I am currently dealing with a nonpayment problem with Airbnb. In fact three reservations have not been paid. The reservations have been completed with excellent reviews. I was due to be paid for the first one one week ago today and the other two one week ago tomorrow.
Due to problems internal to Airbnb's new identification verification process, they had paused my payouts. Note: I provided all information and am completely without fault in this mess. I was aware of the issue and did everything I could to resolve it prior to these reservations so there would be no problem with payout. Note I have been a host almost since Airbnb began and Superhost through most of that time. I have provided all required information correctly. It seems obvious to me the problem lies with their new ID verification system and they seem unable to work out the bugs, apparently content to let the fallout hurt hosts.
I checked with customer service also prior to the arrivals and was told there was no problem and the payouts would go out. The days for payouts arrived and no payouts. I contacted customer service on the same day. I was told there is no problem shown and the payouts should go out during that day. They did not.
Since then I have been struggling through Airbnb's labyrinthine half automated, non-responsive chat customer service with no result. I have also made contact by phone and had my 'case' escalated to what I was led to believe was a person authorized to release my payouts. They have already acknowledged there is no problem with my account and no impediment to payouts.
But then they give me almost nonsensical blah blah blah saying they have to follow a certain protocol and investigate each line of inquiry with each person who has worked on this... before they can release payment. To this moment I don't understand what she said...and I am a clear-thinking, intelligent person. It was nonsensical. They will give me no estimate of how long this will take. I see no evidence of them working with any urgency. I have no recourse but to wait....to see if the gods of Airbnb deem me worthy of being paid, I suppose. I see no other explanation.
I am finding this to be the worst customer service and most blatantly convoluted, slow, disinterested, courteous -while doing nothing-, customer service I have ever encountered. They appear to have no internal communication within customer service, making it necessary to start with square one on each encounter. There are no replies to questions in the chat. Even on the phone escalated, no one is authorized to do anything including accessing problem solving info or answer specific question aimed at problem solving. It is a joke.
Essentially Airbnb has stolen my payout and at present, I don't see any leverage for forcing them to pay. I am a small business. Not being paid has impact..especially after two years of covid.
What can be done in this situation? Please let me know if you learn anything. Is there some class action suit preparing for those of us being abused in this way? I have people here waiting to be paid, providers and employees. Not that Airbnb cares.
