Help! Airbnb stole my money

Lauren171
Level 2
Toronto, Canada

Help! Airbnb stole my money

Please help me!

 

I had some problematic guests in my home.  The guests reported an issue with my pool but when I said I would come and look at it that day they said I couldn't because they were having a party in my pool 😕  Having a party is against my house rules. Refusing maintenence... is that a breach of contract?  Especially for such an expensive ticket item like a pool?  And why were they having a pool party in a broken pool?? Airbnb advised me to do the following:

 

1. "Try to gain entry at the time you said you would arrive" - I did, the guests ignored my knocking

2. "Take pictures of the party and send it to Airbnb" - I did and the case manager verbally confirmed "they broke the house rules" and that he would call them to evict them.  I spoke to his manager to make sure that was the right course of action considering they still had 2 more weeks left in the booking and they said yes

3. I wanted to confirm I would not lose money for the lost income before he evicted them - case manager verbally confirmed "I don't have to give them their money back"

4. Airbnb called me back, "the guests refused to leave".  They told me this "breaks the terms and conditions". They advised that I 'remove them in whatever way I see fit'

5. I called another case manager and asked again if I would lose money if I let them go.  She said verbally and then confirmed in an email that I didn't have to return their money because the 1) broke the house rules, and 2) refused to leave and that if they stayed they would be trespassing

6. I sent an email to the guests giving them 24 hours notice to leave and referred to the fact that they broke house rules and the airbnb terms and conditions

7. I spoke to another Airbnb rep the following day who said they still refused to leave.  That's twice now that they refused to leave my house

8. At the deadline time they were still there.  I sent them another email saying they had 30 minutes before I called the police and that they were trespassing on my property

9. Luckily they left, but not without horrible taunting emails saying that Airbnb was disgusted with my behaviour and that they were relocated to other Airbnb accomodations and that they have forced me to refund their money

10. I got an email from Airbnb after the guests left saying that they reviewed the case and that they acknowledged I had conflicting instructions but that they were siding with the guests in this instance who had not broken the rules after all.  

11. They then changed the booking and removed $2000+ of income from my account

 

I did nothing in isolation from what Airbnb guided me to do.  I have emails from representatives from Airbnb confirming my rights as a Airbnb Super Host and was told I did not have to refund any money to these guests who Airbnb informed me that broke my house rules.  I would not have removed these guests from my home if Airbnb had not suggested I do so.  I do not feel that I should have to pay for the reversal of the guidance that Airbnb gave me in the first place. 

 

How can you give instructions to someone step by step, in real time, send confirmation emails that the host (me) is not in the wrong and will not lose any $$ but then have one random independant thinker do a 180 from what all of the 10 other Airbnb reps were telling me? How can they take my money like that?  Why is nobody at Airbnb responding to me?  Why is nobody taking this seriously?  Why is the dispute resolution policy hidden?  Why are they not taking care of a 2+ year super host? I have so many questions and I'm stressed beyond all belief.... HELP ME!!!

7 Replies 7
Carrie85
Level 1
New York, NY

This is unacceptable on Airbnb's part. You cannot take back your word to your host/customer. Pretty outrageous and disappointing to read. Airbnb needs better customer service and they need to be more easily accessible and reliable. Ive shared this with several friends of mine who host and rent on Airbnb. Very disappointed to read this and I hope thy do the right thing for you Lauren! 

Neala0
Level 1
Hamilton, Canada

Great scam on Air bnb's part.  With their logic they can tell anyone to do anything and then turn around after and say "ha. You actually believed that?   Sorry. We're changing our mind with zero valid reason except we said so". 

 

Seems legit. 

We actually had the same issue but from the guest side.  AirBNB acknowledged a "glitch" in their sytem that caused a host to confirm a booking even though we only sent an inquiry.  They advised we cancelled and that they would refund the money.  We then booked another house down the street from that one which, had we known they weren't going to refund us, we would have just stayed in the first house.  The host claimed they wanted to pay us back but they couldn't figure out how; AirBNB claimed they couldn't confirm the host wanted to refund our money, but they acknowledged they could see the messsage from the host stating they wanted to refund out money.

 

One thing to watch out for with anyone reading this.  We escalated to a supervisor and a manager over the case manager.  It turns out from later calls we didn't escalate, they passed us around to other case managers who lied and said they were so and so's supervisors/manager.

@Steve708  Dispite the charges with your credit card company. They will do a chargeback to AirBnB and refund your money in like 7-10 days. 

Jess78
Level 10
Eugene, OR

@Lauren171was this ever resolved at all for you? What happened after this? I can't believe what I just read. They owe you a huge apology and a lot of money.

Yes this was resolved but it wasn’t easy. I spoke to 10 different agents over two months. I had conflicting messages and lots of promises to call me back. Eventually, and only because I was a super host, I spoke to someone who was able to help me. He mentioned that Airbnb was growing quickly and there were several agents who didn’t know the right thing to do. As a super host all I needed to do was ask to speak to priority services (I think that was the name but it was over a year ago) and to someone who has been with Airbnb for longer than a year. 

The result, I was returned all my money and given an apology as well as a $125 gift certificate for my trouble. Better than a kick in the bum I guess 🙂

@Lauren171  Good for you most hosts give up to quickly because it becomes a chore to call and request results be escalated constantly. It usually takes at least a month minimum to get results by this time hosts feel it's useless. This is one of the things big companies bank on to reduce their overhead expenses and not end up refunding when they should and know they should.