u/splitscreenshot

tl;dr Guest committed fraud by passing their account to two unaccompanied minors who snuck into my property. I declined entry and reported it. Airbnb support cancelled the 7-night peak-season booking 1hr before midnight, gave the scammer a full refund, and left me with zero payout. Now getting ghosted by support.

The story:

I have been a host on Airbnb for 10 years. Most of that time as a Superhost. I have a 4.97-star rating and a (physical) guest book full of raving entries, “BEST HOST EVER” etc.

But I am done with Airbnb now. It is unacceptable how they treat me as a host, prioritizing guests who, as Airbnb has admitted, committed fraud.

What happened?

So, after many really lovely guests and some minor issues with singular guests, "it" has now happened to me. I had this one bad guest that changed my relationship with Airbnb completely.

On the day of arrival, the person who had booked didn't show up personally, but sent two minors to sneak in instead. I declined, reported it to Airbnb, and guess what? Airbnb cancelled the 7-night booking on the day of arrival, one hour before midnight, and refunded the guest! The minors had already used the bathroom and brought in a considerable amount of luggage.

I only noticed it by chance because they ignored my parking instructions. I went outside (I live next door) to tell them, and that's when the adults who brought them casually dropped the bomb: only the two minors would be staying. They literally told me, 'Oh great, since you live right here, you can keep an eye on the girls!' This was a calculated setup, and they expected me to act as a free, unpaid babysitter.

They had violated several rules (third-party booking, unaccompanied minors, their mother passed her account completely over to a minor), and the law (trespassing).

My revenue was set to zero. I am still in disbelief. A week's revenue in high season erased, though I have done nothing wrong.

Airbnb leaned into a sob story about me kicking two minors out. They completely ignored the facts: The minors were never stranded. They arrived with two adults who had driven them and their luggage to the property. Once I declined the entry, those same adults loaded the luggage and the teenagers back into their car and drove off together. Safety was never at risk—this was a coordinated, fraudulent check-in.

So, my calendar had been blocked by this “booking” for two months, but now I get zero and they get a refund.

I've been fighting the decision since. After long and time-consuming chats, the case seemingly has been handed over twice, most recently "to a member of our team who's in a better position to resolve this for you. We understand that this may have caused some inconvenience to you."

SOME INCONVENIENCE?

Are they effing kidding me?

Inconvenience would be a delayed payout, a drunk guest, or a parking space blocked by a guest's friends.

This is robbery, not inconvenience.

The case is still open, and I will file it with the ECC (European Consumer Centre), a European agency for cases like this. When I told Airbnb that I am going to file the case and asked if their decision to deny my payout was final, they started handing the case to different agents. But still nothing but empty messages like the above. Oh, and someone literally wrote “please be rest assured”. If they can't write one sentence correctly, how are they supposed to intellectually capture this case?

It is day four of the disaster and I wake up feeling nothing but disgust when I look at their logo.

I have one current booking from Airbnb and one more to come, which I will treat professionally and with my usual magic to make them feel at home. I have a 4.97-star rating for a reason.

Luckily, I have listened to the void (that is, stories of hosts whose accounts had been closed by Airbnb out of the blue, no reason given), and built other sources of bookings, so I don't depend on Airbnb to continue my business.

So, after ten years, Airbnb is now dead to me. I will not risk my hard work to be disrespected and unpaid by incompetent agents and a total lack of transparency.

Has this happened to anyone else?

AIRBYENBYE