Aloha! My name is Ana. I am an Experience Super Host with years of hosting experience who was recently called a "Karen" by an Airbnb Experience Support "Ambassador" named Carlos.
For over 3 months I have been reporting a problem with the Experience App that does not allow you to look at your calendar and see the information on guests who have booked. I'm told there have been numerous complaints and it certainly impacts my ability to host properly. We use this information to prepare in advance for our 5-star, 3-hour Farm Tour and Chocolate making Experience. It is imperative that we are able to determine how guests are grouped and if there are children attending, as we prepare special kids fun packs, kid-friendly refreshments and engagement and need to know in advance how to set up stations for making chocolate.
When you click on your Experience Calendar, it comes back with 3 wavering dots (as if someone were typing) and does not provide any information. I frequently need to answer guest inquiries and on average, we host 6-10 folks 3 times a week and send automated messages upon booking, again later with a reminder and driving instructions; and finally, a thank-you message after each Experience. I literally have hundreds of messages in my in-box which I have to scroll through searching for who booked a specific date (often made months beforehand). This is difficult and extremely time consuming, especially when I need to access the information on a daily basis. When I call the Support number, they cannot help because they are only trained for supporting home hosts (I've been a SuperHost for many years) but they know nothing about Experiences and can only make a referral. So it sometimes takes days to get a response from a "qualified" Experience support person; which in my experience, seems to consist of a very small cache of individuals who bounce help requests between themselves. Each time I try to report the same issue, I am met with gaslighting techniques which include being instructed to (1) Uninstall and then Reinstall the App on ALL devices (I use the App on 5 devices between me and my husband)...a process that takes over an hour and yields no results; (2) Don't use mobile App, only laptops and PCs work (not true, same result on both); and (3) DON"T use the App; you must go through your browser and Google Airbnb to access your account that way (doesn't work either). Additionally, the App was apparently 'reset' at some point and did not reflect changes I'd made to my calendar, so we had guests arrive on a date that had been removed months before, resulting in one very upset Guest. Other Guests are being canceled 30 minutes before the Experience begins because they "failed to verify" their credit card, even though they tried in vain to do so. I've had several frantic calls. One guest arrived in tears, but we welcomed them anyway and had to repeatedly apologize for Airbnb's tech issues. When Airbnb cancels an entire group with only 30 minutes notice, it is impossible to re-book the spots and we, the Host, must suffer the loss and disappoint guests who wanted to come but were unable to book because the Experience was marked full.
The latest incident that preceded the name-calling was when we had a very odd instance where only 1 guest signed up for an Experience date. I needed to contact the guest so they would not feel awkward when they realized they were the sole participant and I also wanted to inquire if they had a specific area of interest since we would be able to fully focus the entire Experience around that. BUT...I had no way to determine who this guest was or a means to contact them since the App doesn't work. After leaving an urgent message for the Experience Support team, I received the following reply from Carlos:
** followed by a second message simply stating ** (3 days AFTER the Experience).
They then provided a number for immediate assistance, which is a non-working number. I filed a report, which ended up being routed to the International Airbnb Support team, who apologized and said they were forwarding my complaint through the proper channel. This morning I received another (rather panicked) message from Carlos, apologizing and claiming he sent the "Karen" message to me but thought he was talking to a coworker named Karen. Really!? Carlos' co-worker, Karen, needed an apology and help for her listing? Obviously, he was trying to cover his tracks after making unprovoked, derogatory remarks. In all the years I've communicated with Experience Host Support, I've yet to deal with one named Karen. This was a very poor attempt to cover up his very poor behavior.
"Karen" is a sexist, racist, elderist slur often directed toward older, white women. While I am female, pale skinned and in my 60s, I was not causing a disturbance, hurling insults or throwing things around a store or anything of the like. I simply requested assistance with contacting a Guest due to arrive at my home the next day. I wrote "Please fix your App" and a reminder that this problem has been going on for over 3 months because the problem with the app is deeply affecting my ability to do my job. I cannot believe Airbnb allows this type of behavior, name-calling and disrespect from "specialists" who are supposedly trained on the system and to support Hosts. Another Support person, Hugo, admitted he knew nothing at all about the software or how it works and was just there to route calls.
A few months ago, I was contacted by an Experience Support Ambassador who was making "a request on behalf of a Guest". The request was that I take a 50% total loss on my daily earnings by agreeing to fully refund a group of 5 on the morning they had booked a tour. They had not slept the previous night because, on arrival at their Airbnb accommodation, discovered the Host had not prepared for them and they had to drive to the other side of the island where Airbnb eventually found them an alternative place to stay. Say What? I agree that the Guest deserved a refund. But since the problem was caused by another Airbnb Host who is in no way connected to me, why am I the one being asked to accept a substantial loss when I was in no way at fault? I literally had to ask the Airbnb representative if they were Guest Support only and if I should contact Host Support to represent me in my response. They informed me they were Support for both, and confirmed they had not requested the the Host at fault cover my loss. What? How does expecting me to give up 50% of my income due to no fault of my own, support me? Come on, Airbnb...you get close to 20% of every Experience dollar I earn and this is how you support your Hosts? Yes, I believe these folks were entitled to a refund...but not from me! They were so disappointed to miss the Experience that we provided them a private tour on a different date with lots of extras and a loss to us we were not able to tend to our other responsibilities that day. We went well over and beyond any reasonable expectation to accommodate this guest. They were very grateful, but completely sour on Airbnb.
I am getting general complaints from guests who feel they shouldn't be charged a cleaning fee (despite our 5 star rating and 6 hour cleaning protocol) and have been bullied by inquiring guests who contact me on the platform and say "I would book your place if it were on VRBO". Not sure what's going on with Airbnb, but it seems they are losing both customers and proven, solid hosts. If committed Super Hosts cannot do their job because of a breakdown in the system, it is inevitable that the product will suffer and that becomes a major problem for everyone! So if you are experiencing problems with the Experience App, please report it, maybe something will be done!
**[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]
