Not Receiving SMS Code for Verification of Payout Method

[Dominic431]

Hey everyone, looking for advice on how to escalate beyond a Senior Case Manager as mine has been completely unable to resolve my issue for over three weeks.

The issue:

I cannot add a bank account as a payout method. When I get to the payout verification step, the app asks me to verify my phone number via SMS OTP. That OTP never arrives and I am stuck.

Some details about my case:

1. My phone number is already verified at the account level.
2. I can log in fine via WhatsApp OTP and Apple sign-in.
3. On May 18, I successfully received one SMS OTP from Airbnb for the login step, which proves my number and Airbnb's SMS system both work. Right after that, I tried to add my payout method and the OTP for that specific step never came.
4. I receive OTPs from other international platforms without any issue.
5. My brother added a payout method on his account recently and was not asked for any SMS OTP at all. So this extra verification step is not something everyone goes through. Something about my account is triggering it, and then it just fails silently with no error message.

Timeline:

• 27 Apr: First contact with Airbnb support
• 4 to 6 May: Multiple agents kept misdiagnosing it as a login issue or a carrier problem
• 6 to 7 May: Escalated to Senior Case Manager Carl, who could not answer basic questions like what country does the OTP send from, am I on any suppression list, and is there any alternative verification method. He advised me to wait one week for the rate limit to reset
• 11 May: Carl closed the case thread
• 18 May: Waited the full week and tried again. Same result. Carl's latest response was a completely unrelated message about roaming charges on a different reservation, which tells me nobody is actually reading my case anymore

I have gone through 30+ exchanges with Airbnb support and have been told that Senior Case Manager is the highest escalation level available. I really do not think that is true for something like this where the problem is clearly on Airbnb's end.

What I am looking for:

Has anyone managed to escalate past a Senior Case Manager for an account issue like this? Specifically:

• Is there a direct email or phone number to reach a more senior team or someone technical who can actually look at account logs?
• Has anyone had any luck with CASE (Singapore) or any other consumer body for Airbnb disputes?
• Has anyone experienced the same thing where the payout OTP specifically does not arrive even though the login OTP works fine?

I am specifically looking for any email address that can get me to someone above the Senior Case Manager level, whether that is an executive support team, a technical team that can actually look at account logs, or anything else that has worked for people in similar situations. Phone is not an option for me as I am based in Singapore and cannot be making international calls to the US. If anyone has successfully escalated through email and gotten a real resolution, please share what worked for you. Any advice at all is appreciated, thanks.

[Lazmee0]

Thank you for explaining this so clearly. Based on what you described, this does not appear to be a carrier, device, or phone-number issue since your login OTPs are being delivered successfully. The problem seems isolated specifically to the payout verification flow.

The fact that other accounts can add payout methods without the same SMS step also suggests this may be an account-specific verification or backend risk-review issue rather than general SMS failure. At this stage, requesting, a formal bug report reference number, confirmation of internal escalation, and review by the Payments/Engineering team is completely reasonable, especially after exhausting all standard troubleshooting steps. I would also recommend asking support whether your account is stuck in an enhanced payout verification or risk-review state, as these can sometimes fail silently. Please keep the community updated if you receive a resolution, as this information could help others facing the same payout verification issue.