Bizarre bug with airbnb

Last night I had the fright of my life. I got what I thought was a spam request. A no photo no info profile sending a message saying ‘my girlfriend and I are very interested in booking!’. The next thing that happened scared me even more. Suddenly my airbnb profile opened up automatically on my iPad, but not as a host as I usually have it set to, but as a guest, and it said I had made an inquiry … To my own room, and bizarrely, there was a picture of a couple that were now hosting my room, with the name of the guy who had sent the message moments before. I quickly took a snapshot, and promptly had palpitations, fearing we had been hacked.

I called airbnb. It took some time to get to the bottom of it, but eventually they admitted that this was a known bug in the system, and this happens fairly often. The CSA didn’t want to admit this for some time, but kept telling me, that the guest is a verified guest and you can go ahead and accept them, unless you feel uncomfortable now. I kept asking how they managed to become hosts of my room, until I was told it was a bug they had.

Anyway, by the time I was off the phone, the person seemed to have filled in his profile, and been verified, I was the host of my room again, and I accepted his booking. Seems a nice chap. Was quite a shock though.

I’ve had that happen too (not the bug) but the call into Air, where they reluctantly admit it is a known glitch. Glad it turned out for the better.

I don’t have any bookings until Sunday! Things really slow down summer through November. Not just for me but for everyone in Hawaii.

it’s kinda bizarre how airbnb is almost ocd about not admitting culpability on things that happen. i’ve had some problems on my ipad app but never on my PC. maybe the app is just crappy.

i had a month of downtime but things are picking up for sept. time to do something fun for yourself for a change kona.

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Yes, I have had quite a few issues on my iPad, the least of which prices reverting back to old cheaper prices, and guests booking under instant book when that happened, which I had also switched off months ago. Air was aware of it and admitted it, but it didn’t help me. I had guests staying for much cheaper than they were meant to be because of a sudden glitch. One CS guy I got was amazingly candid, which I appreciated. He said that they have major design flaws in the mobile app that they haven’t been able to fix due to the actual platform they designed the website on not being compatible with mobile devices.

oh isn’t THAT lovely?! :frowning: i’ve GOT to get my laptop up and running at my house. i do a lot of my airbnb stuff on my clinic pc but home on weekends i use my ipad.

I do ALL my stuff on my iPad :frowning: