Eight months ago, I booked an Airbnb using my new iPhone. The confirmation congratulated a person named Rachel on the reservation.
I realized that Airbnb’s technology had somehow logged me into a stranger’s account using my new work phone number and Face ID. Airbnb later told me that the phone number had been Recycled and previously owned by “Rachel”. No payment had been made and I immediately cancelled the reservation and booked a different property.
Two weeks later, Airbnb took around £500 from my PayPal account for this booking by “Rachel”. Airbnb still says that they had passed my account details on to a friend or family member who had made the booking legitimately, or that a refund had been sent. However, no money has appeared.
JM, London
Airbnb’s response to this poor experience is misleading. “We immediately secured this account when we were first made aware of the issue over seven months ago,” it says. “This type of issue is very rare and we have refunded the guest in full.”
There is no mention of the eight-month wait or the press’s insistence on getting the money back. Only when I questioned their response did they admit that the service had failed.
I wonder how rare it really is for this to happen if Airbnb automatically signs up guests using just a phone number. And how their debit card came to be associated with the stranger’s account. Airbnb wouldn’t give me any more details.
What it did say is that it “supports” users in removing unused phone numbers from previous accounts and offers “multi-factor authentication.”
Your experience suggests that he is not trying hard enough.
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