Not paid by Air Bnb for past 33+ guests, over $32,000USD owed, no conclusion or response

Sebastian252
Level 2
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Not paid by Air Bnb for past 33+ guests, over $32,000USD owed, no conclusion or response

Air bnb has not paid me since December 14th. December 16th was the first missed payout. Since then, there is over 33 guests who have stayed and left who I have not been paid for. Today, it's over $32,000 that Air bnb owes me. No one has a solution or definitlive explination. I call daily, because anyone who is owed this amount would be knocking on doors, and no air bnb representative has any clue. They all want to help, and offer their own advice. "Let's try changing the payout account," Let's try changing it back," "Maye if we split them into diferent accounts," have all been genuine sugestions from helpless level 1 customer service reps who are just as lost as I am. I have taken out loans to pay my fixed expenses (at crazy interest rates,) and my credit card already has $10k on it and they raised my interest rate on it also since I have not been able to make payments. I am not a bank, but I am being obligated to keep loaning money to Air Bnb. My real bank, who I need to pay mortage to, and the water company, and electricity company, don't really understand the situation and so of course I need to continue to pay mortgage, rent, light bills and water bills. 

I beleive it happened when for some reason Air Bnb did not deduct certain resolution adjustments from future payouts last year. There were about $1,500 in total resolution adjustments in 2017/18. They also for some reason did not payout some amounts to me. There were about $1,200 in payouts to me that did not go through in 2017/18. But after the 14th of 2018, payments simply stoped all together. 

Has this happened to anyone else? If so, what did you do? What department resolved it? (The Air Bnb reps have suposidly sent emails to both technical and finance, but no definitlive conclussion has come from them.) Is there an email where I can actually reach someone real from Air Bnb (not a general customer service filter,) to help me resolve this? Over $30k is a little serious and I really need help. I can't continue to host for free, and if it continues I can't host the future guests since I'll eventually need to pay my bills from income and not additional loans. Need help : (

26 Replies 26
Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I would start posting on their social media including to their CEO's two or three times a day publicly until they respond with a solution.

Michael_Sarah0
Level 2
Savannah, GA

Hi Sebastian,

 

Although we are not quite as far in the hole as you are, we are experiencing the EXACT same problem. Our last payout was on December 23rd...since that time we have had at least 10 guests...we are owed $4900 right now. We have called several times as well and have got the run around. Yesterday they said it's a "known technical glitch." Today they said we should see a payout on January 4th. We are starting to panic too. Not sure how to proceed. Please keep in touch and let us know if you get any further information.

Hi folks. I too am having same problem. I am owed $15K+ since Oct of '18.  Has your situation been resolved yet?  thnks Brent

 

Jackie148
Level 7
Edens Landing, Australia

@Sebastian252perhaps stop letting people stay as it appears to be getting worse for you just my thoughts

Dave423
Level 1
Edenvale, South Africa

I am a new host and joined Airbnb by recommendation. I have found communication between Host and Airbnb is absolutely pathetic. I too am waiting for a payment. When I eventually got some help through an Airbnb chat site where a consultant promised that a colleague would be in touch with me to assist, has not happened yet. But they can confirm that payment has been done on their side. I was also directed to get in touch with Payoneer who is apparently who Airbnb use for administering and managing their payments. It sounds like a PayPal type of arrangement. I have sent emails to them, had confirmation they received the mails and still no payment. It is very disappointing to be left not knowing and without payment. 

I feel the same as this is also my horrible experience in trying to get a delayed/held payout from the Resolution route for the 3rd time.  Each time was horrible to get a response back.  Each time a rep told me that next time there will be no delay.  One of those times they told me the Trust Department can at times review payouts, fair enough but this is the 3rd time now consecutively and the guest gets charge their card on the 1st of the month and it is now March 12th and Im yet to get information on my money and the last of response, by chat, by email (from even the last reps I dealt with) or by phone. Just terrible.

Jayesh0
Level 10
Urangan, Australia

Hi @Sebastian252

 

I have also been on the phone with AirBnB twice today and a couple of times last week.  We only have 14 bookings that have not been paid out since early December.  We don't open dates on AirBnB for peak holidays because of the inability to change the cancellation policy or it could have been worse.  Sorry to hear about your situation.

 

The issue with our profile was that they wanted us to nominate whether we were a personal or company account.  We had to resend ID and a selfie and complete a form.  You can go to your profile photo then account settings then transaction history.  There was a message at the top saying that we had to nominate what kind of account we had.  We chose a personal account and sent the ID etc for verification.  

 

When the payout still did not come this week, I phoned today and found out that they have nominated us as a business account and we have to be verified in order for the payments to be processed.  We had to give a business registration number and date of incorporation.  They decided we were a business because of multiple listing and earning over $15,000 per year.  Seems a pretty low bar to be nominated as a business but anyway, once the verification is done - normally within 72 hours - you can deactivate the company account and go back to a personal account.  

 

I asked the difference between a company and personal account and no one was able to answer so they will be emailing me later to let me know.  If they will exempt the GST or VAT then maybe it is better to stay as a company.

 

You may like to check if this is pending on your account as you have multiple listings as well and earn more that $15K per year.  I wondered if it was having a connection to Siteminder as there was a message that we are using professional hosting tools but I have no idea what those tools may be other than the Channel Manager. 

 

I just went back and clicked the link about the professional tools and it looks like it is the Channel Manager that has turned us into a company account.  Check it out anyway.  Good luck to you and hope you get paid out soon, Lisa

Hey Jay, i have same problem since late Oct '18, I am owed more than $16K for 20+ bookings.  I have jumped thru all sorts of hoops, and since your situation sounds very similar to my correspondence with A Bnb, I am wondering if your situation has been resolved?  thnks Brent

@Baja-Brent0 

 

Hi Brent, sorry I have been away for a while.  You have to add an @ in order for another host to get your message.  As for our situation, yes, it was rectified within the 72 hours promised.  It took many and I mean about 8 tries to get a photo to go through that they would accept but other than that it was pretty easy to do.  

 

I don't know when they started this mission to segregate business and private accounts.  There is not much written about it on the CC and I am sure most of these hosts would be earning in excess of $15K per year so it is a mystery to me.  Also bizarre to be in the small pool that it has been implemented with as we only do about 4% of our business with Airbnb.  It seems a very slow roll out if so few hosts are commenting on it!  

 

Did you go into your transaction history and see if you had a message asking you to nominate a business or private account?  If this message is there, that is likely why the payments stopped.  

 

If the message is not there then I personally would try to set up a new payout method and be in touch with CS to see if all looks in order.  There should be a deposit of 1 cent or some such amount when they verify the account.  Do you have a bank account you could use rather than paypal?  I have heard that paypal has pretty high fees so this may serve you in any case...  But that is just what I would try - not sure how effective it would be as there has been so little feedback about this new initiative.

 

I certainly wish you well and hope that you get paid out soon.  I know it can be hard to cover pending payouts of this size so I hope others entitled to a portion of this income are not too hard on you in the meantime!!

 

All the best, Lisa

 

 

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Sebastian252 @Dave423 @Jackie148 @Michael_Sarah0 

 

Ah, @Jayesh0's post is finally starting to confirm things.. This is a comment I made on another thread on this issue on Jan 1st.. 

 

I've been watching this situation unfold since the first reports started surfacing about a month ago, and like @Sarah, I also believe it's more than just a primary host/co-host issue, and definitely more than just a "glitch"  In recent weeks, there has also been a sharp increase in posts across various STR groups and forums from scores of individual hosts who run their own listings, whose payments have been similarly delayed (invariably, substantial amounts - in the thousands, and tens of thousands, in some cases)

 

Haven't quite worked out yet whether the two issues are related, or merely coincidental, but the fact that there are huge sums of money involved in both instances, does strongly suggest that the individual payments, at least, may have been temporarily witheld/delayed in order to pad out the 2018 bottom line, in advance of a possible late 2019 IPO. 

 

As regards the primary host/co-host debacle - that's a little more complex but I'd  bet my firstborn that it's closely linked to Airbnb's gradual closing off of the co-hosting marketplace to the majority of small, regular hosts by making it increasingly unworkable for them, and instead, transferring all that lucrative co-hosting business into the hands of its own publicly recommended "Pro Co-host Partners" and the global network of Airbnb-branded "professional" property management companies that they've been very quietly grooming and building behind the scenes since early 2015. 

 

Additionally, Airbnb has been ordered by the EU Commission, under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, the Consumer Protection Directive and the Unfair Contracts Directive, to clearly identify whether an offer is made by a private host or by a professional, and to clearly delineate between the two on the platform, as the consumer protection rules differ for each.

 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-5809_en.htm

 

2. Identification of traders and commercial content

It is understood, from Airbnb’s Hosting Standards, that certain professional providers are allowed to use Airbnb’s platform to offer their accommodation services. However, when searching for accommodation on Airbnb’s website, the search result shows accommodation provided by both private individuals and professional providers with no distinction between the two.

 

It should be noted that under Articles 6(1)(f) and 7(1) ,(2), (4)(b) of the UCPD6 a commercial practice is misleading if it is likely to deceive consumers on the nature and identity of the trader or if it omits such type of characterisations. To comply with the UCPD, collaborative economy platforms should therefore prevent third party traders from offering accommodation/properties on the platform without clearly disclosing their professional motives. In particular, with a view to avoid omitting material information, the collaborative economy platform should, as a minimum, enable relevant third party traders to indicate to users that they are traders, and the platform should inform consumers whether and, if so, what criteria it applies to select the suppliers operating through it and whether and, if so, what checks it performs in relation to their reliability" 

(Source  - Common Position of National Authorities within the CPC Network Concerning the Commercial Practices and the Terms of Service of Airbnb Ireland)

 

The deadline for compliance was midnight last night (Dec 31, 2018) so they seem to be running a little late with that. The T&C's for both European and Non-European hosts have been amended and updated on the site since December 11 though. Everybody should have a look through them. Clause 7.4 is of particular relevance to co-hosts and the co-hosting marketplace. 

 

@Rp @Debbie @Pete @Mike

 

 

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

****UPDATED AIRBNB T&Cs FOR EUROPEAN AND NON EUROPEAN HOSTS, DECEMBER 11, 2018****

 

https://www.airbnb.ie/terms?hide_nav=true

 

Every host - regardless of whether or not they have a co-host - needs to familiarise themselves with the new T&Cs. 

Sebastian252
Level 2
San Juan, Puerto Rico

@Susan17@Jayesh0@Dave423@Jackie148@Michael_Sarah0

Thank you all! The input and help have been really fantastic. I've been a host for years but this was the first time using the community board and it has been very helpful. The detailed response have been great. Again, thank you to all. 

 

Update:

Several hours after the first responses to my post on the community board gained traction I saw the biggest bulk of the payout come though. Then, several days later, I saw the remaining amount come though. The smaller remaining amount was a series of host/co-host payouts, only totaling under several thousand $$. The timing of this could have been a coincidence, since I don't want to diminish the help of the Air bnb phone customer service reps who were helpful and sympathetic to my calls. However, seeing an immediate positive outcome from me posting on this board really gave me a huge relief and I'm very thankful to whoever or whatever helped made this happen.  

Hi Sebastian, and thanks for your, and everyone else's posts related to your situation.  I too, have not been paid....since late October of last year.  I am owed $16,000+ for over 20 bookings.  I lost a booking of $2500 as well since it was a holiday booking, and at that time Air BnB owed me over $5000, and while trying to resolve an alternative payment option with the guest, Air BnB canceled the reservation!   Since my wife underwent cancer surgery at the same time AND i own a Christmas tree farm for 51 years (12,000 visitors every year); I couldn't further address during that quagmire.

 

The first Air BnB customer service rep absolutley insisted that it was Paypal's fault, even though my Abnb account showed the funds were pending for past due rentals, but never disbursed. She got downright beligerent with me which was unusual, since it made no sense. So i filed a complaint with Paypal, and they proceeded with an investigation.  Obviously that went no where. 

 

Like others A BnB insisted that i must be some type of corporation and needed to provide the relevant information. I am an attorney as well, and found that requirement spurious at best. And legally entangling if not onerous.  I am not incorporated for the purposes of A BnB and to falsify such information in order to be paid, is incriminating as well. 

 

Due to Christmas tree biz, i waited til after holidays to further resolve, including re-verification via passport, personal info etc.  I have gone thru probably 4-5 reps since Jan 1. They are all nice enough but like others, no resolution. The latests one, "Hailee" sounds sincere, insists I have done everything I need to do, and the "glitch" is on their side.  I just need to be "patient".  This has been the recommendation of the last 3 in a row, that I wait 72 hours (3 business days, whatever that means to A BnB).

 

I find it noteworthy, that one time last summer, i had a guest complaint that I failed to respond to within 1 hour. Finally when i did (90 minutes after first received) the customer rep scolded me, gave a partial refund for a petty grievance, and penalized me right away, BECAUSE i had not responded within an hour!  MEANWHILE i have payments that are now closing in on NINETY DAYS LATE! Like others have noted, I continue to service the guests, pay my cleaning services their fees ($2000 and climbing), as well as other related expenses to keep things open. 

 

I didn't mean to go on and on here, as my BASE QUESTION is should i start another thread, like this one or hope someone picks this up on this thread?  My goal of course is to get paid like you apparently succeeded to do so. 

 

 

sorry, i meant to add thanks for any help you can provide B