Surprise, you double booked and sorry cancellation policy.
My wife and I attempted a fairly last-minute, week-long booking, received a surprise but standard looking message indicating the property was unavailable, and reasonably assumed the reservation had failed. No immediate confirmation arrived. The next evening, we booked another Airbnb and received that confirmation almost immediately.
Then, more than a day after the original attempt, the confirmation for the first booking finally showed up — buried in an email thread with the same subject line. By then, we had already made alternate arrangements based on what Airbnb’s own app told us. We didn’t see the second (actually the first) reservation until it was too late to do so within the cancellation policy since we were already close to the date.
When we contacted support, the response was essentially: provide documentation of the error. Of course, like most customers, we did not think to screenshot a routine error message because we had no reason to expect Airbnb to quietly complete the booking afterward.
Airbnb apparently either could not or would not review its own internal booking logs to determine what happened. Instead, the burden was placed on us to prove what their app displayed on our screen. They merely tried to request a refund from the host who quite naturally declined because it was last minute.
That is the part future customers should understand: if Airbnb tells you a booking failed, apparently you should screenshot the error, screen-record the app, check your account manually, monitor every email thread, and perhaps retain a small digital forensics team before booking somewhere else.
A booking platform should be very good at one basic thing: clearly telling you whether you have booked a property. In our case, Airbnb failed at exactly that — and then treated the lack of a screenshot as the customer’s (or the host’s) problem.
Use the app, but if anything goes wrong during checkout, document everything. You may need to prove Airbnb’s own error back to Airbnb later.
We won’t be using Airbnb for a long time unless no other option exists. They will certainly be out much more than the measly $600 in commissions. Very bummed over their boilerplate blame shifting. Unfortunately let it occupy a little too much time and mental space on our vacation because it felt like such a customer service “duh”.
Then, more than a day after the original attempt, the confirmation for the first booking finally showed up — buried in an email thread with the same subject line. By then, we had already made alternate arrangements based on what Airbnb’s own app told us. We didn’t see the second (actually the first) reservation until it was too late to do so within the cancellation policy since we were already close to the date.
When we contacted support, the response was essentially: provide documentation of the error. Of course, like most customers, we did not think to screenshot a routine error message because we had no reason to expect Airbnb to quietly complete the booking afterward.
Airbnb apparently either could not or would not review its own internal booking logs to determine what happened. Instead, the burden was placed on us to prove what their app displayed on our screen. They merely tried to request a refund from the host who quite naturally declined because it was last minute.
That is the part future customers should understand: if Airbnb tells you a booking failed, apparently you should screenshot the error, screen-record the app, check your account manually, monitor every email thread, and perhaps retain a small digital forensics team before booking somewhere else.
A booking platform should be very good at one basic thing: clearly telling you whether you have booked a property. In our case, Airbnb failed at exactly that — and then treated the lack of a screenshot as the customer’s (or the host’s) problem.
Use the app, but if anything goes wrong during checkout, document everything. You may need to prove Airbnb’s own error back to Airbnb later.
We won’t be using Airbnb for a long time unless no other option exists. They will certainly be out much more than the measly $600 in commissions. Very bummed over their boilerplate blame shifting. Unfortunately let it occupy a little too much time and mental space on our vacation because it felt like such a customer service “duh”.
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Don’t become a host with Airbnb!!
They are so so terrible with their hosts and their customer service is such a waste of time. Save yourself the hassle and do something else because they aren’t fair with their hosts and always have given me a such a hard time.
Entire app and structure sucks.
Fees are ridiculous, they don’t allow pay schedules. It’s absurd.
Never lost so much sleep over so little - You are nothing more than a paycheck to these folk.
My life and property were being threatened by a guest who had violated several of my listing rules and the airbnb support gaslight me for over an hour, while lying to the local authorities about the rules of my listing.
Don’t risk your safety over nothing.
Don’t risk your safety over nothing.
Is it worth the local rent hikes?
Thanks for raising our rents :)
