I have been an Airbnb Host with Superhost status for about a year now. My home is doing well and overall, I have been satisfied with Airbnb's platform; however, I recently received an offer to refer a new host with a referral bonus of $720. I have a friend with a rental property who was considering transitioning her long-term rental into an Airbnb. I spent hours advising my friend and her husband on this process, shared my automated messages with them, and allowed them to borrow our camera for photos.
I sent my link to these friends. They used said link to create their listing (they have stated numerous times that they are 100% positive that they used this link without any error message, etc). They have now completed several qualifying stays. Yet, I have not been compensated by Airbnb for this referral. In looking through this forum, this is not an uncommon occurrence.
I have attempted to contact the Airbnb Superhost support chat. They have been answering me in the middle of the night with repetitive automated messages, typically at 2 AM, and then closing my chat without further assistance.
When I spoke to someone on the phone, she asked me for proof that my link was sent and that they used said link. I sent her a screenshot of our text conversation, where I sent the link (following which their listing was created in a matter of days), and them confirming that they used the link to create the account. She then asked me for "video evidence" of this occurring, as if one would think ahead to videotape step-by-step actions that you are completing. One would only do such a thing if they suspected fraud on Airbnb's end, which if you are reading this prior to sending your host referral, I would suggest doing so.
I am still attempting to contact Airbnb support (have had to create several new chat conversations given that they have closed out previous conversations), and they are now telling me that the only "host referral" that they see completed on my account was on 1.26.2020, which is a joke because I myself was not even a host in 2020. The referral was made on 1.23.2024 and they created their listing on 1.26.2024. This is an obvious error on their end that they are refusing to correct.
Has anyone ever successfully gotten their host referral payout once Airbnb refused proper payment despite the above proof?
