Flawed ID Verification System, and Very bad Customer Service

[Ruben518]

I made 2 bookings a year ago, for a holiday in September/October this year. These were both paid in full and approved by the hosts.

When tried to maka another booking last night, I was asked to go throguh the ID Verification process. I happily obliged and went through the steps on their app. Photographing front and back of my driving licence and then a "selfie". After that it stated that my ID could not be verified and there was a button that said "resubmit". I did this and the 2nd time it went through correctly.

However, by that time AirBnB cancelled all my bookings which means my holiday is completely gone. On top of that I got only partially refunded (I lost £284.92 ($351.76)), as the system noted it as "cancelled by guest".

When I called the customer service they said they understood my issue, but said this was completely my own fault. However this is in no way my fault, this is their system and AirBnB fail to take responsibility.

How can an organisation (that gets most of it's customers and income related to holidays) be so unreliable? I don't dare to use AirBnB, they aparently can just cancel your trips for now reason and losing your money.

I'm now desperetately try to rebook, my flights are all paid for so I really need accomodation. The accomadations are now more expensive and I already lost £284.92 ($351.76). AirBnB refuse to help in any way, not even to contact the hosts to say there was a mistake.

[Pat271]

@Ruben518 

This is just horrible. Please call Airbnb again, you might get a CS agent with a clue next time.

@Bhumika  Can you nudge someone about this?

[Bhumika]

Hi @Ruben518 ,

Did you manage to resubmit a valid id within the 12-hour time frame? I also wanted to share this resource that outlines similar circumstances: here.

Meanwhile, I will also reach out to the Support team, if they can look further into your situation and assist. Although, I cannot promise much about the resolution, hope that your concerns are addressed. 

Thanks @Pat271 for tagging me here! Really appreciate you looking out for other members.

[Ruben518]

Hi @Bhumika ,

Thank you for your response, and thank you @Pat271 !

I managed to resumbit a valid ID within 20 seconds of the first attempt.

Just to be clear, I did not have a valid ID in the system. This was not required when I made those 2 bookings last year. It's only when I wanted to make a 3rd booking (last Saturday) that it asked me for a Government ID. I used my driving licence and made a "selfie" as requested. Following that there was a note that said that my ID could not be verified (presumably because the selfie wasn't that great) and I pressed the option to resubmit. I did this, within 20 seconds, using the same ID and I made sure the selfie was clearer. This time it went through without any issues, but I realised all my bookings were cancelled after I pressed the button "resubmit". In my opinion this is clearly as system error and what made it worse was that it said "cancelled by guest". That means I do not get my full payment back.

I completely understand why a Valid ID is important, but the system has a flaw here.

I really think  bookings are "sacred" and it should not be possible by the system to cancel booking automatically without my consent. It is the booking that the customer is very depended on and the one service that AirBnB should make sure they can provide. The rest are all services supporting that one important task! The Valid ID is important, but not important enough to cancel a booking (4 months ahead of the booking). Clearly there's no "12-hour time frame". Also, I never had a message to say that I actually needed to provide the ID.

I managed to rebook the first booking, although confirmed, but I've not heard from the host yet. However, my 2nd booking is still an issue. Whilst I paid that one in full, I did receive my full payment back (due to system saying I cancelled it).

I tried to rebook the 2nd accomodation. Sadly, another snag of the wonderful AirBnB system is that the Host has to accept within 24 hours otherwise those dates are blocked out of the system. Is there no way to reset this?

The host did respond after 24 hours and said he was happy to honour my booking. However, because of how the AirBnB system works, I can't book it. Of course there's the added confusion as I'm trying to get my full refund (£284.92 ($351.76)) back, but I also need to pay for the new booking again. It's tempting to come to an agreement with the host to book it outside AirBnB. It's not like AirBnB is adding any security to my booking or payments.

I managed to get hold of the AirBnB Support (Ralph) and he's in contact with the host to get my full refund back. However, he says he can't rebook my original bookings, which I find weird. The whole thing is an absolute nightmare, I've spend my whole Saturday night (10pm - 1am) in contact with AirBnB and this is the 4th day I'm living in fear that I won't get my accomodation and that I might have to either pay more to book something with a different company or to cancel my flights. In any case, it's already costing me a lot of energy and likely more money, while AirBnB are not taking any responsibility and just hide behind "the system", even though I didn't do anything wrong.