Buyer Beware of Airbnb Gift Cards – They Are NOT Customer Friendly

I’m in a similar situation with $500 in useless redeemed gc in my suspended account. I’ve asked for the registered agent in Florida, maybe I can get something back.

I have $2400 in gc and tried using it to book a stay but was told that I triggered their no parties policy vuz customer service ice kept having me try to book different places and dates and that triggered the policy for no parties and said I had to book a room or hotel and that was denied as well now they say I have to try to use a different payment method and they can’t override it so now I’m out all the money I used for the gift cards

I was planning to purchase $300 worth of Airbnb gift cards for Christmas presents for my son & daughter in law, and $200 worth for each of my three adult grandchildren, Since the amounts are so low, they will probably need to add additional funds to the gift card amounts for their short getaways. If they make a reservation and pay for the entire stay upon doing so using a combination of the gift cards and their personal credit card do you think they will encounter any problem?

Yes using airbnb gift cards suck. I have “vouchers” that they give and you can’t use more than one or split it and use partial. Unfortunately other places have issues like this too, such as Chewy. I have gift cards I bought, not vouchers, and you can’t move them between accounts, nor can you use more than 1 gift card on a purchase. So I had multiple $25 cards and couldn’t use two of them together to make it over the $49 for free shipping at Chewy, very annoying. So it’s not only Airbnb that is scamming their customers

Where are you able to book/buy somethig and then apply a credit/coupon or whatever???

Late to this site. Got burned TWICE with these issues in the past couple months. I used my chase points to buy $800 to pay my 2nd half of a vacation I had booked 6 months out! When I tried to apply the funds for the 2nd payment, I was informed I couldn’t use the gc for a 2nd payment per policy. Whomp whomp. Ok, irritated but fine. So I go to book a 2nd vacation to use my $800… The site defaults to split payment and I just left it that way figuring there would be no issues since my GC would easily cover the weekend away and it was a new booking! WRONG. They billed my credit card for the 2nd payment even though I had $400 left on my gift card. After a whole lot of no help from the 4 or 5 emails with cust. Service. I am now 2 vacations in and only able to use $400 of my $800 card even though I have about $2200 in booking charges. Why is it you CAN’T change payment method mid booking to use a gift card but you MUST change payment method from a gift card to a credit card mid transaction if you split payments anf start with a GC? So dumb and dishonest. I could understand, similar to car rentals, not changing credit cards for insurance issues if you have an accident, but to have 2 rules that directly conflict with each other regarding gift cards and split payments….thats insane! I didnt even want to split the 2nd vacation since I had more than enough in my g.c. balance to cover, its just the default so I left it. I will never use airbnb again. Vrbo has done a lot of updates and I have had less issues with the. Im back to vrbo for good.

We just used a gift card for a short trip, but only after canceling our first attempt that essentially coerced us into making a partial payment. Happy it worked in the end – just learned that you need to make sure you select “pay in full” in the final payment step. No doubt a way for Airbnb to squeeze a little more out of their customers, but frustrating for those of us who have been loyal customers and are simply taking advantage of what should be a valid currency exchange.

They let me cancel and re book it using gift cards. So far no problems

Great Idea will gift it a try and let you know
thanks

2 days ago They say I can cancel but we stayed this past Feb. and we want to go back. (Fills up quick in FL)
The problem is i’m still stuck with the gift cards.
I contacted clark howard site and the person I talked to said he might be interested in having me on the air
but it is still a long shot.
This is got to be illegal but not sure how to go forward at this point

as of 3.22.19 ARIBNB IS NOT ACCEPTING GIFT CARDS FOR ANY RESERVATION DUE TO A “GLITCH” IN THEIR SYSTEM.
I bought $2600 in Gift Cards from Amazon and Stables for airbnb (
I made a reservation thru AIRBNB for 2/2020

Next day they refunded my gift cards and credit card for $399.33
And charged my credit card $3,089.43!!!

I chatted with Airbnb and they say
” .. this is indeed an error in our platform and that they’ve been working on it for a while. It will take some more time for them to fix it….
..No, you won’t be able to use the gift cards until further notice. Basically, until we fix this error associated with gift cards.

So I have $2690 in gift cards that I just bought and loaded into AIRBNB that AIRBNB knew would not work at the time I bought them.
And instead of a $399 credit card charge I have a $3,089.43 credit card charge.

If I cancel my booking I still have $2690 in AIRBNB that I cannot use

they say they cannot manually use my gift cards

this is not right

sadly I also bought more gift cards for our next vacation

I was able to cancel and rebook; just did it a couple of days ago. I did contact the host and make sure that he knew what I was doing first. Airbnb did keep a service fee; around $40 I think. I don’t have the time or energy to fight them right now. 🙁

There was a gap of a couple hours between my cancellation and it showing as available again so I could rebook. Good luck!

I’m experiencing the same issues with a gift card. I made a reservation and paid for 1/2 on my Visa. We are splitting the cost of the rental with another couple. I asked that they just purchase a gift card (as I couldn’t add their Visa # on the Airbnb site) for $600 to be used towards the balance due. I applied the gift card to my account and then found out that Airbnb said it can’t be used. I have repeatedly asked for a copy of my reservation stating that I can not use a gift card to pay the balance due. I’ve also pointed out at no point when I entered the gift card to my account did a “red flag” pop up and tell me that I can’t use the gift card for the balance due on my account. They should not allow a person to add a gift card to their account if it can’t be used. I feel this is illegal and there will certainly be a class action suit at some point. I’ve spent hours on the phone and on e-mail with them. I want them to issue me a check for the $600 gift card and cancel if it they won’t let it be used for a payment. Airbnb is a Scam Artist!!!

Also Airbnb steals. They round up credit payments and remove any amounts less than $1. They basically steal. I am amazed there is not a class action yet.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Reasons-NOT-to-buy-gift-card-for-Airbnb/td-p/570579

Airbnb is shit of a company. Just assholes in that company. Will never use airbnb if I can help it.

They make it hard for you to book and use gift cards. Forget getting free stuff like points from them.

An the alternative is what? Marriott! lol. (www.bonvoyed.com)

We had a NIGHTMARE with this exact issue in Hawaii a few months back. Suddenly Airbnb were telling us we couldn’t use our Airbnb gift cards as payment for our airbnb reservation. We were already there at the location – spent HOURS on the phone (we missed a day of our vacation just to this).

Work around resulted in splitting the reservation in half. Then when the half-way-point arries, we return to our place to at night discover everything gone! Airbnb told our hosts someone new was arriving, clear the place out. No food for dinner, no clothes no way to shower – everything gone!

Now we are on the phone AGAIN with Airbnb for hours – host returns with all our stuff thrown into plastic tradh bags (and we were with another couple, and all our stuff all mixed together.) Food was thrown away – and more time of this once-in-a-lifetime vacation burned with Airbnb over their own issues.

Worst part, Airbnb treated us like all lf this was our issue!!! After hours of emails and calls they agreed to reimburse the food with receipts and that was it.

The hosts were great and Airbnb was so terrible that it turned us from active fans to boycotting the service. We haven’t stayed at an Airbnb since – and we even have Airbnb gift cards to use.

Complete nightmare and treated like $h%¥ by Airbnb customer service.

I’ve had nothing but problems, even when abiding by all their conditions. My last 2 reservations they simply haven’t applied the credit and charged my credit card instead. After jumping through all the hoops to get the cards to show in my account, I still can’t use it.

Here is a slightly different spin:

I am a US military member stationed in the United Kingdom. I was given a airbnb gift card for christmas, but cannot ‘register’ it because I ‘live’ in the UK. My account, which was created while I was in the US, now has a UK cellphone number tied to it. AirBNB has stated in messages to me they will not honor their own gift cards if you ‘live’ outside the US. However this is not stated anywhere on their gift cards nor in the terms and conditions:

“Right now, gift cards can only be purchased in US Dollars by individuals in the United States and can only be redeemed by users with a payment method that was issued in the United States.”

So despite my family in the US buying me gift cards with USD, and the fact that all my payment methods were issued in the US, AirBNB will not honor the gift cards because I ‘live’ in the UK. The only thing in my account tying me to the UK is my cell phone. So basically they are making up rules as they go and stealing money from Americans.

Oh and expect it to take weeks for any correspondence to take place with their customer service. I’m averaging 17 days between messages from them and it is just a run-around anyways.

Ugh, I got burned trying to book our rental too. If you use the feature to put a deposit down and pay the rest closer to the trip you can’t use gift cards on the second full balance payment. I thought I was being smart collecting gift cards for the fuel points only to find out I couldn’t use them.

Customer service was a joke. They directed me towards their gift card terms which, let’s be honest, nobody reads (because other companies don’t typically use arbitrary and made up rules for gift card redemption). Then they gave me a coupon for like 100$ off and made sure to tell me I should be grateful because they don’t normally do that. It would honestly be better if they didn’t have gift cards at all. I would happily never do business with them again but I have like 700$ to burn.

I feel like it’s a matter of time before their deceptive gift card practices catches some attention.

I just received this response to trying to pay $127 with $175 worth of gift card credit in my account (that was added to my account to two previous gift cards I was given.

“We cannot apply two coupons/gift cards to one reservation. We applied one of the gift cards for the balance over $75 (our policy to use gift cards is that the reservation has to be over $75 and the funds are applied to the balance over that amount).”

1. I can’t use the combined total of the gift cards because they came as two separate gifts
2. The gift cards are only applied to the reservation above $75 spent

*It’s ridiculous and I doubt it’s legal

I received an AirBNB gift card that I will not use. I have not accepted the gift.
Is there a way to cancel and get a refund before the 90 days?

100% this just happened to me. I can’t believe they are doing nothing to change their policy. The tough thing is that most people receive gift cards as gifts as we did. It was a wedding gift and the people who gave it to us would be heart broken to know that this is what their gift amounted to. At least for us, the balance remaining in my account is not enough of an incentive for us to go back for more airbnb fun.

Airbnb is a deeply dishonest company, and it’s been this way since the day 1. OK, maybe day 2. I got their gift cards just like others with an Amazon deal, and, while I hope I’ll be fine, what they do is simply despicable! One of those companies, you know, I would LOVE never to do business with, but with their market share and great interface… (sigh).

Also, yes, cancel and immediately rebook. I did this with two stays, in order to apply gift cards.

I suggest you notify the host just before you try this stunt, in case they want to deny or block you from the rebook. ALSO, Airbnb terms state that they will only allow you to do a rebook 5x a year (IIRC)

One more thng. Have you ever seen how difficult AirBnB makes it for you to see how much GC balance you have left in your account? You actually have to fake a booking to determine the value you have left.

I’m confused so say I have a $500 gift card and used only $300 of it for one reservation, are you saying that I can’t use the remaining credit for another reservation? Thanks

I ran into the 28 day limit when booking a 6 week stay in Baja. Unfortunately, I had already purchased the cards and was worried I would be stuck with several hundred dollars worth.

I got really lucky.

I was able to work with customer service and the Airbnb host to create a work-a-round. The host discounted his daily rate to match the one-month discount and waved one of the cleaning fees. The Airbnb customer support issued an account credit to cover the different in the Airbnb service charge. This allowed me to book two back-to-back 3 week stays using the gift cards for the price of one continuous 6 weeks stay. Airbnb customer service was very sympathetic to my situation and the host was willing to make it work.

So, major props to Airbnb customer support and shame on Airbnb gift card policies for creating the mess.

This is obviously not an optimal solution and YMMV, but if you find yourself holding hundreds of Airbnb gift cards it may be worth the time on the phone to see if you can make it work.

I have also been burned by the air bnb gift card issue. First time I tried to use one for a 5 week reservation in Martinique (I’m an early retiree so that’s not unusual for me) only to be told it wasn’t eligible. No problem, I thought at that time I’ll use it for my upcoming trip to Spain where I was staying at a few different places for a week each. NOPE, says Airbnb because I had used their new feature where I only had to pay half of the reservation up front. I contacted their “customer service” through email, and waited 4 days for an initial reply. After much back and forth and me explaining I had these gift cards for these trips and they were now unusable, they gave in, and did it. BUT they had to contact the hosts to cancel the reservation and completely redo it. The currency exchange rate had changed slightly and so then I was charged more than the initial reservation. Again I went back to them, and they gave me a credit for that difference.

In my talking to their reps about these issues I think it’s an IT system deficiency. Hopefully the more they hear from people who are upset, then they will change it.

Thanks for the warning – I could totally see where I would have stocked up on gift cards for use next year — now I know better. Thanks!

Thanks for letting this be known. It’s so far beyond what people have come to expect from reputable gift cards, I don’t know how they are even allowed to call them “gift cards”.

Also can’t be applied to long-term reservations (of 28 days or more). This doesn’t affect people as much but my husband and I travel a lot (digital nomading! woo hoo!) and like staying in places for a month or two at a time so this was a huge bummer when friends and family gifted us with AIRBNB cred as our wedding gift. womp womp.

Is it even legal? It’s like arbitrary restrictions on credit that you already bought with YOUR OWN money. Like how ebags doesn’t allow combining gift cards. I wonder if it is grounds for a lawsuit.

Yeah, I found out the hard way after buying $500 in AirBnB GC’s on Amazon (happy dance 20% off) and found out I can’t apply them to two reservations in Alaska starting next week. Joy!
Sadly, Alaska is about the most points and mile unfriendly place in the US, unless you just stay in ANC.