Hey everyone, I am a host from the Uk and have been working with Airbnb for over three years. I thought they were great and I was super proud to be part of the community.
My issue is this, after a really successful trip last year for Christmas and new year, we decided to book our Accommodation again for this coming year. My nephew in the US did most of the communication with the host so he booked from the US this time.
The cost of the booking is over $6000, so when our local supermarket chain started doing an offer on Airbnb gift cards for 10% less, I had the idea of purchasing cards to the value of our remaining balance for the reduced price. I checked with the other people in the family that would be travelling and we agreed it would be worth doing.
I called the Airbnb super host support team and I asked some very specific questions, 1, can I purchase the cards in the UK and send the details to my nephew for him to redeem them. 2, can I use them to pay off our balance for the trip we have booked ( checking there was no maximum spend per booking for gift cards) I then asked if the ambassador knew or could find out what the exchange rate would be for the gift cards ( how many dollars would we get for the £100 gift cards. The ambassador told me clearly and clarified again to be sure that I would be able to transfer the gift cards for my nephew to redeem and pay off or total outstanding balance owed on our trip.
I purchased the 43 £100 gift cards and sent the details of the first few to my nephew, only to be told the gift cards can ONLY be redeemed in the country they were purchased. I called up straight away to ask for support with this, I was told that the only person that could help me was the actual ambassador that had given me the wrong information. I called multiple times each day and left messages for the ambassador but she just ignored me, I also requested a supervisor call me back. This went on for 6 days with no response or support despite me calling every single day.
I eventually got hold of s supervisor that told me the only way to solve the issue would be for us to cancel our booking and book again with me as the main guest, I told them this wasn’t an option as our host was not going to be willing to offer the same rate he give us. They told me to cancel anyway and they would help me find alternative accommodation. We explained we liked our host and the accommodation we had already booked and wanted to keep them but they said the only way for them to help was by us cancelling with our host. We asked them to find a suitable alternative, with the same beds, rooms and in the same area but they couldn’t. They then suggested we cancel our current booking and pay the higher rate that the host would now want. I told them it wasn’t acceptable and asked for my case to be escalated and they went back to ignoring me for days, I continued to call each day and to leave messages. I even give them some possible solutions to the problem but I was contacted by a manager who told me they couldn’t help me and that they have no legal liability so he was closing my case and would not be willing to discuss it any further.
I have spoken to over 25 different ambassadors, each call usually over 25 minutes. I have been given misinformation on at least 18 different occasions, I have been ignored for days on end. I’m now in a desperate position with gift cards I can’t use and no money available to pay the balance on my upcoming booking. I have also requested the transcripts of my calls to be able to evidence all of the misinformation and abuse iv had from the different ambassadors but despite the specialist team contacting me to say my request was being processed, 8 days later iv still heard nothing.
please can anyone offer some advice or details of someone I could contact about my dilemma???
Thanks in advance
Rob
