Email from Airbnb requiring info or payouts will be paused

[Joanna79]

We have recently been sent an email from Airbnb asking us to provide additional personal information in order for our payouts to not be paused.

Has anyone else received this? Is it locally targeted ie. for a specific country?

[Luis-Rodrigo2]

My Payouts are Paused since September 7th 2022

I talked everyday to airbnb support and offered me to escalate my case, i talked to more than 100 people and no one has been able to help me.

No one has called me back to give a feedback....

So sad..!

Luis Rodrigo Ovalle Cavazos

[Ana29572]

Hola Luis Rodrigo, quería saber si te habían solucionado tu problema de pagos, me está pasando lo mismo con mi cuenta y es muy frustrante no poder encontrar el camino para que me den una respuesta.  Si tienes algún consejo de cómo proceder, te agradecería.

Saludos,

Ana

[Quincy]

Hola @Ana29572, 

Soy Quincy y me encargo de dinamizar este foro angloparlante de Airbnb.

Te agradezco que utilices este foro para solventar dudas, pero quizás te interese saber que tenemos un foro hispanohablante en Airbnb, donde participan anfitriones en español. Te invito a que visites >El Centro de la Comunidad<, donde tu publicación, al ser en español, tendrá más visibilidad y más posibilidades de ser contestada por otros anfitriones de Airbnb. Te animo a que también publiques tu duda allí.

Un saludo y gracias por participar en la Comunidad de Airbnb.

Quincy

[Errol37]

ironically I’m in Tulum on vacation but my Airbnb’s are based in the Bahamas. I’m now onto hosting my 18th group over the past 5 weeks with no disbursement. Airbnb owes me more than $20,000.00 and contacting agents everyday has gone no where. They continue to tell me it has been escalated to the compliance department however nothing happens after that. 

[Mike2646]

My payouts are paused, and the AirBnB system cannot update my details (which have not changed in the 5 years prior) Allegedly I was sent an email on 27 12 2021. I did not receive this. Another support person told me the email was sent on 17 December 2021 also not received. I have checked junk + trash, nothing. I called today spoke with a support person from AirBNB she sent me an email with a link. Accessing link = this message in the browser: "We’re sorry, some parts of the Airbnb website don’t work properly without JavaScript enabled." Same message appears on Firefox +Chrome, with icognito - same. Java enabled on all browsers.Using the messaging system on the app on my phone again takes me to the same webpage and I get the same message on the browser on the phone.  I received payouts in November and 15 December 2021. AirBNB has had my money since 27/12/21 Over $10,000 + current booking. Over 30 emails and messages, countless hours on the phone. No explanation. No resolution and no money, just endless platitudes and empty promises. I sent a draft Statement of Claim for filing in the Local Court in Sydney. I have lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. What's the point of being a Superhost if AirBNB keeps your money? 

[Ludoping0]

Sorry to hear that Mike, did you finally get your payout after all? Or are you still seeking for it?

[Bethany-And-Liz0]

Can someone please help us. We are at our wits ends trying to communicate effectively with Airbnb.

We too thought it might have been a scam when we first received emails and messages from Airbnb telling us our payments would be paused if we didn't provide more government ID details.

Our payments are now paused.

We have been trying to communicate meaningfully with Airbnb for months, but we've made no progress. We think many of the responses we receive are produced by robots.

The issue for us is simply that Airbnb is seeking “government ID” information from us that goes well beyond Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations. We operate as a company and have provided all the details we normally provide to do business in Australia. No other business has ever asked us to provide scanned copies of our passports and drivers licenses.

We are now at the point where we think we'll have to ditch Airbnb and switch to Stayz or Booking.com

We can show many instances of Airbnb's poor communication practices. Here's one example ...

"The level of verification you're being prompted to complete is required for hosts who have multiple listings on the Airbnb platform.

Typically, we ask users to verify their personal information as a security measure – this process eliminates the need for individual members of an organisation to provide their personal information.

I recommend completing this step as soon as possible to prevent your Airbnb payouts from being paused.

Please be advised that all users of Airbnb who submits their identification are all stored in the safe bank and this will be highly confidential".
Airbnb Support, 12:21am, 7 Jan 2022

(This is exactly as it was received ... grammar and spelling included)

We are not encouraged to send our scanned passports and drivers licences to an organisation who writes such nonsense.

We've offered to take our passports and drivers licenses to an Airbnb office so someone can sight them and record on our Airbnb file that they have sighted our ID and we are who we say we are. But that is too hard for Airbnb. I doubt they have any people in Australia!

At issue is the ID details Airbnb is seeking from us is enough to enable somebody to steal our identity. They don't need it in order to do business with us and, even if they must see our ID, there's no reason to keep it in "a safe bank".

If you have experienced something similar and know how to overcome this problem please let us know.

[Errol37]

Hi Bethany,

were you ever paid by Airbnd? I’m going  through a similar situation and this is very nerve racking.

regards

Errol

[Bethany-And-Liz0]

Airbnb still can’t respond. They keeping sending robotic replies and won’t answer specific questions.

We’ve stopped accepting bookings and tell people trying to book that we can’t accept their booking because Airbnb won’t pay us.

It’s looking like the end of the road for us and Airbnb.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Bethany-And-Liz0 I can't see any business information on your profile/listing. Perhaps this is adding to your issue?

[Jette7]

Will filing out the info requested mean that the income gets included in my other incomes? I only manage the property and guest inquiries.. ( I do it for family member, the things we do for love hahaha) I don't want to be paying higher income tax on something I don't receive income from. Can someone share ideas? Feedback? Thank you

[Sarah977]

@Jette7  There are several threads on this, try a search here. Here is one that I found:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Who-gets-the-End-of-year-1099/m-p/1128618

[Eldagiz0]

Hi all,

I wonder if it is even legal to blackmail hosts with stopping the payouts to get their ID data and other personal info?? I love it how Airbnb explains it with "security reasons"... I mean I've been hosting for almost 5 years (superhost for years in a row) and NOW Airbnb is wondering if I am me??

I'm personally not comfortable sharing this information. Will have to start looking for other hosting platforms if this is not resolved. It's a shame. Really.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Eldagiz0 Airbnb have to comply with money laundering and tax legislation as well as other laws in some countries. Proper ID is likely to be required by any other platform you find but good luck in your search.

[Stephen1238]

I received the same email today and tried to use the link.
This is what I reached:

Oops! Well, this is unexpected… Error code: 500

An error has occurred and we're working to fix the problem! We’ll be up and running shortly.

If you need immediate help from our customer service team about an ongoing reservation, please Contact Us. If it isn’t an urgent matter, please visit our¨Help Center¨or additional information. Thanks for your patience!

[Paul284]

Have just received by this email and am not happy at all! How dare they? They are already ripping us off! It should be US, the hosts, who should  be withholding Airbnb commission! After all it's OUR properties they are making their money from!

[Emma2507]

My payments have been paused filled in all relevant information. Emailed phoned get told someone will email nothing. I have been receiving guests without payment as don’t want to ruin there holiday. But thinking will have to cancel further ones as so frustrated can’t get it sorted.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Emma2507 In times gone by @Nick has ridden to the rescue of hosts who are not getting paid.

[Emma2507]

If anyone can help especially Airbnb would be very grateful...

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Alex1585 I believe Airbnb have a duty to ensure you are not subject to sanctions and/or involved in money laundering. This would be impossible without your name and date of birth. Place of birth is needed in case the former items match a known criminal. At the end of the day if you do not want to share this info then you will need to find another listing site.