Catherine’s Host Update: Upgrades to Community Support

[Catherine-Powell]

 

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

[Anonymous]

@Amy621 I know this is not a perfect solution, but you can always pause your listing each week for the duration of Shabbat, or any other period when you know you won't appear in searches and your listing can't be requested for 24 hours. It would be cool if there was a setting that allowed you to set this as a weekly event, but there's no getting around the fact that Airbnb is a 100% digital product.

Another alternative would be to enlist a co-host who does not observe the same religious tradition, and have them field your weekend requests. They will be able to use the messaging feature and keep your Response Rate at 100%. 

[Amy621]

Hi @Anonymous,

Pausing the listing is a possible solution and I will look into it.  Considering my absent-mindedness, it might not work all that well unless it could be automatic.  My level of hosting is probably not enough to have a co-host.  I aim for one-night stays and try to keep the bookings to 2-4 per month because I am not wanting this to be my whole life.  🙂

Thank you for the suggestions!

Amy

[Alex168]

Any small business that pays $10,000 per year in fees to a company would expect at least a rep they can call on once a year. For superhosts like this there is NOTHING from Airbnb, just regular bot-like customer dis-service with free patronisation thrown in. As many hosts I've worked endless hours to build a top-class reputation with guests which shows on ratings, but I don't feel there is any backup from Airbnb. Once in 1000 bookings a guest called Airbnb instead of me, and didn't get any support, despite receiving $10,000 in annual fees. My loyalty has faded, and with it the fees passed onto Airbnb. $10,000 isn't much for a multi-billion dollar company, but how many superhost are there that Airbnb rely on to provide free 5-star service to customers? 1 attentive intelligent email exchange per year from a rep might be enough to return maybe $5000 back in fees, is this not worth Airbnb's time?

[Ashleigh0]

Hi Quincy

Since I have filed a resolution for damage to our home.

I am now having difficulty getting any response from the Airbnb support.

no answers!
recently a long term guest has done some extensive damage to our property and has skipped out accusing us of doing the damage before she arrived!

this guest is still booked in 

won’t cancel leaving my listing blocked until the end of August and Airbnb are telling me they are having trouble collecting the fees??? 
These are the jobs I leave them to do 

1. Collect the money.

2. Sort out damage when there is no negotiation left between the guest and the host.
2 weeks on no answer from airbnb

ashleigh 

[Mark858]

That update is empty rhetoric. I recently received a 2 star review from someone who said little publicly, but castigated me privately with totally unrealistic and untrue matters. 
I appealed to AirBNB, and after being put on hold a week, saying I could easily demonstrate from pictures, from AirBNB internal messages etc that his review was completely crazy, all I got was "AirBNB have made their decision and further communication will not change this" They had not even HAD my evidence. 
That single 2 star review will probably cost us our Superhost status after 4 years straight. 
(Our previous 10 reviews for instance were all 5 star)
I have lost faith in AirBNB.

[Harriet4]

I am so sorry this has happened to you and so many others over the years. Even with all of us hosts speaking up Airbnb continues to keep us hostage with no change.

It is so unfortunate because many of us are seniors and rely on this small income to survive and therefore put ourselves and our homes at risk every time we host.  Most guests are wonderful, considerate and love using Airbnb because we are not a hotel atmosphere but extend ourselves to make our guests feel at home while staying.

[Mariya24]

I hope Airbnb Regulatory Response Team will get involved after I post my concerns here:

I just want you to step into my position for a minute: guest-stranger is allowed into your home under condition to observe your house rules. Shortly after, guest invites a bunch of trespassers and make loud disturbing noise (party) in your home. After you get a help from Airbnb Safety department to ask all these people out of your home, the very same guest goes to Airbnb platform to ruins your reputation causing more damages to you... 
Do you - “put your name here”- like this scenario ??? How it would make you feel? Abused by the guest who you trusted and Airbnb who is letting this “guest” do such thing??? 
Please review ALL THE EVIDENCES I provided more than a year ago. Remove the false, slanderous, retaliatory review by Aziza (HMN5C2NWDH) , by Kiara (HMPA3FQZSQ), by Lorenzo (HMAEW2TZCH) from my profile!!

These reviews are  written by a guests who throw a parties at my place and were asked to leave. I was told Airbnb is conducting a “clean-up” of long-standing issues of abusive guests using Airbnb platform for retaliation and posting slanderous, deformatory, untruthful reviews. Hopefully I am reaching to a Regulatory Response Team.  
Have you reviewed all the evidences that were provided how these guests were violating Airbnb regulations and my house rules before brushing me off with standard phrases “our review policy...” 
If you can not undo wrongdoing - refer this case to an appropriate department/level that is capable to handle this matter. 
I would like to receive a phone call to discuss this matter.

Case # 2020011091752

Sincerely,

Mariya W.

[Karen783]

I have never had a problem getting onto a support person and they have always been very pleasant to deal with. The problem I have is that they are reading from a 'rule book' that is one size fits all. Hosting is not one size fits all and that is the beauty of Air Bnb. As each host property and hosting style is different, we are faced with unique problems  and the attention from staff needs to be individualized and taken as a case by case scenario rather than from that generic rule book. 

[Geoff1]

I hosted for 8 years 2012 to 2020. Still closed as the Covid situation is further stabilised. The plethora of hosts who are using the platform simply as a churn and burn sales medium is an issue. Being a home host and accommodating guests I made enough money to make it worth while. A more rigid application of who can host and trade through the platform would reduce several issues that are part of the AirBnB poor public image. IE Lack of long term rentals for people.  

[Dwight20]

@Catherine-Powell We are cautiously optimistic to hear of these big changes you're announcing. I don't know if you realize just how badly the support team cuts last year negatively impacted Airbnb's reputation in the host community. We belong to a number of STR Host Forums, and the negative feedback is sickening. 

In our case, last year a bug in Airbnb's system doubled promotion discounts to guests and left us impacted by hundreds of dollars. We've been trying to resolve this with Airbnb customer "service" since December last year, and the lack of response and resolution continues to be astounding! Even after admitting that the promotions bug was Airbnb's fault, we have yet to see any of the money owed us. The support people say over and over that this is being escalated, or that we should hear back "soon", or that a supervisor will call us within 48 hours—all to no avail. We went so far as to send a demand letter with all of the backing documentation to Airbnb's legal department, and after 30+ days haven't heard anything. Airbnb still owes us money. 

Will you be solving these months-old issues soon? Will you start giving Superhosts like us the attention and service we deserve? We really hope so. If not, you may find the host side of your supply chain disappearing. 

Sincerely,

Dwight Lindsay

[Bishnu-Homestay0]

I really agree with you. Same thing happened in my side too.

[Jewel--KJ-And-Aaron0]

@Dwight20, This is not good.  Thank you for sharing.  There are so many Superhosts and Hosts being mistreated.  Something must be done.

[Fred187]

@Catherine-Powell I hope that in the review of your policies you reconsider the dogs/pets situation. We totally understand the necessity of following certified ADA service animals rules as these are part of federal law. However, "emotional support dogs" are not part of ADA laws and are often big issues for hosts. Any person can claim they need their fuzzy-wuzzy sweet pup because they are emotional support, and thus skirt a host's no-pets policy. 

True ADA animals are highly trained and are required for the person to move and live in the world. Emotional support dogs are not necessarily well trained and often become the source of huge problems in host homes.  

Most airlines, hotels, and other travel service providers have closed this loophole in service animal policies and only allow true service animals. It is time for Airbnb to do the same. 

Regards,

Fred

[Cheryl737]

When a guest claims that the host was not doing his/her job. I think that there should not be a penalty if the host is justifying that the guest was telling a lie.  When the host has answered the guest by the use of their personal cell phone, then the host did answer the guest. When the host is home and the guest lies about the host not being there, should not be penalized. 

There are guest out there that have a change of plans and then tells a lie about the host to get their money back.

When this happens it makes the host look bad and then it affects the only income that the host has.

I think that when this happens that AirBnb should review the host's reviews to see if this was just a bad guest. In my case I had one 4 and 3 fives. This showed that what this one guest said was a lie. The guest never showed and yet he reviewed on my home. If he didn't show then how could he comment on my home?????

[Razeena-And-Nathan0]

One very dissatisying experience I've recently had with ABnB customer service is denying me compensation per Airbnb Host Guarantee after guest pilfered items, even though the guest already had this negative review of the same negative experience! We documented everything and sent evidence for compensation, and reported the profile, and yet to no avail. Extremely disappointing. What's worse is the 0 cancellation policy required to remain SuperHost, so we couldn't cancel this guest's visit prior to keep our status. This honestly should change.