Airbnb Rejecting a Valid Tax Identification Number – Has Anyone Experienced This?

[Verah0]

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping someone in the community has experienced something similar or can offer some advice.

I'm an Airbnb host in Kenya. Airbnb is suddenly rejecting my Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Personal Identification Number (PIN), which is Kenya's taxpayer identification number, and is treating it as invalid.

The issue is that my KRA PIN is active and valid. I've confirmed this directly with the Kenya Revenue Authority through their customer care, visited their offices in person, and verified it using their official PIN checker.

What makes this even more confusing is that Airbnb had already accepted this exact same tax identification number. They have been using it for tax reporting and even issued multiple Kenyan withholding tax certificates using it, including certificates issued between 31 July and 3 August 2026.

Despite that, Airbnb's system now suddenly says my tax identification number is invalid and has started withholding 20% tax from my payouts.

I've followed every instruction provided by both Airbnb and the Kenya Revenue Authority, including ensuring that my tax records are up to date. The Kenya Revenue Authority has confirmed that my tax identification number is valid and there is nothing wrong with it.

Unfortunately, every Airbnb Support representative I contact redirects me to the same case manager, but he has stopped responding to my messages, leaving my case at a standstill.

Has anyone experienced Airbnb suddenly rejecting a tax identification number that had previously been accepted?

If so:

- How was it resolved?

- Was it a technical issue on Airbnb's side?

- Was your case escalated to the tax team?

- How long did it take to fix?

Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Alastair-And-Nekoye0]

@Verah0 How did you manage to get it validated?

[Verah0]

A member of their specialised team called me and told me it's now okay after I had called them over 100 times. Just keep on contacting them and hopefully you get a good ambassador because before that no one wanted to help. They all would refer me to KRA 

[Gloria1357]

What changed? Did you update something differently?

[Alastair-And-Nekoye0]

@Wangechi3 Kindly share the process you went through 

[Wangechi3]

Hi. I wrote them a message complaining and added a link to this community chat to show them I wasn’t the only one experiencing it. They then restored it around two weeks ago. I thought everyone’s was restored but it seems that’s not the case. Keep on writing to them and calling and mention this chat. 

[Verah0]

Have you been able to validate your pin on the platform? Mine is still saying invalid pin

[Carol11071]

I've done that multiple times since 5th of August and it still reads invalid. No more messages from Marcus, the airbnb rep who has been 

[Verah0]

Oussama, the Ambassador who was handling my case, has also stopped responding to me completely. It's now been days without any update.

I've also reached out through Airbnb's official X and Facebook support channels, but they haven't responded there either.

At this point, I honestly don't know what we're supposed to do when the Ambassadors assigned to our cases stop replying and there's no communication from Airbnb on any channel. It's incredibly frustrating, especially when we're continuing to be charged the 20% withholding tax while waiting for someone to acknowledge and resolve the issue.

[Carol11071]

I've called Airbnb support many times actually. She's was clueless about the situation and only said she was going to escalate. The escalation resulted into a long generic message with links to unrelated articles. I have no idea what's happening at Airbnb at this point. I still keep leaving.essages on the daily.

[Verah0]

I think all we can do for now is keep calling, keep messaging, and keep following up. Hopefully, very soon, we'll reach someone who actually investigates the issue instead of sending generic responses.

What's frustrating is that Airbnb keeps telling hosts it's a KRA validation issue, while KRA has confirmed to me that my PIN is active, valid, and that I'm tax compliant. Until Airbnb properly investigates where the validation is failing, we're just being sent in circles.

Please keep us updated if you receive anything other than the generic responses. I will do the same.

[Luxury-Anywhere-Africa0]

My issue was escalated to the tax team and Rebecca stopped replying too 🤣! I called again, explained the situation from the beginning and was assigned someone else from the tax team.

Tiago messaged me: "After reviewing your account, we noticed that the first name on your Airbnb profile does not match the first name of the PIN holder that was submitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)."

I called again for clarification because how would the name on my business PIN match my legal name that they asked for in the Personal details section. I was told to change the name to the business name and it was still denied. So I messaged a screenshot last night  and asked for what exactly they want. If they don't reply by 12pm, I'll call them again.

We need to keep calling and until they fix this!

[Verah0]

🤣 Honestly, we’re being taken in circles at this point. They should technically refund the extra 15%, especially since I know it hasn’t been remitted to KRA yet. But another host was told by  Airbnb that we  should claim the 15% from KRA as a tax credit, which is worrying.

We definitely need to keep calling and pushing until they give us a clear answer and actually fix this.

[Wangechi3]

Not yet 😞

[Wangechi3]

Have you received any new information about this issue? I am now just being told the issue has been escalated and then nobody calls back and it goes quiet.

[Verah0]

Not yet. I received an email yesterday saying a specialized team member is stepping in to help but nothing has been done