Hi, I had my first experience reserving (well... trying to) a room with Airbnb this last week, and it's been a frustrating experience for sure.
I downloaded the app and found a listing at a hotel that looked great. Great location, nice amenities, decent price. I went ahead and registered my email, entered in payment information, and submitted to book the room. No error message, but within a couple seconds, I got a message that Airbnb was unable to secure the reservation.
I thought maybe the listing had gone unavailable while I was going through the signup process, so I went to the hotel again to see if they had any availability still. They did, so I went to book the room again, but my bank denied the charge since it was the second time Airbnb had tried to run my card in such a short succession of time. I went into my bank's app and cleared the authorization hold.
I checked my bank, and there was an authorized charge for the room reservation showing on my account. No a "pending" charge, but one that had already come out and was reflected in my balance. I checked the app again, and it didn't show any reservation was made, so I contacted support. The support person I spoke with assured me that they had not charged my card, it was only a pre-authorization and would disappear shortly, and that the reason I was unable to complete the reservation was because I had not validated my ID yet. Ok.. why was I able to even try to make a reservation then? No matter, quick process. Gave it time to show that my ID has been verified on my profile page, but the bank is still not showing that the pre-authorization has been released. I go ahead and check the hotel again, and it still shows rooms available.
I try to book a room again, and I immediately get a popup that says "error: null". No reservation is made, but I check my account again, and now I have two withdrawals from my account from Airbnb. I let support know, and they assure me again that I have not been charged by Airbnb, but only had an authorization done with my account. Whatever you want to call it, a considerable amount of my trip budget is now not available to me. I receive two refund notices from Airbnb shortly after this message.
I contact support again to ask how long will it take for that refund to process. Up to 15 days, so now my funds are not available for over two weeks, for something that shouldn't have been able to even get to where it hit my bank.
I wound up booking a room through a different app, but it wasn't as nice of a spot, and it was for a bit more money than the listing on Airbnb, but it at least went through.
Alright, given all of that, my normal response would be to just never use Airbnb again. Too many hassles, and too little empathy displayed by its employees for the situation.. but, I do like the room selection for a few upcoming trips I have planned.
How do I prevent things like this in the future? What steps did I miss? How often does this happen?
