Fraud

Valerie-and-Alex0
Level 2
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Fraud

Dear All , 

After 8 years of super  host  I am  so disappointed   to find out  how  we ( the  hosts)  are  nothing  in this world of Airbnb .

In 8 years and always 5 stars  here  is  what airbnb  is  accepting  from  their " support " 

Few days ago , I called  airbnb for advices as my guest  had created  a huge  problem  in our building . Bringing prostitutes  and not paying them , one of them  had done  such a scandal  that  the police came  to  our door . As it happened  outside of  the unit , airbnb  has decided  to say  that  the guest  did  not  do anything  wrong  with airbnb  policy . They " investigate " because  the guest  said  that  men with gun tried  to enter in our unit ? and  airbnb  sent me an email : saying email "threat " . The girl never asked  for the police report  or any other proof  like  affidavit  from all witnesses . Short  story , i decided  to propose  our guest  to  cancel  his long term  reservation and i will refund the difference if he leaves  now .

He  accepted as he would  never  be able  to come with a prostitute  i guess , he send me a request  to change the check out  date . As i am  an honest  person , i saw  that  he would be charged  the full amount  so i accepted  the changes  and i call Airbnb  to  let me know  how to refund  what i proposed . 

I received  an email  saying that all was resolved  and i will be debited  x amount . 

1. i never  authorized  airbnb  to do the  refund 

2. the support  person  just calculated  the refund  based  on the long term discount  when  i said  that i offer  the refund based on the  5 days  stayed  regular price .  what i received  does  not even  pay  for my costs .

 

I answered  many times  to airbnb support , the investigation  team  did not even  follow up  with me  and  i  still received a standard  answer  that all amount  will be  debited on my account  .....what  they did . 

 

This is a FRAUD . my policy  is  full payment  after check in   .. if i decided  to  refund  it is my choice  and ... now i discover  that i should have  done  myself   a " refund  your guest " 

 

How  can we let  those people  doing whatever  they want without consequences ?  Disappointed   is definitely  not the right word  for  what  i feel right  now . 

Please  help  me  by telling me  where  to complaint or/and where  to write  because  of course  when  you have a nice exchange  with support  they  are sending  you a survey  about  it , but  when  they are doing something  wring  you never  got  a survey  to tell what  is wrong . 

 

I already  posted on  facebook  but  would  like to go further  with much  more . 

Thank  you all for the  help  you may  giving me 

Valerie

4 Replies 4
Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Valerie-and-Alex0 

It all starts by using the wrong procedure to shorten the reservation.

Instead of the guest sending you a change request, you (as the host) should have created the change request yourself. The changeform gives you the option to amend the calculated price to what you (the host) think is a fair deal.

 

How Airbnb handled the case is still a dispute, next time better stay in control yourself.

Thank you Emilie  for your advice .

However , I called airbnb to let  me know  how I could  do that  UNFORTUNATELY one more time wrong answer  from support . i should have remember  that  the first and unique  time i needed  help , the support created  a confusion  between my guest and I and i struggled  to get back a normal relationship . 

 

It would be  nice  to  receive  survey  when you have  a bad  experience  with support , but  it never happen , you only get  survey  when everything  is ok ... what a surprise . 

 

But thanks  any  way  at least  I learn  something  . 

Helen3
Top Contributor
Bristol, United Kingdom

Sorry for your experience. Do leave an honest review of this guest to warn future hosts @Valerie-and-Alex0 

Paresh3
Level 3
Budapest, Hungary

@Valerie-and-Alex0 I am sorry to hear of your experience, but I am also experiencing issues with airbnb support. I have not been too impressed with them, but when I have had the superhost badge, I get told that one has access to 'priority' support. In practise, I have never found that to be the case. I have just had a guest checkout after about a months stay, and did not leave the place in a reasonable condition. I tried to contact airbnb to get some assistance on the best way to deal with this. One is faced with the bots, which is not helpful when you need to speak to someone, and finding a way to get to a REAL person is incredibly difficult. When I did manage to find a phone number to ring, I was placed in a queue, and kept hanging on, so eventually hung up and left a message if they would call me back. No one called me back after 4 hours so, I left another message again.  It is now 4 DAYS later and I am STILL waiting!

 

It is astonishing that airbnb treat their hosts like this, but even that they actually lie about the type of support one should expect from them if one is a superhost. It is disappointing they do not have a formal internal complaints process. Quite frankly, what we are experiencing is disgusting and shameful.

 

I sympathise with your experience with airbnb support.