Account deactivated and all reservations cancelled two days before trip to foreign country. HELP!

[Lionel63]

Hi Everyone.

Looking for some help. My spouse and I booked three different places to stay throughout Ireland for our upcoming trip. They were all booked 8-12 weeks ago and the account was fully verified and everything paid for weeks. We get on the plane in about 30 hrs and we woke up this morning to an email sent to us at 4 am stating that our account was permanently deactivated, all bookings cancelled and refunds issues. We have called airbnb and spoken to four different people but no one can help. they have opened a ticket and moved the priority to "urgent." We can not wait around forever since time is an huge issue to getting new places to stay due to the short time frame. We would prefer to just keep our Airbnb reservations. Also the refunds they issued will not be back in our account for up to 15 days. How can we get through to talk to a person who can help? It seems when we call the usual number we get front line people who answer the phone either from home or in a call center and can not truly help us. We can not wait around for a case manager to call. I truly belive there has been a mistake as this booking has been months now with no issues. Also it said that our account was deactivated but i can still sign in, send messages and also our account was randomly credited $34 on our next booking, so obviously they want and will allow us to book with them again. I'm afraid to try to re-book the places and get double charged. I have already left a post on the AirBnB Facebook page as well. How can I talk to someone who can help? Has anyone else experienced this?

[Mike340 · Accepted solution]

@Lionel63

" I'm afraid to try to re-book the places and get double charged."

Have you sent message to the hosts where you were booked to find out what they have been told?

Are you sure the cancellation email is ..well..actually...real..and not..well..maybe..fake? ..I say that in the sense that your account is supposed to be well "deactivated" and yet it isnt and you have a 34 dollar spending credit and can sign in and send messages....something does not ..well...add up.

This is AirBnb address in Ireland ....  Tel :  +353 1 697 1831

Airbnb Ireland UC (“Airbnb Ireland”), The Watermarque Building, South Lotts Road, Ringsend, Dublin 4, Ireland.

[Lionel63]

yeah. definitely does not add up at all. Just called Airbnb Ireland...they said it is a "technical issue" and will get back to us. thanks so much for the number and info!! this community was way more helpful than Airbnb customer service and way faster!

[Lionel63]

Also I did call all the hosts and none of them picked up, have left voicemails for the ones that had them. also i messaged all of the hosts through the airbnb app but have gotten no replies yet.

[Mike340]

@Lionel63

Your hosts, will I am sure, be just as "shocked" as what you are  ....you can always give them the link of this community post to "prove" you are trying to deal with the problem of cancellation and that you wish to stay "booked" .... 

I hope you get everything back on track .....

[Lionel63]

Thanks!! You have been very helpful.

[Lionel63]

SO we successfully contacted one host and they were upset too because Airbnb did cancel the reservation and they didn’t know until I called them because Airbnb never emailed her. She said it’s very unusual. Otherwise not a peep from Airbnb customer service despite five phone calls and direct messages on Facebook 3-5 hours ago. My guess? Admin who can resolve this or at the LEAST explain this are off for the weekend and won’t do squat about it until Monday morning when they’re back at work. 

[Ange2]

@Lionel63   Click here for all the ways to contact Airbnb  

US   +1-415-800-5959
US   +1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)

If there is no solution for you, I would call your credit card and get them to cancel the payments for you.

[Lionel63]

Hi Ange! Thanks so much for the reply. We conctacted Ireland Airbnb and they said there was a technical issue and we are waiting on them to get back to us. Our credit card has been refunded but the email stated it can take up to 15 days for the funds to go back to our bank account. We just want to keep our reservations so we'll see what happens

[Coln0]

@Lionel63

If the money has been refunded, at least you have one less thing to worry. Ask your travel partner to create a new account, and try to book again the same place, at least try the first place and see what will happen.

[Lionel63]

Yeah it's weird because our current account is not deactivated and still works. I'm hoping we can just have the refund reversed once they work it out and retain our original reservations. i'm afraid if I try to book again that will mess things up somehow and also create more confusion for our hosts. If we get super desperate in a few hours we may try that to see what happens.

[Helen3]

Hi @Lionel63

How frustrating for you.

Have you tried Airbnb via Twitter this often leads to a faster response?  Something like 'leaving for Ireland from the US in a few hours only to find @Airbnb have suddenly cancelled all our bookings. Haven't returned our money, so we are left with no accommodation and no money to pay for alternative accommodation. Airbnb can't tell us why this has happened. Help ".  (And copy in Airbnb bosses as well as Airbnb Help)

Possible causes; your account has been hacked, there was a problem with your payment method, a technical issue resulted in your bookings being cancelled in error (never heard of this happening), the only other issue to consider is in the U.S. they run criminal record checks on guests.

Good luck. Let us know what happens.

[Lionel63]

If it was a criminal background check issue why show up now? I was under the impression they did the criminal background check at the time you verified your ID and again when you book individually with each host. We were fully verified and great and all reservations were made months ago but they cancel 24-48 hrs before take off? 

[Meghan1]

Hi Helen, my host account was canceled and I don't think twitter will help much at this point, but I'd like to hear more about your experience with the responses you got when using it. thanks!

[Helen3]

I really don't know how they do record checks, I'm afraid @Lionel63 as they only do this in the US.