Airbnb's Extortion Policy

[Colin72]

Favorably Airbnb does have an extortion policy in place, and I can tell you extortion is a reality as it has happened to me. 

What Airbnb fails to cover, take note of, or even care about - is going a little deeper the blatant extortion. Airbnb doesn't consider the Hominina or humble apes we are to be a little more crafty than the average. 

I had a guest who requested money from me (demanding a refund for her stay) I queried the request with Airbnb, and Airbnb considered her request invalid. (I considered it outrageous) End of story.

..Not Quite.

You see moments after the guest receiving the denial of her refund, I was rated by the guest. 1 lousy Star. 1 star. The lowest rating I have ever received. So low in fact, I was knocked off Superhost. (I'll save that for another weeks rant, probably when Airbnb support pisses me off beyond my limits)

I have pleaded with Airbnb support to connect the dots on the map, I've drawn it out for them, I've painted it on windows, soon I think I might even send Brian (Airbnb CEO) some good old fashion post with a treasuremap. 

Clearly, I think everyone can agree -If there is a monetary dispute between guest and host and Airbnb votes in favor of one or the other, you should not be able to review a host/guest. 

Immediately the review is going to be incredibly biased. 

Airbnb totes itself and sells promises of a 'Community' where guests, hosts, and Airbnb are all buddies and frolic through fields, sing songs, and share beers together after check-ins  (I've met some amazing people hosting, beers have been drunk and frolics frolicked).

Airbnb has gone big business. Sadly they could care less. Brian will stand up and tell you he does care (He should try hosting year round and not just being a guest) but they are too big to hear any of our screams. 

There are many shortcomings in Airbnb's business model, the way it tries to protect and look after both guest and hosts interests will never be a perfect reciepe, but I feel they have stopped listening.

The Community is dead in the busy hallways and offices in San Fran. Long live the underwriters, VC's and imminent IPO.

[Jerry406]

Well said mate.

Could not agree more! Going through the same problem right now.

[Stephanie-“Star”0]

I was just also a victim of this same extortion and when I called Airbnb Support and had them review the messages where a guest never once complained to me about anything and then a week later requested a refund for a laundry list of complaints of which no evidence of any sort was offered- Airbnb apologized to me and assured me that the person did not qualify for a refund.  HOWEVER they still allowed the guest to post the 1 star review even with written proof in the Airbnb message thread of the guest blatantly threatening to leave a bad review if I didn't pay her.  Worse yet - this is actually the 3rd time this has happened to me, where a guest had a perfectly comfortable stay, was asked multiple times if they needed anything and told us everything was great, only to receive a threat of bad review if we did not pay them.  Is this a new trend?  Airbnb should not allow people to get away with this- they should be removed from the community or at least not be allowed to post reviews (since their reviews are not fair or honest when they can be bought).  Why does Airbnb allow our listing to be tainted by a bogus review when they have proof that it is not legit and the guest is corrupt?