UPDATE: I wrote the post below back in 2017. I had a bad experience with Airbnb a while back, I still would very much use them. I'm not sure if their customer service game has gotten better but things usually run smoothly, so use them but just hope for the best. I support Airbnb and love what they are about, I just wanted to write about the frustrating experience and to warn anyone that does run into trouble that it might not be easy to solve. Since I wrote this we also starting using booking.com much more because you don't have to pay up front on most bookings and you can cancel for free up to a day before your booking on many. It is great when traveling with groups so you can split the payment upon arrival. I highly recommend it! I included a search bar below just incase you want to see what I'm talking about. We get a small commission if booked through our link, but it is a no extra cost to you. You would be helping us support our blog with any earrings we receive! :)
As budget travelers we are always looking for the best deal on accommodation. Airbnb is always one of our stops to check for the best value. Often times it is the best deal. How can you go wrong? Get an entire house with a private pool all for you and your friends for less than a hotel or equivalent to a hostel if you are splitting it with others.
I have used Airbnb in the past but never have had an issue or reason to contact customer service or lack there of, until recently. As I hit send to the host to request to stay at a his lovely home in San Francisco, with some friends for a girls getaway weekend, a glitch in the Airbnb website occurred. I got a message stating "our website may be being updated at the moment, please try again later." The host NEVER received my request but my PayPal account unfortunately was aware of the request as the cash my friends had sent me to book our stay and my card was charged the difference. I know technology gets a bit weird sometimes so I was very forgiving of the situations. I figured it was nothing a phone call and a couple days wait wouldn't fix. I was wrong!
This was how my first and most recent experience went.
1-855-424-7262USE AT YOUR OWN RISK). However, I do not recommend ever dealing with their customer service and as for their services, First, I contacted the host of the property to make sure I was right about him not receiving my booking request, which was exactly the case. Therefore, I proceeded to call Airbnb. It was a bit of hunt to find the number since they don't have a direct way to contact them via their website (here is the number if you are ever in need (. I waited about 25 minutes to finally have someone answer the phone and when he did he couldn't hear me, which I am assuming was due to a bad connection even though I called from a landline, so he hung up. I called again and again, for which the wait did not shorten. Each phone called consisted of waiting 20 minutes, answering about 10 questions about your account and method of payment just to be told the problem was probably due to my bank and to contact them or that PayPal was to blame. I knew this was not the problem and the problem was with their faulty website.
It was about the fourth call, a couple days later, that someone finally told me that they would look into it and would have a supervisor contact me that same day. I never received a call or email so I continued to call everyday for about two weeks to get an answer. I was very persistent about it because it was a horrible time to tie up that much money and credit, and when I say that much I mean over $1,000. Each call I received I was either assured they were looking into it or that a manger/ supervisor was going to call me within the hour so to leave my line free. There were no answers given in any of those calls, no managers called, and a few emails just restating what was said over the phone. It did not help that some of the agent seemed to be the product of outsourced jobs and were in different countries/timezones/spoke different languages. After two weeks had passed I was beyond frustrated.
At the beginning of week three I finally spoke to someone that gave me a bit more insight, as much as they could anyway, that the problem had happened to an "overwhelming" amount of people (he could not say overwhelming but implied it).
If this would have been explained to me right away it would have lowered my stress a bit but a lack of information made it more of a stressful situation it was.
Finally about 5 weeks after the incident I was contacted, via email, by a manager apologizing for what happened and that the pending charge was reversed and comped me $150 for a future reservation for the trouble. Although the comp was nice, I feel like the lack of information they provided me, the headache and time it took for the problem to be resolved the comp could have been a tiny bit better. I did appreciate the gesture but will forever be weary of ever using their services again.
If you don't believe me just read the reviews left by Airbnb's users, they will tell you similar stories. If you have used Airbnb and have never had an issue I encourage you to continue to do so, but just don't be surprised at their horrific customer service. I hope you never have to contact them, but if you do, DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU! 😘