New AirBnb user...never want to again

[Amy1038]

I am so angry right now.  What should be a good experience has turned out rotten.  I never have used Airbnb and after this experience I never want to again.  I received a gift card for Airbnb.  Having never used them, I signed up, checked out some places, and was excited for the experience.  There was a glitch in my profile which would not allow me to add a payment method.  Because I couldn't add a payment method, I couldn't add the gift card.  I contacted Aribnb several times.  The final resolution was an E-mail.  Even though it was in poor English, I understood it to mean that I could book a trip, add credit card, add gift card which would be applied to the trip I booked...Nope, not what happened.  I booked a stay, added credit card, added gift card yet the full amount of the trip was taken out of my checking account without utilizing the gift card.  So I would have had $200 extra for my trip that I'm not out of because of their glitch.  Also, now I have a gift card balance for a company I have no interest in doing business with.  

[Emiel1]

@Amy1038 

Sorry to read about your bad experience. I think you should contact Airbnb again and complain about the situation.

Contact Airbnb - Community Guide [Updated]

There is also feedback option:

Airbnb Feedback

[Amy1038]

Unfortunately I did contact to complain about the event and the fact that my gift card wasn't used for this trip. There response was, almost verbatim,  "Rest assured the gift card balance will not expire and can be used on your next trip. " 😞

[Sarah977]

@Amy1038  Dealing with Airbnb CS is a crap shoot- sometimes you get a helpful rep, more often you get a robotic cut and paste reply.

That is why Emiel suggested you contact them again- hopefully you'll get a more understanding and helpful rep next time. Staying polite to them is key, but that doesn't mean you can't be very insistent that this was wrong and that you should have the gift card credit refunded. Let them know this was your first time using Airbnb and that this glitch happening, without an appropriate response, will lead you to never use Airbnb again and warn all your friends not to.