Payments not arriving to New Zealand Banks

[Kathy888]

I am now missing two payments of almost $2,000 which the transactions history say were paid days ago.  I have been told to check with my bank.  They have charged to evidence they have not been received.  What is a bit of a worry is I have now discovered I am not the only one there are a goodly number of other New Zealanders not paid over the last 10 days yet Superhost support know nothing about it.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kathy888 Non payment is always bad but in truth, slightly less bad as, if many are affected, Airbnb will have to get its act together and sort it out.

A public Twitter approach might help them concentrate on the issue or perhaps one of the moderators such as @Quincy might nudge customer support for you.

[Kathy888]

Thanks heaps Mike's and Jane for being out there and supportive the Kiwi"s once they worked out there were at least 30 or 40 of us affected the community moderator went to her contacts and rather a few of us lite up the host support system both messages and calls and the host community.   If you know any Kiwis you'll know we don't back down on a fight or principles. Then surprise surprise we all started getting paid in quick time and the host community was live with messages as each confirmed they had been paid. Think there was rather a problem and more than a glitch it does not take a fortnight to fix unless you have been targeted by hackers after a ranson by causing denial of service and Airbnb can't acknowledge that it would cause panic. What was interesting was those on Paypal were not affected.  Happy to join forces with you if ever needed. Kathy Jarrett 

[Robin4]

@Kathy888 

Glad it sorted out for you, it appears absolutely nothing has changed since November 2018 when no Aussie hosts who use bank transfer payout method got paid for 3 weeks. The only ones that seemed unaffected were those hosts who used Paypal as their payout method!

On the 6th November of that year we all received this message......

At least back in those days they were partially honest in that they knew there was a payout problem and informed us.....but they blamed our banks for it.

Then 3 days later on the 9th November (after many of us resubmitted a new payout method), we got this email........

Sent with love from Airbnb hey!!!

When we phoned support they were totally useless! Some didn't know about it, some said to follow the 1st email and some said to ignore it.....it was a full on shambles! There must have been full-on panic throughout the whole support structure.....Airbnb obviously had not issued a bulletin and hadn't thought to keep support in the loop!

We all started to smell a rat at this point and many of us ghosted our listings across to other platforms. I didn't want to, I loved my experience with Aurbnb but, we could not tolerate this uncertainty so suddenly I was not just an Airbnb host.......

I became a Homeaway Stayz host as well, and immediately started getting bookings.....

But Kathy, Airbnb  were at least keeping us informed that there was an issue.

Then on the 10th November we got this email.......

Two weeks later payouts started to arrive. We were never given an explanation as to what had happened.

My theory was about the same time we got that 1st email regarding a payout issue we also got another email stating Airbnb were now required by the Australian government to file-share hosts information with the Australian taxation office, The amount of information required meant that the computing system could not comply with the ATO request and general housekeeping at the same time so, hosts payouts got put on hold till the ATO were satisfied......that could be entirely wrong Kathy but in the absence of any explanation from Airbnb it did seem feasible!

So it looks like nothing has improved, in fact from your explanation support seems to have in fact deteriorated even further. What ever Airbnb are paying Zendesk for support.....it's not worth it, Airbnb are being duded.

Any organisation rolls along at the pace of, and is only as good as...... it's weakest link. From what we are seeing, not just here but on other sites involved with Airbnb, they really do need to get on top of this customer support issue! We all deserve better.

Cheers.......Rob

[Kathy888]

Hi Robin well it does sound like very little has changed. Poor support hosts fobbing us off from their homes somewhere in the world only paid I suspect per query not how long it takes to solve. Yes totally keep Tax office happy not the the hosts.  We have book a Bach here run by Expedia really looking into it they have done steal of all the data off Airbnb and already uploaded the bulk for me to proof. Will try to find your listing and that other platform. Thanks for the support.

[Helen427]

Hello @Kathy888 

Did Airbnb provide any further information as to where this problem arose?

Was it from Payments IT or was it an IT issue in general?

How far back was the furtherest outstanding monies owed to other Hosts?

Has the Wellington Moderator from your group escalated this issue further to ensure other people who may have fallen through the same cracks had their ongoing non Payouts paid if it was a hacking/ Data Breach or other unacceptable delay caused through Artificial Intelligence problems?

I'm still awaiting my outstanding Payments/ monies owed that have been frozen in Payout Adjustment processes that were triggered by Guest xxQZHRR9F4 since September 2022, a Guest who was utilising my Residential Address to set up a NZ Bank account and IRD number which was in breach of AML Regulations.

She cancelled part way through her Reservation after she had told me what she had done and I explained to her politely she was not to use my (AIRBNB) address for such purposes.

It's beyond belief that CS are not acting in accordance with their Payment Adjustment Policy or Terms of Service to pay monies within 24 hours of our Guests checking in which CS don't seem to comprehend the chronological order and context of the situation.

As a result my Calendar has now been Blocked by ABB despite the fact it was a dishonest and cunning Guest together with Artificial Intelligence that has created this ongoing nightmare.

As a Host of 5 plus years I am absolutely disgusted with the lack of Professional Standards within ABB.

How would those in CS who have failed to comply with ABB Professional Standards of comprehending what there own Policies are, i.e Payouts are made 24 hours after a Guest has checked in, feel if they had their wages 'Frozen' in the way they have done that to us Hosts?

[Robin4]

@Kathy888 

Hi Kathy, did you get, on or about, the 9th March this year an email like this asking you to update your  payout method?

We hosts in Australia received this email, and it was legitimate. We were required to resubmit our payout method by the 15th May.

It didn't say which countries were affected by this alteration but, we are essentially neighbours Kathy and this could have effected NZ hosts as well.

If it is affecting a number of NZ hosts  this may be worth looking into because the dates coincide with when your payouts stopped.

Let us know how you get on Kathy.

Cheers.........Rob

[Paula]

Hello @Kathy888,

Have you had the opportunity to check if you received an email like the one @Robin4 is sharing? That could be one option. In the meantime, as mentioned by @Mike-And-Jane0 , I will forward your case to the team that can help.

Since we are not part of the Customer Support Team, they should contact you directly.

Paula

[Kathy888]

Hi Paula thanks for seeing the post. No challenge for New Zealand was not the reverification.   It was over a fortnight and at least 30-40 had not been paid. Once it became obvious the system said payment had been made but confirming emails were not happening moderator of Wellington host community contacted Airbnb which likely had the most effect. It lalso ooks like the Kiwis went on the offensive for 24 hours overwhelmed host support with calls and messages and posted and payments recommenced within a few hours everyone was paid. 

If you get to give feedback to Airbnb  what angered a few and I know me was the stock standard fob off by Superhost support. Try article this and oh, no payment should be there in 7 business days now not the 5 days the system says. 

From my experience host support are isolated working from home responders with little support or supervision or ways to elevate things up the foodchain.

Noone contacts host support unless they really really need to.  It's rare they can be of real help.  Importantly the dots do not seem to be joined support respond from all over the world with no way of knowing there is a similar problem being experienced.  The thankyou, thankyou, thankyou for being an amazing Superhost wears thin when they can't help you get two large dogs out of your not pet friendly 2nd storey apartment or contact a guest who has booked for 1 and brings 5 guests.

Hosts have no power we can't throw them out we get a bad review. We have to cancel them and we can only do that so often before your Superhost is done for.

For me with 4 soon to be 5 of my own Airbnb's this experience has me finishing off my listings on Expedia.

That's my rant and feedback really hope there is a way for you to  pass this on Airbnb has got so much right its really glaring when they get things wrong.

[Paula]

Thanks so much @Kathy888 for keeping us updated, and I'm glad to hear that the situation has been resolved. I'm leaving the link 👉here to provide feedback directly, and I'll also make sure to pass it along.

Regards,

Paula