How to escalate the customer service?

[Peter4258]

Recently I had a bad experience with a Host who intentionally breaks several Airbnb rules at once:

1, requires security deposit to be paid outside of airbnb/directly via bank,

2:  requires extra contract to be signed before checkin with extra fees for cleaning while the cleaning fee is already included in the price,

3: requires communication via whatsapp (probably because they know that what they are doing is wrong...)

4. Eventually, they also provided the checkin info 2h later/after the intended arrival and there were issues with the apartment...

I found all this suspicious, so requested the communication to be held via Airbnb chat only and contacted the BnB support to cancel the stay and get a refund, a day before the start of the trip. That was denied, because host manages their listing via API connected software. All other violations of the Airbnb rules by the host were ignored.

After the trip, the host accused us of breaking something and wants to charge 30eur for the fix. While this amount of money isn't important for me, I want to make sure this kind of host behavior isn't allowed. I made several more attempts with the customer service, to get the refund (I am still waiting for the return of the deposit) and all my cases are dismissed. How do I please escalate all this to some real customer service please? 

Thanks, Peter

[Shirley26 · Accepted solution]

No. 1 Always  always do ALL communication via AirBnB's. app.  When communication is done outside of AirBnB's app, I don't believe they will or have to assist you.

When you do your review for that stay, you certainly want to discourage others to book and explain why.  Best.

[Peter4258]

Hello Shirley, yes, I asked the host on multiple occasions to communicate via airbnb so it's all well documented.

What's bothering me is that:

1. Airbnb allows this host to ask for a direct deposit to be paid to them, despite there are official recommendations by Airbnb for guest to NOT do that.

2. When provided with the evidence of such inadequate requests, Airbnb support does nothing. Cancelation with a refund is not possible.

3. All support cases are dismissed with the same answer: the host manages their listing with API connected software, which shouldn't be really any excuse. The guest doesn't have any idea about this when booking and they shouldn't care neither.v

That's why I am wondering how to escalate this further. Do you have any idea how to do that please?

Thanks

Peter