Airbnb lost my reservation and then banned me

Dear Travel Troubleshooter: I had the most miserable experience with Airbnb. I recently booked an aparthotel in London. When I arrived, the host told me that I had no reservation (despite paying months in advance and receiving a confirmation from Airbnb). I had no place.

I contacted Airbnb and they gave me a coupon to stay in another apartment. However, the photos were a complete misrepresentation of the apartment.The host acknowledged and apologized that some of the images were incorrect.

In the end, I booked a hotel with my own funds and spent $1,875. I spoke with his Airbnb senior ambassador. He agreed to refund only his $500 for the hotel and issue the rest as his Airbnb coupon.
For the rest of my trip there were pretentious apologies with no real solution. I was short on funds to spend for the rest of my vacation for this new hotel that I had booked with my own money.

Despite the horrible experience we had, we were forced to use the coupon code for our next stay, so we logged into our account and tried to redeem the coupon, only to find that our account was blocked. can you help me?

— Mehar Satsangi, Mumbai, India

answer: Wow talk about a bad stay. Almost everything that could go wrong with the Airbnb experience went wrong.

First, Airbnb needs to communicate your reservation to your London host. It’s not clear what the problem was. Did the host make a reservation and turn it down when they arrived, or is there something wrong with Airbnb’s reservation system? Either way, Airbnb should have taken full responsibility.

Airbnb Rebooking Guarantee ( www.airbnb.com/help/article/2868/rebooking-and-refund-policy) is committed to helping you find “equal or better” accommodation. But it didn’t. Instead, you ended up in another apartment. The photo was not representative of the property. Two strikes, Airbnb.

But Airbnb isn’t done with you. The company deactivated your account after promising credit for future use. This strikes out.

So are you out of luck? maybe not. I reviewed my correspondence with Airbnb and was clearly upset. Maybe that’s why Airbnb banned you, but I’m not sure.

What went well? First, he communicates that he wants to take advantage of Airbnb’s rebooking guarantee. Airbnb promises to take care of you if your host cancels your reservation. You can also reach out to her one of Airbnb’s customer service managers. I publish the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of Airbnb executives on my consumer advocacy site. www.elliott.org/company-contacts/airbnb-customer-service-contacts/We also have a free guide on how to book your next vacation rental (www.elliott.org/answers/how-to-rent-vacation-home-ultimate-guide/) so that this never happens to you again.

I have contacted Airbnb on your behalf. The company restored your account and as a coupon code he refunded the full $1,875. They also report that they had productive conversations with their Airbnb manager about all the issues they had with your apartment. We hope that Airbnb will use that information to prevent this from happening to anyone else.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of the Elliott Advocacy (elliottadvocacy.org) is a non-profit organization that helps solve consumer problems. Please email chris@elliott.org or contact us for help at: elliottadvocacy.org/help/.
(c) 2023 Christopher Elliott
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.