.com has stolen my effort, my money!

Hi Airbnb customer service?

On Wed 30th Nov I received an email to my [protected]@gmail.com address. The email for my profile with Airbnb. The email advised of a failed charge to my Visa. I was short on funds. I have reply emailed, unsure if you receive emails to this address. I posted feedback, where you state no reply to feedback. You can take that stance, but I did advise I reply emailed as well. And if the Airbnb rep who read this feedback knows the reply email is not responded to, I think it is fair that you would still follow up. I have taken the time to give you this feedback to express my stress and concerns and still waiting to know what 2nd payment is for. A simple request. I made the payment, after some stress:

Hi Airbnb Team,

You charged $40 approx and the payment failed. I got a little help from a friend. He with same ING bank so EFT instant. His last $21, to go with my last $20. Only then I discovered clicking email link to pay, this is US dollars. My account is set to AUS dollars. Why advise in US? System could be adjusted with better coding I imagine.

Then logistic nightmare ensued. And I don't know what this "2nd Payment" is for. Replied to email hours ago, asking what for? And advising cash flow prob will sort and pay. Now I have. Still no reply to my email.

Sent this to your feedback stream, and now emailing so you can reply. And I can eventually find out what this 2nd Payment is about.

Host assistant said she has never heard of this before. It created a fair bit of stress for me. And losing an hour or more solving and luckily getting help from my mum. I had the money, in $40 in AUD in VISA debit account, and difference in PHP cash. Host assistant came asking for cash if no transfer. No way that I could find to call you. And your email and Host email and assistant asking for cash, really stressed me to look to pay ASAP. Again, have paid now.

Yet no reply from you to my email, and it has been a few hours. I got auto reply email with receipt. Listing original payments incl. clear list of tax and fees. But just "2nd Payment" listed. This could easily be corrected in your system I imagine, to advise clearly what it is for. (No reply email from auto set up to say no reply to this email address, or, your email has been received)

Your original email advise of the failed payment request could have advised what it is for. Nipped in the bud, the most ideal solution.

Also, had my account had just enough for the payment, and I was counting on it for something else, I would have been caught by surprise in any case. Why no email advise of the payment due, a few days before? This would have given me time to sort cash flow (waiting on several friends to pay me money owed).

I feel better having explained the stress this put me through. An experience for me to grow from, as is any such challenge. An opportunity or three for Airbnb, to grow from. And do better in the future.

Please advise, via reply email.

Thank you,

Andy
+[protected]

Airbnb has cancelled my booking by mistake on May 2019 (see e-mail below):

Rose D, May 30, 05:37 PDT:
Hello Zvi,
Greetings! This is Rose, one of the Case Managers from Airbnb. How are you? I hope this message finds you well.
Your case has been escalated to our team for further assistance. I received a report that one of our representative mistakenly cancelled your reservation. I personally would like to apologize for what happened, please rest assured that we at Airbnb is ready to help and support you, Zvi.
________________________________________

I received a refund, but the refund had a different exchange rate and was AU$293 short (as you can see below):

Please check and advise,
Zvi Aloni

2/06/19 2:22 AM AIRBNB [protected] GB (ILS 9582.98 @ 0.4122) Purchase AUD -3, 950.49

5/06/19 2:36 AM AIRBNB [protected] GB (ILS 9582.98 @ 0.38162) Purchase Return AUD 3, 657.02