charged for someone else's stay, airbnb won't help me

[Peter3894]

I have a very odd problem. I have a credit and a charge on my credit card from airbnb, both on the same date in July 2023. The credit is for over $500, and the charge is for about $1,000. But if I go to "my trips," my most recent airbnb stay was in May, and those charges were paid up front and were for substantially less. That's the only booking I've made in 2023. My wife has made a few bookings in her account, but we checked and my credit card is not in her account at all, and the dates/amounts don't match either. 

I contacted airbnb via messages on the airbnb website. After some back and forth, I got an email that said basically they have looked into it, and they won't be refunding it. In sort of a sideways way they suggested that someone I know is using my card inadvertently, like maybe I put it on their account, but they are not going to tell me who used it, nor what property I paid for. I was going to paste their email in here, but then read the "guidelines" and it prohibits

• Content that refers to the details of an Airbnb investigation

 So I'm just giving the gist of it. They're basically saying yes your CC was used for someone else's reservation, but we're pretty sure it's a friend or relative of yours, so we won't refund it, and we won't tell you who it was or what you paid for. I do not recall ever putting my credit card in someone else's airbnb account. I use airbnb like 2 or 3 times a year on average, usually just with my wife and kids.

Soooooo, other than calling everyone I know and asking if they somehow used my credit card on airbnb, it seems my only option is to file a chargeback with Visa. Does the community have any other suggestion for how to proceed?  I do have the reservation confirmation code from the credit card statement, but I don't know how to use that to find anything out. Thanks!

[Helen744]

@Peter3894 Its a bank fraud problem . Chances are the bank will tell you ... H

[Peter3894]

I don't think so. Airbnb said it's a legit stay by someone I trust who I must have given my credit card to. I'm just surprised they won't let me know what house it was, or who used it, given that I paid for it. I guess I will have to contest the charge and get a new CC. : - (

[Kia272]

@Peter3894  There is no other company I can think of that considers this kind of elusive, shrouded-in-secrecy answer acceptable. I would start a charge-back immediately. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Peter3894 If airbnb is being unhelpful I would give up on them and go down the chargeback route with the bank. 

[Jenny]

Hi @Peter3894 

I am so sorry to hear about this.

It's a bit of a strange one, so I've sent all of the information over to the team, and asked if they can investigate and get in touch with you.

Hopefully someone will be in touch soon, please let us know when you've got an outcome to the situation.

Jenny

[Peter3894]

Thanks Jenny. As you can read in the thread, I did figure out where the charge came from. I'm trying to ask airbnb if they can credit the card any more than they did, given that the person charged my card inadvertently, not knowing it was in their airbnb account at all. And she then immediately canceled the booking (like in less than 10 minutes). If someone cancels that fast, can't they get a full refund? I've asked airbnb via email twice now and they replied once but haven't addressed this question at all.

[Peter3894]

OK, I learned the story behind this charge. Through Bank of America I was able to get detailed purchase information, which included the name of a family friend who we traveled to Hawaii with I believe in Dec 2018. Our 2 families stayed in a large airbnb together. Apparently I must have put my credit card into her airbnb account, and it's stayed there to this day. But it still doesn't make complete sense because I know I've gotten a new Bank of America CC since then, I think more than once, due to bogus charges over the years. And at minimum the expiration date has changed since then.

Anyway, I reached out to our friend and she responded. The reason there is a charge and a credit, is she booked a stay, and then the same day realized it wasn't on her credit card. She asked her kids and her nephew and none of them recognized the card number because it was mine. Not knowing whose card she had paid with, she immediately canceled the booking, but only got a partial refund. That's why my card had a charge and a credit from airbnb for the same date. She apologized, said she removed the card from her account on the day she canceled the booking,  and she will pay me back the $450ish on payday.

But she is a teacher and the sole breadwinner in her family and has 6 kids and a grandchild under her roof. I wrote and asked airbnb to refund more of what was paid on that date since she canceled it immediately, and it was an innocent mistake. But I'm not holding my breath about getting a credit from them. 

[John5097]

@Peter3894 Sorry to hear about that. My understanding is that even with the most strict no refund policy, guest still have 48 hours to cancel for full refund, although I'm not sure about if guest chooses the "no refund" discount option. 

The guest should also have emails with cancelation notifications that might also help with your bank charge back. 

It's best to have notifications set on your banking app that gives push notification for every charge. Then you would catch unauthorized charges like this.

Even if you get a new card if it has the same numbers its would still work even if the three digit security code had changed. The new card would have needed to be reported as lost and get new card numbers. If that was the case then the card shouldn't have been charged. You would need to follow up on that, obviously. I really hope you get this resolved. Sucks for your friend but I guess it was her responsibility to delete the card. Seems like Airbnb would offer refund but this is pretty tricky. I'm not sure what laws or regulations there are about using someone else's card for payment. 

ETA: It does seem odd that she realized your card had been charged, canceled realized there wasn't full refund, and didn't notify you right away. I would just accept the payment and move on, and if you don't get reimbursed then it's not a good idea to lend out your cc info. 

[John5097]

Edit: You still may be able to do a charge back if the 3 digit security code was no longer valid. For recurring payments you only have to enter the code once, and if it changes it will still work, but in this situation you may be able to claim Airbnb should have requested the 3 digit code for each reservation as this isn't a recurring monthly regular payment. 

[Peter3894]

John, in response to "It does seem odd that she realized your card had been charged, canceled realized there wasn't full refund, and didn't notify you right away. " She didn't know whose card it was, so she couldn't tell me. She was mystified, but she says she immediately canceled it when she realized it wasn't her card. She said she canceled like within 5 minutes, which is why I'm surprised it wasn't a full refund. I don't think she uses airbnb very often. The time our families shared an airbnb in Hawaii was 2018, I think, so I don't blame her for having no idea my credit card was in her account. I remember the trip but I didn't remember booking it through her account at all. I trust her completely and am 100% sure it was an innocent error. 

I've emailed airbnb twice now asking if they can credit the card more than they did, given the unusual circumstances and that she tried to cancel it immediately after booking it. They replied only to the first email and said basically "We're so glad to hear that this is all resolved." So I emailed again and asked again if they can credit my card for any more than they did. But no reply. Disappointing. I'll ask Visa if they think I have grounds for a chargeback.