Hi to all AirBnB hosts - I have been hosting with AirBnB for close to 3 years mostly great with a positive experience. Last night I was sent an email from AirBnB to update some of my ID details, which I did immediately. This included photo of my Driver’s License etc. Within 30 seconds I started to receive AirBnB emails into my inbox each one cancelling another of my bookings. One after another they arrived until every single forward booking (more than 20) was cancelled. I tried logging in to my account but couldn’t. The alert said my ID was being verified. I rang the Australian AirBnB number which always and exclusively takes you to an offshore call centre in the Philippines. I was put on hold for more than 20 minutes by a call center operator. I called back. The call was disconnected after a few minutes. I called back again. By this stage I was receiving frantic messages and phone calls from guests asking why their booking had been cancelled. The grief continues. Guests were calling AirBnB and being told that I had cancelled their booking. I was told by an AirBnB operator that I was too young to host (remember I’m a Superhost and have been hosting for more than 3 years) Apparently at the AirBnB backend my birthdate had defaulted to 2020 not even the day I was born is correct. So effectively I’m not even conceived yet. Funny but not funny for myself or any of our guests. From 5.30pm (est) yesterday until midnight last night I was trying to deal with this with AirBnB operators whilst also trying to appease my guests. Next part of this horror story is that eventually AirBnB began to contact each guest one by one asking them if they wanted to rebook. When they confirmed this AirBnB automatically deducted the full cost of the booking for a 2nd time without yet having refunded the initially booking cost. This means guests are out of pocket double what the cost of the booking is. For one guest this is more than AUD$7,000 out of pocket. I DESPERATELY NEED TO BE ABLE TO REACH SOMEONE HIGHER IN AIRBNB THAN AN OFFSHORE CASE MANAGER. FYI AirBnB put a different case manager on to each one of the cancellations and each case manager was handling this situation differently. No uniformity - no one directing them. Any help anyone can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - Leesa
Sos - worst possible experience with airbnb - help needed!
Try Twitter You’ll have to cut your story down but hopefully someone competent will help you
https://twitter.com/AirbnbHelp
If you don’t have a twitter account and don’t want to make one, try calling Airbnb in the US, it’s business hours still.
Thanks I will try. I have done this before and was automatically diverted to the Philippines. When you call the AirBnB call centre in the USA do you get on to someone in America?
Jesus Christ! That’s bad.
While you are on hold, you could also try posting on their Facebook page, if you have FB.
Anything to get their attention.
What would I write on Twitter to get some attention from someone other than a call centre operator in the Philippines
I dunno? Something like, ‘I’m out of pocket $7k due to my Airbnb guests, help!’ … something attention grabbing
Do you know how to use hashtags? It increases the chances of other people seeing your Tweet.
Like:
#Airbnb
#AirbnbDisaster
Don’t burn bridges in the Tweet though. I.e. not #AirbnbSucks
You want to act like you need the company to help you, not that you hate them and are tarnishing their reputation.
I am very sorry for your troubles. This sounds awful. I think Twitter is great avenue to pursue, although I have heard Airbnb can be harsh in these circumstances. They become very uncommunicative.
The software that Airbnb uses to “verify” your ID, ie. drivers licenses and passports is developed by another company: Jumio - and they entered into a “reorganization” in 2016 and I wonder how that effects Airbnb’s ability to deal with bugs.
I don’t have any advice, but just wanted to say this sounds horrible and I hope you get it all sorted out. Definitely let us know what happens.
I have no experience dealing with such a situation, but I imagine one potential solution is to call up each guest personally and request them not to do anything like rebooking until you have resolved your situation w Airbnb.
As soon as their booking is cancelled by AirBnB all their contact details are deleted from view. Otherwise I would do exactly this.
Try tweeting your situation. I’ve not done it before, but I’ve heard quite a few stories, including one personal account where Airbnb responds almost immediately once you take to tweeting.
Edited: Ah sorry I see others have given the same advice already.