Airbnb Answers: Easier access to Customer Service

[Airbnb]

You asked: Can Airbnb make it easier to contact customer service?

You’ve raised this important question at each Global Host Q&A, and we hear you loud and clear. Easy access to support when you need it, with quick and straightforward resolutions, is important. And we haven’t always made it easy. But we’ve made major improvements and are committed to more. So, what’s been improved?

Easy access, especially when you’re hosting

We’ve created a new way for hosts and guests to contact Airbnb Customer Service. The feature is available during active trips beginning 48 hours before check in and ending 48 hours following check out.  

To quickly contact Customer Service using this feature, follow these steps:

On your desktop computer:

• Log in to www.airbnb.com, click on “Help” at the top right corner of the screen
• Click on “Visit the Help Center” button
• Click on the “Contact us” button at the bottom of the screen

On your mobile phone:

• Via the Airbnb app
• Tap on the “Profile” tab on the bottom right of the app
• Tap on “Get help”
• Tap on the “Contact us” button at the bottom of the screen
• Via the Airbnb app
• Tap on the “Trips” tab at the bottom of the app screen
• Tap on the specific trip you are interested in
• Tap on “Help” at the bottom of the screen
• Tap the “Contact us” button at the bottom of the screen

When you click “Contact us” you’ll be able to select the reservation affected (if applicable) and the type of issue you’re experiencing.  After that you can select how you prefer to receive support from Airbnb, including self-service, online messaging, and/or by phone.

So far we’re finding that over 90% of hosts are able to easily find and contact Customer Service using this new feature. Currently, it’s only available during active trips beginning 48 hours before check in and ending 48 hours following check out.  But, stay tuned - we expect to make this feature more widely available in 2018.

Faster help once you’re connected

If you’ve used the steps above to call us, we’ll automatically send your Community Support Specialist the relevant information about your reservation and reasons for calling. This way you don’t have to explain your situation multiple times and your issue can be resolved more quickly. We’ll also allow you to easily confirm who you are prior to speaking with a Community Support Specialist so you can skip time-consuming security questions during the call. We’ve found that this saves between 1-2 minutes per call.

If you have less urgent issues you can always email us, find answers in our Help Center, and seek advice from your fellow hosts in the Community Center. Superhosts always have access to our dedicated Priority Support line.

What’s in the works for the future?

While we aren’t ready to make big announcements, we can say that we’re investing in self-service tools and instant chat to allow both you and your guests to easily and quickly remedy issues that come up. Our goal is to make sure you have the help you want at your fingertips.

As always, we appreciate your questions and feedback and look forward to the next global Host Q&A!

The Airbnb Team

In the latest Host Q&A, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky answered top-voted questions during a livestream event. For questions he didn’t have time to address, we’ve introduced the Airbnb Answers series. View the latest Host Q&A, here.

[Rashad4]

I have just sent a comment and still not there? does Airbnb have to verify and authorize our comments?

I have gone through all comments and we all say; the customer service is not good and it has to be improved

[Stephen132]

I have two rooms on the site and asked why they cant be shown together because people who want to stay with me go elsewhere as they dont know the other room is available. When I asked why they cant be put together I was ignored. Surely it makes prefect sense but no one responded. I think that that is crazy as it would be great for guests to know there is another possiblility for their preferred stay and not have to go somewhere else. So if your likely to read this airbnb can you get someone to either fix it or explain to me why your not helping hosts and guests forefill their desired location and way of opporating, it makes life easier for all. Lets work together here.

[Ian325]

I'm afraid it is all too often my experience of so-called "help" centres. You send them an email with specific questions. They either don't bother to read it or can't understand English. A reply comes back which has nothing at all to do with the questions you asked, or, worse, is just some generic computer generated garbage. When will companies understand that customer serives are  quite possibly the most important part ofd their operation? I can count on the fingers of one hand those companies where it is good, and as a result I always use them. it also seems, again in my experience, that American companies - e.g. PayPal - are far worse than any others (always excepting BT (British Telecomms) of course, who continue to provide a textbook example of how to lose customers).

In fairness to AirBnB, I've found that when you do manage, often after hours of frustration, to get hold of someone who knows what they're doing, the response is quick and very helpful - but inevitably the hours of frustration tend to be what you remember.

[Dharma2]

Airbnb...you are getting bigger but worse for the hosts! A friend had her carpet completely ruined by the guests and airbnb said they will pay for the replacement of that area only.... really? How do you do that? You cut a section of the carpet and replace with a new one leaving the rest as it was? Wow ... that is some skill! Congratulation on your stupidity! 

[Nicoline0]

My name is Nicoline, and i have an Apartment in Stillbay South Africa on the Garden Route

called AITSA! Self Catering/Selfsorg.

All i want to say is that, it would be much appreciated if a branch of Airbnb

could open an office in my Country, also due to the language problem!

Thankyou

Regards

[Wendy441]

A bunch of BS...   there is NO HELP.   If you had issues ALL you get is a circle jerk.  And if you push the issue abb will put your property at the end of the line in metric readings ...   I WANNA KNOW HOW TO GET TO CORPORATE OFFICE PEOPLE!!    How do we get to the people putting these non speaking English people out to answer their phones!!   We can’t get help !!

KNOW this ... when our property is destroyed by one of these vacationers... we will be left high and dry with NO HELP OR COMMITTMENT FROM ABB.   

[Rosie65]

I must admit to also being very frustrated with the support service from Airbnb.  I host an experience for them.  I  sent an e-mail, with an assured 48 hour response, asking for permission to change the photos on my Experience page.  Two weeks later and still no response from Airbnb.  As my experience only operates from mid June to mid August this is not helpful as my season has started and I need to generate more bookings with better photo.  WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO to get help changing photos?  Why can we not do this ourselves, like other companies allow?  Not good enough Airbnb.

[Betty158]

I took the time to read many host complaints about customer service and I agree with the lack of communication.  I just checked your new feature in 'contact us' and it seems that the contact is directly with the current guest you have.  In my case, I wanted to contact abb not the customer.  My guest was wonderful, had no cash on her,  and the problem was technical from abb calculations of extra nights.  We should be able to talk to a person that is empowered to resolve problems and speak  fluent English.  My place is located in a touristic area and you have to understand the tourist and make their stay pleasant.  Abb is not doing its job properly.

[Karen-and-Jim0]

I have always had exceptional service anytime I have called in. I just saved their phone number in my phone. 

[Karen1038]

In my opinion, Airbnb has two issues that I see and  have personally been affected by that have not been addressed properly.

1. They have hackers into their system and  do not want anyone to know this and the reason some of you have has reservations just cancel on you!  I have had bogus guests sign in and try to cancel to collect a payment and meanwhile the actual guest contacted me as we both saw suspicious activity on the account and Airbnb did absolutely nothing to help us!!!!  We both called in and spent hours I mean hours on the phone and the wait with no follow up at the end! Basically it was work it out yourself and Thank goodness the actual guest and I communicated and resolved that they were still planning to arrive and I did finally get payment. During this Airbnb did not want to acknowledge that they had been hacked and nor did they follow up with either the guest or myself the host!

2. Second issue is that they limit the time to respond to a guests review! I happen to be out of the country at the time when a guest left a review about noise in a nearby parking  lot that I wanted to address for others future guests to see that it was an anomoly and not typical and only because there was a  fishing party that week.  I had limited internet and asked them if I could kindly respond to a guests remarks and they basically said no and that I had only 14  days to respond and that I was a week beyond that  deadline of 14 days!!! Really??? Exceptions can be made and I asked and perused it a few times clearly with great concern and they offered no sympathy or help!!! Imagine how simple that is to make one of their host happy!!

Not impressed!

[Debbie313]

Hi htere,  I am new to being a hosy on Airbnb,  I have had many good reviews but one girl bled all over my sheets,  and borrowed a cane and then left with it ,  I informed Airbnb and it seems there is NO resulution,  I had to replace m6y friends cane on my own and if I didnt have a reciepts for the sheets well then thats just too bad,  this is after ther guest admitted to doing these things...oh well life goes on ,  so much for the support of airbnb

[Debbie314]

I agree! Airbnb’s support team is extremely poor.  They hire people that do not speak English well and their response time is ridiculously long. I had an issue with a payment recently and after hours and days of back-and-forth with them it was never resolved to my satisfaction. I finally gave up!  My suggestion would be that any call that comes into them from a host should be directed to a call center that is within the country Of that host. And make sure that those in a call center speak that language. Seems simple to me! They really need to step it up or hundreds of other rental sites are going to take away a big chunk of their market. Sadly I agree, they’re getting too big! 

[Emily96]

Customer service overall MUST improve. You have CX reps who don’t know the platform. Recently I had a  rep tell me that a guest they were placing with me from another sub-par property couldn’t afford my “new” price from what they had seen just a few minutes before because my price had “automatically jumped by $700.” umm...no. It was because the guest initially had put 10 guests, and the second request only put 1 guest. Yet the rep insisted the price change was due to an automatic smart pricing change. That is BASIC! It took 2 reps and several days AFTER the guest had checked out to resolve the payout. You are playing fast and loose with our money.

[Kyla13]

Will their be better ways of reaching actual management who can resolve serious issues?

We spent our first 5 months on air bnb without payment. I was promised weekly that my ticket would be resolved then it would be closed out without additional contact or our guest payments. I also recieved daily emails during that time stating a payout was being processed. Every time i called, representatives would be confused, transfer me at least once, and then say i would get a call back. Not once did i receive one. When something unusual arises it should be even more pertinent for someone who really knows the system to assist our guests and hosts. We had our profile all setup with vrbo but changed our mind as we rent part-time and their fees would barely run us a profit. We also had a lawyer ready to get involved if it took over 6 months. Next time, i would love to speak with someone who can troubleshoot vs just open a ticket.

[Larissa79]

Yes its ridiculous