How do I make a Formal Complaint to Airbnb?

[Helen2404]

There are many help support centre threads about this deceptive, abusive, threatening behaviour, third-party booking requests, UK Covid Travel Quarantine booking requests, How to make a Formal Complaint to Airbnb. All have been closed by Airbnb.   


Fellow Hosts please help,

How do I make a Formal Complaint to Airbnb? I have been asking for help for a month and asking how to make a Formal Complaint for a week.

I have received Airbnb’s email warning me to be a better host and improve my hosting. ‘Improve your ratings to keep your listing active’.

I am very disappointed that what I have suffered, threats, abuse and deception with the last guest as documented in their messages to me and mine to Airbnb but that the situation was allowed to stand by Airbnb.

In the circumstances I don’t think the guest’s review has any relevance to my otherwise excellent track record with Airbnb.

In the circumstances I’d expect to be supported by Airbnb instead I have been variously pestered, unsupported, then thanked and praised and then now ignored. Its nice to be thanked privately by Airbnb staff for my patience, calm and strength but it in fact does nothing to support me practically. I was afraid for my family, my other Airbnb guest moved to stay with a friend and the situation brought me great worry.

Regarding Covid Government Travel Quarantine in the UK Airbnb seems to have no updated policy and I have again been penalised for wishing to protect my family, friends and school bubble by Airbnb for not accepting these bookings. I would mark my listings unsafe for government quarantine but Airbnb say thats prejudice.


Regarding third - party bookings, I have been again totally unsupported on this matter having flagged it up again and again and once more have been penalised for not taking third party unverified and unnamed guest bookings.


My social network and other Airbnb guests have been appalled at my lack of support from Airbnb. Surely there is a complaints procedure. 

Its laughable that Airbnb replies to tweets saying Airbnb will get back to me or has got back to me this week about how to make a formal complaint but then do not follow up. I guess it makes the general public think you are replying? What a ugly process.


Without support where Airbnb takes some sort of action to protect hosts there will be, sooner or later another unpleasant situation which will in fact turn dangerous or fatal.

With this lack of support being I’m beginning to read usual, guests are more and more aware that there is no come back on them for bad and dangerous behaviour. I now see why my guest thought it appropriate to threaten me with “a bad review to shut my business down.” They seemed to know it would stand even on day two of her month long stay.

I will not let this drop until I have made a Formal Complaint as I have been firstly deceived, threatened and  abuse in my own home which made me very unwell. The next day I lost my voice. But then I am deeply worried for other peoples safety as well as mine and my family’s  that having flagged these situations Airbnb has done nothing.

Finally I received an email from Airbnb warning me to, ‘Improve your ratings to keep your listing active’ which proves how little my frightening experience is regarded by Airbnb.  

How do I make a Formal Complaint to Airbnb?

[Anonymous]

@Helen2404   There's no such thing as a formal complaint. The nature of complaints is that they're informal.

File a suit if it makes you feel better, but there's no use in demanding to speak to the manager because there's no manager.

[Helen2404]

@Anonymous 

How is it legal for an organisation big or medium size not to have an official complaints procedure?
How can Airbnb not be regulated? I am baffled. I also find it a bit frightening that this is how Airbnb can work. Something really bad is going to happen to someone sooner or later. 

[Anonymous]

@Helen2404  I totally get your frustration, and you're not alone in it:  more than half of the threads in this forum seem to be products of the abysmal quality of customer service in Airbnb, especially after they fired 25% of the staff.

On the other hand, their entire business model is predicated on evading regulation and exploiting loopholes. I don't have their financial stats, but I would confidently bet that the budget they commit to the contractors to whom they outsource their customer service operation is a tiny fraction of what they spend on legal fees and lobbyists in the thousands of jurisdictions trying to rein them in. In the grand scheme of things, you're a small-time host with a spare room or two in an oversupplied market and they can totally afford to lose your business. How much leverage can you really expect to have with a $75,000,000,000 corporation?

[Shannon675]

Airbnb sucks I've been a host for three years and every time I guess makes a dumb complaint like the one lady who said I use fabric softener in my laundry Airbnb taste their side take you off a listing and threatening to not list your apartment no more I am already looking into other rental sites for Airbnb has not been host friendly taking me off the site too many times cannot make no money with Airbnb I have 2 Apartments rent due on both and I cannot pay it out of my own pocket just because Airbnb has no host support but as soon as the customer says anyting Airbnb goes right with it I've had damages items come up stolen people throw parties at your apartment Airbnb still rent today what is solace one of those same people give me a bad review Airbnb text me off of listing again Airbnb sucks

[Patricia-Anne2]

oh, some very very bad things have happened for Airbnb guests!  https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/17/airbnb-has-secret-clean-up-team-to-keep-horror-stays-out-of-the-press....

[Jackie237]

Most large companies have a complaints procedure, Tesco, Sainsbury's for example and your complaints are read and replied to.

[Helen2404]

UPDATE:
Thanks everyone here and those who got in touch. Its been horrible but I am happy to say that I am off the Airbnb platform now. Listings deactivated. It feels great.
I may have to get back on in future I suppose if our finances get desperate but be assured I will be using Airbnb very differently then and with huge caution.
Now I feel a little conflicted about whether to write to the Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, brian.chesky@airbnb.com (thank you UK Citizens Advice). Honestly I don’t think it will make an ounce of difference and I am a bit sick of doing the right thing and being ignored or abused for it. Ironically I feel a little guilty for not helping more to protect other hosts. I am well aware that the truth always comes out everytime time but I worry that Airbnb’s truth will be forced out when someone like me comes to harm directly because of their neglect and lack of a formal complaints procedure in the UK. (Or any country as far as I have discovered from miserable fellow Airbnb hosts.)
At least tonight I have peace of mind for my little family.

[Elizabeth3299]

Hi Helen I found your msgs while googling for the air b n b complaints policy. Sorry to hear of your situation. I'm a host who's owed £720 by air b n b but can't get to speak to anyone there who can help me. Just wondering if you managed to find a way to contact them and if you emailed the CEO? Thanks 

[Helen3]

Have you tried taking them to small claims court @Elizabeth3299 

[Emiel1]

@Helen2404 

You can sent your feedback to : Airbnb Feedback 

Airbnb is a booking platform, do not expect more.

As a host you need to be carefull in selecting the right guests and also act yourself when things go occasionally wrong. It is also a learning curve which eventually brings yourself in the optimal flow of 'professional" hosting, which i still enjoy to do

[Helen2404]

@Emiel1 

I appreciate you may have had a better experience than me. I was a Super Host myself. And I understand that guests may not always be honest and that they might be threatening and abusive.
But what I am deeply uncomfortable with is:

that my Airbnb Support threads asking for help were shut,

my tweets to Airbnb went unreplied,

there is no Formal Complaints Policy in the UK which I thought was a legal requirement,

my emails to Airbnb asked me to send to them for help went unreplied to,

the guests threatened review “to shut my business down” stands,

I was repeatedly asked again and again to give the guest a full refund and in the middle of her UK quarantine period by Airbnb,

the guest messaging me as a

liar,

a fool,

inhumane,

and refusing to tell me the result of her day 2 covid test have not been noted by Airbnb.

I have been repeatedly penalised for not taking third-party bookings

and repeatedly penalised for not taking Travel Covid UK quarantine bookings.

Nothing was done when I reported that a man pretending to book as a woman with the same initials had tried to book my room with a fake story. I was sent a reply (which I have had a lot) from Airbnb, “sorry for the inconvenience”. 

And then warnings that my score is down (on one room) and I should be aware that my room won’t be promoted if it happens again. 

The list goes on and on. And it means guests who are up to no good or who are unhinged know that they can step right over the line. This last experience left me with someone in my house for a month who was unpredictable daily, angry, irresponsible, dishonest and who in the end tried to sneak out of my home a day early with no notice and no mention of returning my house keys. 

These are only my experiences. What about all the other hosts. Its not safe as its currently run when something goes wrong. There is no safety net.  

[Patricia-Anne2]

Emiel1: Airbnb do not care about Feedback.
And my complaint is not about a host or a guest or a property...it is about Airbnb.  It is not legal to operate a company in the UK without access to a formal complaints system of some kind.

[Damien30]

That’s a ridiculous response. I just went through total hell because Airbnb screwed up, not me. I’ve been a super host for 9 years and they’ve never made such a disaster of my reservations. I had nothing to do with it—so by telling people to be a better host is condescending when you don’t know the issue. 

[Jackie237]

Hi Helen, did you find out how to make a formal complaint, I'm trying the do the same thing? I just been guided to the feedback system which they don't actually respond to. A formal complaint requires and answer from the company.