Bad Experience

[Vibha11]

Can anyone guide me where to complain abt air bnb as they have refused to resolve my complain. I booked air bnb from 27/12/21 to 29/12/21 at Yellow Door house, Mt Gambier South Australia & they deducted money but I did not get any of the details about my reservation. I thought that it was normal as it was my first time booking with them. I made the reservation about two months ahead of my trip. There was a change in no. of people one week before the scheduled date & I wanted to make a change & had a chat about it with the host. He told me to go on the link which air bnb has sent me & make the change but I was not getting any link. This is when I realised that something was not good. I rang up air bnb to resolve the issue. After confirming all the details, they wanted to verify my email address but in their records, it was some other email address. I confirmed them about payment transaction no. but they were adamant to confirm the email address. I told them all my family's email but in their records, it was some other email address which I never owned. This went for 4-5 days. I was calling them every day & wasting my 2-3 hours every day to know the details of my booking as the day was approaching. I had two more families going with us & had responsibility of their stay. I could not cancel my booking as both the installments were deducted. When I asked them why they have deducted the money & not giving me the details of the property, they disabled & deleted my old account where I had a chat with air bnb team about my problem & their response & the host. They told me to set up a new account & I was not able to talk to host & even the host was not able to msg me. On the D day, we arrived at Mt gambier & feeling so stressed & embarrassed as everyone as asking us about the address which we, over selves, did not know. we were somehow able to see the street name with the house description & went around the street,  knocking people & asking about the property which was very stressful & wasted a lot of time.

[Huma0]

@Vibha11 

I have never come across any complaints department or procedures at Airbnb. You would think that such a thing does exist but they make it very hard to find! Perhaps some other hosts know how to reach a complaints department...

Alternatively, there are often external agencies/ombudsmen that you can lodge your complaint about Airbnb with, but that will depend on your location. 

However, you have not said what your objective is here. Do you just want to complain about how the situation was handled? It does sound like a nightmare, but Airbnb customer support is very hit and miss, so the poor level of service you received is not uncommon. Of course that doesn't make it okay.

Or, are you hoping for some sort of compensation? I really doubt you would get that as it sounds like you managed to find the Airbnb and complete your stay (not sure if you were able to sort out the additional fees for extra guests, if there were any, with the host). I am pretty sure Airbnb doesn't offer any compensation for poor customer service. If they did, they would probably be bankrupt. It happens so often.

[Vibha11]

Thanks for your reply Huma. I can not understand how there is no set complains procedure for Air bnb in Australia. I am looking for a full refund as compensation which is nothing in comparison to the harassment I went through. I kept arguing with them  about my identity & literally begged them about giving me the property details but instead they blocked my account so that I could not chat with the host & not reach the property on the scheduled day. This is very rude of them. I will definitely find out the ways to complain about them.

[Huma0]

@Vibha11 

Yes, it seems strange for there not to be a separate complaints procedure. It may well exist, but finding it doesn't appear to be straightforward! 

To be honest, I don't think you have much chance of a full refund if you stayed at the property. However, it sounds like you missed at least one day of the stay due to incompetence from Airbnb CS, so I would definitely try to get reimbursed for that.

[Vibha11]

Thanks for your reply Huma