Accidental booking

[Christopher2176]

I pocket-booked an Airbnb or got hacked via the Android Airbnb app, 5 nights for 1 person for $5136.37AUD. I only found out 15 minutes later when a notification came through on Gmail. Straight away I cancelled it with the Host, she said you need to call Airbnb, so I did, and they said, they would deal with it. Unfortunately for me, Airbnb came back 48hrs later and said the hosts cancellation policy was only partial and wouldn't refund the full amount even though it was only booked for 20 minutes. I lost $2217AUD how does that happen AIRBNB should have a verification code you have to put in before it finally confirms the booking. What really amazes me is that host still get to keep its super host rating My advice is don't have payments linked, only add your card when you need to book 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Christopher2176 If you can't get your story straight re pocket booking or being hacked you are going to lose credibility. The booking process does require at least two confirmations so you were very unlucky if your pocket did that for you.

[Christopher2176]

Good point, but that's exactly why I don't know, because it seems impossible to do, via a

pocket dial  

[Helen3]

Did you go in to make the booking or not surely you would know if you went to make a booking. As a host yourself you will understand the process involved in making a booking . @Christopher2176 

if you are within 48 hours of making the booking which from what you say you are you can cancel penalty free if the booking is more than two weeks away. (As a superhost I am sure you know this) 

have you asked the host to agree to do a penalty free refund. 

[Christopher2176]

 We did ask, but no response.  It's so weird how it happened, l wasn't on the app that day,  and I had all apps closed on my phone, but my phone was on 10min lock screen so  maybe in that time somehow while in my pocket, my phone managed to swipe up to open app page as my Airbnb is not on the home page, (android  phone) then managed to pick the Airbnb app out of 30 other apps, then clicked on reserve on the default listing on the page, and the rest is history. It all sounds like I was hacked to me . I would love to see the IP address of the device used to book it.

[Christopher2176]

 The booking happened on 5th of February for the 12th to the 19th of February.  Being a Super Host I do know how it works, but a 20 minute window between when it was booked to when I called the host to say it was a hoax and we don't know how it happened, seems a little unfair not to fully refund.

[Zheng49]

For next time, you can try booking at places that offer flexible or moderate cancellation policies. That would give you enough time to cancel/change your mind.

• Flexible
  • Guests can cancel until 24 hours before check-in for a full refund, and you won’t be paid
  • If they cancel after that, you’ll be paid for each night they stay, plus one additional night
• Moderate
  • Guests can cancel until 5 days before check-in for a full refund, and you won’t be paid
  • If they cancel after that, you’ll be paid for each night they stay, plus one additional night, plus 50% for all unspent nights

For my last booking, I stayed at a place with moderate cancellation policy. I had a LOT of time to cancel if I wanted to. Flexible cancellation policy would be ideal for me, but with lack of filtering by cancellation policy, it can be hard to find such a listing. 

[Christopher2176]

I never got the opportunity to look at any cancellation policies as it was all done while either in my pocket or hacker

[Zheng49]

That does suck if it happened.

I think the only payment method that might be safe to leave there would be paypal, since presumably you would need to enter your paypal password before it can charge your paypal account.

I would remove the cards just in case. 

[Christopher2176]

I was done via PayPal, but unfortunately Airbnb was set to automatic payments, I've deleted all payments now  and I'll only add them when I need to book something then will remove payment 

[Helen3]

As mentioned before it's impossible for you to accidentally book a property on Airbnb that you put no information into the search function for . Particularly when you have to click at least twice to confirm the booking @Christopher2176 

[Christopher2176]

Well there's a first time for everything, and it does seem possible on the app on an Android phone or I was hacked, one of the two, I never physically touched my phone  during  that period, it was in my pocket. Without the  ip address of the device, I'll never know. But leaning towards hacked. 

[Sarah6525]

Christopher-I'm wondering if you ever found a resolution for this.  I appreciate the positivity you exude throughout this string. Something similar happened to me and I'm feeling extremely let down by AirBnB.

 I opened AirBnb app while traveling, put my phone in my purse (not sure if it was locked or not) and was surprised to later to get a text confirming my 5 nights stay,  6000 miles from my location-booked for the next night. Charge was ~$2800 USD. 

Similarly, I went through the app, was routed to host and cancelled the reservation. I tried to get back to AirBnB to confirm it would indeed be cancelled and that message went back to the host. This was completed in less than an hour.  The host gave me back the cleaning fee but stuck with their cancellation policy and charged me $2400. 

Unfortunately, AirBnb has not been helpful. I'm stuck in the same loop without resolution.  I filed a fraud claim with my bank but the report said it came from my phone so they dismissed it as fraud. This leads me to believe that this was a featured property on the AirBnB app and a pocket dial. 

I would love to support each other in finding a resolution. The feels like insufficient customer protections if a phone in one's purse or pocket can lead to charges of thousands of dollars.