Customer service updates, payments, and more in the latest Host Update with Catherine Powell

[Airbnb]

The past few months have been a tough time for all of us, especially hosts and guests. We’ve been listening closely to your feedback in all its forms and working tirelessly to create solutions because we know that encountering delays—especially when it comes to customer service or payments—is incredibly frustrating. 

In the latest Host Update, Catherine Powell sits down with Tara Bunch, our new Global Head of Operations, to offer transparency about how we’re strengthening our customer service team and to explain more about our payment process for hosts. Once you’ve watched the video, we’d really love to hear from you. Please let us know what you’d like covered in future Host Updates with Catherine. As always, thank you for sharing the topics that matter to you.

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[Daniel-Augusto0]

And the worse is that, if I ask for updates, Airbnb answers I should not ask, as each time I ask my case goes back to the very beginning. So I just have to wait until I do not know when... I dont know what to do @Catherine-Powell 

[Daniel-Augusto0]

I have been waiting for more than 2 months for an answer for the same question... 

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Daniel-Augusto0,

Thank you for your comment here, and I'm so sorry you've experienced these delays with your case. Our aim is to return to normal levels of service by the end of the month, eliminating the need to prioritize those with bookings within 72 hours. We know you expect more from us, and we’re working hard to correct this inconvenience. I look forward to sharing more updates soon. Best, Catherine

[Super47]

@Mike-And-Jane0

If you're referring to whoever was responding to @Sarah977 and @Huma0 's 6-week-old posts on another thread last week - it's highly unlikely it was Ms Hassell. Aisling has left the Airbnb building. Speaking of which..

@Catherine-Powell 

It was announced in mid-July that you had taken over the role of Head of Hosting, in addition to your role as Head of Experiences. Presumably, you assumed the duties and responsibilities of both Joe Zadeh, the previous Head of Experiences and Greg Greeley, President of Homes, who departed in July? 

And Tara took over as COO on the 29th of May, apparently assuming the duties and responsibilities of both former COO, Belinda Johnson, who stepped down in March, and Aisling Hassell, VP of Community Support, who reportedly parted ways with the company last month. 

It's now September, and quite frankly, apart from a lot of soothing words and a ton of seemingly empty promises that we've all heard a thousand times before, absolutely nothing has been achieved and absolutely no improvements have been made. Not a single one. Just more of the same old "We're listening, we hear you, we're committed to our hosts" that we're all so, so weary of hearing, over and over, for years now. That's not doing though, is it Catherine? It feels so much more like Airbnb stalling for time, and attempting to keep us all schmoozed and placated until they finally manage to get their precious IPO over the line. 

Could it be the case that the colossal workloads yourself and Tara have been tasked with are simply way too onerous and excessive for 2 brand new executives to adequately handle, while those same workloads were previously shared by 4 tenured execs, with almost 30 years of experience at Airbnb between them? 

We're well over 6 months into this pandemic now. Airbnb received $2.1 billion in funding in early April, so any excuses for decimating the crucial support services at the height of the crisis ring rather hollow. Every other properly-functioning company has got the Work From Home gig sussed many months ago - even those with multiple times the number of employees that Airbnb has retained. This is supposed to be a multi-billion tech company, for heaven's sake - figuring out the remote working challenges shouldn't be that difficult. And now we're being told that your Customer Support services should be back to "normal" by November? (not that it was what anyone would call efficient or competent even pre-COVID) Sorry, but that's just not good enough. 

And what of Margaret Richardson, VP of Trust, also reported to have bailed out in August, and a key executive whose department carries responsibility for the safety and security of both hosts and guests? Who's taken over Margaret's role now? Or are you and Tara splitting that between you too? 

[Katie]

Hey @Super47, thanks for getting involved and posting on this thread. Just a heads up that you had posted the same comment a few times, so we have removed the duplicates for you (we don't want to spam the thread).

[Super47]

Hey @Katie,

There was no spamming whatsoever. Every time my comment was posted, it (very frustratingly) disappeared into thin air and wasn't showing on the thread, so I had to repost several times before it "stuck" 

So if my comment did later appear several times, then that was down to your system failures, and certainly not down to me spamming the thread. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Super47 @Katie 

Every time my comment was posted, it (very frustratingly) disappeared into thin air and wasn't showing on the thread

Thats been happening a lot.

I messaged Inna last week about missing messages on her thread about customer services last week, for the messages to reappear, and I had notifications of messages  updated "an hour ago" which were 3 days old. 

Here's a heads up on spamming @Katie if you want to delete more messages:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Party-policy-updates-Superhost-status-extensions-... Five in a row there, I think.

[Katie]

Hi @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Super47,

Ok sure, great that you've reported it here, thank you 😊

@Super47  if you've been having this issue yourself, then it would be great if you could let me know what browser and operating system you're running, and which version of each - that way it will help the team to narrow it down a bit and identify the issue. 

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 thanks for the heads up re: spamming on another thread - I'll take a look and remove any dupes.

[Alan175]

Wow, hope that’s not all that was taken  away from the post. It sho I’lld be reposted, she’s preaching the truth!

[Michael4809]

Brilliant and i am sure valid insight. Support has limited scope and wreaks of not enough delegation, like fresh air some times you just need to breath it in. I see also limitation in what some in positions carry and key understandings which would facilitate such 'movement' within the business with the IPO on top of them. Air BnB's winning strategy is happy support tickets. These front line workers are midst a pandemic dealing with what has become a war with support personnel. There is empathy and many good attributes to support but this needs to become gold again and what ever has to be done needs to be done and flow on these principals facilitated through out levels of Air BnB management that approve change and allow, approve or vito the very delegation to implement. There are hefty comments world wide from Hosts and guests, There are many fine well appropriated comments within all ranks. Unless real response and perceived resolve to overwhelming issues are dealt with, Air BnB will continue to develop a hollow image and thus reduce future prosperity. The worst part is that guests truly 'wont give a **bleep** and want their value for money and wont care too much as long as they dont get into trouble' This is the end result the bottom line and knock on from the top down.

[W-C-and-Elly0]

A note about the website. Please stop the popups to register our listing so we can host short-term. We are not eligible and won't be doing so. At this point, it just feels like you are rubbing in the fact that a tough situation has gotten even tougher for us with regulations. I waste time clicking on the "Not Now" button every single time so I can proceed to the website. It makes the process stressful and cumbersome and me saying "not now" when you pop up should be sufficient for Airbnb to get the message that I am not interested. 

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @W-C-and-Elly0,

Thanks for your comments here on the service fees and the pop-ups you are getting. The pop-ups are generally designed to offer directions on ways to improve your listing based on guest booking behaviors to increase your likelihood of getting a booking. I'm sure there are ways we can improve the algorithm that automates them or make tweaks to avoid this, so I will make a note of your comments and pass them onto the team to review.

I have also noted your comments on the service fees, which I will pass onto the team to review.

Thanks again, Catherine

[Greg93]

Why has AirBnb changed the Mobile App so it cannot load on my I phone?  This is Very Inconvenient  and has reduced the timely level of Service I am used to providing to my guests who book at our Inn.

 We have Four Rooms listed with Air Bnb.  When the booking process slows  it can cause double bookings as we also take direct bookings. We have been in business for 20 years, 

Thank you, Greg Hamby   Owner of The Cypress Moon Inn, Kitty Hawk, NC

[Katie]

Hi @Greg93, sorry to hear your app isn't working - are you on the latest version of the app, and the most up-to-date software? If not then do try updating as it could be that you are on an older version. 

[Denice0]

Catherine, it's nice to hear that you and Tara Bunch, Global head of Operations, are going to finally address this most troubling issue:  Missing payouts.  What could possibly be more important for your Host / Partners; they work hard to host many guests and then they don't get paid for no reason!?  In my case, the summer of 2018, it took many hours of daily work to get someone from CS, to address the missing payout problem and then to pay me over a week late!  The daily excuses CS tells hosts' - is all part of the uncalled for partner / host abuse, and Hooray you're taking on customer service too! The payout problem is still occurring - search the community on any day and you will find a post "Missing payouts", "No payment", "No Payouts"; as you can see in the above  screenshot, from a search on the community for the wording "missing payouts", there are 25 postings.  Other's, @Ann72, have posted links to the Payout problem, to put the posts all in one place because it is such a common issue and they all have different titles.  The post "No payouts" has 16 links and some of these posts are 25 pages long; they cover years of Host frustration! 

 If you can fix this problem you will have accomplished something that has caused far too many hosts to loose confidence in this company.  I know you are both new to the company and I hope you are both given the resources you need to be successful!