15 Reasons Airbnb’s Customer Service Sucks! + How to Contact Them

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Airbnb’s customer service is… TERRIBLE

The recent string of big Airbnb news stories regarding shootings, injuries, murders, sexual assault, discrimination, and other woeful goings-on seems to indicate a company scrambling to keep up with its own growth, and one of the many results of that is a poor support system for its customers.

Our Airbnb guest horror story research study showed that 82% of the guests who had a problem with Airbnb said customer service was a major cause of the problem.

The best toll-free phone number for calling Airbnb Customer Service is +1-844-234-2500.

Click here to expand all international Airbnb phone numbers

Country

Phone Number

United States +1-415-800-5959
United States (toll-free) +1-844-234-2500
Argentina +54 11 53 52 78 88
Australia +61 2 8520 3333
Austria +43 72 08 83 800
Brazil +55 21 3958-5800
Chile +56229380777
China +86 400-120-9157
China (shared-cost) 400-716-0164
Cuba (toll-free) +1-855-424-7262
Denmark +45 89 88 20 00
France +33-184884000
Germany +49 30 30 80 83 80
Greece +30 211 1989888
Hong Kong +852 5808 8888
India (toll-free) 000 800 4405 103
Ireland +353 1 697 1831
Israel +972 3 939 9977
Italy +39-06-99366533
Japan +81 3 4580 0999
Japan (toll-free) +81 800 100 1008
Kenya (toll-free) +1-855-424-7262
Malaysia +603 7724 0164
Malaysia (toll-free) 1800 889 814
Mexico +52 55 41 70 43 33
Netherlands +31 20 52 22 333
New Zealand +64 4 4880 888
Norway +47 21 61 16 88
Peru +51 1 7089777
Poland +48 22 30 72 000
Portugal +351 30 880 3888
Puerto Rico +1 787 945-0222
Russia +74954658090
Russia (toll-free) 88003017104
Singapore +65 6622 7306
Singapore (toll-free) 1800 723 1238
South Africa (toll-free) +1-855-424-7262
South Korea +82 2 6022 2499
South Korea (toll-free) +82 808 220 230
Spain +34 91 123 45 67
Sweden +46 844 68 12 34
Switzerland +41 43 50 84 900
Taiwan +886 2 7743 2436
Taiwan (toll-free) 0800 868 313
United Kingdom +44 203 318 1111

NOTE: If you’re having trouble getting a hold of (or a resolution from) the Airbnb customer service team you can always try Tweeting to @AirbnbHelp, which we’ve experienced first-hand, can get a faster response because it’s in the public arena.

If you have any problem at all with your stay, contact Airbnb as soon as possible and take photos (and screenshots of communication with your host) for evidence. Also, contact your credit card company to see if they can initiate a chargeback on your behalf so that you don’t have to spend months fighting Airbnb. This has worked for us on several occasions.

15 reasons why Airbnb's customer service is so unprofessional and frustrating

1. You may not get the help you need, even if it’s an emergency.

Personal experience with this has shown me that they may not come through for you in your time of need. My family and I had a terrible experience with this, and we were basically left to fend for ourselves after an incident in Paris.


2. Their representatives can make you feel like they’d rather not be talking to you.

When you call a support or service team, you expect them to make you feel valued and listened to, right? Unfortunately, that’s often not the way that guests report feeling after their interactions with Airbnb’s Customer Experience team.


3. They dish out canned responses left and right, but they may not actually listen or engage.

Engagement with the customer is key when problem-solving, and Airbnb does a LOT of problem-solving. If a customer feels that their story is falling on deaf ears, they’ll do one of two things: escalate the issue to someone who WILL listen, or disengage entirely. In the business world, that means losing a customer.


4. They often lose track of your service tickets or close them prematurely.

As most people who’ve dealt with a call center know, a service ticket is your lifeline to a solution, and it should remain open and in the right hands until it’s resolved and you have your solution. Many Airbnb customers mention the exact opposite happening.


5. When you send them photos or information, it can easily get lost in the “void”.

Because of the seemingly disorganized nature of the Airbnb customer service system, it can be easy for your important, case-relevant information to become lost or misdirected. This means that the evidence you send of an incident may never reach its intended audience, or it may be delayed in its progress, leaving you waiting longer for help.


6. They don’t seem to communicate well with each other, much less their customers.

In dealing with the customer service team regarding our Paris issue, we experienced so much confusion and chaos in communications that it was hard to keep track of who was working on our problem, whom to contact, and how soon we could expect a resolution. The chaos caused us a lot of trouble, and online reviews left by guests have told us that we’re not the only ones who have experienced this problem.


7. They tend to blame the customer for problems and don’t always accept appropriate responsibility as a company.

No, the customer is NOT always right, but they’re also not the one to blame for problems outside of their control – especially those caused by the company’s platform, policies, or technology. And even if the customer does share the responsibility for the issue, they’re contacting customer service for help, so HELP THEM.


8. Many representatives don’t even know how the website and mobile app work on a basic level.

If you provide support for a service or product, it would seem like a basic job requirement for you to understand the ins and outs of that product and/or platform. I’m not asking for programmers and tech-wizards, here. I’m asking for the people I am directed to call regarding questions about the use of their site to be able to answer those questions.


9. There’s a chance you’ll be hung up on, and it might be on purpose.

Many users of the Airbnb site complain that they’ve been hung up on. Even one deliberate hang-up-on incident is too many, but users complain about this issue too frequently.


10. You’re likely to be dealing with a person who’s so burnt out that their attitude is permanently bad.

Any high-volume customer service team is going to experience burnout – that’s just how it goes in call centers. The first trick is to ensure that your staff is empowered to make decisions and take breaks so that they don’t get so burnt out that they can’t control their tone and reactions. The second trick is to have an effective support system for customer service team members so that they feel like someone has their back. Airbnb may lack this, based on guest’s comments regarding their call center team experiences. Burnout is a mood-killer, but it’s not okay for even the most exhausted, in-demand customer service agent to lash out at a customer.


11. They regularly make promises that they don’t keep.

Complaints of this nature range from guests saying they were promised a full refund and got $0, to guests saying they were promised that Airbnb would find a suitable alternative accommodation and then left guests to fend for themselves either with or without their money back in time to find a new place to stay. When you’re dealing with huge sums of money (bookings can cost thousands of dollars) that have to be paid up-front, it’d be best to have a system in place whereby refunds can be issued right away when necessary. In the customer service world, it’s also pretty crucial to keep promises made to customers…

If you want to know what happened to us with Airbnb in September 2017, watch this video. I show how we never received a full refund for our place that was completely moldy and we only there for 30 mins.


12. Even if you comply with their terms of service and evidence requirements, you may never get a refund.

It’s hard to say how often this happens, but some people never end up receiving a refund they are entitled to. Even if a guest’s situation and evidence are squarely within Airbnb’s published policies, a refund may not be granted, and the guest may never be given an explanation as to why.


13. There doesn’t seem to be an escalation process.

This goes hand-in-hand with a well-supported customer service team. In order for representatives to be able to effectively make decisions and assist customers, any service team MUST have a black-and-white escalation procedure that allows for rare exceptions. There have to be standards in place which are followed the same way every time (within realistic expectations), and there have to be superiors available to make decisions when an urgent matter arises – especially since “urgent matter” in Airbnb world may mean a dangerous situation!


14. Even if you are told you’re getting a refund, you may have to fight tooth-and-nail to get it, and it can take weeks or even months to get.

I think we’ve established pretty clearly that the refund system isn’t a very reliable one, don’t you? We still haven’t gotten our full refund after months of communications with Airbnb.

15. Their policies seem to be set up to make them money, and it may be unfairly at your expense.

Of course companies strive to make money – how else could they function? The problem arises when policies are only followed when it’s convenient for the company, or when those policies are written to unfairly favor the company. Many of Airbnb’s policies clearly give the company leeway to keep funds when they probably shouldn’t, and charge conversion and other fees when it may not be practical or necessary.


The bottom line is this: in customer service, the golden rule is that “customers will always remember the way you make them feel,” and that should be the guiding principle on which service standards are based. If so many interactions with Airbnb’s Customer Experience Specialists fail to meet objectives, leave the customer in a worse position than they were in before, or leave the customer feeling demoralized, then the company as a whole will be viewed that way.

Below is a TV interview I did with the popular CBC consumer affairs show called, Marketplace. I was brought onto the show as one of the travel experts to talk about my Airbnb research study. While the show doesn’t go that much into customer service issues it does highlight how getting publicity can be the best way to get some resolution with Airbnb. In this case, the guy who got cancelled last minute in Mexico was given over $6000 in compensation from Airbnb!

Please note: while the “15 reasons why Airbnb customer service sucks” are drawn from our own experiences and those of many reviewers who post their stories on online forums, these may not be the experiences of every customer. Customer service is one of the top complaints when guests describe their opinion of Airbnb, but not all guests have these or any problems. Our advice: use the platform at your own discretion.

Share your Airbnb customer service experience below! :)

290 comments

  1. I just call their shitty customer service number to find out how close a place was before I booked it and got nothing but a dam run around and they will not let you speak to a manager …..They are all are a scam and rip off and are not there to help at all. If you do not get your money back call your credit card and file a small claims and they have to show up or else!

    1. I just contacted customer service too, after unsuccessfully searching in their online Help forum for a resolution to a website issue. I felt that the agent could either not understand what I was saying or was not listening at all. I asked to talk to someone else and was ignored. He just kept asking questions totally unrelated to my issue. I said I was trying to plan a trip and my dates kept disappearing from the search. Who is the host?”, he asked. I don’t have a host, I’m trying to plan a trip. I want to save the dates as I search.” He replies, “If the dates disappear it’s because the house is not available.” “No.” I say. “I’m still Searching, and your website won’t save my preferred dates as I search. I want to save my trip dates and filters. I want to create a new trip with new dates. How can I do that?” “Who is the host?” he asks.” OMG. “Can I talk to someone else?” I say. . . and so on until I hang up. I’m so disappointed because I feel like I can’t use AirBnb anymore because I won’t deal with an organization that does not provide customer service. I quit using VRBO for the same reason. I’ve used AirBnb often in the past, but I guess I’m done. And I can’t even tell them. There is no contact. The link that says “Contact Us” is a loop that keeps taking me back to my last host, like I need to contact him for some reason.

      1. I am having the same issues. Their website only has one option and that is to contact the host who can not answer questions. They refer you back to Airbnb. My issue is simple. I already paid half and want to pay the rest before we get there in June. They keep responding saying if I want to pay now (I didn’t say NOW I said before June) that they would need the last 4 digits on my card. The emails I get from them have a reply tab but under that tab is a disclaimer saying do not reply to this email because Airbnb will not get it. ???????????? Their service should be free seeing as how hard you have to work to straighten out their mess.

        1. In addition to the owner stretching the truth about the boats condition.  There is or was only one way to get to the boat and that was by the owner giving you a ride in a Dinghy. There were no “One Of Our Dinghy’s”  also the boat smelled so bad of fumes from the engine, diesel fuel it made us sick.
           
          They should ban this boat until his facts can be physically checked. He agreed to a full refund before we left for shore. The boat was not docked or even anchored in the harbor that is listed

          I have filed fraud charges with VISA – I will get my money back

        2. The comments on this whole post have been so painful to read. If you’re using a desktop, click Terms, Privacy, Currency & More. Click “Help” and then click “Contact Us”.

          The agent probably wanted the last four digits of your card to verify who they were speaking to because they can’t help you otherwise for security reasons. The payments are system automated and they can’t process the second payment earlier.

          A lot of this shit is just based on ignorance of how Airbnb and vacation rentals by owners work and an inability to successfully navigate a website or learn how to do things yourself.

          I mean, here’s what a quick search found for your issue: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2143/. A help center article that states the second part is charged automatically, which is a pretty good indicator that it can’t be charged manually.

          1. I agree ignorance on so many levels. A potential guest does not have access to a lot of information till they book. That is for security purposes for the host. Also it’s so they can’t show up at the address and try to book directly for a lower price which as a host, I know happens all the time. I’m a superhost and have had zero problems with airbnb. Most guests are just fine, otherwise I would have quit along time ago as I don’t need the money. It just gives me something to do since I’m retired. I don’t want random people showing up at my house so I appreciate the security. Also I participate in several forums for hosts. I can say this with a clear conscience. The majority have ZERO interest in hospitality. They have a spare room and are out to make as much money as possible. To here them “talk” on the forums, they hate airbnb even though it allows them to make the money. NONE of the people I’m referring to would make it in the real hospitality business. I’ve experience this firsthand as a guest and without exception airbnb has made it right for me. Even refunding money when I didn’t expect it. There have been a couple of times I got to the place and it looked NOTHING like the listing and I didn’t want to stay there so I went and got a hotel room. I didn’t contact airbnb, they asked me how my stay was and I said I didn’t stay there because I didn’t feel comfortable. They offered me a refund no questions asked. So anyway, the hosts feel airbnb always takes the guest side and guests think they only look out for themselves (airbnb). I guess perspective is everything. I’ll continue with airbnb as long as I enjoy it but I already know if I quit, it will be because of the guests. Not because of airbnb.

      2. Its ridiculous. I’m trying not to go off. I was discriminated. Hung up on. Acting like they can’t hear me . Pitiful. I need a number of one who cares.

      3. I had extremely bad experience I told my host that we won’t be able to come to California from BC Canada due to travel restriction due to Covid-19,the host insisted me a to cancel the booking asap if I want refund because she has many other people waiting to book the reservation at that time, I trusted her and cancelled the booking I even spoke to the resolution lady about this and clearly said I would like to have full refund of $3500 . Resolution center rep named Myara said yes she will help with that and I can cancel infact she spoke to me and cancelled it herself. After I cancelled these two ladies refunded me $85 . I could not believe how badly both of these ladies my host Laralyn and Myra made fool of me and cheated ,I provided all the written proof of the conversation between me and the host Laralyn finally the host returned $1050 out of my $3500.

        1. Did you ever get your money back? I am having a similar issue. The host returned my money but Airbnb is holding onto their fees. They owe me $750

          1. Did they ever refund you money? Because if they did I want to know maybe you can give me some tips what I should do. I’m going through the same issue. I’m dealing with this mess since July. They told me that they going to refund me my money, but nothing happened.

        2. SAVJEET et al:

          Had a similar nightmare experience— where I had a textbook refund scenario that should have been closed out after one call. Instead, I was sucked into an 18-day game of Hot Potato with Airbnb Customer Service Reps that wasted countless valuable hours of my time. They went from EXTREMELY CONFIDENT they could resolve my issue and refund me for a bait and switch booking that my girlfriend and I walked in and straight out of in 5 minutes—to confusion and hesitance to condescending doubt that I had a legit claim for canceling. And by “Extremely Confident” — and I swear this actually happened (I have the voicemail to prove it) — my first Customer Service rep, “Gregory” in Vietnam,
          actually said, “I would bet my own wife, Mr. Fi_, that I will have this matter resolved to your satisfaction by the weekend. Please enjoy your vacation and don’t worry about a thing.” I’m seriously not shitting you guys—“I would bet my own wife …”

          I’m hoping Gregory can at least send me some pictures first.

          So … 18 days of this Airbnb Customer Service buffoonery was resolved in 18 minutes on the phone with my Platinum Amex rep. $1,300 (100% of the listing we walked in and immediately right out of) was immediately refunded.

          That Platinum Amex is a lifesaver. I very rarely have to call upon them to advocate for me and dismiss charges on my account, but I put in way too much time and effort trying to handle this Airbnb’s way.

          MY ADVICE: Attach your strongest, most pro-consumer credit card (all Amex levels are good) to your Airbnb account. In other words, NEVER use your bank Visa or MasterCard debit card for these bookings. If the refund isn’t resolved or issued to you in a few days—dispute the charges. Don’t hesitate.

          Best of luck.

    2. I had terrible service. I lost my phone and somehow all my bookings were lost. I rang airbnb so unhelpful. They said I must have booked with a different email. I gave the two I always use
      Work and home. I don’t do Facebook. No they said even though I could see the booking on my card account.
      So very unhelpful

      1. Did anyone ask you for the reservation confirmation code? It starts with HM and is about 10 numbers and letters. If that was on your credit card info, they could assist. Also, perhaps with a phone number although that does not always pull up just one person.
        Email is the key piece controlling your Airbnb account.

    3. As a host of a cabin for rent through Airbnb, please know that you can contact the property owner/host and ask questions (such as proximity, accommodations, near-by attractions, etc.) before you actually book a reservation. If the property has a “Super Host” status, that also entails a quick response (less than 24 hours) for all inquiries. Besides, the owner/host is more familiar with the area and its specifics than customer service. We are happy to give accurate information to our potential guests on a regular basis. Please don’t give up on all of us for a few bad apples.

      1. No, I didn’t blame you as a host. But Airbnb is a the worst company i cannot even get contact / help from them. My full refund from covid19 accommodation is going nowhere. The company have no responsibility to help us. I feel sorry you as a host because you out of pocket as well because of this greedy company. No more booking using airbnb in the future!!

    4. In addition to the owner stretching the truth about the boats condition.  There is or was only one way to get to the boat and that was by the owner giving you a ride in a Dinghy. There were no “One Of Our Dinghy’s”  also the boat smelled so bad of fumes from the engine, diesel fuel it made us sick.
       
      They should ban this boat until his facts can be physically checked. He agreed to a full refund before we left for shore. The boat was not docked or even anchored in the harbor that is listed

      I have filed fraud charges with VISA – I will get my money back

    5. After listing a month ago I was 1/2 full 3 months out and canceled do to a clerical error with my neighbors info (STR) in my own registration. First off I dont know what STR is, secondly I dont know a neighbor’s STR. 10 guests are upset. After being promised 10 times that Airbnb will escalate this and call me, Airbnb has done neither. My guests, some returning friends, are outside standing in the cold. Airbnb is making me look very badly right now. Somebody could at least call me to clarify what’s happening.

      1. Make your own website and be independent of these scumbags! Take your business in your own hands! This is what you should do!
        Let Airbnb sink!
        They are nothing but a website, an intermediary who made money by exploiting the hosts and taking advantage of guests and building a multimillion business out of doing NOTHING else!

      1. Agreed ! The ‘cottage’ we rented turned out to be a tool shed with a tarp on the roof. I have plenty of pictures. After more research I can also prove the hosts’ husband was posting several reviews of their own property. This HAS TO be wrong. Airbnb says the person who posted it must contact them to verify the review was ‘fake’. Ummmm pretty sure that won’t happen.

      1. Lawl, this has nothing to do with the EU’s GDPR. I provide legal counsel to digital advertisers, so I would know. Why don’t you elaborate for us?

    6. I would not waste any time on Airbnb customer service: at the coronavirus situation I had full refunds on my hotel n air flights, only the Airbnb booking offered 10% refund while it was 5 months away for checking. They asked for supporting documents I provided n back n forth many messages of a dragging correspondence later they told me the situation does not void their refund policy. I think this reflects on a heartless policy stand n personally I will never have any more booking with any of Airbnb. Hotels have been around and they know how to sustain a long term market n thus somehow survive a boom bust short cycle.

    7. The worst company I have dealt with. I was charged 3 months early for my second and final payment. 5 phone calls and chat sessions. No one can help, all they say is referred to technical team. I emailed CEO and customer service executive officer neither one acknowledged my email or had anyone from their staff contact me. I was told if I disputed the charge with my credit card company they would cancel my reservation. This was my first and last experience using Airbnb

    8. Good Airbnb experience before 2019 I called airbnb and they picked up phone quickly but very bad experience now!!! and they rarely pick up phone after one hour.
      I host some rooms at airbnb and I open ticket at June 06, 2020 and Airbnb Support 10:09 PM “Exactly. I’ll escalate our request to our case manager now, please check your email or messages from time to time and keep your lines open for a possible call back to assist you faster.” But no any reply to me since June 06, 2020 and today is June 12, 2020.
      I called them at least 5 times and nobody pick up my phone with waiting 40 minutes.
      The worst service in the world!!!
      Never use airbnb because Airbnb just take over 20% fee from your pocket an do nothing to help you to resolve any issues!!!

    9. Airbnb customer der use SUCKS!!!!
      Harassment, unprofessional and simply unacceptable.

      I have been a superhost with Airbnb for nine years, and have over 500 4.8-5 star reviews on my properties, with $120,000 in yearly booking revenues. My booking revenues reach the million dollar mark by now. All that does not matter to the Airbnb team because they canceled my account (and all reservations in it ) in the last four weeks – TWICE!

      Maybe it’s the fact that their customer service team is highly incompetent ever since COVID 19 started, or maybe they simply don’t care about their hosts and guests. My account and my guest bookings were cancelled without any notification. Guests were devastated because the booked family holidays for Thanksgiving in our homes. I lost $22 k in revenues. This is unconscionable!!! Also, it is highly unprofessional and it borders on harassment.

      It all started on 9/6/20 when overnight various reservations with revenues exceeding $12,000 were simply canceled by Airbnb without the guests or me getting any email warning or any notification, nor any reason as to why these cancellations are happening. Upon hours and hours of trying to reach Customer Service I finally received an email from someone named Brian H. apologizing for the “mistake that was made an error”. My account was reinstated, however the loss of $12,000 and the conversation about reimbursing such loss due to the actions by Airbnb was never responded to. How convenient. It gets worse.

      While my account was reinstated, today on 10/6/20 my account was yet canceled again by Airbnb. With it various reservations. Again a loss of $10,000 occured last night.
      This time I receive an email from same Brian H. saying that while my account was reinstated first, upon further review it was now canceled again because “a person not permitted on the Airbnb platform is associated to this account”. That makes no sense whatsoever, simply because the only person associated with this account is me, for nine years. When I asked what “ person” they are referring to, I get crickets. No response.

      This action by Airbnb is entirely unprofessional and highly damaging to hosts and guests. The arbitrary cancellation of host accounts by Airbnb is not only nerv racking ( especially in a time where we all deal with difficulties as is due to a virus that’s spreading all over the world…) but simply dangerous for any hosts and all their guests.
      Many guests book vacations and airline tickets and face huge costs when their reservations are canceled without any reason. Many hosts live off the revenues received by Airbnb bookings and count on them to pay their mortgages. The loss of such revenues puts much distress on hosts, just like me. I lost $22k in 4 weeks due to these arbitrary Airbnb actions.

      All this is entirely unnecessary and could be avoided if Airbnb would take the time to train the customer service properly, and have the courtesy of contacting the host – like VRBO, Booking.com, TripAdvisor and other sites do- before making arbitrary decisions that are harming and hugely damaging to hosts and guests.

      Needless to say I contact at the CEO of Airbnb with this issue because someone has to step in and stop this nonsense.
      We, the hosts and the guests, are the ones making Airbnb a lot of money and we should be treated with courtesy and respect to say the least. A normal professional customer service would be nice, with someone on the phone that provides proper information and doesn’t leave us hanging with some vague nonsense.

      The fact that Airbnb shows a loss of 70% today is ( among other reasons) maybe the result of them treating their hosts and guests like this? It may also be the reason why Airbnb customer service are such untrained numb nuts these days. That is if you can even get anyone on the phone.

      I can only warn hosts and guests to do business with Airbnb!!!! Your travel bookings is not safe, your host account is not safe and your host revenues are not safe!!! Not anymore!!!

      If you want to book a reliable trip as a guests and if you want to book reliable revenues as hosts I suggest you do what I do: I move my listings to Vrbo, booking.com, Tripadvisor and I created my own website for travelers took my homes.
      My patience with Airbnb has reached its end.

      I will file a complaint against Airbnb with the Better Business Bureau and other authorities because this kind of harassment is unacceptable and not something I stand for.

      If any of you out there have similar issues and are planning a class action suit against Airbnb, Count me in.

      1. I booked a home for a 2 month stay and two days before my arrival Airbnb not only cancelled my reservation without notice but they also didn’t notify the host. They claim that I’ve violated the terms and conditions but will not tell me what for, even after they reinstated my account. The host had to cancel other bookings made during the down time since Airbnb cleared the calendar and now that I’m in the middle of my stay they did it again (literally minutes after taking another $2,600 payment from me) and say they will refund my money after both myself and the host confirm the checkout. Again, no explanation to myself or the host, will not return emails and phone calls with the slow-witted customer service people are either non-existent or a waste of time. I’ve used Airbnb for years but no more. I’ll take my tens of thousands of dollars a year and spend it elsewhere. Word to the wise…..you have a 50/50 chance of ever seeing a dime or your return. I called the credit card company to dispute the charges and will be filing a complaint with the BBB. When that doesn’t work I guess it’ll be small claims…..Screw Airbnb

        1. I had the same experience!
          Airbnb canceled my bookings (one of them on the day of traveling!!!) and then canceled my account … just like this!
          After calling I’ve got a message stating that “Airbnb regrets that I requested to canceled my account”! Then, Airbnb “closed the case”!!
          Called Airbnb again and have my account reactivated. Then I was able to read these stupid messages on my account.
          So far no resolution regarding refunding for Airbnb cancelation. They claimed that it was a “fraudulent activity” into my account…! I said: “Really?! And the fraudulent attach just wanted to cancel my bookings and block my account…?! Hmmm…! ” Nothing more ridiculous!
          I gave then 3 days; I go to court after this! I’ve been trying enough to reason with them in good faith! They are scumbags making money on the efforts for hosts!

      2. I might go to court to recover my money from Airbnb next week…
        I called, I emailed, I did all I could in good faith to recover the money for my abusively canceled trips, but no success!
        Court will be my next stop!
        Do the same, all of you who had enough to be treated by Airbnb like rugs!

      3. A similar situation happened to me! Superhost for 9 years. All my bookings at my beach house were cancelled with a message similar to the one you got about an association with someone not authorized to be on Airbnb! I live 500 miles away and don’t associate with anyone in Navarre!
        I have rebooked, but am just waiting to have the rug pulled out from under me again! Great way to ruin a company!
        Tweeted to Brian CEO…to no avail!

      4. My experience as well, as a guest. Three upcoming reservations cancelled without any notification. When I tried to sign in to my Airbnb account, it was locked “for security reasons”. I’m a 10 year Airbnb user as a guest. All my reviews have been stellar. After an hour on hold, I was disconnected. Another hour on hold, was told he didn’t have authority to help, but would put in a ticket. Notified by email the next day that my reservations were cancelled “in error”. My account was reinstated. No offer to help with rescheduling. No apology. I was able to rebook the same places for the same dates, but are now $300 more expensive than my initial bookings!

        I’ve tried calling Airbnb customer service multiple times in three weeks. Have gotten disconnected numerous times after being on hold for more than 30-40 minutes.

        Email responses appear to be “canned” with no acknowledgement of the situation. It’s been almost a month. I’m so pissed off.

      5. similar experience!!! Account de-activated out of nowhere, and no support staff who can assist in the matter. Everyone just keeps saying they will leave a note on my file. Not sure what good that is if nobody is following up. I am waiting for a refund to be issued…I feel like that will be a headache as well

      6. I am with you. if there is a class action….count me in! This is the worst customer service dept I have ever dealt with and we are super hosts and book airbnbs all the time.

    10. My problem is I’m going to Hughes Arkansas to fish Horseshoe lake. I booked way in advance. The weather there this week is gonna be stormy with 20 MPH winds. Can’t fish in that

      Lisa is my host and she would not switch my reservation to April. Lost all $236. I will never try BnB again.

      My name is Bennie Goodman
      501-346-8053
      Yellowdawg1959@yahoo.com

      Do t use her as a host again. Canned responses. She’s probably an Avatar but the way I was treated was weong

  2. Pam, you need to contact the host, not customer service for inquiries about a property’s location. If you book, will you call customer service if you don’t have enough towels too?

    It seems some people don’t even understand how Airbnb works. It’s NOT a hotel.

    1. Wow, I PHOTO SHOT THIS RESPNSE WHAT A SMART ASS…THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU REACH OUT TO THEM….THEY TALK ABOUT US. NO I DO NOT CALL ABOUT TOWELS SMART ASS…..WE ARE LUCKY IF WE GET A PERSON THAT SPEAKS GOOD ENGLISH…..DAH!

    2. Well Pamela. My experience so far tells me Airbnb works very poorly. Their website is very user unfriendly. Their customer support is subpar to say the least and if you are a representative of the company your rudeness says it all.
      Whatever happened to courtesy? If you are in fact an employee of Airbnb you get paid to help people with their problems. If you aren’t you ought to get a life.Either I’m sure Airbnb would appreciate you keeping your opinions to yourself.

    3. an establishment providing accommodations, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists
      Thats a hotel definition it is a hotel

    4. Pam,
      I’ve contacted the host, I’ve tried to explain and reason. My host seemed to be not too smart and quite afraid to discuss “outside” Airbnb.
      So, I did not get anywhere by contacting the host!

  3. I booked an AirBNB “experience” which was a guided tour several weeks in advance but the following day I decided to cancel it. AirBNB did not refund me, I believe because the trip was within 30 days. I reached out to the host directly and he said he’d be happy to refund me but that unlike homes that are listed, he cannot refund directly to the customer. He advised that I reach out to AirBNB. Fast forward I have been calling and messaging them daily with no response. They have literally stopped responding to my messages at this point. I was hung up on by two separate representatives while on hold to be transferred to the “right department.” I am spending hours at a time trying to get this resolved and I’m losing hope I’ll ever get my money back. I threw a fit and spoke with a supervisor who promised someone would contact me by the end of the day. I will never use AirBNB again.

    1. Hi Winnie

      I’m sorry to hear you’re also having such a horrible customer service experience.

      You can always try contacting you credit card company to do a chargeback in order to get your refund.

      All the best,

      Asher.

      1. Trying that, Airbnb giving my bank total run around as they are doing with me. Took it upon themselves to refuse refund even showing all details after my booking and paying were sent to a totally non existent account therefore causing me to arrive at destination with no information regarding property location,Host contact or anything else. unable to contact air bnb for assistance as no response from “help”. Had to find alternative more expensive accommodation.They are stealing my $303 dollars. Half my weekly pension. Arrogant response when notifying refusing refund. Not impress. A company Rotten to the core.

        1. Same thing just happened to me three days ago. They kept my $400. Even though I called them several times.

  4. Been using them since 2011 until this year without problems. Suddenly this year one problem started occurring after the other. We were charged extra at arrival otherwise no access to the place. Airbnb told us we should have not paid again but what are the options if the host does not let you in otherwise. We never saw this money again. Not very nice to pay twice the amount that was planned for Airbnb accommodation. Customer service was a completely useless. Then in France Cannes we had the worth experience ever. The place was a complete scam and we were promised a refund. Its exactly as you described. Lots of promises from Airbnb but no action. We are still waiting for refund. The host was a complete bullshit lying on his listing and in the end lying on the review, making up a story, saying we were steeling from the apartment etc. Airbnb does not care and says they don’t delete such review. It seems that they have no internist to deal with customer issues. All they want is your money and more money. They need to improve customer service big time! Looks like their service system has not been designed for their use case.

    1. So sorry to hear it, Eric!

      Yes, it’s so unfortunate when a great idea like Airbnb gets ruined by their blind pursuit of profits. But I wonder how they see themselves succeeding long term if they treat loyal customer like us so bad!? I was a regular user since 2012 but now will never use them again after what happened to us with their sh!tty customer service…

      Like I’ve mentioned, it seems the best way to deal with them is to get the credit card company involved so that you can get a chargeback without wasting your time with a rude customer service rep.

      All the best,

      Asher.

      1. Yes !!! This happens to almost every air bnb user !!! They will take your money and not give a f!!!! I have had 3 out of 5 bad experiences meaning more bad than good it is not worth the money loss

  5. Poor customer service. Called to make a complaint against a host. Was hung up on. Difficulty understanding the representative. Poor communication line as airbnb must be going the cheap route for telecommunications services using VOIP or the Internet for phone calls. Lots of noise on line. Ineffective representative unable to solve my issue in a timely manner.

    1. I will Never use airbb again. I had a terrible experience with the host who lied to them showed no compassion when i was

      1. When i was injured not in her house but needed a bit of help while i stayed there. I have a pending lawsuit when i fell and the hodt defamed me on airbb. They did nothing to delete the review but pass it on to many csr. Nothing done. Money making uncaring comp that should be out of business. I see a class action suit against them

  6. Future hosts beware they have Horrible customer service and will not work with you to take care of issues that arise!
    Currently been on hold with them as I write this.

  7. What about the damn language barrier? I am a host. My guest….American. I am American. We have a disagreement. The AirBNB mediator is always a foreigner with a language barrier, no understanding of the culture, and only able to recite canned responses. AirBNB is growing too fast and they are losing all kinds of control over the process. They need customer service call centers in each country so that locals can deal with locals, etc.

    1. Wow – that’s a good point!

      Luckily as I guest I’ve never been transferred to a foreign call center. That sounds like a nightmare that’s been added to a nightmare. Sorry to hear it!

      I cannot see the logic of them outsourcing customer service period. And agreed, US guests and hosts should only speak to US reps.

    2. every time, and they refuse to transfer you to an american call center. i am dealing with that right at the moment. this after a 13 hr day volunteering in los Angeles which is on fire!

    3. I am going through this with them right now….I think i may not be sure but it not a safe system …they are using too many overseas people that do not really know how to handle anything and then take it out on us when we reach our limits on how we deal with them…I am not one to take a bunch or run around and deal with it and pay for it on top of the matter.

  8. I’ve been using airbnb since 2013, and since then I wasn’t in need to the customer service, but this time when I made a reservation in NJ, I found out that the pictures the host posted was not reflecting the reality, and he used photo shop application to enhance it.

    I called the customer services more than 10 times, and I discover that EVERY SINGLE WORD ASHER WROTE IN THIS POST WAS RIGHT.

    P.S. I talked to several agents in airbnb and they are all the same.

  9. Having read this site and all the replies I am now truly despondent. We are currently on a dream holiday to Sydney with three young daughters. We had booked an apartment which looked lovely in the photos only to find a really run down flighty apartment. We did not stay and contacted he just. St first he seemed amenable but by the morning changed his attitude and even blamed us for some of the issues! My experience of customer service so far completely fits with all of yours. The injustice is staggering. Not holding out any hope. Kind regards Phil

  10. Been a host for a couple years now. No problems. Today, mid-day EST, I have a guest trying to check-in. The website is down, the app is down, no way to communicate with the guest. Called customer service and it said more than 30 minute wait time. I selected the call-back option. 15 minutes later a computer called telling me a rep would be with me in a few minutes. Then it connected me to a recording of someone who said “we are currently undergoing systems maintenance and cannot serve your request. Please call back in 2-3 hours” and it hung up.

    Done. After this guest, I’m cancelling my account and never looking back.

  11. What do we tell the credit card company in order to get the charge back? I’m having similar issues where they promised me a refund for a week now and I haven’t received anything after 5 calls to them.

    1. If you have had a legitimate problem caused by Airbnb that isn’t being resolved then call your credit card company and tell them the situation. If you mention that you believe it’s fraud then they will most likely issue a charge back and get your money returned to you within a day.

  12. It is not like they do not want to help you, but the fact is that they cannot.
    They are following a procedure. They cannot do whatever they want with the users.
    And btw.. they cannot know how the app works since they are not allowed to use phones.

    1. Yeah, and it’s unbelievable how many bugs are in their app!! When I was speaking to an Airbnb customer service rep while on the streets of Paris they said I need to be using a desktop computer to make changes to my booking and it doesn’t work properly in the app. How the f*** am I supposed to use a desktop computer on the streets of Paris?!!

      How does a billion dollar business not have a fully functional app that is required to use the service when traveling?

  13. I’m disabled and have a service dog. According to Airbnb’s website a host is not allowed to refuse renting to me because of my service dog. I contacted the host informing her that I have a service dog. The host told me that no dogs are allowed. I wrote back that he is a service dog and they can’t refuse to rent to me under the Americans with Disabilities Act which is federal law. Refusing to rent to me is considered discrimination. I tried to explain this to the host in a respectful manner. The host then told me that if I kept contacting me she would report me for harassment! I have contacted Airbnb support but have not received a response.

    1. Hi Piper,

      I am sorry to hear you’re having trouble with this.

      Unfortunately it seems there is a lot of discrimination to people with disabilities on Airbnb. Here is New York Times article on the subject https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/technology/airbnb-disability-study.html

      One way you might have more success is if you look for places that allow pets.

      All the best,

      Asher.

      1. Trust me it is not you they only side with their customer service which does not give a darn becuse no matter how bad it gets they still hve a job and nothing happens to them. They break all the laws of our city with where they rent out the places and they tell us abut rules on the phone no matter how we are handled …..

  14. One thing to add to the list. Threy outsource the reps to the Phillipines. Most agents are almost impossible to understand and their VOIP or whatever system they use is very bad and choppy. It truncates words and makes it even more frustrating and difficult to understand.

  15. I am a host and I had recently a guest who sneaked in another guest without paying. When discovered, I approached him three times to update his reservation to two people and make the payment for the additional guest. The guests did not pay and used tons of different excuses why they couldn’t. I contacted AirBnB support to deal with it and demanded to make the guests pay or ask them to leave. This is what their advise was:

    1) Wait another day so they might pay after all. – absolutely I did not want to wait another day as they had already stayed for more than 48 hours and were very dishonest to us.
    2) When I insisted on taking immediate actions, airbnb support labelled me aggressive and commented that airbnb might not be for me after all. They completely ignored the fact how long I had been hosting and my positive reviews.
    3) The support person said they had called the guest and based on a short conversation could tell he was genuine and lovely!

    I was appalled at how this was handled… and how the situation was turned out to blame the host to avoid dealing with this situation.

    The guest was dishonest to us and in possession of drugs. He was using them on our property.
    When it was his time to leave, we had to pay for his taxi to the train station as otherwise he was not going to leave. It was 7pm when we finally managed to make him leave our property.

    But hey! AirBnb support called him and established he was genuine and lovely :). So beware… if you get that bad guest… fend for yourself.

    1. Anything you say to them they will use it against you so another words do not complain this is why it is becoming more unsafe.

  16. The worst customer service I ever experienced on the Internet at large is with Airbnb!! As a super host, all my listings got deactivated, removed from airbnb with no warning and by mistake. I tried to contact customer service but got the copy/paste useless message and then the ticket was closed before it was even resolved.

    They also once sent me a link to a google form so I could edit the registered business address. They changes were never reflected and processed, and later they deactivated my listings due to a mismatch between the legal document and the address provided. While only one listing had a mismatch, the other 2 were fine, but all got deactivated nonetheless.

    It seems like they employ people who barely look into any issue case by case and just do they job very approximately. This is absolutely terrible and irresponsible. If I could sue Airbnb now or do a class action I would. This is costing me a lot of business and also my google ranking will tank as a result of the delisting, even if they resolve this issue!

    What this makes me realise, is that no on should be naive enough to believe it’s the sharing economy, it’s a community, and it’s all super cool!! It’s juts a Silicon Valley money making machine that is focused on scaling their application to billions of users. They may put lots of money into hiring engineers, but none it seems in customer service and localised service.

    These platforms are great until you get deplatformed for no apparent reason. My advice to people, build your own website and integrate your own payment system and do some content marketing and social media marketing.. Build a brand may take a little bit of time in the long run it’s worth doing or you’ll be dependent on a terrible and untrustworthy company like airbnb, with all your good reviews and reputations gone in an instant.

    1. I absolutely agree. My listing was deactivated because a guest found a Red Rider BB gun in the back of a closet. My ranch in Texas had been booked all summer until the last guest reported, documented and complained. They told me that despite my success since 2015, happily hosting over 150 guests, our relationship was immediately and permanently severed. Their “policy” is that imitation weapons are treated the same as real weapons, it wasn’t secured and I hadn’t had a discussion with the guest about it. I explained that it was a toy and I had removed it but it didn’t matter.

  17. Airbnb’s customer ‘service’ is horrendous. Like nails on a chalk board dealing with them. I miss the days when they actually helped hosts and used people who actually understand the language they’re dealing – not just speak the language.

  18. I’m in the same situation right now. I booked 3 nights on Airbnb and canceled it the next day within 48 hours. They still charged me half price of 3 nights. And charged me 3 times. Get hang up on now. Still didn’t get my refund back. Should I call my bank? How can I suppose to do?

  19. I am trying to receive an individual credit to my Airbnb account after our host canceled our reservation an hour before we landed in Chicago. We were a group of 6 in our party and 3 of us including myself have been contacting Airbnb complaining about our experience. The second place we found was not close and smaller than we wanted and we still had to pay an additional $46.52 per person. After 2 hours of trying to check in we had to move units since there weren’t any keys for us and the lockbox number was incorrect. The gave a $200 credit to one of the guest after she complained and now the offered $200 to the main guest who arranged it. They are telling me I am not owed anything and are willing to give me $50 and that is the best they can do. The $200 they give one of the guests was incorrect by the case manager. I continue getting the run around from customer service and they tried banning me on Twitter. I am beyond frustrated and annoyed but I refuse to settle for $50. This was a horrible experience and 2 case managers I had are useless and rude.

  20. I’m a host and I use Airbnb when I travel

    I have until recently had good reviews Then I had the guest from hell who wrote me a bad review and asked for money back AFTER he left And then he harassed my by phone The whole way it was handled was totally unfair I am sorry I didn’t save the text messages on my phone

    Now I am in another situation with a guest who just informed me that another man not verified with my coming and I getting a really bad feeling Of course if I cancel this guest I will be penalized

  21. Reposting a post I did on a social networking site:
    Experiencing the customer hell that is @airbnb is giving me a sneak peak of what I think are deep rooted problems at the company.
    – Common sense is not used at all; often you will hear that is the policy. This is from a company existed by violating every city rule/ordinance.
    – Your safety will be taken into consideration when you ask for assistance. It is not of paramount importance.
    – Women have to be strong in advocating for their safety concerns. Two male employees of @airbnb questioning my statement that I no longer felt safe staying with the host. In both situations I had to ask to speak to someone else. They made me feel it wasn’t a safe place to address my problems.
    – When I told the male host I no longer felt safe staying at his property. I was just told to go to @airbnb. He was firm on his strict cancelation policy.
    – @airbnb expects first time users to be familiar with all the terminology and processes. If you make a mistake, well too bad.
    – When @airbnb calls, caller ID shows it’s from Cambodia which at first I thought was one of those phone scams.
    – It takes up to 48 hrs to get to a supervisor. Their supervisors seem very busy putting out other fires.
    – Waiting for a female supervisor even takes longer.
    – Be ready to be a hot potato as you are passed around like one.

  22. Here is a problem I ran into: booked a reservation a full yr in advance, then when time came for Airbnb to charge my credit card for balance 2 wks before trip I realized card they had on file was no longer valid. Called them to give new card. Was told I could only add new payment method by logging onto my acct. Problem: I apparently booked trip with old, rarely used email and now couldnt recall email address…..my fault, I agree. But customer service person would provide no help with me, told me if card they had on file was invalid my booking would be canceled and there was no way I could give them new credit card without knowing the email address. Long story short…..come up with the right email address or my trip is canceled. She did tell me she would forward problem to the support team and they would be in touch via email. You got it…..the email I can’t remember, so how could I see their response? Yes, I caused the problem by forgetting the email address, but obviously there has to be a solution other than simply canceling my booking. Fortunately, after much digging I found the email address I used, but until I came up with it Airbnb customer service was beyond useless.

  23. Left us in a cockroach infested apartment. Didn’t answer help log. Only answered when I tweeted. Answered once then stopped replying. Answered after another tweet as we abandoned our place then – surprise – dropped contact.
    Avoid

  24. I believe that AirBNB should respond to reviews and complaints that bring to their attention shortcomings in listings.
    Hosts should be updated regularly on standards in the Hospitality Industry.
    In our situation we booked a boat in Hawaii knowing that the bathroom was offsite. We found the public men’s room had a flooded floor, no door on the toilet stall or tp. The wonen’s room had a broken door to toilet stall and no tp. The boat itself was dirty and smelled. The bed only fit one normal size adult.
    We stayed one night.
    This is all acceptable with AirBNB. They do not have a functioning customer relations system. I get that they represent the Customer & Host, but there is no recourse when a listing is substandard.
    The two reps I tried to work with were dismissive and closed the tickets before resolution of the issue.
    Under Airbnb’s own policy of Trust & Safety, “ Hosts should not direct guests to use public bathrooms.”
    So far, I have gotten nowhere with them.

  25. I arrived home from a trip to find that the guest in my house had had up to 5 extra people at different times staying in my house over his 37day booking- my first morning back there was a strange Italian man on my sofa and another man in the guests room with him who told me to fuck off when I asked him to leave.
    The house was a mess and his room left in a disgusting state.A Bluetooth speaker was stolen.He did not leave his key so I had to get the locks changed
    Airbnb have pushed me from pillar to post for nearly a month in trying to resolve this case and get compensation for the extra guests during this guests month long stay in my home.
    I have explained my story over 10times on the phone – I have been referred to 4 different agents in the Trust and safety dept who repeatedly ignore my issue and close the case when it is not resolved.I have sent Over 30 emails and they will not call me back.I have had the phone hung up on me on more than one occasion.
    Airbnb customer service is a joke!

  26. The apartment we rented was not owned or rented by the host who listed it on the site. Someone else was occupying it. While I had no issues with the AirBnB agent who was forthcoming and supportive it took us nearly two hours to get someone on the phone or chat. All three travelers were trying to contact them by phone and chat. Every time the system or someone(?) hung up after 40 to 60 minutes of listening to that awful music. Basically if you have a problem you are on your own.

  27. Today was my first experience with Airbnb. After creating an account due to technological issues I could not upload a photo for verification after multiple attempts so I called their customer service. From the get go it was obvious the woman I was speaking to didn’t want to help. She kept talking while I was trying to talk and seemed to be in a hurry. Finally I got frustrated and made the comment that the process just shouldn’t be this hard. To my absolute shock she just hung up! I figured it out myself and finished and made our reservation. I feel good about the hosts from their messages and am confident in the property as we know the general area but not sure we will do this again. Customer Service is everything to me.

  28. We checked into our second place in southern Portugal three days ago. Our first experience was fantastic: the host was super communicative, and everything we were promised was in the apartment. However, when we moved to another apartment in a different town, everything changed. The host didn’t contact us on the day we were moving to let us know how to get into the apartment. We sent messages and were waiting and waiting, and then were finally contacted only minutes before we were arriving.

    Then when we got in, the place was freezing, despite “heating” being listed as one of the amenities. We couldn’t get the radiators to work and wrote to the host to ask how to turn them on, and we simply got a “Sorry, the radiators don’t work” reply. Then later, we discovered that another listed amenity, the TV, wasn’t working as well. We wrote to the hosts, and this time they didn’t reply at all.

    So yesterday morning, we contacted Airbnb support and were told by some guy with an Indian name (meaning that the call was clearly outsourced) that our case would be handled “soon.” Well, we got no reply all day, and so last night before bed, I wrote again, explained the situation again and asked if they could clarify what they meant by “soon.” And to my surprise, I woke up this morning to find that my case had been closed. I wrote again, and this time, they didn’t even bother to reply.

    Anyway, I’d heard about things like this before on Airbnb, but this is our first time to experience them. It has made me not want to use their site anymore. Yes, hotels are more expensive, but at least you get someone who actually answers you when what was advertised is not provided.

  29. I set up a listing account with these jokers 5 weeks ago and jumped through all of the loops…invested about 4 hours uploading pictures, details, captions. My bank account was confirmed and told my property was online. No. It still isnt. I’ve been told there is a technical glitch and after calling each week, they put me on escalated priority. WOW! Then the next two weeks that I called I was also told the same crap.

    FUAirbnb. You suck.

  30. Terrible customer service. Essentially if there is any problem, this is between you and the host. If you complain, they will give you canned responce. Don’t expect any real help. I had absolutely horrible experience with the host who refused to do basic repairs to uninhabitable property. My only recourse was a negative review I left. Airbnb refused to do absolutely anything. Never again. There are much better options: Homeaway and Tripadvisor. They also have better designed websites and better filters.

  31. I am trying to find an email address for the CEO. I thought I saw it somewhere here but cannot seem to locate it now.

    I recently booked three separate bookings in Italy for next May. Upon reviewing my receipt (I did not pay in full) I noticed that the rate quoted on the hosts availability calendar was not the rate I was being charged. All prices quoted were in CAD and any extra guest charges were included where applicable. However, these discrepancies add up to a difference of $50 that I believe I was overcharged. Not a huge amount, but if this is a common occurrence, Airbnb has to do a better job of being transparent and upfront to their customers.

    After a few unsuccessful attempts at dealing with their CS, I feel compelled to take this all the way to the top as they owe their customers an explanation.

    The explanation I got from the CS department was so poorly communicated that it was evident they didn’t have a clue what they are talking about.

    If Airbnb are overcharging everyone like me, that is a substantial amount of $$ they are making while not being transparent.

    I also question how they calculate some of their service fees as some are exorbitant while others are reasonable.

    Has anyone else had this experience?

  32. Host cancelled on me [thankfully I got a full refund]. I booked 6 months in advance for what I guess is a ‘spring break’ time period. She tried to double the rate 3 weeks later because she had not reviewed the booking dates. I cited the Terms and Conditions that she could not raise the rate so she kept the booked rate. 3 MONTHS later she outright cancelled the booking and lied about why. Every attempt for Airbnb to follow their own T&C or reprimand the host in any way has been ignored. Every complaint I’ve filed has been ignored. I would rather just stay at a hotel. Disgusted with this ‘up and coming service’.

  33. I booked a room in Bergen Norway on 12/27 2018 and paid partial, This morning 0n 1/25/2019 got a text from airbnb that the host cancelled me out. airbnb said i would get a email telling me the reasons. Of course by the reviews dont expect to hear from them

  34. This is like you are writing the experience I had couple of days ago. They are so confused and lost themselves. On chat they take 15-20 mins between messages. On the call this girl was just going on about what she thinks could be the issue and not letting me talk in between. I had to interrupt her to make her stop. Really pathetic customer support.

  35. Idk why there are only negative reviews. But I will post a positive one since apparently I’m the only person that has one. Gonna keep it short and sweet. My card was cancelled, bc of fraud, a few days before the second half of my reservation was charged by Airbnb through paypal, so their attempt to charge my card was denied. I worried my reservation would be cancelled so I called them and a very polite and friendly representative calmed my fears and said it was no problem to give me some time to sort out my card issues with PayPal. She was very understanding. She also gave me good advice on the fact that I did the right thing to call them and to notify my host through the app so they have it on record that I’m being proactive and will pay asap. She said as long as I kept Airbnb and the host up to date and kept in touch, everything would be fine! My panic was gone and I felt very supported as I would’ve had no place to live. So thank you thank you!

  36. I empathize…

    I also hear a whole bunch of whiners who had mommy and daddy take care of everything, and don’t have a clue how to resolve — prosecute — a dispute in USA.

    AirBnB terms allow suits in small claims court. USA is a deterrant based society. Only way to effect change is with punishment. Enough small claims suits will have an impact, since most states prohibit an attorney [make sure to strenously object and cite the applicable statute — judges DO NOT know the law, but are just lawyers who failed in private practice].

    You can also file for arbitration in the county of your residence. This is actually more expensive for AirBnB to defend, than small claims court — particularly since the ABA rules allow appeal to regular courts, and you can keep AirBnB spending money on attorneys for many years.

    With regard to ADA claims… that pertains to substantive due process rights which cannot be waived as a matter of public policy. That also means one cannot waive their right to ADA remedy in a federal court, by jury trial.

    So — either stop whining and actually do something about it; or shut up, and accept your error motivated by greed of trying to save a buck, and suffer your loss in the competition with honor and personal responsibility – caveat emptor.

  37. Terrible customer service from Airbnb.
    Beware, if your host defrauded you, you are on your own. I rented uninhabitable apartment. There was a smoke detector beeping incessantly. Host refused to do anything. Airbnb did nothing either.
    Never again from Airbnb!

  38. Wow!! Now I am a nervous wreck because my family & I have a huge trip planned this Summer in California, and I have just now seen all of these bad BAD reviews!!! Already paid first half. Worried now that our California Family Road Trip might be more of an adventure then I want it to be!!!!

  39. Read the comments left from previous guests. Any concerns you may have, contact the owner/host directly through the website. You may even ask for updated photos. I am sure they would oblige to keep you feeling secure about your upcoming trip. Again, you may want to make reservations with Super Hosts who must meet particular requirements in order to obtain and maintain, that status. I hope you and your family have a wonderful trip!

  40. Try Airbnb customer HELP ! “No Intelligent Life Out there.”

    All I want to do s pay my bill. Not possible, it has to be done automatically.

    They need an office in Seattle where they actually try to help.

  41. I am quite fed up about their Extenuation Circumstances’policy and their customer service agent’s work performance. My guest wanted to cancel her reservation last weekend due to Euro Star stopped operating. However, I contacted Airbnb customer service and offered to give 50% refund to guest. Anyway , the customer service just deducted my payment and gave 100% full refund to guest and refer about their “Extenuation Circumstances’policy , which I think it’s totally unfair with the host at all.I understand this circumstance we can’t control it , but my guest can make a claim and complaint to EuroStar train for this incident . I tried to be fair for both side and offered 50% . In addition, my guest can get all compensate expenses from her travelling because this incident was caused by Euro Star ,but I have to pay full refund to her ?!?! When she cancelled her reservation last weekend because of this incident , how could I find any guest to replace her reservation ?!?! I have lost an income last weekend as well. Anyway, when I contacted a customer service agent , Lasma, who dealt with my case. All she could do only referring about Airbnb ‘s Extenuatin Circumstance ‘policies . As their policies ,they only protect the guest’s benefits not the host at all. Their Customer Agents can only refer the policies, but they fail to solve the problem based on the situation!!! I don’t think they deserve a booking fee from hosts and guests because they only provide a poor service to us. two thumps down !!!!

  42. I am an Airbnb Super-host but it has nothing to do with them. Their website doesn’t work with Explorer, something they don’t tell you so you just sit there trying to get things to work with no success. So Airbnb is the one app that I have to accommodate by using Chrome. I try to rent whole weeks at a time, but the potential renters don’t see the weekly discount until or unless they rent for 7 nights. Oh! Did I say 7 nights? No, No, No! In Airbnb, you click on the seven NIGHTS that you want and an eighth day shows up that you have click on because you are no longer talking about NIGHTS you are staying, but what day you are checking out. What poor person who has had Airbnb experience wants to click on an extra day that you are not sure whether or not those greedy smegheads are going to lock you into paying for? Meanwhile,
    I’m not getting my whole week rentals and I’m an idiot for not understanding that seven days is not seven nights….

  43. We had the worst experience on our trip to Madrid and Airbnb always took the host’s side and did not help us at all. After many emails and endless phone calls we ended up having to look for another place to stay on our own. And to make things even worst, we wrote a review explaining in detail what happened and the host replied calling us liars. Airbnb should not allow this. SO OUR ADVISE IS ….STAY AWAY FROM AIRBNB !!!!

  44. I used Airbnb thousands of times – never big problem till now.
    My boyfriend booked accommodation for 1900 pounds for 4 months. After 2 month host told him he is not owner of the plat and the owner come tomorrow for keys – he would cancel the reservation. Airbnb called him (boyfriend) if he agree to end the reservation because host cancel his reservation – he said yes. He found new accommodation through airbnb and waited for refund.
    He checked his profile with completely changed reservation – the reservation was only for 2 months and the price is doubled. He contacted support – they told him that his host didn´t cancel reservation, because he wanted to avoid fine so he made change in reservation. Tomorrow he should be charged one payment 450 pounds which he tried to avoid – total for not even 2 months accommodation 1500 pounds. Airbnb instead of solving this insist that price is doubled – means 30 pound for night instead of 15 – because he stayed only two months, but it was not his choice. We can´t block the payment through bank. I think it is insane after accommodation – reservation and agreed price, charged credit card because they decided they want higher price for his stay.

    Can you help or advice something?

  45. I open an account we Airbnb Five days ago he had make a reservation today I received a email saying the my reservation He was cancel and My account he was no longer active they didn’t explain why I called three times and they gave me the wrong wrong now I have to leave in five day with my family and I don’t have a place Yet I don’t understand what are they doing nobody seems to give me a Reason what happened with my account

    1. Hey Pedro,
      I’m experiencing the exact same problem. I didn’t even get an email and my calls are simply being hung up. I’m locked out of my profile and it worries me that I have given them my ID photo, my phone number, my email address and on top of that they know my credit card details. I have no authority to turn to, no case number to begin with. Just a page telling me they are going to get back to me in 24 hours (that’s been there for 3 days now), plus some very generic answers I get when I contact them on facebook messenger.
      I hope your problem will resolve soon, as you are traveling soon. I have the option to look for accommodation on other sites, but I’m still stunned that with all that personal data I have given them I can’t even browse. It’s clearly a costumer service issue, but seriously how can this happen and no authority to check it out?!
      Could you please let us know how and when you issue is resolved?
      Thanks, and good luck!

  46. My first day in Italy. My Superhost dropped me a train station to get fast train to Pompeii and said he would send me directions to return to his home. He helped me book my ticket with my eurail pass so knew my return time. He sent train and the bus information but NEVER mentioned what stop to get off at. One hour and a half later, now after 11pm at night, I sent another txt letting him know I was stranded and 35 minutes later he responded with his address that I already had from my pre approved booking. I finally found my way after almost 2 hours, 2 buses and walking around with very few people to help at that late hour at night. Never saw my Superhost, “Your room in Ostiense” again until the day of my departure. I stayed there 5 nights and six days. The next day at the Metro, the staff informed me the bus he had recommended was NOT the most direct route to get to his home. Where he suggested I catch the bus was a poorly lit area with vandalized cars and construction area about a 5 minutes walk from the train station he recommended. They advised me to get off ONE more stop, the last stop on the line, where there was a bus terminal, well lit and had both police and Army soldiers present. The bus the Metro staff suggested placed me, right around the corner, approximately a 10 minute walk from his home. The bus stop my Superhost recommended was on the main road with many different streets to navigate and approximately a 20 minute walk to his home. After two weeks of email Brian Chesky and then Chip Conley with NO reply. I filed a Resolution Case and Senior Escalation Matthew suggested ” Superhost not required to help you navigate the city.” Also he replied, ” Superhost has 24h to reply to a host.” So let me get this straight, giving precise and complete directions to get back to a host home on the first day of your stay in a foreign country is “navigating the city.” Secondly being stranded at night, your first day in a foreign country he is suggesting ” wait 24h for your host to contact you?” Folks as I read CEO Brian Chesky, Billionaire platform is that he doesn’t care about guests ONLY hosts. Obviously his staff are trained to do the same. Tried calling and spoke to 3 staff and told my story three times until I requested manager and refused to tell it again. Senior Escalation Supervisor concluded “It seems like your Superhost tried to help.” He signed off and closed my case. Airbnb can go to hell and burn there. Karma is a sure thing. Avoid Airbnb at ALL costs!!! Decrease guests booking means more hosts without reservations and hopefully then Airbnb will change their bottomline.

  47. Worst traveling experience of our lives. Of course the pictures provided on the Airbnb posting are far from the truth. The apartment in midtown new york seemed like a perfect fit for us for four days. The truth is that this place was not fit for humans or animals. The whole entire studio had the worse smell from the moment you opened the door. The bathroom had mold everywhere. I have seen cleaner bathrooms in gas stations. The kitchen did not work so in its place the host put a disgusting hot plate full of rodent droppings. Everything you could possible think of that was bad this studio had it. The host of course told us that we wanted a 5 star hotel and pay 2 dollars. That the building was old. The building being old was not the problem. Most buidlings in New York are old. It was the fact that we were seriously afraid of getting sick from the mold that was everywhere. Airbnb of course sided with the host. Even though we provided plenty of pictures. We will never use Airbnb again. Lesson learned. This four day trip in accomodations only ended costing us over $3000

  48. I have never had a problem with Air B&B until today. I booked a place in Madison Park last night and reservation today was still pending; tried several times to contact host “Flatiron” and never received a reply. So I called Air B&B customer service for help; she told me the problem was with PayPal and said she would send me a link to change method of payment. Well, somehow, she cancelled my reservation and I could not rebook as the dates were blocked. Still have not heard back from host! And customer service rep also emailed and tried to call host with no response. The rep was a little goofy and did not take accountability for her mistake!

  49. “Their policies seem to be set up to make them money, and it may be unfairly at your expense.”

    I can’t begin to tell you how true this statement is!! I have been an Airbnb host for almost 5 years and their metrics and security settings have changed to make sure you are badgered into signing up for Instant Book. I refuse to do Instant Book because I like to have an online conversation with potential renters to find out a little more about them and determine if they will be good guests or if there could be any problems or misunderstandings.

    For example, one recent potential guest booked for 4 guests and I was about to approve the request when I found out that an additional 3 children would also be staying. We charge $50/day for additional guests beyond 4. We went back and forth trying to negotiate an additional amount. I offered a $50/day charge for all three children and they finally came back with a one-time $50 charge. I told them the $50/day was my final offer. Nothing. Then the reservation request expired, and Airbnb penalized us for not accepting a threshold percentage of reservations. Even though this guest would not have complied with our requirements.

    The other change Airbnb has made is not allowing for the option of guest picture ID verification, UNLESS you are in the Instant Book program. We have always required picture ID verification (and have done it ourselves as guests), to make sure we know who we are really renting to. I’ve recently gotten quite a few potential guests who are not verified (some of whom seemed fairly sketchy) and we have asked them to verify before the reservation can be confirmed. I have to explain the entire process to them and often the potential guest goes silent and disappears. I spoke to an Airbnb representative and her brilliant answer was, “well, you’ll just have to keep explaining the process to your guests because that option is only required if the host is signed up for Instant Book.” I told her that I believed that Airbnb needs to put security safeguards back in place for all its subscribers because of recent publicized dangerous incidents with services like Airbnb and Uber. Some of the people using these services have encountered shady people who are not who they say they are. The rep suggested I submit feedback to Airbnb online. I did that. It was acknowledged and then NOTHING changed.

    The real problem here is that safety has become an option only for people who guarantee quick profits for Airbnb. They should be protecting all their guests and hosts. I like the extra income, but I am leaning toward unlisting my guest home because of Airbnb’s refusal to address problems with security along with their ever changing metrics that penalize hosts (and guests!) for making sure rules are adhered to. I wish they would listen to feedback from their members.
    Marianne

  50. I recently book a Trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica May 7,2019… $982.23 was taken from my account. I paid through PayPal which I always use for security. I received a transaction receipt. Due to my first time booking through Airbnb I figured I’d receive my reservation dates later! Nope I never received the reservation I booked! Only money taken from my Account! I disputed the charges with my bank I was certain I’d be reimbursed. Wrong again! PayPal sent the money to Airbnb and Airbnb said they can’t be sure I am who I say I am! Even after emailing the receipt which has my email address in it. They’re saying the payment didn’t come from my email address?! I feel abused and robbed unjust! Why would you not refund the money to the sender if there’s no Reservation! Bad business! Be very careful with this online stuff .. Way too much blame shifting!

  51. NIGHTMARE !!! We own two properties on Airbnb . We cannot even be found on the map . Sometimes we can if you enlarge it sooooo much that eventually we pop up .We have complained now for a year . No change . No help given .
    Why can’t they DO SOMETHING .We can’t be found at all . We have people too coming in through word of mouth wanting to book our place and they can’t find us no matter how we try to explain what to do on line . It’s SO stressfull and it’s our business and we are loosing money every day on two beautiful properties that should be fully booked . Grrrrrrrrrrr.
    We have complained enlessly and nothing has been changed or done . We just get the same answers . It’s the algorithms …. WELL THAT’S NOT BLOODY GOOD ENOUGH .
    All other properties in Old Windsor Berks are there to be seen ….just not ours .
    And now …no one on Airbnb customer service (NO customer service) will answer our call . It’s enough to give you a heart attack .
    SOMEONE HEEEEELP US PLEASE

  52. Dear Airbnb customer help,

    I am writing this massage with a lot of confusion and disappointing about your company that we used to trust for a long time, hoping that this massage find us a solution

    We use Airbnb for the last 9 trips with good reputation for the hosts and us. However, this time we faced a sever issue that cause stress for us and our three small kids by being out in the middle of cold raining night looking for a place to stay after a long trip by car from Denmark to Slovakia. In addition, a £900 taking from us that ruined our accommodation budget.

    Our story started by checking in 21/05 around 8 pm in the Durgalova 7, Bratislava (host’s name : Vlado). We found the location is unsafe and the flat furniture is very old in a degree that is not usable any more. We saw that once we entered the apartment and we tried to accept it. However, 1 hr later we placed the kids on one of the beds which collapsed and 4 metal steaks get out from it. Thanks god nothing happened to our kids. We wanted to be honest with the owner so we contacted him and informed him about the quality of the furniture and what he asked for (€110) is not what his apartment deserved. We also informed him that we will stay this night but we will contact the company to change our booking by tomorrow. He told us we have leave my flat immediately since the company did not give him the money yet and refuse to stay the night in. We contacted the company around 9:30 and documented the bed. The company informed us that they will inactivate the booking and they will contact us for another accommodation, just we need to wait for a call. We waited until 11 pm then we called back. They informed us that the case is still under study but the booking is inactive and not to worry they will find us a place to spend the night and the manager of our case will contact us for another accommodation. We could not wait more because our kids need to get their sleep so we get out the apartment and spend 2 hr looking for a place to spend the night until the company gets back to us.

    After several calling, the company informed us that the host will return our many back but we will pay the night that we did not even spend in and we accept that. We even did not ask for 300 euro that we spend for that night. However, after our evaluation for the apartment ( which was bad), the company informed us that the host changed his mind and refused to give us back our money and they will give us 50% only. We contacted the company in UK and informed us that the inactivation is not good because it will lead to lose 50% of the payment. But based on our situation and the host behavior, it is our right to get our money back. The solution was we need to wait 24 hr more to have a call which is today. Then we get message for manger that our case is closed and we will not get anything more.

    We really appreciate your cooperation in saving our trip.

  53. It is sad that Airbnb and some many others have chosen to lessen the customer experience by farming out support to 3rd world countries in order to fatten the bottom line. I hope it has the opposite effect.

    As a property owner, I can attest to the fact that Airbnb support sucks for us too. The only suggestion I have is to look for contact info for the owner BEFORE you book. If possible, book from the owner rather than a property manager.

    Since Expedia’s acquisition of VRBO/HomeAway, I have had the phone answered more and more by people in India rather than their base in Austin, Texas. They are better than the folks Airbnb hired but are still difficult to understand and are undertrained.

    I hope this problem corrects itself as user migrate to platforms or channels with better support.

  54. I had to rest my password (not sure why!). I need to contact the host. I’ve been waiting 15 min for the code since they didn’t recognize my phone. Ridiculous! Slowest response for password reset ever.

    1. Maybe you should actually fucking do what the thing tells you to do. Its a safety measure Jesus Christ you absolute idiot.

      1. Greg, you’re not Arse and either work for Airbnb or are some profiting Superhost. After using Airbnb successfully for a few years, I’m encountering my 1st MAJOR problem w a Discriminating host & seeing Airbnb fail in handling this situation despite making all sorts of promises. The fact of your bullying, attacking others on here and Denial of criticism to what are OBVIOUSLY major Enframing Technology and Societal problems means people like YOU only benefit from this becoming Narcissistical Gig Economy operations, fleecing innocent and well-meaning travelers (and in my case, tenants). Shameless legal Criminals.

  55. My account hacked and all my bookings cancelled, new bookings made and finally account closed by the hacker.
    In such a serious situation I found:-
    Extremely difficult to contact them.
    After connecting on phone and replying to their questions, no advise on when the issue will be resolved- less how it would be.
    For the cancelled bookings by the hacker, refund received is only 50% to what should be as per the policy even under normal cancellations by me.
    No help so far on bookings cancelled to get new ones. On the contrary, I had to contact the hosts which fortunately I could and re-book at current higher price.
    So to sum up: If things go right it is all very good, but any such big issues, do not expect help from them at all.

  56. Air bnb is total waist of time I’m a host and what they did not me was awfull
    Firstly they closed my account for no reason gave all my bookings there money back
    Had customer s phoning asking what’s going on
    When I phoned they asked me for account details but they couldn’t find an account yet they have been sending me money via PayPal
    No waist of time and effort the only thing I can do now is take them to court for loss of earning

  57. What is baffling to me is how they use “canned” language in the most inappropriate ways—for instance, going into great detail over how saddened they are, and sympathize with your plight, however (insert refusal to help in any way whatsoever here), then signing it:
    “Warmly,
    Sara”

    It’s treacly language combined with heartless actions, consistently. Why would that be? Is it some sort of algorytm?

  58. we travelled from spain to brighton to a so called little gem !!! the mattress was on the floor, the sink was stained. the shower was mouldy & there was ongoing works in the building, I asked for my money back as had to stay elswhere.
    I complained to air b&b with evidence of not as advertised & they refused to pay too …im outraged

  59. Hello – I came across this page searching for help in dealing with Airbnb.
    Here is our story:
    We booked months in advance a well-researched apartment in San Sebastian, Spain. Reviews were good, the host is a super host and the pictures looked clean, pretty and light-filled with a generous and lovely terrace which was one of the main reasons we rented this apartment as we like to enjoy our morning coffee and sundowner glass of wine on a terrace in the sunshine.
    We arrived and the host let us in – the apartment was old, dingy, smelly, complete with dirty footprints on the wall next to the bed. The second bedroom had only a door that leads to a dirty lightwell terrace with the sewer line running down the wall, an old dirty mop and bucket and an old washing machine (the one the advertise in the listing) as well as someone’s clothes hanging on the lines, the floors were filthy and I would never leave that door open at night as my children slept.
    The main terrace (one of the main reasons we rented) was a disaster and nothing like the pictures. No cushions on the furniture, another dirty mop, and bucket as well as peeling paint and all around you peoples clothes hanging, you look down on roach invested outdoor kitchen of two restaurants with trash cans and bottles everywhere, grease traps overflowing. It was awful. We spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do knowing we could not stay there. We messaged the host and told him we would not be staying, we called airbnb and they told us that someone would get back to us in a couple of hours to help us, of course, that never happened. Airbnb was NOT available to help us re-book. We left and spent the next 4 hours with our 2 children securing another apartment in San Sebastian. The host told us if he re-rents he will provide a refund for those nights. We cancelled the listing and the next day the apartment showed unavailable for the days we had booked, so either he re-rented or simply marked it unavailable for those days. He is refusing any refund. We thought we were being fair in even offering to pay for one night, even though we were only in the apartment for 30 minuted. We paid over $1,600 for 4 nights in the apartment which we did not stay in. I am in contact with Airbnb in Spain and have zero resolution. I have only been told that the host is not agreeing to any refund and that they are escalating and to please be patient. We have not received or been offered one penny as of today.
    I think that today we will file a complaint with our CC. I think that I am getting the runaround from Airbnb as every time they say they will get back to me they never do until I reply asking for a resolution, then their reply is to please wait. I have supplied Airbnb with pictures within 10 minuted of being in the apartment. They have their evidence.
    What blows me away is that this is a super host with a ton of 4 and 5-star reviews.
    Thoughts on how to proceed? Thanks!

  60. NEVER BOOK VIA AIRBNB!
    I booked a 10 person appartment in Barcelona this May on AirBnB. The name was ^Large luxery in Rambla Catalunya^. It was supposed to be in the centre of the City. We payed for the appartment in May.

    Me and my friends went there on Thursday, the 27th June. When we arrived at the adress there was no appartment like that. We tried to open the link of our appartment and there came another one out, the one which was actually located at the adress.

    This is the adress where it was suppose to be:

    Rambla de Catalunya, 32, 08007 Barcelona, Spain

    We also tried to call the host of the appartment, which was suppose to be a women called Belén Y Pedro but no one answered.

    There was a cleaner in the actual appartment that we found. She couldn‘t speak English, so she called her boss, which told us that there has been a Hacker in the AirBnB system and the appartment that we have booked does not exist. She told me to call AirBnB. We did that, they told us that we should wait for an answer but no one really helped us.

    We were six girls in Barcelona, some of them weren’t even 18, that did not know what to do after we found out that our appartment did not exist. We were forced to look for an alternative and we had to stay those four nights in a really small Hostel, which was hard to find, and we had to pay a lot of money for that.

    We couldn’t know about this Hacker when we booked the holiday, so we expect to get our money back. The total amount that we payed was 1.448,00 Euro. But after Long time trying to contact AirBnB and not getting a decent answer, just getting transferred all the time to “other Departments” we don’t think that’s gonna happen anymore

    NEVER BOOK VIA AIRBNB!

    1. Airbnb must have been hit by a massive hack. I am getting Airbnb verification text messages every few hours and Airbnb will not let me put through a complaint. I am very concerned about my data but they don’t give a rats.

    2. I hope that many people will read your post and take your advice and not use AIRBNB.

      I can’t imagine the potential danger that young women could be placed due to the incompetency of AIRBNB.

  61. I booked a room for a work trip using the company credit card. The booking was successful that afternoon but the next day they sent me a text saying that my booking was incomplete until I sent them my photo.
    When I contacted them they wanted my photo and “government ID” in order to complete my booking. I did not want to share that information with them.
    I asked them why they had debited my company credit card before my booking was complete and the only thing they could say was a refund had been ordered but would take 10 – 15 days.
    What a disfunctional and shambolic excuse for a business.
    I will never go near them again

  62. Great to find this forum. Thanks to Asher and Lyric for creating their site. My husband has just been through an appalling experience with Airbnb as a HOST (In capitals simply to make the point that both guests and hosts are customers here with regard to Airbnb and should be equally supported by that organisation in the event of a dispute). A guest stayed with my husband for one month and then after leaving made absurd accusations which have caused Airbnb to close down the listing. All of her claims were fabricated. We provided photographic evidence, we spoke to numerous representatives of the company, and yet they still chose to close us down. This was my husband’s sole source of income and until then he had had only excellent reviews. It has caused us both to feel extremely depressed. It feels like a slight on his character. The comments by the guest are libellous and yet it feels that Airbnb has not listened to a word we have said or looked at the evidence provided. No one owned our case and so we had to have multiple conversations that we never felt were heard or properly assimilated. I am disgusted by their treatment of him. I am currently preparing my home in France to open two rooms for rental and I am now wondering where I should list my property. I feel I simply cannot go via Airbnb after the experience they have put us through. Similarly my husband is now wondering where to place his two London rooms. Asher and Lyric, maybe you need to create a new platform…? I feel you have already created a place where people could hook up. I intend to not let this lie and will be pursuing Airbnb to get a more comprehensive answer as to why they have discriminated against us.

  63. brian@airbnb.com, brian.chesky@airbnb.com, aisling.hassell@airbnb.com
    1. When I found some unsafety issue, tried to contact customer service several times, but I failed that I can’t do anything except cancelling;
    2.Cancel policy is impersonal that need to charge customer 50% after 48hours no matter what reason it is, which bring $1000 lose to me. From what I will say, a.all policy is default that customer can’t do the choice;b.I canclled within one week and left 1 month ahead of the booked date. If I found something wrong from host, I think it’s possible to talk;
    3.If I paid, I need the authority of commenting the host. But no way for me to do this to let the other customers to know the truth, which means all the expense disappears.
    4.Also when I told Air b&b service, I always got the answer it’s policy. What a rude way to treat customer’s requirements!

  64. The cancellation policy has a lot of grey zone. The “Flexible: Full refund within limited period” is unclear & misleading. I’ve made a partially payment on May and the cancellation was made “2 months in advance” due to unexpected lost of the loves. Normal understanding I’ll expect to get the full refund (deducted Service fee) but what the support team told me saying that the partially payment will not be refund because I’m not paying the full amount! I was confused. Does this mean that only full payment made can get refund but but partially paid will get nothing? I’ve also contacted the host and explained to her about my situations but she refused to pay. This is really disappointed & pretty unfair to me. At least they commit 50% of the partially payment but they did nothing to me!

  65. Two separate times dealing with the airbnb customer service they turn my complaint into my fault. First time I booked an airbnb downtown Victoria. When the booking showed on my visa it was in American funds. When I looked on the airbnb profile that I booked with no where did it show or say American funds. So I put inquired through customer service. They said it was because I had USD set on my profile. So I checked and it was set on CAD funds. I’ve never booked in the States so I’ve never had reason to change it to USD funds. When I contacted customer service again to tell them they said my issue was closed. Second time was an airbnb advertised as one bedroom with parking. It is downtown Victoria in a building where we have booked previously with parking. The parking was in the same building as the airbnb underground secured. When we booked this airbnb no where on her profile did it say that the parking was a block away in a unsecured open parking lot – downtown Victoria. The information on where the parking spot was came AFTER we booked along with how to check in. If it was stated on her profile we wouldn’t have booked with her and looked for another airbnb with secured parking. The airbnb customer service said WE should have inquired further. My husband and I have booked airbnbs in Japan, Europe, Croatia, UK and never had any issues like this.

  66. Snippets of text conversation:
    Me
    Yesterday evening, I used Airbnb’s website and created a reservation for [xxxx]. This morning, the Airbnb website says the reservation was canceled. I contacted the host (xxxx) and he said he never received the reservation request. Another page on Airbnb shows the reservation is still there. Can you help? I need xxx to receive the reservation request so he can accept it. Thanks in advance.

    Airbnb Support
    Thank you for answering my call Martin. I really do apologized for all the inconvenience you encounter on this. I am sorry, I mis informed you earlier. The reason why your reservation was cancelled is that, your verification was not complete until you uploaded that photo of you ID and it has been more than 24 hours. That is why system has automatically cancelled your reservation.
    That is also the reason why the system did not process any payment yet, since your verification was not complete yet. Now, everything’s already good on you account. You can go ahead and make another reservation now.

    Me:
    I did upload a photo of my ID!
    ..and it has not been more than 24 hours – we made the reservation and uploaded the photos around 9 PM yesterday evening

    Airbnb Support
    I understand that you have already uploaded photo of your ID. The system will automatically cancel a reservation if requirements were not complete. But no need to worry, everything is already good now. You can go ahead and can make another reservation now. Thank you.

    Me:
    Do you know why the requirements were not complete?
    (I have not done anything since I made the reservation and uploaded the photos 9 PM yesterday.)

    Airbnb Support
    I am sorry, I cannot answer you that. But for sure the system can detect or can tell if you have already completed all the requirements needed.

    Airbnb Support
    Like what I have said, the system will automatically cancel a reservation after 24 hours if not meeting all the requirements needed. The place is no longer available, might be it’s already booked by other guest. You can go ahead and look for another place if that is the case.

    Me:
    What requirements? I had met them all and 24 hour had not passed.

    Airbnb Support
    The requirements needed to have your account fully authenticated.

    Me
    Did I not do something correct?

    Airbnb Support
    You did. It is just that, you were not able to complete it on time.

    Martin
    But I did everything last night at 9 PM. I did not do anything after that.

    Airbnb Support
    Yes, correct. But it will take at least 24 hours for the system to register all your information.

    Me:
    So “system will automatically cancel a reservation after 24 hours if not meeting all the requirements needed” is not correct.
    Do I need to wait for 24 hours (i.e. about 9 PM tonight) before making a new reservation?

    Airbnb Support
    No, you can make another reservation if you wanted to. But it will still be the same, if you were not able to complete the requirements needed and 24 hours had passed still the reservation will be cancelled or retracted.

    Martin
    again, 24 hours had not passed in my first reservation.

    Airbnb Support
    Alright. The system will not automatically cancel a reservation if 24 hours has not been passed.

    Me
    So why was it canceled?

    Airbnb Support
    It was automatically cancelled because the system was not able to detect that your account was already completed prior to 24 hour time frame.

    Me:
    So I should have waited 24 hour before completing [the requirements needed] for my account?

    Airbnb Support
    No, you should have not made any reservation while you are still on the process of completing your account.
    But it is okay now, it’s already been verified. You can go ahead and make another reservation. There are still so many places that you can choose, might be you can look for another place cheaper and much nicer that.
    I believe you are just new with Airbnb, that is how the process will go. System will cancel automatically a reservation if ever there are requirements not meet.

    I had met the requirements. I uploaded by ID and a photo of me, and it said verified, and 24 hour had not passed.

    [At this point I think I will give up. The place I wanted to book is not available any more.]

  67. It’s been over a month of going around in circles. Contacted AIRBNB regarding some pricing issues; they turned on Smart Pricing without our permission and we caught them. So we asked for the difference or we would need to cancel the reservation. No reply. Called, was told they would get back to us in 24 hours. Nothing, now fast forward to 10 reps, all saying a 24 hour response time, and and a month later, still nothing. Still waiting for the resolution and money. but nothing. We are chasing after them and it has caused so much stress and affecting our health. Incompetency and unprofessionalism is what the resolution center is known for, but I had no idea it was this bad. They are just trying to tire you out and make you give up. It’s amazing how there is no one there to keep them accountable. It is an exploitive company taking advantage of both the guests and hosts. I are no longer using AIRBNB and have told our friends and family about our experience and they have stopped using them until we have a resolution. When you call in, Customer Support will apologize, create a ticket, then pass you to the Resolution Center. They “will” reply in 24 hours, but you’d be lucky if you hear anything from them. For such a large company, their system is set up so they win. They need to be held accountable. If you feel frustrated an angry, you’re not alone…

  68. Airbnb’s customer service is non-existent for hosts. I am a superhost and have been hosting for 5 years without much incident. Then recently a man in my flat threatened to break my belongings if he did not get a full refund. Understandably, i called the police and insisted that he left – Airbnb told me they couldn’t do anything as he had merely threatened to break my things, not actually break them! what?? Even more ridiculous is that Airbnb sided with this awful bully of a man and gave the criminal all his money back! They are utterly useless, despicable, and they do not give a damn about their hosts or their guests. They are nothing more than a glorified bank.

  69. I’ve had two bad experiences as a guest. My takeaway is that Airbnb is happy to take a juicy service charge per stay, but provides no support when there is a hiccup. Takes all of the upside, doesn’t take responsibility for any downsides.

    1. Host has a mentally handicapped/unstable son we are not aware of. We wake up hearing someone outside our window making serious threats to murder someone, which we assumed was some sort of drug deal gone bad.
    Text the hostess, no response. We hide in the bathroom and call the cops. Cops arrive, we come out, and apparently the son was not on his meds. Airbnb “support” is some incompetent 20 something traveling across Asia and taking calls in her downtime. Does not respect the gravity of the situation nor attempts to make it up in any way. I leave a review indicating that the host has a son who is schizophrenic just so people in the future don’t have the same scare we did, and it gets taken down by Airbnb as being “identifying” or “discriminating” information. Just doublespeak for “don’t make the rentals on our platform look bad because we want to make more money”.

    2. I rent a place day of in a downtown area. I get there and the actual location given by the host (different than in the Airbnb system) is 2 miles away in the hood. I didn’t even enter the place, and just went to a hotel. Host acted all “sorry you didn’t want to stay with us” but denied my refund request, customer “support” said there was nothing they could do despite the clear discrepancy, so I am now going through the dispute process with Airbnb, and if that doesn’t work, then via my CC company.

    I will be looking at other platforms in the future (Homeaway/VRBO, Booking, etc).

  70. As a result of reading many of the postings I doubt that I will ever use AIRBNB SCAM to reserve accommodations outside the U.S. or in a major metropolitan area. It may be fine to use in a smaller communities.

  71. I Booked A Air Bnb In June And They Canceled It Due To Their Own Reasoning they Informed Me That I would Receive a Reimbursement Within 5 Business Days …I NEVER RECEIVED it.

    We Are Now In September And I receive A Email From Air bnb Saying That They Finally will reimburse My funds 5-15 Days THEY NEVER REIMBURSED FUNDS

    I Contacted Them day and Night Just To Hear them Tell me That a They Cannot Transfer Me to A supervisor. But can transfer Me to An escalation Team Via EMAIL

    So now I’ve Had Enough And Disputed through my Bank MY Bank Now Says That There Was No error Made And I must Resolve through merchant

    Now That account Is closed And Even If They were to LIE AND Say they would Be Reimbursing It I wouldn’t See It BECAUSE that card Is No Longer Active And I No Longer Use Them

    I Will NEVER Use Airbnb again.
    They Have the Worst Customer Service And Bamboozle People Out Of Their Money.

  72. A true bad experience.
    I communicated with their customer service and shared photos on how I recieved the apartment in alanya, turkey.
    When I submitted my claim about a very dirty apartment, they came and washed dishes and refused to clean.
    In addition, owner requested extra money for cleaning.
    Furthermore, their add states that there is wifi and tv in the apartments. However, neither one worked.
    They offered me 50 dollars on my next stay without thinking to correct the problem.

  73. We were evicted from out long term airbnb because our baby woke up at 6am and cried. Our reservation included an infant but the guests in the downstairs unit complained and then cancelled. The hosts then told us we had to leave in 11 hours without ever cancelling the reservation. They later made threats to throw away our personal property and to call the police and child protective services all while the booking was still in place! airbnb customer service seemed designed to waste our time. we talked to what seemed like 30 case managers. They sent us listings which were either an hour away, had multiple 1 star reviews, or in most cases weren’t even available.

    In the end airbnb forced an alteration without our permission(yep!). This allowed the hosts to avoid the consequences of the cancellation policy which is supposed to be one of the few protections for guests. They were able to put the unit back up for listing at a higher price!

    We wrote a review, and airbnb took it down. they refused to specify why and also said it was impossible to revise to bring it back in line, robbing us of our final guest protection.

  74. Where do I begin? So I booked an entire house for the weekend. Waited to hear back from the host. When I finally did she told me that she booked fri and asked if I could come sat/sun. When I asked her if we could do sat-mon she denied my request and canceled my entire weekend. Teo daysgo by and the house is available for the weekend again. My bf books it and gets that weekend approved with the deposit taken out. She then calls my bf a few days later and asks him to cancel is reservations because she double booked. We said we could not as all parties had already taken off work and had other plans set as well. She asked if we would be interested in renting her neighbor’s house as sometimes they rent out their place. When we heard nothing back she canceled our reservations and refunded the deposit. We called Airbnb’s customer service. They had someone look into it and told us she would have a penalty for canceling on us and double booking as well as offering another home not on airbnb. They offered us 10% off our next place. This was no help at all as we had already bought tickets, planned our trip and taken off days. It’s not easy getting the same days off for several couples going. Customer service said theyd get back to us on the situation after the talked to the host. Every hotel and cabin to accommodate the people going and our needs was completely booked up for that weekend and there was nothing they would do. We called them again since we never got a call back on the situation with the host to get our reservation back. After telling them our situation and being extremely disappointed with both host and airbnb they promised us 200 off our next trip and they would put it on the account. Didnt help that situation as we had to cancel all plans but at least we felt like they really did care and we did feel like they tried to do the best they could and we were appreciative of that. We finally found a spot for the weekend that we originally wanted. We called customer service, told them about it and tried to use the 200 off since the place was more expensive than the place we originally booked. Well…….we were lied to. They said they never told theyd give us 200 off. They wouldnt even work with us on the price. They have the worst customer service and I’m appalled that they wouldnt even accommodate us in any way. The broken promises and practically calling us liar. Needless to say I will never ever use airbnb again.

  75. Because of all the nasty comments I was worried when I contacted airbnb via chat. However, I experienced nothing but cordial concern, when one person wasn’t sure of the protocol another came on line, finally calling me and walking me through the procedures I was trying to navigate. I’m not particularly quick with the computer, so needed help making changes. Jel was kind, witty, personable and generous. Maybe it is how YOU treat them that causes the problem.

    1. or, maybe their schmoozing and being so sweetie, sweetie, until they have your money in their hands and then you’ll get hit.

  76. As you are probably aware we had to cancel a booking in LA recently and I requested an explanation regarding why we charged so much money and also stated that this premises is totally miss advertised. I was informed by your team that as I did not take pictures that basically the case was closed and that was that. Well I am extremely upset and dissatisfied with this decision and would like to escalate my complaint.. we were treated as a family absolutely disgracefully by this host and air bnb. We have been a fault less customer for some time and basically in LA treated like we meant nothing. You know from our bookings that we had to evacuate one home in topanga due to fire risk with 2 small children which you can imagine was horrific and very traumatic. We then arrived at the booking in Venice beach which was as previously explained completely miss advertised and were then screamed at by the host for no valid reason then had to leave this premises as it was totally unfit for family living totally seperate units where you would have to lock your children in a room and hope they were ok for the night . And also some random man naked in a shower through a door that our children would have had access too. Only to be charged a ridiculous amount of money for not staying there and to top it all off both you and the host thought it ok to leave us with 2 small children in LA from the uk with no where that you were aware of to .stay with no money for 6 days. This whole situation was absolutely absurd and we were treated abhorrently . I demand to speak to some one both about our treatment why this listing is still on your site when previous guests have had similarly bad experience with this host and why everything I reported was just ignored and put onto me . Air bnb has a responsibility surely greater than what my family have been shown to look after the interests if its paying customers.

    Thanks for your message — Airbnb Support will reply as soon as a specialist becomes available.

    08:34

    Airbnb Support

    14:49

    Hi Justin,

    Thanks for reaching out to us regarding this issue. I’ve forwarded your inquiry to a member of my team who can better assist you. They’ll be getting in touch with you soon.

    In the meantime, please feel free to respond to this message with any further questions or concerns.

    Best regards,

    Maxim

    Airbnb Support

    15:26

    Hello Justin,

    Thank you for contacting us about your concerns. After a thorough review, we have decided to uphold our original decision to remove you from the Airbnb community. We consider this decision final.

    Best,

    Justin

    17:16

    I’m sorry you are removing me from the community ? And this is because of what exactly.

    Type a message

    Basically the above is a snap shot of what I and my family have been recently going through with air bnb . I really want to persue this issue. As I strongly feel that they cannot be allowed to treat honest hard working people in this way without question or reprisal.
    How can I continue this fight. Please help .
    Someone , anyone who can advise me.

    All the best Justin

  77. Hi Asher. Great post! Our airbnb in Paris was a disaster. I was on a bucket-list trip to Paris with my sister and sister-in-law: 3 seniors ready for a Paris experience. We didn’t know what to do with our airbnb disaster, but doing nothing was not an option. With persistence, we got a full refund from airbnb and a coupon for an upgrade to a fabulous airbnb. We had a magical week in Paris. I wrote a blog about our airbnb experience, with photos of our original airbnb disaster and our fabulous new airbnb on Avenue Foch, one of the poshest streets in the world:https://boomervoice.ca/what-if-your-airbnb-is-a-disaster/

  78. You are only citing examples of guests having a bad experience and reaching out to Airbnb resolution center. I think it would be fair to note as well that a lot of guests fabricate excuses to vacate an Airbnb they booked months in advance.

    Hosts are also subjected to a certain amount of abuse by unscrupulous guests who trash places by throwing birthday parties with sound system, overcrowding units meant for three people, stealing belongings…the list is endless..It is up to the guest to do his own research before clicking on the reserve button, Airbnb customer service has enough to deal with to also be filling the role of travel agents.
    I’ve reached out to Airbnb numerous times and they were always very helpful and kind. They try to be fair to guests and hosts at the same time. How many times did guests try to leave because the place was too small or cramped?? Many guests have unrealistic expectations forgetting they are staying in someone else’s home not a hotel!!!
    So they shouldn’t be surprised to experiment problems that tenants do and try to get a refund. The bottom line here us to remind ourselves that Airbnb is a platform advertising homes and not hotels!!
    It’s definitely a cheaper alternative to stay in an Airbnb but guests have to be constantly reminded that they won’t be getting a perfectly set up hotel room but a home with all its imperfections.
    Great article otherwise.

  79.  Early next year I will go to a festival somewhere on the other side of the world. Finding a place to sleep near the festival was not easy. Eventually I found an airbnb with a street name exactly at the right location but no house number. This host had good reviews. Some doubts about the photos that were taken outside the building as they do not match the surroundings but a beach 3-4 km away. The photo can be placed for illustration purposes. After booking in May 2019, I immediately asked the host what exactly the address is and whether the photos are correct. I let it go for a while and thought I’d take a look this week. No response from the host. Airbnb has charged a few hundred euros to my credit card. So I asked the host again where it is exactly, no response. The confirmation e-mail was also included and then the shock came because the address refers to a museum where you cannot spend the night at all.

    Googled around a bit and discovered that the complaints policy of airbnb is a heavy jerk. People who get another location 24 hours in advance or a cancellation from the host, resulting in stranded travelers who can only book an expensive hotel. Airbnb does not check whether the address is fake or whether the host is allowed to rent out the property. It is promised that they will do so, but not much comes of it. Had I known all this in advance, I would not have done business with Airbnb. There are really 0.0 guarantees and in many cases you lose the paid deposit. Apart from that, I do not want to end up in an unsafe neighborhood, nor do I want to leave without telling my family where I am staying.

    In the meantime I have a hotel in hand in case the whole trip fails. This hotel is located 2-3 km from the center but is better than nothing. The Airbnb customer service only responds with wait because your trip is in January. Is this actually possible? Offer a room without a clear address and a reference to a place that is not rented out. I suspect the host is fake. She has a strict cancellation policy. I will lose at least 50% of my money if I cancel myself, with the risk that a few hundred euros more will be deducted in December when I let things go. This really feels like fraud where a large company with millions invested in the Olympics leaves its customers in the cold when it comes to fraud.

    Do you have any ideas what steps I can take?

  80. I made a reservation at 10.50 pm and the rules of house allow customers to check in at 11 pm to 1pm. So, I did, when I communicated with the host she says that she was not in home and she will come back at 8 am, so I asked her to cancel the reservation which she denies, alluding Airbnb policies, so, airbnb allows this kind of policies where people
    Can be charged and don’t receive the room, that in my opinion is a felony. So, I am thinking suing Airbnb for fraud.

  81. I too have had all of these problem as a fellow traveler. Upon arrival I could instantly tell this place did not match the description. The stay was so horrible, we would wake up in the morning and open windows and door to warm up the house because the outside weather at 44°was warmer than the inside of the house. And I wasn’t only person to have problems with this host/house after digging deeper I to the subject. All responses were simple cookie cutter premade messages. Responses take take anywhere from 4 hours to 3 days. After a week I have made 0 progress with customer service.

  82. Im a property manager and a real estate agent. I just booked with Airbnb for the first time and the last time!! I was on the phone with them from 11:30 AM on my check in day until 4:30PM and called them 12 times. The calls were dropped, transferred then dropped, transferred to Columbia and Asia!! There are no US agents!! I will NEVER book a stay with them again. The owner of the property gets your money (right away) even before you stay at the property so if there is a problem FORGET getting your money back or cancelling!! You are at their mercy. I paid $400.00 for a tiny cabin in the mountains and the place was (filthy dirty) and had left over food all over the kitchen and freezer, and there wasn’t even shampoo or bath soap!! BUYER BEWARE!!! DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM!!! Big waste of my day, frustration, was verbally assaulted by the owner and a day later still waiting for the Case Manager at Airbnb to call me back because customer service can only email him because they dont know what country he is in!! LORD!!! Really????

  83. I am a host. I have so far not received a single payout from Airbnb weeks after the guests checked out. Lodged several complaints and some on the Twitter handle but all have a standard answer about how they value my patience and that I would get a call to resolve my issue. Till date my issue remains unresolved and neither have I got a call. I spent money from my pocket to host guests, guests payed to Airbnb and Airbnb keeps all money for themselves.

  84. After mire than a month getting different answers putting me off about my complain. Today I spent over an hour on the phone with them I was transferred twice and the manager just hang up on me Airbnb has the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

  85. I have been waiting 3 weeks for Airbnb to pay me AUD $1,338.33 owed to me as a host for two reservations. Airbnb has confirmed the guests have paid them but they have not paid me due to a “computer glitch”. My messages to Airbnb support get no replies, during calls to them I repeat the story over again and get told they will “investigate” and no one responds to me. I have also tried Twitter and get nothing but platitudes of them saying there is an “open case” on my account – the case is marked as closed within the app. The cherry on top is that my current guest lied to me and sublet my place to total strangers without my permission – I reported this user to Airbnb and have had no follow-up from them. I have used Airbnb since 2013 as both a guest and host with in total 47 reservations and after this horrendous customer service experience, NEVER AGAIN. This company has clearly overexpanded with all its ridiculous ‘experiences’ etc and has forgotten to look after its original customer base and revenue stream. The trust culture and sharing economy values it was founded on no longer apply. You are not too big to fail, Airbnb – word of mouth built you up and will tear you back down again. Oh yeah and fix your shoddy app full of glitches – I thought you were supposed to be a shining example of Silicon Valley disruptive tech?

  86. An Airbnb renter over New Year’s Eve damaged my hardwood floors. I called Airbnb and reported the damage. I have been waiting 9 days for claims department to contact me.
    All host using Airbnb please be aware of this. I’m beginning to wonder if their advertising of having a $1,000,000 insurance policy on each rental is a scam.

    1. Update. Airbnb claims department finally responded. I was told to send pictures and estimates for repair. Sent them in on Saturday and was notified the following Wednesday that I would be sent a payout for all damages. Sounds like claims department can use some extra help to improve response time but am satisfied with there help.

  87. If you live in the Bay Area and are a host, can you go to their office in SF and deal with them directly instead of online?

  88. I made a reservation and when I changed my email address from an old one to the new one they closed my account and said I can never get back on E air b&b ever again their security said I was using two different email addresses to scam people when was an old email address and mom has a new me email address I deleted the old email address and that’s why they said I could never get on Airbnb ever again they are a bunch of scammers

  89. I changed my email address, and changed it in my airbnb account – but NOT in my PAYOUT account email address (as I didn’t even know it existed).

    Airbnb send two payments totalling $2716 to the old email address

    I have now spoken to them 5 times, including case managers, supervisors and now the payments and payout team – which will ONLY communicate with you by email!

    They say the money was sent to the old email and that is that.

    I said, they were the last ones with my money… and if they sent it to the wrong email it would/could not be accepted – and be bounced back to them.

    They said I should call PayPal – I did, who of course said they never got the money

    Airbnb says “sorry we sent the money” now it up to me to find it.

    I replied, why me? It is not my responsibility to fix their mistake.

    5 days later, still nothing

    Been a traveller and superhost for over 3 years

  90. I had the same problem.
    Address
    2005 North Williams Avenue, Portland, OR 97227, United States
    This is the address of the apartment. Unfortunately, Airbnb compensated the full amount and paid my additional costs. I never expected this but it happened. You should call (855) 424-7262 and select 2 numbers (other options).

  91. I had the same problem.
    Address
    2005 North Williams Avenue, Portland, OR 97227, United States
    This is the address of the apartment. Fortunately, Airbnb compensated the full amount and paid my additional costs. I never expected this but it happened. You should call (855) 424-7262 and select 2 numbers (other options).

  92. Airbnb customer service is the worst! My husband and I received a $150 gift card from my son for Christmas. While trying to redeem it, two of the last numbers of the pin were accidentally scratched off. The card was valid, the account number # was valid. I was just missing the last 2 of the 12 digit pin. After almost 3 hours on the phone with customer service, escalating up the management chain, we were told we were out of luck. We sent pictures of the front and back of the gift card, clearly showing a smudge of missings numbers.
    We have spent over 5K this last year with Airbnb we were trying to spend more $, paying partially with the $150.00 gift card. They have lost my business and the business of my son and daughter-in-law over $150.00. STUPID!!!

  93. I would never use Airbnb again.They charged us over $1000 service fee for 2 months vacation rental.It was actually $1062,but we were under impression that $1000 was a security deposit which is usually standard and $62 was a finders fee which would seem appropriate.But when we asked for our security deposit back we were told much to our dismay,that $1062 was their fee since we used their website to find the place.I can’t believe that they can charge such as outrageous fees and get away with it.People should be aware of these ridiculous charges!

  94. Honestly this will get buried in what seems to have become a complaint forum. But i will rant anyway…..here is the deal: this company, a tech “unicorn” is so dismal and downright disrespectful of their bread and butter hosts I want action. I am a damn libertarian and LOVE supporting disruptive industry, but it is so horrifically bad and comical I want government investigation or class action lawsuit – FOR ALL OF US. The complaints are staggering – just read the reddit forum. In reality, I can only wish.

    In my own horror story, I have had a person squatting in my apartment for 2 months who let their CCard expire, and they owe me over $4K. After 2 cases, countless calls and emails full of canned responses it is STILL not resolved.

  95. Trying to get a full refund of a reservation that falls during this Corona virus pandemic and they are asking for government documentation on why i cannot travel. IS THIS A JOKE?
    It is for a group of 10 including elders and an infant. Why do i need to explain myself for my money back!?!??!?!

    Keep in mind, i’ve spoke to 2 reps as of now. First one never called me back and second one is asking for a government executive order document in order to process my refund. Florida has not released an executive order YET but is being asked to stay home.

    This is just ridiculous….

    1. My wife and I are going through the very same issue with them. In order to qualify for a full refund under their COVID-19 Policy, one must be able to prove two elements: ELEMENT # 1 – Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences must have been “made on or before March 14, 2020″, and ELEMENT # 2 – “….a check-in date between March 14, 2020 and May 31, 2020.” Their policy is very clear, “Reservations for stays and Airbnb Experiences made on or before March 14, 2020, with a check-in date between March 14, 2020 and May 31, 2020, may be canceled before check-in. This means that guests who cancel will receive, at their option, travel credit or a full cash refund”. Nowhere in said policy does it state that documentation of any type must be provided and yet they are asking the very same thing of us. They also maintain that since we cancelled on March 13, the COVID-19 policy does not apply to us bc it went into effect on March 14 yet there is no effective date to the policy itself nor does it say that the policy ONLY applies to cancellations made on or after March 14, 2020. Neither does it state that it does not apply to cancelations made before March 14, 2020. My advice to you is do not let go, do not give in and keep going after them using their policy as your guide and every other avenue you can think of. We have also contacted out cc company to see if they can help us. My next stop will be the BBB and the AG’s office.

      1. Airbnb, most likely purposely, makes it impossible to speak with a live person with whom one could reason things. The best we were offered was a $200 certificate that we could use for a future stay with an expiration date of Dec 31, 2020, in return for them keeping $3,400 we originally paid for our cancelled reservation. We finally prevailed by filing a claim through Amex, the cc we used to make the original reservation. When consumers attempt to resolve things with Airbnb, they are met with stonewalling, deflection and shenanigans totally lacking foundation. When the bank comes calling, then the corporation listens.

  96. Well at least I do not feel alone. I feel traumatized by my recent communications with Airbnb. Seems the only customer service available by phone is a brother /sister team that has very shoddy skills. The woman customer service agent kept calling me by an incorrect name- on two separate phone calls. And she had to use this incorrect name every other word, I had to stop her and correct her- then she continued. I stopped her again and she said that I told her I wanted to be called that name. Oh my God! Not ok! On and on and on with terrible not listening, wasting my time and simply not responding to what I was actually asking. Will never call again. Everything will be in writing. Ugh!!!

  97. Shocking service! Same here, had to cancel due to COVID mess and after numerous back and forth messages, getting CONFIRMATION that my refund has been processed, only to find out now (when i followed up) that oh no, they need to check with the host… nothing has been processed… LIES and BS! So they get to keep the service fee – by all means i get it, but really having to wait 8 weeks for my refund is absurd. Needless to say, i wont be using them, or recommending them – EVER. #kakverby

  98. My family was supposed to travel to Australia to visit me in May 2020 and it got cancelled due to COVID19. I followed the policy to request for refund and even got a written confirmation from the host that he would refund as per the policy. The host went dark after that even after several attempts to reach them.

    AirBNB ridiculously bad customer service then responded to my query saying I need to forward Government mandated document about travel restriction to get refund otherwise they won’t even contact the host. They keep saying they need the document before I can get refunded even if I have followed the policy. I tried to reach their Manager or something but it simply said “case closed because it appears you have tried to reach us previously”

    Stay away from them and spread the words, folks. These people are useless in customer service. They only value the host, not the customers

  99. I need to reset my password and have requested a reset. I get a reset code, but when I enter it, the response I get does not allow me to enter the site and I can request online info without logging in. And…am not allowed to log in using the reset code.
    For two days now I have attempted to reach the AirBNB contact line. I have waited 10-20 minutes (after hearing that there’s a wait time of 5 minutes) and have never had my call answered by a real person. I was ready to book a rental, but guess that’s not going to happen!!

  100. I had a reservation at with a host at an Air B&B I was staying with where the host threatened my life and I had to contact the police to safely remove me from his home., I was resting in my room after an emergency surgical procedure I had the week before. I had barley left my room except to use the restroom. The host Scott started sending me a series of threatening messages in which he said my life was in danger, there was paranormal activity in the house, games were being played, he would get to the bottom of this and find the perpetrators, I was in danger, all of these messages can be found in my message box. I was terrified and did not feel safe. He also told me to stay in my room, lock the door and not to come out. I immediately contacted Air B &B by message stated that I did not feel safe and showing all of his threatening messages. Air B&B did not respond to me, and by 11:00 pm the threats continued. I did not feel safe there and I was terrified. I called the police, told them the situation, and they advised me to go to the bathroom, lock the door and stay on the phone with them, until they sent officers to the scene to safely get me out of his home which I did. Officers arrived on the scene and got me out of the house. I then left the premises to stay somewhere else. Scott has continued to harness me, make false accusations and has demanded $100 saying there was a mess that was left which is not true. This man is dangerous and mentally unstable as evidenced by his threats to me, and the police. I still do not feel safe and am suffering trauma from this frightening incident. In a review by the last guest, that was later taken down by air B&B in which they suffered a similar incident and also left the premises because that guest as well did not feel safe, the guest reported as well that this host was not a safe individual, had also made false claims against, felt threatened and in danger as well, and Air B&B refunded him his money. This host has shown a repeated pattern of dangerous and disturbing behavior.

    The host has continued to harass me and make false claims against. I am terrified. The Air B&B support specialist assigned to the case is actually taking HIS side despite all of my documentation. The support specialist has been blaming me the victim.

    As a solo female traveling alone this has been the most horrific experience of my life.

    I am still terrified and I do not know what to do at all. Air B&B refuses to help me and even when I call them, they repeatedly hang up on me. I don’t know what to do and I desperately need assistance with this. Even the police said that he was mentally unstable, dangerous, and I had not been safe there.

  101. I would not recommend Airbnb to anyone, service sucks, I checked into a condo that was full of dust and dirty, I rented the place for an extended stay and paid almost $2k a month for it, owner/host acted nice and responsive but she thinks I’m picky and not a big deal that the microwave and cabinets had food stains, the carpet smells so bad, the condo has a really bad odor, a 2 star smoking hotel is better than this. Meantime Airbnb customer service has been unresponsive closing my tickets and when I open a new one they just reply by saying I already wrote about the issue and they close the ticket again. On the phone transferred multiple times, tired of this, I want to get out of here with a refund but it seems an impossible task!

  102. My wife has cousin who had an issue with a property who suppose to have women only but there was a man. It was unsafe so she had to leave and did not get her money back.
    I just had an issue making reservation for a non-existent property. I had to cancel and it is hell getting my money back. They do not respond to messages nor the 1-800 number. Apparently, they do not protect the one who makes the reservation, only the host even when they do not exist.

  103. I have had good experiences with Airbnb until Covid-19. They promised to credit me for a month long stay I had booked in Greece, but I could not find the credit on my account. Their website also put me in a customer service webpage loop. It was very frustrating. The host said the money was refunded, but there was no evidence, and no way to get ahold of AirBnB.

    So first… thanks for the number posted at top of this page. They told me it was a 90 min wait, but it turned out to be only 41 min. The rep was friendly, professional, and competent. She immediately resolved the issue.

    So besides the website-runaround, AirBnB handled this well. I am pleasantly surprised.

  104. I booked a stay a month in advance for a month, while my partner was doing a medical rotation in LA during the COVID pandemic. The night before checkin, the host requests more money. We had already paid in full to the previously agreed upon price. I called Airbnb, who then contacted the host and was informed that the host was okay to go forward with the booking without cancelling.

    The next day I message the host an hour before check in, hoping to get in early but also looking for check in details. The host informs me that the place will be ready an hour late, but if that doesnt work I am free to cancel. I told him that I did not have anywhere else to take my family in the scorching heat of the LA foothills so I would wait. He said he needed time to clean. Finally, he gets back in touch 90 minutes after our check in time and says the room is ready but gives the wrong address. We were able to find out room anyway, and are greeted by a smoky smelling room with month old expired milk in the refrigerator, old cracked eggs, open food items, and urine in the toilet! I immediately take photo and video evidence and get on the phone with airbnb customer service. 3 hours of waiting on the phone with them and they inform me that they will cancel our reservation, work to find a new place and that I need to move my family to a hotel for the night. I told them because of the heat, I won’t be leaving the hotel until they have another accommodation confirmed. 4.5 hours on the phone the next day, and I was facing check out times at the hotel but still no other confirmed place to stay. I told them I will stay another night. Still am squatting in the hotel waiting for customer service, s escalation teams have yet to contact me.

    Absolutely piss poor job of customer service.

    On top of this all, the apartment we rented is not legally allowed to be on Airbnb platform, per the lease agreement with the tenant (host of the Airbnb). The company does nothing to vet the places they list on their app, and this puts the hosts and guests alike at risk. They need to DO BETTER!!!

  105. I am in a serious situation. I am in a Descrimination, harassment and violation of my rights all documented and customer service is NOT helping at all. Tomorrow the police and lawyer’s office. I am is a psycho host home. She is completely psycho.

  106. 100% AIRBNB sucks

    They violated me for people they destroyed my place.

    Guests book for 10 pass and come in with 25

    Then airbnb deducts money from me

    They so messed up I guess

  107. I have called multiple times wrote several messages. I get the same damn response. “We have escalated your issue to are support team and they are handling the situation they well back too soon”. No ticket number given tp track who or what there doing to resolve the issue. The host became nonresponsive showing her the airbnb guidelines of there rules. My proof that I get an complete refund. it feels that im talking on death years. There times they send email stating that they help and there’s times I do not recieve anything. When requesting to speak to manager or supervisor or someone in charge. They do not have anyone to take over the call. The state they have to end the call to push through the information or request. For a 31 billion dollar company and being private there customer service far beyond low grade as you can get. And when you follow every step that they give you, your still at where you started at no where. No resolution what so ever. This be my first and last time I go through airbnb. Never again. Its not worth the time, the energy, and the effort to go through so many lope holes. Just get back what is rightfully yours. You own money …

  108. Trying to book a place for a couple of days and was again getting different prices for the same guests and dates.
    After a 15 minute call to Airbnb I am told it is because of the different cancellation policy, none or all, minus cleaning and service fees. Absolutely no mention of any cancellation policy on any of the pages (screenshots taken) Although the agent was polite there was no mention of getting this added to the website. Trading Standards is my next call.
    I was starting to think the host was fiddling the prices but no just Airbnb!
    Thanks for publishing their phone number.

  109. In the last 7-8 years, I’ve booked over 1600 nights on AirBNB. I used it while traveling around Asia to do short term rentals instead of signing local leases. I used to tell people about how good it was, but things have changed. I’ve had so many problems trying to make bookings in the last year.

    When their website messed up one of my reservations I was told I’d receive $25 compensation that would be automatically added to my next booking, and of course it wasn’t. I called to have the $25 deducted, and the guy on the phone was so rude and useless in terms of resolving the situation. I mean… in the past if there was a conflict, someone just went in and edited the reservation refunding whatever money back to my card and it was done. This guy argued with me for 30 minutes saying, “That’s not our fault. You are wrong.”

    Well, congrats. You just lost a customer that used your website to book over 75% of the year for multiple years, and still tried to use your website for other travels. All so you guys could save $25. I’ll bet your executives will agree that $25 is a lot cheaper than the thousands of dollars you’ve raked in via service fees over the years, (and for future extended travel). A pity you won’t be getting any more from me due to your horrible customer service. I’d rather go through the hassle of signing local short term leases than dealing with your useless customer support.

  110. Thank you for posting that toll free number. I have spoken to a customer service person and they said that someone would contact me. Based on what I have seen in the comments, I could be in for a long wait. Here’s our story:
    On December 1, 2019 my husband and I booked an Airbnb located near Phoenix Arizona. Our booking was for March 15 – 20, 2020. On the evening of March 13th after listening to both the Canadian government and the American government advise against any unnecessary travel, we made the difficult decision to cancel our plans. With that, my husband cancelled our flight (which we were later fully refunded by WestJet) and cancelled our booking with Airbnb.
    Our reservation meets all the criteria given for the Covid cancellation policy, yet because we cancelled hours before the policy was determined, we are being denied a refund. We were following government orders, and yet we are being penalized for acting mere hours too soon. How is this fair? We do the right thing and are denied a full refund.

    1. Cara: The details in your post above are nearly identical to what my wife and I experienced. We booked in October 2019 and canceled on March 13, 2020 for the same reasons you did. As you experienced, Airbnb refused our requests for a full refund. We finally prevailed by contesting the charge through American Express, the cc we utilized to make the original reservation. Although the charge was over 30 days, Amex still came through for us. Save yourself problems and aggravations and go straight to your cc company. Best of luck

  111. My husband is a physician and we had a 2 month stay booked in Texas (2 months out) for him work at an Urgent Care Center handling Covid Cases. The job opportunity fell through due to the rise /outbreaks in cases in Texas. I contacted the host immediately and she was able to refund $2,900 however Airbnb is holding onto $750 as they state it’s their policy and I am not within the Covid -19 full refund time frame. I am so beyond frustrated. I have disputed the charges with my credit card company; it’s pending. Does anyone have experience with the end results per the credit card company?

    I have also contacted their Twitter page and was able to get through quicker.

  112. So, i booked a place in nashville, TN, Dancing with Wolves, and holy moly, it was horrific. My host was labeled as superhost so i figured that was a positive. When i got to the building, my host instructions were that I need to leave my luggage in the lobby, find a parking place not on the premises, then come back and take my stuff up to the apartment. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving my stuff in the lobby unattended so I got my friend to sit out in my car so I wouldn’t get towed and carry four bags up an elevator by myself. There was what I believed to be rust spots in the elevator which I later determined to be blood. When I got to the seventh floor there was more blood on the outside of the elevator door and on the buttons for the elevator. I look down the hallway and there was a blood trail leading all the way to the apartment that I was staying in. At my apartment door there was a bloody handprint on the door frame and a drop of blood on the door itself. I put two and two together and figured there might be some blood on the inside the apartment. I went into the unlocked door because the key was supposed to be left on the counter for me. I’m trying to avoid the blood stains on the carpet as I’m going into the apartment and lo and behold there’s blood on the couch and before I even walked into the door there was this worst odor I’ve ever smelled. As soon as I opened the door, the odor about knocked me on my butt. I laid my belongings on the coffee table because I was worried about laying them on the floor. Trying to locate where the foul smell was and saw the apartment was not cleaned. The TV was about to fall off the entertainment center. I had just travelled 7 plus hours, I was hot, I was hungry so I decided to lock up the apartment and deal with the situation after dinner. Grab the key to lock the door and it didn’t work. No matter how I tried it it didn’t work. Reached out to my host who argued with me that the key has always worked. He continually argued with me that the key worked and I continually told him that it did not. He did say he would have someone come check it but at this point too many bad things have happened and I didn’t want to stay there. Blood is unsafe. The odor was unsafe. So I grab my belongings try to avoid the blood stains and went back downstairs. Ended up staying on my cousin’s couch in a one-bedroom apartment. I immediately tried to remedy the situation with my host who ceased speaking with me so I reached out to Airbnb. Long story short it took them about 30 days to get in touch with me and about 2 days before that I canceled the charge on my credit card. But you all know that they’re going to eat that charge becayse they’re never going to get paid from the host. Airbnb support is the most horrible customer service experience I’ve ever had. They continually argue with me basically stating that I did the wrong steps and that my situation was not extenuating. So I had to screenshot their policy and circle everywhere where it said foul odor, unsafe, key not working Etc. And I’m sure they’re still going to argue with me. Guest beware! They made money off me and so did the host and I feel like this is conspiracy to commit fraud and I don’t like that feeling at all. It appears there’s a whole bunch more victims than me. I’ve never been one to a quick and talk about suing a person but I feel like there’s a class action lawsuit that can happen no doubt

  113. Hello. I booked a place in Seattle for a month just to find out that the place is infested with a raccoons And ants . Crawling in bed all night. I called Airbnb customer service three times nobody returned the call. The fourth time The actually hanging up the phone on me. Will never never do business with them again. Just horrible

    1. I have attempted to both call Airbnb and send them messages regarding serious issues I also have with my stay, but Airbnb has ignored my requests for help to resolve these serious issues.

  114. FIRST of all we ARE NOT with airbnb we DONT rent our home out and we do NOT want to use airbnb EVER airbnb is a scammers paradise, they post up addresses and the houses are not even theirs with (no address verification) by airbnb its an absolute disgrace and to the misery of the innocent home owner and the poor people that think they are getting somewhere to stay i suggest they do more address and ownership verication and renters be aware that not all houses you are paying for are genuine and you only find out when you arrive and knock on the door. Airbnb know this is going on and are quite happy to sweep it under the carpet with automated replys and total disregard to innocent home owners who had nothing to do with airbnb until someone knocks on their door looking for the bed they booked and paid for

  115. The customer call center called me to USA from Australia number, spoke to me 90 minutes about the issue i had with their super host, and i got a bill from Sprint for $450 extra for that call. I was trying to communicate with AirBnb with that matter but they never responded

  116. Worst Customer Service Ever. No responses to phone or email inquiries. Supposed to get full refund but they are not processing correctly. I think that is all on purpose to keep your money as long as possible or forever.

  117. I have to say I am disgusted with airbnb and the host. We have never used airbnb and will NEVER again. The host, Ken- address: 7950 Mahogany Run Lane Unit #425, Naples Florida 34113 is a liar and despicable. We booked his condo for 7/12/20-7/14/20. We got there on Sunday and could not get in so Ken came and met us to help with key. After that we put our bags and groceries inside and left to go explore Naples. We returned around 9pm and then to the kids to the pool. Got back around 10:00pm and got ready for bed. Around midnight the tenants next door started partying. We could hear them through the back master bedroom. Around 2:45am they then had an altercation by our front door. We were not comfortable calling the police nor going outside as they had been drinking and smoking pot. We were the only other tenants in this condo and the only other car. At 3:00am I sent Ken an email via airbnb about everything that had been going on. I told him we would reach out to him in the morning. I called Ken around 10am on Monday am and he had called the condo association to find out about the other tenants. My husband and I decided that we did not feel safe about staying in the condo being that we were the only other tenants and now they knew that we had said something because Ken- the host, called the condo association. I sent Ken a message stating that we did not feel comfortable and we were leaving. I asked if his other condo was available and he said he was staying in it. He offered to refund one night. We packed up and left and I called airbnb on 7/15/20 when we returned home. I explained the situation and they did nothing but email back and forth. I sent several messages to Ken the host and asked for a refund, which he declined. I sent a copy of the refund message which Ken sent to me via airbnb and they said it was up to the host! Complete disgust for Ken and airbnb. We only used airbnb because we were nervous to stay at a hotel with COVID, but this would have never happened at a hotel. Nothing but a run around! Not to mention, you only have 14 days to post a review on the host and we were in the middle of dealing with all this. Airbnb has all the discussions and copies of our text messages. I even tried to send a video from my phone and they kept saying they didn’t get it. Funny because I sent it to other phones and emails and they all received.

    Ken charged us: Total cost:$442.08

    and we were there for less than 24 hours. Watch out for this company-they do not do anything for the consumer and are not honest. The host Ken- is despicable as well, as he should be ashamed of himself for taking our hard earned money. Brian Chesky runs a terrible company filled with lies and deceit!

  118. I booked a home. Got a reservation #from air bnb. They said they would send a confirmation email. Never got it. Called, found out my email address was misspelled on their end. My end was correct in my profile. When it. came time to take the second half appeantly there was a problem with running my credit card so they canceled my reservation and credited my card the money back turned around and rented the home to someone else a week before Labor Day weekend on a island and there where no other places with 30 miles miles to stay. Maybe someone should of called. Thats right, nobody talks to each other anymore. We just sit around in our homes texting and looking at emails. Business is a joke anymore, and Air Bnb sucks.

  119. I have been an airbnb host in Brussels, Belgium for over 5 years and, until recently, have found their customer service generally pretty decent. But lately it has all gone insanely wrong. I can only suppose Covid is largely to blame – but it has gotten to the point that I will probably remove my listing from Airbnb and find alternatives.
    The current situation I am unable to deal with for lack of any response from Airbnb is the following: A long-term reservation was cancelled with short notice and a cancellation fee was charged – the guest contacted me saying they were being charged the cost of the entire stay as a fee, so I contacted Airbnb asking what this was about. I actually got a reply on this, by some miracle, in less than 24 hours – but they totally misunderstood me initially and thought I was waiving the cancellation fee. I made it extremely clear that I was not, that I was just concerned as to why the guest’s fee was so high. The reply I got to that reassured me that all was well, the guest had misunderstood and I would get the standard cancellation fee – so I closed the case. I checked my future payouts the next day and saw that the cancellation fee I was expecting had disappeared and the guest fully refunded…
    Obviously I immediately opened a support ticket and have now been waiting a full day for a reply. Such a ridiculous error on their part, after I explicitly ensured with them that they would NOT make this precise error… and they don’t even have the decency to reply…
    If this were the first time I got no help from Airbnb…
    Earlier this Summer I had an urgent situation with a guest who was clearly mentally unstable having gotten aggressive with me. I needed to know what my options were as a host in this exceptional and disturbing situation… So of course I immediately contacted Airbnb – from whom I got a reply over 2 WEEKS later! I got the impression they have become a cowboy operation… I hoped it was all down to covid and they would get back up to speed – but this latest case only confirms my impression.
    It’s very sad to see them decline so badly after having a reasonably smooth experience for over 5 years… but it seems it is time to jump ship and find alternatives to Airbnb.

    1. Update – I finally did get hold of Airbnb support by phone (shortly after posting the above) and they resolved the issue for me extremely quickly – it was the kind of support I used to get all the time from Airbnb – could they be recovering from the recent slump? I hope so.

    2. Every time I called Airbnb form US, the person on the other side is… on the other side of the planet, literally! The person who supposes to help me has a poorly English understanding and vocabulary, so, no shit, there are so many idiotic mistakes if the people who suppose to help you do not even understand the issues.
      I emailed Airbnb about their policy to request government ID copies, in the context in which there is a huge scandal in EU, that Airbnb provided costumers’ info/data to other companies, violating the EU privacy rules. After this, my bookings were canceled without refund and Airbnb send me a message that “They regret I want to closed my Airbnb account”! This is what they understood!
      After over 4 weeks, I am still fighting to recover my money! I contacted them and stated they have till the end of the week. After this I am opening a credit card dispute and, very likely, we’ll go to court. I had enough! This is not a company! This is a scumbag website that takes advantages of the host efforts and the guests’ trust. Period!

  120. The automated answering service – while always designed to direct you to “help yourself” – now just spins you around for 20 minutes and then spits you out!
    And, even if you continue to call back and select every single option offered, the result are the same… out on your ass in the cold.
    COVID excuses are just that. Patent BS. All their “service” agents are working from home. So, why can’t they maintain a reasonable hold time? Of course, no one is empowered to reach a solution any way. What a f’ing waste of everyone’s time! Theirs too. I guess management is only concerned with their personal jackpot once they go public.

  121. Airbnb is the worst company to use for vacation rentals. They are as dishonest as can be, make it extremely difficult to contact them, and if you do get through, you get the feeling like they don’t want to help you at all. Crooks. I use Homeaway or VRBO and have never had any problems with them.

  122. I never use Airbnb. They are horrible to work with. Their website is user-UNfriendly, it takes you around and around in circles, their customer service reps hang up on you in mid sentence!, and all they want is my money. The pictures aren’t always correct, and if you try to cancel for any valid reason, they make it extremely difficult and spend lots of time wasting yours. No more Airbnb! However, I have had good results from VRBO and Homeaway–no complaints with them.

  123. I am a super host. My account is under investigation. All my future reservations are cancelled. After 5 days and many calls, I did not get any meaningful response. The representatives either gave me wrong information or just told me that an agent will contact me soon (or within 2 hours). But so far I never receive any response from the agent who is working on the case. There was one representative even ended my call before I finish asking questions.

    All my guests left good reviews, and my current guests have no problem with their stays. After researching on Internet and reading horrible experiences of many hosts, I don’t even expect I will know the reason about this investigation. I just want this to be completed asap and I can take actions accordingly.

    It just happened. A representative told me on the phone that a supervisor will call me within 24 hours. I asked her to send me a message through airbnb to confirm that. Her message changed “24 hours” to “soon”. I asked her to put within 24 hours in the massage, she refused to do so, and of course she ended my call.

  124. Hi there,

    I have used AirBnB a handfull of times, and have issues at least three times with them. I would prefer to use VRBO or Booking because their policies and processes are very clear, customer service is better, and you can actually talk to someone live if needed.

    I recently booked a place in Glen Ellen shortly after Covid19 (March 2020). The host accepted the dates and then later declined due to Covid. I get it, I understand – however AirBnB kept my service fee of $198.00. I complained, and AirBnB had to escalate it to management – and then finally gave me a coupon to use for later for the value of $198.00. Great…now I’m stuck still having to use them at some point.

    Fast forward — now I booked another place, but didn’t select to use the coupon – it just automatically applied it (there was no way to select yes or no), however the AirBnB site says you can cancel the reservation under 48hrs. Which I did and booked more centrally to my family — now AirBnB is fighting on giving me the $198.00 back. This is my money – it’s not AirBnB’s money! This type of customer service & policies are so irritating to me.

    Now I’m not hearing back from AirBnB at all and their number 1 (855) 424-7262 is no longer a working number.

    I am so irritated with this company!!! Not sure if they are just host driven & treat the guests like crap — but you need to keep both sides of the house happy!!! Awful customer service!!!

  125. I am an Airbnb host who has had been a superhost for four years. I just lost my superhost status over one bad review (moved me from 4.8 to 4.7). the bad review was from one guest who gave me a 3 star rating. When the guest booked we required to the guest to confirm in writing they understood only two people were allowed to stay in the apartment. the guest confirmed. then upon checkin the guest tried to move 3 people into the apartment. We of course wouldn’t allow this and the guest gave us a 3 star rating because we wouldn’t allow 3 people to checkin. I have asked airbnb to pull that review but they refuse and won’t explain why. How can a review be valid if it is given to punish me for enforcing rules the guest explicitly agreed to. I have all of this in writing on the airbnb platform. I keep calling and ask to speak to a supervisor, I am promised a call within 24-48 hours but airbnb just keeps closing my case. How do I get the attention of a real person. The support folks are outrageous, robotic and useless.

    1. George,
      They will never call back! Be prepared about this. I’ve called and discussed few times about my issues. I’ve always been promised I’ll get a call back.
      Never happened!
      My advice: make a website and take charge of your business yourself! do NOT let yourself at the mercy of Airbnb!

  126. I’ve tried to provide the link of this discussion to a host and explain what some of us have to go through with Airbnb. The link is “hidden by Airbnb” when use the Airbnb account for communication! Of course, Airbnb does not want to “look bad”!

  127. Oh, just don`t use this ugly app. My flight is cancelled by authority due to Covid and they refund me only 10% of my total payment. They told me that my situation does not fall within their extenuating circumstances policy.
    I will never use this app and recommend others don`t use it.

  128. I have just found out that my tenant of 6 years has been using the property for airbnb for the past two years without my permission. I am not an airbnb user and never will be considering the number or complaints that are received about them either from hosts or guests. The customer service is shit as I have written a letter of complaint to them regarding their backround checks about potential hosts , why am I being told that it will take 30-60 days to remove the listing from the airbnb website? Why these stupid automated messages.

  129. Third ticket opened in regards to overcharging and promises to make contact within 48hrs. It has now been 5 months and I have, again, been passed over to another team member. Within 10 minutes of this complaint being opened, AirBnB have closed it without any resolution.

    After so much disappointment and many complaints, why do we keep using it?

    That’s it for us, we’ll be staying in anything other than AirBnB accommodation in future, it really isn’t worth the stress or the risk of being ripped off.

  130. Airbnb actually told me that I needed to call them on the spot when I had a problem with a recent listing. I had contacted them after I returned home. The listing was a rural area and even stated cellphone coverage was poor.
    From airbnb agent – I don’t have to read anything, I implement the internal procedures, not what the host writes in the listing.
    Totally confrontational customer service

  131. I just tried to reserve a room for my 70Plus year old parents. Aibnb wanted me to confirm their identity. I never could, my parents can barely use a phone much less talk a selfie or convert a picture to a JPEG like the idiot on the phone was trying to tell them to do. Trying to get my elderly parents to use a computer right now and they can’t even login because the can’t find their passwords. I should file an age discrimination against this place.

  132. I stayed in an Airbnb where the engaged hosts got into a violent altercation and the female host begged me to call the police, which I did. Two squad cars with 4 police officers had to come to deal with the situation.

    Airbnb jerked me around, only just finally offered me a partial refund despite submitting police officer’s name, precint and case number. The ‘refund’ Airbnb said they would give me is NOT back to the credit card I paid for the Airbnb on! Instead they said if would be a ‘credit’ to my account for another Airbnb stay which after my horrific experience I do not want, I want my money back. Plus the steps they sent to set up my account for this so called ‘credit’ doesn’t work. Help!

  133. It’s amazing how fast the quality of their customer service has deteriorated. I’m a superhost with 3 listings and it’s almost impossible to get someone in the US on the phone, or anyone in their touted “resolutions” department to call back anymore. The language barrier with the main customer support call center is very real, both written and verbal. And worse, you can be a superhost with 80 reviews over 4.8 and they’ll still tend to take a guest’s word over yours even when you provide indisputable proof. I just had an Airbnb rep cancel a reservation on my behalf because a guest claimed to need WiFi immediately or she would have to check out before staying even one night. She was unwilling to simply unplug the WiFi router for a reboot and instead calls AirBnb who then issued her a full refund. And then she stayed the night in my place anyway. So AirBnb sided with a liar and a scammer and will not even call me back for resolution. This is the new AirBnb superhost resolution experience folks.

  134. We booked a Bnb on 25/26 Dec night on 21 Dec unware of the Scotland government announced 20 Dec that Scotland will be in tier 4 lockdown from 00:00 26 Dec onwards.

    Obviously Accommodation is banned. we then would like to get the full refund. I suppose the host or Airbnb would ask me not to go and give the full refund because it would be illegal for them to host us. after contacting Airbnb I was told to cancel the order, which I followed, was then refunded only £10 out of total £64.31.

    unhappy with the result I had numerous contact with Airbnb support, they simply pretend deaf and don’t really listen to me or answered me directly. it took lots of days for them to reply and simply repeating their confusing extenuate policy which can’t explain our case.

    is there way to complain to get my full refund ?

  135. I booked a place in LA for work for three months. Because of the Covid surge there, the production postponed their start date. Instead of just changing the reservation, I cancelled because I felt badly for the host. I didn’t want to change the reservation and then perhaps have to change again. So I cancelled. As per the contract, I owed the host a full month’s rent which I swallowed and accepted… not easy but OK. But on top of that, Air Bnb immediately charged me an extra $660 and kept money back from my initial deposit. So, in addition to the host receiving a full month’s rent, Air Bnb took a $1,170 service fee! UNBELIEVABLE! For doing what? I could understand a small service fee, even $100 or so but over a thousand? So I went to customer service. Nobody would speak to me so I got on chat. They flatly refused to refund any of that service fee. When I said I could prove it was Covid related and that I thought the exorbitant service fee was inappropriate considering what was happening in LA, the response was, “I’m sorry you feel that way.” Then they closed the conversation and said it was over.

  136. After a hard decition to travel in this pandemic year, we booked in El Salvador two properties to enjoy our family, im a cancer survivor two times and asthmatic, and my parents over 80 years old came with us, i took all the care in advance talkin with the owners about our case, in one of the properties (Hacienda style lake house PIKIKOSTA runned by Lisette walch ) we foun the place totally nasty, garbage cans in the batrooms full of used toilet paper, stinky wet towells from the other guests, dirty microwave with spaguetty sauce, the range nasty, the concrete counter top full of mold and dirty crust, we contact the owner immediately and we send some puictures about it,because i was so worried with covid , her anwer was ” use paper towels because she was not sure they cleaned, the house look very dirty with spiderweb in many places, and we found a rattlesnake by the dinning room, i cleaned some areas because i was really stressed about covid ,our internet did not work propertly there because our telephones was from the U.S. we contact airbnb as soon as we can and ask them for the reimbursemente off the cleanning they charge, because that was a very scary experiance and super dirty , the lady wrote a hoorrible stuff in my page accusing us as scammers the all situation is totally BS, we allways trust airnb and use this company for most of our vacations, we have a very nice coments of the other properties owners we are a very good family with lots of values, and is unacceptable the way arbnb manage this situation , we payed $850.00 for two nights and we were not even abble to have hot watter, they realy make us feel like our life does not matter we are still worried about having infected of covid in this place, we are counting the days of probability of contagion.
    we ask them for a note from the owner to apologize and they dont even ask her about it. this is a pathetic experience.

  137. I booked a house Thru Airbnb in November I inadvertently booked for one but meant to book for 4 people. The owner (who I later found out has a criminal record) asked me about it. I was honest and upfront and told him 4 people. Apparently it wasn’t an issue because he accepted the reservation. Four days before I was to arrive the owner called me to tell me the oven wasn’t working. Told him I had planned on cooking and had to have a working oven. He promised to take care of getting A new oven. I arrived to the house on 12/23/2020, he was attempting to repair the kitchen sink. I drove 1500 miles and so close to Christmas I did t want to cancel and loose $4600. I could tell the house hadn’t been cleaned to Airbnb Covid standards so I filed a complaint within an hour of checking in; as per their policy. I found mouse feces throughout the kitchen, rugs not cleaned, ceiling fans barely hanging on the ceiling, mold, thick dust on fans, curtain rods not properly hung barely hanging up, it was horrific.
    I again complained to Airbnb I was sent to no less than 10 ambassadors. I called every hour on the hour begging them to help me with a refund and help me move. I finally found someone who listened to my complaint on Christmas Day. I had sent pictures all along to Airbnb of all the violations to health safety and the unsanitary conditions. All my monies were tied up in the house. I was issued a refund, cancelled my reservation on 12/29/2020 and a coupon for another stay.
    The owner never made an attempt to send a cleaning person, threatened us that if we didn’t vacate immediately he’d call the police. Problem was the slum lord needed the money and refused to cancel the reservation earlier than the 29th. He began to file complaints about me that I had too many people in the house, I had documentation proving he knew there would be 4 people. Claimed we had a party, (me and my kids who don’t drink). Claimed my dog howled all night, said I yelled at his employee. He claimed I had 5 children, one set of twins named Laura and Lauren. Apparently he got the names from my daughter’s social media because Laura and Lauren are her coworkers. He drove by the house stalking us. He was angry because he was losing a lot of money.
    Even though Airbnb issued me a refund for the obvious health and safety issues and gave me a coupon they allowed the home owner to file a complaint about me in order to freeze my account so I can’t book in the future. I have dozens of pictures and video of his home.
    I was sent an email from Airbnb that I was being investigated I was to reply within 48 hours. I did reply and asked them what I was being investigated for. I have heard nothing from them. I’ve called three times and no one will assist me.
    I have emailed the CEO twice, he hasn’t even acknowledged my email.
    Their customer service is horrible. I don’t understand how they can stay in business. Save yourself the headache and avoid booing with Airbnb.

  138. Everything in this article is correct, Airbnb’s customer service e is truly horrible. I’ll never book with them again.

  139. Don’t book with “Super” host Michael and Summer in Charleston, SC. My trip was booked March 2020, we obviously had to reschedule. We rescheduled for the summer but Covid was still an issue. We wanted to reschedule again but we were talked out of rescheduling by Michael the host He said if we cancelled he would give us back half our deposit (never did) and if he booked the week that we dropped (he did) he would give us the remainder of our deposit (he did not). I asked an Airbnb representative to help out, they made sure to let me know that they were making a great effort, ultimately I was told the host said No luck, and that there was nothing Airbnb could do because the host would not cooperate.

  140. I’ve used Airbnb countless times, but have had 2 major issues with hosts and Airbnb not being helpful in the resolution (1 is currently in review).

    October of 2019, I booked an Airbnb in Atlanta for an anime convention for me and my partner. I am a planner so i booked MONTHS in advance. The host confirmed, they took their money, and I waited to hear more from the hosts about how to check in, etc. A month before the convention, I’m checking the host’s page because I’ve heard nothing from them since the booking confirmation. I’m starting to see reviews on the listing that it’s a scam. The host never contact people, the cancel to fees, etc. So now I know this might be a problem. I wait a week before the trip and start messaging the hosts so I have evidence that I’ve reached out and the host is not responding. The day before the trip, still nothing, so I call Airbnb and talk to customer service for an hour. I lay out my evidence that the listing and the host is a scam, that i need a refund and help finding another place at the price I paid for my current listing. The only thing Airbnb did was cancel my booking. No help finding another listing. No refund (they would transfer my money to the new listing), no discount. At this point, everything close to the convention is booked up and many hosts don’t have time to open their doors to someone coming in less than 12 hours. I beg and plead with one hosts to please accept my booking, explain the whole situation, and finally get a place while driving to Atlanta. It was the most stressful booking experience I ever had.
    Until last week. I’m planning a group trip to Colorado and found the perfect house outside of Denver for this couple’s retreat. I request for the 4 day weekend in March. I message with the hosts back and forth assuring them I read all the house rules, promising that we are there as a travel group and not to party, etc. I work in university housing, so I know how to handle someone who is not following housing rules. We message back and forth a few times. The next day, they confirm my reservation. I message the group that we got the house. 15 minutes later, the host messages me saying that the place is booked already. I respond, yeah – you booked it to me. He says no, it’s booked on another site. I tell him I’ll give him an hour to update things on his end and see if he cancels my reservation so I’m not charged. He doesn’t. The next day, I reach out to Airbnb customer service. I’m pretty sure it’s discrimination as he has no reason to cancel my reservation after confirming it unless he saw my profile picture and realized I am African American. I talk to customer service – it’s going well. They said they would reach out to the host and find out what’s happening. The service reps sends me a couple of messages throughout the day to let me know they are still working on the issue. They never hear back from the host so they cancel my reservation and promise a refund within 15 days. I dropped over $1k booking this place and still need to find another spot while prices are rapidly going up daily. I research penalties for hosts that cancel on confirmed guests and try to give myself solace that they’ll temporarily lose their superhost status and those dates will be blocked off. A week later, I’m still looking for places and I see the house I wanted back available for that weekend, the host is still a superhost, and no review stating that they canceled on a confirmed guest. Airbnb refuses to help me find a similar place because the trip isn’t until March. I’m currently filing another ticket to find out why the host was not penalized.

    1. Unfortunate situations for sure. Thought I would let you know Airbnb is terrible for hosts too – so you’re not alone. I have had guests tell me they had a hard time booking or extending a booking. Just last week I tried to help a guest book, I called Airbnb several times – they won’t tell me much but the story seemed to change. 1st he needed to get his bank to approve the amount (a fraud protection thing), then they told me their website had a new rule that wouldn’t let him book since he was booking for tomorrow and had less that 4 reviews – I told him I approve it, please help the guy book. Finally me and the guest gave up. Try VRBO, maybe they are better – I don’t know but it’s worth a try. Airbnb works when it works, but if there are any issues be ready for frustration, wasting a lot of time dealing with Airbnb customer service, and no happy resolution.

      1. Airbnb needs to be reported to the federal government for fraud. Federal Consumer Protection Bureau of the FTC. Also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This company should be investigated. Their website and customer service constantly state services that do not exist. I have had terrible experiences as a host and as a guest, and so I reported them myself and asked for an investigation for fraud. More hosts and guests need to do the same.

  141. As a host – Airbnb customer service is just about useless, they don’t fix issues, their website has bugs, and as stated in this article they pass you around and close the issue when it is not fixed. I have been reporting an issue for a few months, they give the same canned responses, I explain how their help pages solution does not work – that’s my whole point “your website does not work as advertised” on your website, it keeps getting closed while not resolved, so I start over and explain it again and again…

    1. Airbnb needs to be reported to the federal government for fraud. Federal Consumer Protection Bureau of the FTC. Also the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This company should be investigated. Their website and customer service constantly state services that do not exist. I have had terrible experiences as a host and as a guest, and so I reported them myself and asked for an investigation for fraud. More hosts and guests need to do the same.

  142. We have been a victim of shitty Airbnb customer care. So many of the things mentioned in this blog hold true.
    – agents have no clue about their own policies and don’t talk to each other.
    we had to ask them to go listen to their “recorded” support calls to prove we were promised full refund by 2 different agents, before we made the cancellation.
    – agents are rude and will keep on repeating from a textbook instead of listening and understanding.
    – After multiple escalations to “senior” team members, we finally got a green flag on the refund. The said team member, in a very polite message, tells us he’d start the process on Jan 1, as soon as he gets back to work.
    The refund or this person is nowhere to be found after a month 🙂
    – Calling them means getting the empty “we will contact you in 24 hours with an update” response.
    Trying to poke them on Twitter now

    1. Finally got the issue resolved after a month-long struggle. With all that time spent on calls, chats and twitter, I am really done with AirBnb.

  143. We had a reservation for a three week stay in Phoenix cancelled by the host yesterday, the day before the start of our stay. Due to the late notice and as we have a dog, the least expensive suitable place is almost $2000 more expensive. Airbnb offered a credit of $200. When I called to say that is not sufficient I was told that is understandable and that a request for more assistance was being brought to the agents team. That was 18 hours and 4 or 4 agents ago. I am furious.

  144. I totally agree. If you honestly review a negative experience, the host can request AirBnB to take it down and they will (over the guest’s objection!)

    Buyer beware. Dishonesty prevails.

  145. Airbnb has owed me $1000 for a cancelation due to covid from March 2020, I’ve been strung along with customer support for 11 months. I’m still waiting to get my refund and can’t get this escalated to anyone who will actually help. I qualified for their extenuating circumstances policy and have on record from 2 months ago they have admitted they owe me money but there is a bug in their system that’s blocking the credit.

    Does anyone have recommendations of what I can do next? This feels like I should get legal counsel but lawyers are expensive.

  146. We could not get to our Air BNB location because of the recent snow storm and electrical grid crashing in Texas and Oklahoma. Air BNB refused to refund us our money as they said it was not an “Extenuating Circumstance” even though the entire state of Texas was declared a disaster zone.

  147. The host of my air bnb created a fake text conversation that claimed I was trying to extort him for $50. The conversation said I would remove a bad review for a $50 ewire. I didn’t even write a review yet. The phone number wasn’t mine, the ewire email wasn’t mine, and the screenshot had been doctored/photoshopped with whited out portions. The host then submitted this as “evidence” to air bnb and the customer service agent completely believed him. The agent was extremely rude to me and continuously blamed me for the conversation, saying it had to be me who wrote those messages. Not only was I seeking a refund for our air bnb being uncleaned before we entered during covid-19, but now blamed for extortion. Air bnb did not seem to care the host went to great lengths to ‘frame’ me, nor did they care about the cleanliness issue.

  148. I am currently having an unresolved Airbnb issue. I booked a place in Roanoke, VA for May. Then a family situation came up and we have to postpone our travel by a few weeks. I went to the Airbnb booking and requested a date change. I’ve booked more than 50 Airbnb properties in the past few years (and spent $30K+ on Airbnb) so I’m experienced in using their platform. The host came back and agreed to the date change at a price that was 4X times the price for the May booking. I checked to see if there was anything special going on in Roanoke that week that would have justified the high price and didn’t find anything. I checked the dates around my requested dates and found that the place was $79 a night – which is what I had booked in May. I sent the host a note, outlining my observations and asking if there had been a mistake. He came back and said, ‘no mistake, that is the weekend of the Roanoke Ironman Triathlon.’ Never mind that the price was still $319, instead of $79 for the Monday and Tuesday following the weekend. Note that this property had a tough cancellation policy: 50% of fees had to be forfeited if I cancelled.

    So, I decided to modify the dates slightly to avoid the ridiculous increase. Here is the rub: when I went to request new dates, THE SYSTEM AUTOMATICALLY ACCEPTED THE DATES ON THE TABLE. The host received both an ‘accept’ on his outrageous prices and also a request for new dates simultaneously. He decided to just keep the accept and NOT entertain my request for new dates. And then he ghosted me.

    I called Airbnb Customer Service and a very nice ‘Ambassador’ agreed to plead my case with the host. She did and she got back to me a few hours later to tell me that he had decided not to accept my request for a date change, EVEN THOUGH THE DATES I REQUESTED WERE STILL AVAILABLE. He told her to tell me I could cancel if I wasn’t happy, knowing full well that, if I did cancel, he would get $800 and then be able to turn around and book the place to someone else for $319 a night. I got back to her and asked her to please escalate my case, which she agreed to do.

    Four days later (which was yesterday), I had heard nothing from a supervisor, so I called Customer Service again. A very nice Ambassador who answered told me that he could see that a supervisor had been assigned to my case. He checked the schedule, saw that the supervisor was on shift and pinged the supervisor to call me. Twenty-four hours later, I have heard nothing from the supervisor.

    I am wondering if I’m on some kind of blacklist because of this: last summer, my husband and I had plans to rent a place in September. Then, in August, my husband had a bike accident and broke six bones in his pelvis. The cancellation policy was liberal, so I should have been able to cancel with paying only the service fee. When I tried to do that, the system said that the entire rental fee would be forfeited. I contacted the host. She was in agreement that my money should be refunded and also didn’t know why I was having trouble. It turns out that, for month-long rentals, no matter what the cancellation policy on the property is, after 48 hours, the entire fee is forfeited in case of cancellation. Neither the host nor I knew this. I tried every day for a week to call Airbnb Customer service. Their greeting announced that only people with a reservation within the next 48 hours could speak to a representative. I left messages every time I called but no one called back. After a week, I filed a dispute with my credit card company. Eventually, someone did call me from Airbnb and we were able to resolve the matter with a doctor’s note regarding my husband’s injury – I did end up getting the full refund. I tried to halt the credit card dispute but, apparently, I was too late. A couple of months later, I got a nasty-gram from Airbnb telling me that if I ever filed another credit card dispute against them, I would be banned from the platform. Well, you know what, if THEY could run an effective operation, no one would have to file a credit card dispute!

  149. I had a reservation in Tampa Fl. upon arrival the building manager where the Airbnb was located told me the are no Airbnb hosting allowed in that building. I was not allowed to stay and had to make hotel reservations. I put a dispute on my credit card and did wind up receiving a credit for that reservation. Unfortunately I made the error of disputing another Airbnb reservation first and when I realized my error I rescinded my dispute and as noted I did receive a credit for the correct Airbnb cancellation. But my error caused issues with my reservation as Airbnb cancelled the reservation I wanted to keep. I was told to re-book the reservation and was charged for that at the time of re-booking. But to my surprise my credit card was charged for the original cancellation. Therefore I was being charged twice for the same reservation. So now I have been trying get this issue resolved for the last 3 weeks. So far I keep getting we are working on the issue but there is a charge back on your credit card. Forget about them just sending me a refund via the mail in the for of a check. My credit card company says any charge back has been cleared and an attempt to re-credit my account should not be an issue. I request Airbnb to attempt a re-credit and let me know if that is successful. They still will not answer if the re-credit was tried and continue to tell me they are working on it. I am frustrated and disappointed in the difficulty in getting a refund and paying twice for the same reservation is not acceptable.

  150. The customer service is absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen. They cancelled my reservation and close my account. I couldn’t get the payment to go through with either my corporate company card or my personal card. On hold times over an hour and when you do get someone they cannot fix the problem. I would not recommend using these services unless you want to be frustrated and pissed off.

  151. I have been attempting to receive either a credit or refund for over a year now for a reservation that had to be cancelled due to COVID travel restrictions. The host declined to provide a refund but said he would credit us in the amount paid for a stay at another time. I made multiple attempts (over 5) to schedule an available date over the past year. The host was either not responsive or said the dates requested were unavailable. When I attempted again last week, the host informed me that he no longer owned the property and I should “reach out to airbnb”. I have received two responses so far from an airbnb person identified as Abbi-Gayey saying “Please pardon me a few minutes as I look into your case.” and the second a day later saying “This is to let you know that I will be out of office due to the end of my shift. I might not reply instantly. However, do not hesitate to send me a message in case you have any issues.” The language seems awkward so like others I wonder if it is an automatic response and not an actual person. When the host was not responsive in August 2020, I contacted airbnb support and was caught in a game of airbnb saying to contact the host and the host not responding. I am very dissatisfied with @airbnbsupport and seeking advice on how to rectify this situation. I intend to check with the Better Business Bureau to see if they would be able to assist.

    1. Kate

      I too have had a similar issue. Our’s was cancelled due to Smoke and Fires and being in the mountains too dangerous to drive and be in the way of the response team working on the fires for months. The host seemed to give a wishy washy attitude, then it was I couldn’t book for only 3 nights if it was 2 months or more out, then it was only M-TH’s were available though I had given 6 months notice. When we finally were able to book- the weather was cold…., but we went. The place had just been freshly painted and closed- the fumes were burning our eyes and throats, the stairs leading to the Loft Studio did not have a hand rail installed, no fire extinguisher present, no first aid, doors leading to outdoors from second floor had a scanty railing where your feet could slip and get stuck- but the hosts did absolutely NOTHING. Airbnb support dis absolutely NOTHING. As a Host and they were supposed to be Super Host require at minimum a Fire extinguisher and First Aid. To be not in City Code Violation and neither Host nor AIRBNB stepping up to the plate- Wow. They all need to be penalized. This is our lives we are entrusting to stay in a safe environment and have support when needed. Oh- and the front door- only door did NOT lock and they still didn’t do a darn thing.

  152. UGH THEY SUCK

    I tried logging into my account that I haven’t used for over a year… it’s tied to an email that’s my old college email that I don’t have access to… couldn’t find any way around it on my own and so I called customer service to see if they could help.

    They basically said I was sol and needed to make a new account… ok but making a new account wasn’t an option because it said my phone number was already in use. They said I needed to use another phone number. UH WHAT??? How many phone numbers do they think people have??? You’re telling me they can’t confirm my identity over the phone and reset it for me????

    I worked for a MEDICAL SOFTWARE company and we could reset doctors and nurses information and contact info but fucking AIRBNB can’t change an email address????

    Absolutely useless.

    1. Their website sucks. I tried to make a reservation and got an http error. That didn’t stop them from charging my credit card – 4 times!!!!!

      When I called support they said it was because my identity needed to be verified (doesn’t make sense for an http error) – so I did that and tried again. Same error and another charge against my card.

      Their service reps don’t give a shit. Still have not heard back on the error.

      Will NEVER USE THIS SERVICE AGAIN.

  153. Airbnb unit had bullet holes in window. part of the unit was unclean and the AC was totally insufficient for a tropical climate, especially for our wedding and honeymoon trip. Airbnb customer service is non-existent. Ive been going back and forth with photos and testimony with their 3rd party customer service person on AirBNB’s own website. They do not know what they are doing. every 4th day I get a message to the effect of “Sorry, me family emergency, I get you help soon” I spent nearly $7,000.00 on the unit and left after 12 hours, because the host didn’t respond to our issues. Our unit violated 3 of the 4 cancel worthy causes described on Airbnb’s website. I just called the customer service number and waited on hold for 18 minutes. The woman who answered was very rude (like described above). Asked me to give her the code she just sent me. I asked her for her name. She hesitated and said “Alihandra” in a way that I was convinced she was making it up. I then politely asked for her employee I.D. number so I could write it down. Guess what she did then. She just stopped talking and hung up on me. Literally no other words were spoken. I got the phone number for customer service from this forum, because it is not readily available on AIRbnb’s website. I thought this forum was made up on persons who were exaggerating. I was not rude to this “Alihandra” I didn’t even get into my issues. She just stopped talking after I asked for her employee I.D. before we got started. I’m an investor in AIRbnb stock. A company with service like this won’t survive on a global market. I will be suing Airbnb over some of their policies if the appropriate refund isn’t issued. This could be a class action suit.

    1. Hello, I’m having some major issues with this company too! Let me know if you decide to do a class action lawsuit! They took my money that I paid before the pandemic hit, and gave me a credit from last year due to COVID, they refuse to give me a refund and forced me to rebook with them ($4500 was original amount but only wanted to refund me $300) so of course I wanted the credit. when I went to pay second half of my bill they refused to give me the credit to be applied. Of course they changed “terms and conditions” to make it impossible to do anything about their policies. I have been looking on how to start a class action against them and I found this. This is so ridiculous that we have to fight to get our own money that they have no right too!!

  154. The worst customer service for hosts also. They’ll let customers scam their hosts. I can only warn hosts not to list with Airbnb if they want to work with an ethical company and save their pocketbook.

    Try out VRBO. A much better company with better clientele.

  155. vrbo, by far is superior to Airbnb. We are a host. Had 20000 in damages. They payed us 400 dollars. Didn’t cover the service pro bill. We will pursue in court. Will cost a lot more than the damages cost but I want this to go public.

  156. I am an Airbnb host. In the last two months I haven’t had a single reservation that didn’t trash, destroy, or steal something. I have yet to receive a single reimbursement from resolution claims filed. The oldest being 8 weeks old. I was told I would have an answer within 72 hours and a week later I was transferred instead to some one else “who could help” this has happened more than 10 times without a single response. I have even asked some questions that are over 15 days old and I still haven’t been connected with a person or recieved a response.

  157. It is truly a bad experience calling Airbnb and trying to get any kind of customer service. I am a super host as well as high volume traveler with Airbnb. I have three upcoming trips and I forgot to apply my 2 super host coupons before booking my trips. I still have balances on all three trips and called to ask them to apply the coupons to two of the balances. All I keep getting are canned answers that they cannot do that. They recommended I cancel my trip and rebook it – unbelievable. Mind you that my coupons total $200 – I generate thousands of dollars for Airbnb on a yearly basis both through my hosting and traveling. There is no escalation process and quite frankly no customer service. Sending me the link to the coupon rules does not help – I can find that for myself on their website. Makes me NEVER want to host or travel with Airbnb again as well as sell my shares that I have in the company.

  158. We are currently stranded 17 hours from home after host canceled last minute. Called customer support numerous times. Best they could do was refund our payment. We are out travel money and left to find some place to stay before driving back. No offer of help or compensation. Numerous email saying ‘someone will call’. When they did 36 hrs later they did nothing to help.

  159. Do Not use air bnb. I had a really bad experience and posted my review. It was a fair and honest review but I explained all the faults with the property. They removed my review. I’m not even sure if the positive reviews are real.

  160. Well after 4 days of back and forth with Airbnb I have given up. I thought is was my loss but in retrospect after reading the large amounts of complaints about customer service or lack thereof , I don’t feel as alone. Unlike some of you that are following up on trying to get your money back or get to the location only to find it is not what it was in the advertisements or photo’s, my issue is different.

    I have been with Airbnb since 2015. I use them as a fall back when my timeshare or hotels are too far away from the desired location I’d like to be. My problem is that I hadn’t used my account in several years (thankfully) and I had forgotten my passwords and the email I no longer use was obsolete due to changing companies. So there is my first problem, instead of their tech support trying to help you maintain your old account you are forced to “JUST OPEN A NEW ACCOUNT.” Meaning you have to start all over from scratch with ZERO HISTORY. To date I now have 4 accounts. However I can’t even use them to book a room. Why? You may ask. Well since all the bad raps about shootings, injuries, murders, sexual assault, discrimination, and other woeful goings-on Airbnb seems to think that having a government issued ID on file is going to resolve these problems. I made numerous attempts to snap an image of the front and back of my Government ID. Each time noticing there was a glare on the image but NEVER did it hide any pertinent information or photo the person on the other side would need to ID me upon arrival to my destination. FYI… The person on the other end doesn’t even get the ID information. It stays in house on AirBnb database. They do a background check before allowing you to stay at any of the locations. ALL great for the host, but it really doesn’t give me any comfort knowing that I know nothing about the person(s) whose home or rental unit I am using. It’s not even legal for them to have our ID’s in their database. They give us an option of Just providing your full legal name and current home address. Then allegedly, you have met the criteria. NOT tru though, once you book they send you a notification telling you that you need to submit a government I’d. They make it appear as if the host is requesting this information. Little did I know at first, that the host doesn’t even know these demands are being made. Some Airbnb customer service idiot, was given a little authority and they are going to make you do whatever they request before they approve your ID. I did try, but I gave up. Screw Airbnb. Thankfully there are other options and their customer support actually cares about their consumers.
    I’m curious, how many of you have gone to a hotel or motel and they request a copy of your ID for their files? For me, NONE/ZERO, that I have been to. They verify my information matches while I am there present in the moment and then give it right back to me.

    Which leads me to my next point. In a world that is corrupt with worldwide company hacking, why would we want to give this information to an institute like this? I was told they can’t even consolidate all our accounts into one account because they just don’t have the proper software to do this. If they can’t afford the software to do that, how do we know the information we share with them is even safe? It seems to me this is yet another BAD INCIDENT waiting to happen. I don’t want to take that chance and now I am TOTALLY writing AirBnb off. No remorse here. I was feeling bad but now I realize they saved me the headaches of ever having to deal with the numerous ongoing problems many on this site have experienced. I like the way the hotels and motels deal with our situation much more practically than Airbnb. Good Riddance Airbnb, you were as useless as the customer service you provided!

  161. My house got flooded by the Airbnb guest. No response from Airbnb for 20 days. Please help! I’ve tried all other ways to get a hold of support ambassadors, but no response at all. I don’t know what to do now. Please help me if any of you know how to get a hold with them. It is unbelievable.

  162. Airbnb is running a SCAM. Reservations are made and immediately accepted and large sums of money come out of your bank; minutes later the ‘host’ cancels and Airbnb keeps the money for 15 DAYS. They had $860 out of my account. Another time I showed up at a site in the middle of the night full of bugs with the ceiling falling in and documented it all with photos but it was in habitable. Airbnb said my claim was unjustified. When we reached a settlement they twice miss processed and didn’t give me my full refund. THEY NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED!!

  163. I am a host. My guest contacted Airbnb to report that a piece of my sliding door in the bedroom was disassembled. Then this happened: Airbnb sent me a message that my 60 square meters apartment is MAYBE (they didn’t had documentation like photo evidence or something) wrongfully listed as an apartment and it’s MAYBE a studio (!) and if there is a new future report about the same issue my apartment will be DELETED from the listing and the platform! I contacted my guest and she denied that she has reported these things. She was just reported a broken door. After this the Airbnb’s clerk vanished from the chat and another clerk with a difficulty in English took his seat and apologized. I lost my sleep for nothing.

  164. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER EVER! I AM OWED A REFUND, KEEP GOING AROUND AND AROUND WITH THEM, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING, OUTSOURCED 3RD PARTY COMPANY THAT KEEPS TELLING ME LIES, WON’T GIVE ME ANY CONTACT NUMBERS OR NAMES FOR AIRBNB, FILED A FORMAL COMPLAINT WITH THE BBB, EMAILED FEO BRIAN CHESKY, 1ST AND LAST TIME I WILL EVER USE THEM, VACATION RUINED AND I HAVEN’T EVEN GONE ON IT YET! STAY AWAY FROM AIRBNB!

  165. Long story short you deactivated my account for no reason. I just booked with AirBnB just last month and have been for 5 years! Went to book again and boom my account was deactivated.

    I tried calling customer service and was literally told “there’s nothing I can do for you” and was HUNG UP ON! No one will help me. No one has answers. I can’t get a supervisor, nothing. Absolutely horrendous service and business.

  166. In the event there is ever a class action suit I’d very much like to be listed as a party. Less then 12 hours before our check in the host is trying to change the price dramatically. I went ahead and paid it because we have no other options and it’s last minute. The host canceled anyways citing that I broke a rule by being disrespectful to the host by asking ; “where EXACTLY is the language that you can increase the price” just to put it back on the market at a higher rate (double dipping) and Airbnb support services is MIA. I’ve called twice with no resolution. They’ve said they will not refund me because the host cited to a rule being broke. They have access to the entire conversation no where was I disrespectful. Being offended by the use of capital letters and questioning the last minute upcharge hardly seems disrespectful. Airbnb rep literally told me well maybe it is offense in her opinion. What about the customers opinion. This seriously blows my mind.

  167. There was a mold in my Airbnb which I had rent for 3 months out of country for family health issue. When the mold was found it the property I opened an issue with Airbnb and with the host to resolve the mold issue. Airbnb support replied after a day passed and they kept giving the ticket to their colleagues passing through issue around. I felt like I was explaining the issue over and over as if they can’t see the open ticket chain messages. Then they went cold for a couple of days. When I requested a response, they called me while I was in a business meeting. When I couldn’t pick up the phone, they cancelled my reservation without consulting with me. I just got a notification at 7am that I have to check out at 10am on the day. I was confused how this is possible. The support supposed to help with the problem not make the worse. I was scared that I would be homeless at a foreign country. I asked to reinstate the reservation, and they still have not responded to my request.

  168. Easily the most frustrating and terrible customer service I have ever had. i’d rank them below the DMV and cox communication. They 100% don’t give a shit about their hosts or travelers.

  169. I am a host and one of my guests admitted to breaking the dining room chandelier and stated they would pay for it. I sent a request with pictures and emails from the guest admitting she broke the chandelier for reimbursement through Airbnb and the guest refused to pay $506 for the cost of the chandelier and the labor to install it. Airbnb said not to worry that their host insurance would pay for it. After numerous calls to find out what was going on and being told the matter was being “escalated,” I received an email from Airbnb stating they were not going to pay for it! If Airbnb would pay for something that was clearly the guest’s fault and the guest admitting fault, what will it be like for other items lost and broken that people don’t admit to? Airbnb is not to be trusted–horrible customer service!!!

  170. Customer service is terrible. Will never use Air Bnb again. So tired of big businesses that have protocols they cannot move around.

    I am looking after a friends account who is on the other side of the world on vacation.

    Guest is trying to book but had a question and asked about a trade. Air bnb flags it but expects a response within 24 hours. Cant move forward. Call Air BNB. No help as they want to verify the account. I give 3 of their answers and the fourth is a birthday. I have the year of both account holders but cant help me.

    I ask, I dont actually need you to verify and get into the account, I just need to know how to move around this problem. Tell me how to do that. Can’t help.

    Worthless customer service. Wont ever use again

  171. Yes, terrible experience with customer service. I had bed bugs in the bed, and had the bites on photos to prove it plus pictures of the black spots on the sheets. However, they were told there were mosquitoes. Not true, there are no mosquitoes on the second floor of house in the middle of a city. Really! So no refund, or anything. Just told I would be disconnected. Terrible service. My bites lasted for a month.

  172. I am a SUPERHOST with AirBnB. Do you think I would get any special treatment or help when needed? NO! It took over 3 weeks to resolve one minor issue that left us dead in the water with NO INCOME. I made phone calls sometimes twice a day and spoke to 15 different customer ambassadors (as they wrongfully call them). If your employer dumped you for 3 weeks with no pay without so much as a reason why, — gee, would that make someone angry? I was promised return phone calls, “expediting”, “urgent messages” and so on. All lies! I’ve never experienced worse customer service. They beat cable companies, utility companies, cell companies and the DMV as the worst ever! I’m embarrassed to be an AirBnB super host. Could VRBO be this lousy at their job?

  173. THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE AND DO NOT PROTECT THEIR CUSTOMERS/HOSTS. OMG does anyone know how to get to a senior executive at Airbnb? Worst experience with a guest that I had to evict. While it was bad, it could have been so much worse had the guests decided to not leave. At one point I was sent a message that the guest was refusing to leave and that I would have to cancel and pay her $10K. Over my dead body! Seriously! She had rented for 4 months. Unfortunately there isn’t a way to predetermine if your guests is losing their cognitive abilities, doesn’t believe in washing clothes, , damage walls and turn your rental into nothing short of a homeless camp. The smell is unbelievable and everything that can’t be washing many times will have to be replaced i.e. cushions on chairs and couch. At first I thought I was helping out but then I realized I had turned into an independent nursing home and instead of going home to take care of my aging Mom, I would be staying to protect my property. Every day that I had to help her figure out how to put AC or heat on or repeat where she could store clothes, or explain the parking or rules for leaving the property, I gagged from the smell. I thought it was urine, but my neighbors have confirmed it’s embedded body odor. In two weeks! When I finally put my foot down it got nasty with not just her but her son who lives in the same town. When she would leave, which wasn’t that often, but heat was moved up as high as it could go and hot reading lamps and all lights left on. I was told I couldn’t legally go in and turn them off! The rep who took my case never called me but once, which I missed picking up by a second, notified her to call back but silence. I asked for supervisor and was told in 3 hours….never. I called and said that out of safety concerns I needed to go in and turn off the lamps, but no one ever called or messaged me back. I felt like they cared for this woman as she had many calls, but I never talked to anyone unless I called and explained the situation over and over to someone somewhere in the world who read from a script and barely spoke English. I’m not sure that being a Super Host gets you anywhere. I want to write a terrible review, but I’m afraid of retribution from the son who came and picked her up. This has been a real nightmare. Does anyone have someone in the US that has power to resolve these issues? I will be researching VRBO but not sure they are any better, but I just never want to go through this ever again. Not worth it. Worse than dealing with a cable company! And this is your property you have no rights to protect and Airbnb defends the offender!
    WE PAY THESE CROOKS!!!

  174. Never again! We stayed in an airbnb for 5 weeks and it had a bad odor. I told the owner I suspected a mold problem and he disagreed. I developed a bad cough and upon returning home I had pneumonia, a partially collapsed lung, and sinus problems. Lo and behold a nasal swab showed all of my problems stemmed from a mold infection in my sinuses. I contacted the owner- no response. I contacted airbnb and they said it was too late to tell them! The owner told them he did a mold inspection but he would not give it to airbnb or to me. Airbnb has no regard for the health and safety of its customers if they will continue to allow this man to rent his home. This is absurd and I have been treated horribly.

  175. Their customer support is a scam to exhaust you in the process so that you never get anywhere with them. It has been over a month since we arrived (with 3 yound kids) at our airbnb in Hawaii and it was a full on construction zone with areas taped off. The promised ‘walkout balcony to the water’ was caution taped off and a massive machine blocking the ocean. The pool was closed, the gym was closed, the beach was only accessible after 430, and that is if it was safe enough to walk around too. We woke up every morning to drilling in the units beside us. A sign in the next door said ‘Warning ASBESTOS: Cancer causing agent’. Everyday we woke up there were men and utility carts blocking us into our unit. I almost ran into a saw that was hanging off a cart at neck level. Man holes everywhere!

    We called immediately to get a refund and find a new Airbnb for the rest of our week in Oahu. They spent 4 days telling us they were ‘dealing with it’ or escalating it. They pretended they would call us back. They then sent messages saying we are closing your case as we have not been provided with proof. We sent multiple photos. We requested to send video footage but their system does not accommodate uploading videos. We have been home now for over 3 weeks and I have called almost every 3-4 day and they are still giving us the go around…saying its been sent to this person. There is no upper management team to contact. There is no appeal or complaint process. They said that it is up to the host to reimburse us. The host lives in San Fran and hasn’t stepped foot on the site obviously. HEALTH AND SAFETY was our complaint as well as UNTRUE DESCRIPTION of unit and AMMENITY PROMISED was not available (balcony to water) which is why we paid so much for the unit originally.

    They give you absolutely nothing as a guest and as a host. We are superhosts of many units and they have done absolutely nothing for us on either end.

  176. We bought a property that had previously been managed by a third-party under the Airbnb system. Following the change of ownership the property manager continued to place guests in our house despite specific verbal and written instructions not to. We received no payment and regard thd action of the property manager and Airbnb as fraud. A complaint with Airbnb resulted in their statement that we should take it up with the (unknowing) guest. On further complaint theh told us to take it up with the manager. Airbnb hide behide corporate might and their procedures and processes that we had never signed up to with a property manager we had never engaged or contracted. Evil money grabbing company and property manager. The property is in north Queensland and will never be let through Airbnb as a result if this experience – they could not see how they benfitted from the fraud and refused to do anything to assist. We had ample evidence of what happened including confirmstion from the guest and security camera footage!

  177. I have had the worst experiences with AirB&B. I will never use them again. The rental was a condo and it said it had 3 bedrooms. When we arrived, there were three bedrooms but two of the bedrooms were connected with no door! The worst of it was it was advertised as non-smoking, but we the place smelled like an ashtray. The neighbors’ smoking was so bad, it came into our condo. We all woke up coughing and with a son who as asthma, this is not okay under any circumstances. They can’t say it’s non-smoking if we can smell the smoke from other units.

    Anyone trying to dispute their refund with AirB&B should try calling their credit card company and making a complaint. Your credit card company can dispute the charge on your behalf.

  178. I just opened an account about a week ago to set up accommodations for a trip in October. Just a few days later Airbnb canceled my reservation, citing that I was in violation for damage to the property. Considering I have never even used Airbnb in the past and the stay is yet in the future, obviously they are making stuff up because they no longer wish to be in business. They basically said that’s it, we aren’t talking. Wow, worst customer service ever!

  179. Wow, just because he helped you navigate public transit, your host is trash since he didn’t also accompany you on the bus? You paid for keys to an address. Did the host charge you for a city tour and not deliver?

  180. Dear hosts,

    I had already several interactions with airbnb and they all start well, but the last ones I really identify myself with the 15 reasons describe in the article.

    I had to contact the guests my self and find a new place for them yo spent the night and pay it also. So I contacted airbnb at 19:00 and around 24:00 no solution for my guests problem. It is unacceptable. This was on the 16th of April 2023 and still my problem is not fixed, in fact it just become worts, since they started to cancel reservation on my behalf or on them.

    I will quit the platform probably. Is there a place where we can formally file a claim to them?

    Thanks

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