HELP: Host unresponsive, cancelled previous bookings, address listed incomplete, Airbnb unresponsive

[Ana678]

I've booked for a room between August 21st to 25th in the UK's South East; I'm attending a course in that city so it's not like I can postpone the trip if anything happens last minute.

My host seems to have cancelled two previous bookings from other people. He accepted my booking (it wasn't an instant booking) yet never answered my first introductory message. I've tried to contact him again on July 26th via internal AirBnB message, and got no answer. I've texted the phone number listed for him, which is supposedly verified, and got no answer either. I've emailed, and got no answer either. I think the host has now have ample time and different platforms to answer if he wanted to, but he hasn't done it.

Checking the listing, the address for the room is only a street, no house number. The postcode given is also for another street nearby. This is starting to raise my alarms pretty badly, and as a woman travelling alone,  I DO NOT like what it's suggesting.

I've tried contacting AirBnB through the Contact Us page: they say to wait until 3 days before the booking for them to intervene, but since I need to be there on a Monday, that would put me trying to book accommodation at the last minute at a seaside resort over a weekend, which is probably going to be near impossible.  I've managed to send a message anyway, and I got no answer, and no acknowledgement of receiving my message. I also sent them a direct message through their Twitter Aribnb Help account, and their answer was, and I quote "If you have a Twitter account, please send us a direct message to @AirbnbHelp"  Yep, they responded to my DM to AirbnbHelp with "send a direct message to AirbnbHelp".

I am trying to arrange alternatives, but this whole mess is leaving me feeling terribly unprotected as a traveller, unwilling to use AirBnB again, and I also don't want to have to pay AirBnB: they obviously haven't vetoed or verified the host well enough if the emails and texts go unanswered, nevermind actually looking at the property address given and realising it doesn't exist as such, and I would say they are failing badly in their duty of care if, with so many red flags, they are still refusing to do anything about it.

So, what are my options at this point? Cancel the booking and dispute the service charge? Do an expensive long distance phone call to be told to wait until the last minute? Throw a public tantrum via social media to finally have *some* reaction? I am very likely to book elsewhere at this point, but I am growing more and more angry at the lack of response, and more and more unlikely to use AirBnB for the future.

Can someone please help?
Thank you.


EDIT: I finally managed to find the direct helpline for the UK (thank you google cache!). I've cancelled my reservation, I've had a full refund, and they've also removed the listing, which I think is a good thing, considering how many red flags it's raising. One up for AirBnB, but geez, it shouldn't be this difficult to get such a situation sorted out, and they really shouldn't force people to leave it until the last moment. 

PS: I've booked at a hotel for 3 of the 4 nights I needed; and I didn't book for the 4th because they have no availability. 

[David126]

@Ana678

The telephone number for AirBnB would have been on you confirmation, also on the AirBnB web site and mentioned many time on this forum.

[Ana678]

Actually no. I'm not sure how that works for US-based customers, but for the UK, the *host's* phone number was in the confirmation email. The only link to "customer support" in the confirmation email from Airbnb was to the Contact Us page, which, right now, has no number, but a series of questions and gives the "if 3 days before arrival..." answer. For the UK, there's no option to contact them directly, neither by phone nor by message, and if you've got a complicated situation like the above, you basically have to pick the menues until it allows you to write a message. I'd tried that one too and heard nothing back. Basically I exhausted all avenues before coming here to ask for help.

Number I was sent via AirbnbHelp twitter DM was  to the US. Number I found in here was also US-based. I am not in the US, so unless I want to incurr about £20 in international phone charges, that number was useless. 

But it's moot now, obviously the person I spoke to from customer support thought the situation with the listing was worrying enough that they removed the property altogether from the site, and I've booked myself into a proper hotel. But this was clearly something that could have been identified when the property was added to the site, considering the issues with the incomplete address. 

[Christian65]

Most countries have a number to call but look here to get a hold of Airbnb.

Browse through the guides in here that are very helpful.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/m-p/413245#M5...

[Christian65]

sorry i didn't catch your update in your orignal post which you edited.

I most say I've used Airbnb extensively and i've never had issues as a guest. Ever. Airbnb is sometimes more inclined to help their guests in a case of a dispute between a host and guest which you'll learn if you browse through many posts in here made by hosts but they are very considderate towards guests and the entire experience.

That being said, it must not have been pleassant being you in this matter but usually Airbnb support is very helpful and forthcoming when you talk with them and the booking process for most people is seamless. 

You could have found the hotline number here or on the Airbnb website and called them instantly and flagged the listing at hand so have them react more swiftly. 

I hope you'll give it another go because it's worth it and once you've done it you'll have a new perspective on hotels. At least that's our experience.

[Ana678]

As I said, I don't know about the websites for other countries, but for the UK, there's no phone number listed, no hotline. If you do a search in Google for "airbnb uk contact number", it comes with the text for this page
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/contact_us
listing all their international numbers, except that the page cached by google is not what you get if you visit the actual page. I strongly suspect we are being redirected to a different system based on our IPs. If it hadn't been for that cached google page, I would still be in the same mess, and judging by the "help" I'm getting here, still somehow blamed for being unable to find the information that the company is purposefully barring me from accessing.

As I said, I did exhaust all the avenues before posting here, as per the guidelines. I had either no answer (through the online contact form), ridiculous answer (through the online help system, which was to wait until 3 days before the trip), catch 22 answer ("send us a message to our twitter help account" response to the message I sent to the twitter help account)...  I just can't understand why the two answers I've got here are ignoring that I *did* take the previous steps, when I am outlining exactly what information I got out of each. What you and the previous person answering are saying is "well, you could have called them", which is all nice and good IF there had been a phone number listed anywhere: there isn't, not in the .co.uk site, not in the confirmation emails; Airbnb Ireland has shifted the whole onus of answering questions to the hosts or their help centre, like a lot of other local companies. And if this is a decission from the Irish branch  then it's a decission that needs rethinking. Because I have managed, but the next person with a similar situation might not be that lucky.

[Ana678]

and just checked and that post you are linking to has a full list of numbers, the post I found through the search was nearly identical but only listed the US phone number, which explains why we are splitting hairs. Still doesn't detract from the fact that on their ACTUAL website for the UK, there is no phone number. 

[Kate157]

@Ana678 My internet search showed U.K. Contact phone number as the first item that came up.

[Ana678]

I'm just quoting myself here because somehow I seem to be writing in invisible ink that only I can read.

"As I said, I don't know about the websites for other countries, but for the UK, there's no phone number listed, no hotline. If you do a search in Google for "airbnb uk contact number", it comes with the text for this page
https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/contact_us
listing all their international numbers, except that the page cached by google is not what you get if you visit the actual page."

I even said above that I used the number that came up there to solve my issue. But that the *actual* Contact Us page for the UK does NOT list the number, and right now mine is stuck in the previous search of "my host is not responding me" and telling me to wait.

In any case, it seems useless to keep going at it. I came here looking for help and all I got was people telling me how wrong I was, while telling me to do what I had already said I did and ignoring specifics. This is not endearing me that much more to the "community", tbh, but thank you for the time you took to answer.

[Ana678]

If there's any moderator or community manager, please close or delete this thread. I sorted it out myself, and all the "help" I got ignored the details I gave in my post, so I doubt this will be useful for anybody else in the future.

[Kate157]

@Ana678 I think you are better suited for a hotel.