I recently tried to book a house on Airbnb mobile app. Having not booked in a while, I decided to try linking my PayPal account. I followed the steps in the app to connect my account for pre-approved payments. Upon return to the app after successfully linking my account, I tried to book the house. I received an error that the payment was not approved. At this time, I then checked the PayPal website and could see a successful approved payment. So, I thought to myself it must have been a little bug, so I tried to book again. Once again, the charge showed up in PayPal, and now I had 2 successful PayPal payments and NO booking. I called Airbnb immediately to explain the situation and they told me…don’t worry about it – this isn’t a real transaction. Well, 2 days later – those pre-approved payments for over $2,000 hit my PayPal account! Why? Because the Airbnb app has a bad bug – and the PayPal link/booking flow is clearly broken. Airbnb CSR reps (Sierra L.) were not helpful at all, and I had to get PayPal to finally step in and correct this mistake. At no time did the CSR reps realize there was an issue with the app. Additionally, they spoke over my concerns and actually hung up on me at one point! Wow, all for taking $2,000 in un-authorized charges. Clearly they have no Customer Service Representative training.
Do not use PayPal and AirBNB – it doesn’t work correctly.
