Hi Everyone,
My team & I were working hard to achieve 'Superhost' status, with considerable success, when, at Christmas, I received a 'confirmed' booking for which I had no availability-this was the second time this had happened in as many days. The problem had been caused by Airbnb not using the information I had given to link 2 listings. Whilst I was able to accommodate the first 'booking', I was unable to accept the second & therefore (stupidly I now realise), I cancelled it immediately in order that the person was able to find somewhere else. This resulted in me being fined-as Airbnb never accept anything is their fault-but also, far more importantly, this single cancellation has meant that it could now take me years to achieve Superhost status. Why? The cancellation rate must be less than 1% of bookings-but if, like me, you mainly take 'whole house' bookings, you need 100 bookings before a single cancellation can be called 1% of bookings. Frankly, I just do not understand why, on every other criteria it is qualitative data which is important, but on this aspect it is numerical-it does not seem consistent & has been immensely dispiriting for me, as on all other criteria, I was exceeding target comfortably.
Just recently, however, I have had a nightmare with the behaviour of a guest-which was then compounded by Airbnb "support". In essence what happened was that a lady arrived with her family, she told my Manager that they could not have a man working in the property as her mother was, her words, "hijabi".This was complete news to us, as this had never been mentioned in advance, or any questions posed to us on how we could accommodate such a demand. She therefore demanded that he leave the property immediately & gave her the keys. Upon his refusal, she indicated my Cook/Housekeeper, who was about to leave having finished her work for the day & said to the Manager : "you are to go but SHE can stay". When, again, my Manager refused (quite rightly) to acceed to her request, she stated that she was cancelling the booking & swept out of the house.
Despite my having a 'firm' cancellation policy, Airbnb wrote to confirm cancellation-but then asked me how much of the client's payment I would like to refund to them-to which my response was 'none'.
The client contacted me several times demanding 'her money back', which again I refused. I contacted Airbnb 'support' several times, as I was most concerned not to receive a review from this woman. Each time, I got a different response on policy-even though it was recognised that the woman was only in my house for 30 minutes & I was eventually assured that she would not be able to write a review.
Needless to say, exactly as I feared, the woman was able to write a review and, if anything, it was even worse than I feared. in it she calls me a 'racist' and tells anyone reading the review to on no account stay in my property. As if that wasn't enough, in the 'personal message' section of the review, she tells me that she hopes I get a horrible illness & die!
I might say that this review is in stark contrast to all of my other reviews, which were averaging 4.9-& indeed this calendar year, were all 5* on every aspect...
As you might imagine, I found the above experience immensely upsetting and had assumed that the vitriol which this woman had used would not be considered acceptable by Airbnb, resulting in the review being uplifted.
How wrong I was- I was told that the woman WAS allowed to write a review, as she had elected not to cancel the booking, once she realised she would be 'fined' & even though she did not stay.
Secondly, to my astonishment, I was told by Airbnb that calling me a 'racist' & writing that she hoped I would die of a horrible illness, quote: "does not contravene our guidelines" & so the 'review' would stay in place.
There were also several hints that if I would just give a refund, this decision might be changed....
Needless to say, the above nightmare has now depressed my overall rating-but worse than that, I have had a letter from Airbnb stating that, unless I improve on the points listed in her 'review', I might lose my listing all together.
I cannot understand why the reviews of all my other guests are effectively discounted and I am not believed either, despite a very positive past history with Airbnb.
I am so very disappointed by the total lack of positive support and now considering other options...
Your views and/or experiences on this platform would be most welcome.