A Disabled Host is being harassed by Airbnb about accessibility features in their home

[Seth80]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRfPU672/

There are a LOT of videos about this host's current struggle with Airbnb. 

She's being asked by customer service to REMOVE ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES from her home. She's being asked to remove a handicap accessible door bell, she's being asked to justify HAND RAILS IN THE SHOWERS. And so much more.

A guest complained ABOUT HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE FEATURES IN THE HOME and Airbnb is requiring the host to REFUND THEM AND REMOVE THE FEATURES. 

This is INCREDIBLY ABLEST AND INVALIDATING to a disabled Airbnb Host.

And NO ONE FROM AIRBNB IS TAKING CONTROL TO FIX THE IGNORANCE that is causing this public relations nightmare! What in the world is happening at Airbnb that THIS can happen?

Airbnb needs to ADDRESS THIS INTERNALLY as well as with the host, apologize PROFUSELY, and reimburse the host!

The customer service policy handbook needs to be updated also to to make sure this never ever happens again, no matter how much a guest complains.

I look forward to Airbnb's public response on this matter!

[Huma0]

The thing is, Airbnb KNOWS that its customer service operations have become appalling since they laid off lots of staff and outsourced to untrained and underpaid and exploited desperate people. Whether there are any plans to try and fix this, I don't know. I've seen no indication of it. 

I can only imagine that they saved so many dollars doing this - yeah, sure they were desperate when the pandemic hit and bookings were cancelled/stopped - that they want to continue those savings despite reporting the 'best quarter ever'. 

I've seen similar situations happen at other companies and I'm not just talking about the pandemic. When there is a monopoly, that is what can, and often does happen. Sure, Airbnb has competitions but, in the homeshare market (which this host belongs to), that is not really the case. So, prices increase while quality declines and customer service dwindles to next to zero.

Until someone else comes along to seriously compete with Airbnb and shove a spanner in its works, nothing is going to change.

This case, however, does take the biscuit. Even with all the terrible behaviour we've seen from Airbnb these past few years, I still find it hard to fathom how someone senior would not step in ASAP to avoid this public relations nightmare. Maybe they don't think enough people care about disabilities (and maybe they are sadly right) or (and I am not a conspiracy theorist) there is something else at play here that we don't know about...

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  well I probably AM a conspiracy theorist, or are they just "facts waiting to be uncovered"? 😉  I certainly feel pretty good about my medical choices I made in the past 2 years, and those "conspiracies" are largely now unfolding as facts. 

However, what I think is going on here is nothing more than money. Shoddy customer service and every decision is made with the end goal of minimising any cost directly back to ABB. 

[Helen744]

@Huma0 Well I have to think that the 'driver is asleep at the wheel"So much bad stuff has been reported and guests also seem to be bamboozled by Airbnb as well as hosts . Its truly Airbnb stepping back and not dealing with anything ,and as they said and made us sign , 'their rules apply' , but it would be handy if those of us who struggle and kept struggling all the way through the pandemic to bring places of refuge to all types of people ,could have been acknowledged . Also the 'rules'  we agreed to seem to have been made to keep us in the dark . When you truly get to the heart of the labyrinth there is nothing here , only a spattering of remarkable hosts that some 'guests ' will always remember and some truly 'bad behaviour ' by some guests that hosts will never forget. I hate to say that the guests I will always remember ,although some were lovely genuine people,were diabolical . My house is sold now and I have one last guest to go but still I cross my fingers that they will be 'nice ordinairy people'Some hosts who are on this site are such super stars and when not hosting have gone out of their way to guide the new hosts , but so many new , inexperienced hosts , does not bode well .I truly wonder if this sharing economy , where we all let strangers into our houses is really worth it in the long run . H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

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@Helen744 wrote:

still I cross my fingers that they will be 'nice ordinairy people'

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Ditto. It really shouldn't be like this. Of course, it's normal for any host to get nervous before a new guest arrives, but something has changed for me. I used to get nervous because I wanted them to be happy with the listing. Now, like you, each time I am crossing my fingers hoping that this one won't turn out to be weird, clueless, demanding or whatever. It's stressful.

The ratio has changed and the problematic guests seem no longer to be the tiny minority. Before the pandemic, 9/10 of my guests were people I'd have back any time and many have become friends, but in the last year, I'd say around 50% have been problematic and I was happy to see them leave.

Is it worth it in the long run? I don't know anymore. I deserve to be happy in my own home but a lot of the guests I've hosted in the past year have been people I would not want back. 

But Airbnb doesn't care if it loses hosts like us. There are plenty of eager newbies to replace us. 

[M199]

@Catherine-Powell 

Reading these comments, it is becoming embarrassing to be associated with Airbnb.