Airbnb communication with hosts.

[Charlotte41]

Last night around 7:30 there was a knock on my door. “Hi, the young woman said. We are here for your rental.” My jaw dropped. I asked her where she had booked the reservation and she responded, airbnb. I responded;”Well, Welcome, let me show you the house.” As I led them to the rental I thought: “Did I I not see the announcement? Did I erase it accidentally?” Yikes. I got them settled in, apologized for not knowing they were coming and hurried back to my computer. I checked my inbox, trash and spam. No notice from airbnb. However, the reservation was in my airbnb host site. The reservation was made on Oct. 26, the night before around 8:00.

I called customer support. I was told that there was some technical difficultly on Oct. 26 and I was not the only host that never got a notification. The agent apologized and thanked me for being such a great host. As I hung up I thought; “Thank goodness we had not started to repaint the bedroom as we had planned this weekend.” Then what a mess this would be. I wondered if we had done this would airbnb penalize me because of their technical error?

I have been a satisfied user of airbnb for many years with 3 properties in the US and 3 in Mexico. I appreciate the ease of use and the system they have created for host and renter. However, lately I have some issues with their punitive policies. For instance: A renter canceled their reservation. I was penalized. Another instance: on an instant booking the date was off by one day so I had to cancel the reservation since I could not host them for the entire time. I was penalized again. I think they need to have a more lenient and comprehensive approach for their long time hosts with 5 star ratings. If airbnb can experience a technical error ( I wonder how many host were affected by their glitch) and just offer an just an apology, then they owe their responsible hosts a little leniency as well.

PS Along this line I would like to question the policy of reviews. After 6 years with 4.5 and 5 star reviews on a property I had an angry renter ( whose payments consistently did not go through as airbnb reported to me) write a scathing 3 paragraph review that airbnb insisted they need to include. This is not fair.

[Allison116]

I am new to hosting on airbnb. Just 2 months now. Many features are great but I have experienced quite a few “glitches”. I think their platform is overloaded and hope they fix soon. I have had times where my listing “disappears”, where i am sending Messages to my Guest but they are not getting them,  times when my listing shows up as available even when it’s booked.

[Edwin57]

Iam glad that the hosts and members of Airbnb are on point always be prepair just want to said thank you for your in put and sharing I have lean a lot and still leaning thank you so much 

[Edwin57]

I agree with you 

[Lauran0]

I’m dissatisfied too.

I’m quite new to hosting and had a guest who urinated and defecated on the toilet seat and I told him to go. I was told by Airbnb - James S - that this couldn’t have happened because the guest was a medical student. They gave him the rest of his money back, wouldn’t let me have my review published of him, and published his, which has negatively affected my sales and ratings.

I’m so disgusted, and am pursuing other ways of monetizing my space, although I’m still doing Airbnb right now.

[Harley2]

I want to give a negative review of someone that just stayed at my house, he and his family left my house in disgusting shape, moved patio furniture indoors and scratched wood floors, also moved all the living room furniture around... I'm told to bite my tongue because giving a negative review will result in you as a host getting negative reviews 

[Pritesh0]

Hey Harley

You can be honest about the whole incident and write it up. And for your information your or your guests reviews are not published unless you both have written it; or one of you havent wrote it till the stipulated time ie 13 days post check out. So go ahead and let other host know your good bad & ugly experience with this guest.

Pritesh

[Fiona-and-Keith-and-Fami0]

Be careful!! Leave an honest review. STICK TO THE FACTS. NO social commentary. 

[Lauran0]

I wasn’t allowed to state the facts.

[Fiona-and-Keith-and-Fami0]

No way José!! INSIST on speaking to a supervisor. After over 1,000 stay, I get impatient with having to train newbie CS agents. Politely but firmly, I will request to speak with a supervisor. MAKE SURE you take notes and get EVERYONE’s name and if possible get them to email you because in that email is their contact information. You can use this to get more training for them. And get Travel credit for your troubles!! I’m not paid to train them. Not MY job. I’m BRINGING Airbnb business. It’s THEIR job to train their staff & contractors, and to make things work the way they should by taking care of good hosts and guests.

[Lauran0]

Sorry I only just saw this - yes that’s ridiculous and outrageous. Surely you should be paid for your overtime and inconvenience?

[Taylor59]

I had this happen! My settings were set to same-day instant bookings available to those that qualify for my verifications up to 6PM. Somehow someone got through at 9PM and was able to instant book and we had to stay up until midnight  waiting for them to avoid penalities. They ended up being super nice but still... I want to change to everyone has to make a request and turn off my instant book because of it but I feel it would negatively affect our bookings.. 

[Fiona-and-Keith-and-Fami0]

Contact customer support. Put it back in their lap. That’s what the fees are for—for them to handle s#*] like this. And most of them are pretty good at it IF you treat everyne with respect but continue to hold your ground, politely but firmly, that YOUR predicament is a direct result of THEIR system failure. At the very least, we’ve received travel coupons/credits—at least some compensation for having gone out of our way.

[Lauran0]

Thanks - belatedly - Fiona and Keith. That has not been my experience with Airbnb, generally.  Sometimes there’s been a human and understanding response, sometimes a response that’s more like “What’s wrong with you for not passively tolerating this garbage and the resultant attacks on your income?”

[Lisa806]

You do not need to cancel a reservation if the guest wants to change their dates.  The guest goes into their reservation email and requests to change the dates, then you will get a notification of the request and can approve it.