Catherine’s Host Update: Upgrades to Community Support

Catherine’s Host Update: Upgrades to Community Support

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Hi everyone,

 

I’m thrilled to be sharing this Host Update with you, which has exciting news about how we’re up-leveling our Community Support team and policies. 

 

Some of the top concerns you’ve shared over the past year include having difficulty reaching an Airbnb Support Ambassador, and then not receiving a tailored response to your individual situation or the follow through you needed.

 

Because of your feedback, our Head of Global Operations, Tara Bunch, and VP of Community Support, Brent Potts, are rolling out major improvements to Community Support and significantly increasing the size of our support team around the world. This will ensure that we can respond to your situation quickly and thoroughly. 

 

We’re focusing on more personalized and empathetic responses to the experiences you report to us. This is so important. Every circumstance is different, and the team is going to work with you to better understand what you’re facing and then resolve it. We’re also simplifying Host and guest policies to better manage your expectations, and offering personalized “Smart Solutions” in the Help Center. 

 

And starting in North America on September 30, 2021, we’re rolling out Dedicated Superhost Support. This program will continue rolling out globally throughout 2021 and will offer you exclusive access to tenured Support Ambassadors who can handle situations efficiently. 

 

As always, thank you for sharing the topics that matter to you.

 

I’ll be in touch again soon with more news! 

 

All my best,

Catherine

133 Replies 133

I wonder if it would be possible to start a "Private Facebook Group" for only Airbnb Hosts. That way we could share  names of those guests who create havoc, provide some detail and warn each other of potential problems.

yes yes yes.!!!!! In each area so that it is local. 

@Kathryn125 yes I do like the idea for each area. I have found that our group do put information on the page that might affect other hosts or ask questions for suggestions or help. I think this idea would be helpful for hosts living in our area

@ Harriet4, I am new to the Community Center.  We can't leave names here?  I absolutely think we should be sharing names and giving accurate reviews.  I ensure I review the guests appropriately and truthfully, so that you all will know what we experienced.  If we can't then, we absolutely should start a Facebook group.  

Problem would be when a host who is also a regular guest when his house is booked, is a bad guest.!!

 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Catherine-Powell I love the announcement that the number of customer support personnel is being doubled relative to this time last year. Do your PR people really think that hosts will not notice that last year you had just laid off most of the support personnel? I assume the truth is you are just trying to make a positive of getting back to pre-pandemic levels of support.

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Catherine-Powell And one other thing while I am ranting. We are still awaiting the method of engaging with the Host Advisory Board. The lack of this process does seem to demonstrate that you don't actually want to hear what hosts really need to see changed. Nothing is easy but a grown up conversation on revenge reviews would surely help everyone. I really like @Anonymous's suggestion ( I think it was Andrew) that comments stay but the rating could be removed if there was some evidence of it being a revenge review. If this was allowed only once or twice a year it would probably solve 90% of the issues faced by hosts.

@Mike-And-Jane0  That was my suggestion, and in fact it can be automated in such a way that eliminates much of the barrage of service calls complaining about reviews. Simple:  if the stay is terminated before the scheduled checkout, or there's an active dispute over claims in the Resolution Center, star ratings from both parties are deactivated and the review process defaults to text-only. 

 

Having more well-trained support staff available to resolve issues quickly would be a step in the right direction, but if the site is working really well and hosts have the tools they need at their disposal, there shouldn't be much demand for agent intervention in the first place.

Harriet4
Level 6
Enoch, UT

If Airbnb would look back on Hosts reviews, in most cases, that would prove a hostile review. 

My reviews were all 5, for 4 years until I had two groups in a row who I asked to leave because they were partying. Both left me bad reviews. Since then all of my reviews have been 5.

 

I left a string of messages through the Airbnb platform showing I was having problems and still Airbnb did nothing.

@Harriet4, This is disturbing.  I thought it was just me having so many issues with the Support team.  I just had a guy request 4 Guests to stay in my home and every night he was there, he had more guests in the house until he reached 14 total folks in the house.  Our policy is for guests to be charged $15 per guest per night if we discover the agreement has been violated.  The guest ignored that and chose not to respond to Airbnb when they finally contacted him to pay.  Airbnb offered me $200 for the violation, instead of the $480 I requested.  It didn't matter that I required a security deposit (means really nothing), and I ensure that the guest agreed to our house rules prior to approving his request for booking.  The extra step to try and guarantee a good experience for the guest and for us, goes unnoticed and unsupported by Airbnb.  This is quite disappointing to know that we are not valued and our rules are not supported in the end.  Thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you Jewel-KJ for your post. It's truly a shame that Airbnb has known of this problem for years, yet does absolutely nothing to improve it.  There are times being politically correct doesn't work. If you are truthful with your guests about their behavior it backfires and the host takes the fall.

 

It is time a paid committee was introduced by Airbnb to take every bad complaint by either a guest or host and truly review them and I would be the first person to apply for the job. (not volunteers trying to earn good favor with Airbnb).

 

If it is a first time guest with 0 reviews you would think they would do everything in their power to impress their host instead of not caring and moving on. It it is a bad review against a host then a review of prior reviews, maybe up to a year would definitely create a clear picture of the host.  

 

I would certainly be interested in knowing just how many of us have the same complaint of guests how promise to follow the rules, arrive, do as they please and then leave us a bad review for telling the truth.

Mark211
Level 3
San Marcos, TX

I've always received excellent phone support. Outstanding, really.

Here is my frustration. When you follow up by asking how they performed you NEVER ask what the issue was. 

Would I recommend airbnb based on the performance of the person on the other end of the phone? Absolutely. Woukd I recommend airbnb based on the hosting website. Absolutely not. It's a mess.

But you don't seem to care about that. It never improves. You wouldn't need more customer care employees if you just fixed the writing on the website.

Amy621
Level 2
St Paul, MN

I lost my Superhost status because I take a sabbath from Friday evening until Sunday early morning, and people who were interested in booking were not able to get a response in the required time, so my response rate went below 90%.  I mentioned my unavailability in the listing, but there is not a special place to announce this, so people keep missing it.  It feels like Airbnb expects me to give up my life and my personal time in order to always be reachable.  It would be easy enough for there to be a notice when the guest requests a booking that states that the host is NOT reachable every week from X to X time.

Agree with this as well.   I am not religious, but I think most hosts need to be able to block off a day a week or so that they are unavailable to answer inquires about new bookings.  

Agree - or if you are going to be traveling remotely without access to internet!