Issues with payments - no help from Airbnb support

[Trude0]

Several hosts in Sweden are experiencing issues getting paid. Payment methods and accounts that have been working for 1-3 years, suddenly don’t work anymore, and they are asked to re-enter payment info - and when they try to enter the same method and account as before, this does not work. i am a superhost and have no issues yet, but my mother (also a superhost) has been waiting since August for payments. She has been in contact with support numerous times, but they have been surprisingly unsuccessful in solving the issue. I can see from Swedish Facebook forums that several others have the same issues. 

Is this a widespread problem that happens in many countries?  Any ideas why this is suddenly occuring, out of nowhere?

One thing is for sure: If ”technical issues” suddenly stop my payments, and support are not able to help me, I will block my calendar, and cancel all existing bookings - no way will I accept to continue to host, if the money that guests pay, will pile up at Airbnb!

[Sharon1014]

@Trude0   Oh dear, it's happening again.  So sorry to hear about this.  Go to Twitter and make a fuss.  And read this thread below, get back to the host community if you and other hosts in Sweden don't have any resolution within a week. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/A-family-in-Chile-has-got-nothing-to-eat/m-p/1357935#M29543...

CS are unlikely to be of any use whatsoever.  They are an outsourced operation and don't have any authority over payments.  You need to be speaking to an actual direct employee of Airbnb as they seem to be the only ones with authority to progress/resolve payment matters.  I have tagged some of the CC mods also to see if they can help.

@Katie @Nick @Lizzie 

[Nick]

Hi @Trude0 I'm one of the community managers here and came across your post. Will send you a DM now with an update. 

[Trude0]

@Sharon1014 : Update: 3,5 weeks later there is no solution. The host I mentioned has now “tried everything”, but still no money since August. @Nick has tried to push. Someone tried calling once, she missed the call and they haven’t called again. She is given nonsense messages to try again things she’s already tried. Then it looks like it is working, they try to send a small ”test amount”, and then claim she will have her money within a week. Then another message saying ”no, sorry, didn’t work”. I checked with other Swedish hosts in a Facebook forum, many have had similar issues, that have finally been solved, after much hassle. Some had to change account, change bank, change to paypal - and for some, it miraculously suddenly started working again, with the same account as before. No indication of what caused the issues in the first place. Some hosts are starting to get suspicious about the whole thing. 

[Sharon1014]

@Trude0  Sorry to hear this, but not in the least surprised unfortunately.  Seems to be the company's MO, just messing hosts around endlessly like this.

@Nick   Can you please follow this up again and make sure it gets resolved properly this time?  Many thanks.

[Trude0]

Update: Another month has gone by. No solution yet. Nobody at Airbnb seem to be working to solve this issue, and the money belonging to my fellow host in Sweden, still sits in Airbnb’s bank account. It is now January, vaccines are being distributed, and guests will soon start booking their summer holidays. Any other hosts out there struggling with similar issues, getting paid for stays that have already taken place?

[Trude0]

Another update: I just read about another host in Sweden, who has not been paid since 2019! All of his earnings from 2020 are sitting in Airbnb’s account, he says. He says that  he has tried at least 20 times during 2020 to update payment info. And that he has spoken to someone at/representing Airbnb, who confirmed that everything now looked OK and the money earned should start coming. Then, nothing. He tried again a few days ago, with a new account (but the old one had been working perfectly for a long time, until it suddenly didn’t.) There are a number of Swedish hosts now discussing alternative partners to Airbnb, thinking of switching before the high season (May-Sep).

[Trude0]

Another update: The host who has been trying to get paid since August, has now been on the phone with Airbnb 3 times in the latest couple of weeks. (From Sweden to the US, and she had to make the calls, Airbnb did not call her, so she’s now worried about her phone bill...)

They asked her to contact her bank, to check if the bank had (for some reason...) put a block on payments from abroad. They had not, of course, everything looked ok from their side - just as it did during the more than one year when the Airbnb payments to this bank account were working perfectly.

Airbnb now (again) claim that everything now looks ok, and the host should receive the long awaited money they owe her, by the 22nd. This is not the first time they have claimed this - but let’s hope that the money really comes this time. To be continued...

[Trude0]

Update:

The host in my original post, finally received her money. ”Only” 6 months after she should have, only after numerous attempts to re-enter her bank account, so many calls, messages to customer service, and kind attempts by members of this forum to get attention to the case.

The case was not solved the way she preferred, i.e by successfully re-entering the bank account that was previously working perfectly. Instead she had to enter a different account, one she would prefer not to use for this. And she has not received any explanation as to why this problem occured, and why she had to wait 6 months to get paid.

But she got paid, and is therefore now accepting bookings for summer.

Never give up!