ARBNB Support

[Gayle148]

I am beyond infuriated over the lack of communication I’m getting from ARBNB. I had a horrific experience regarding a 3 week stay from a guest and family, and due to his deceptive lies and information, my account was suspended. I am a 5 star host with 3 listings, 19 all positive reviews, 0 negative reviews, and this person had never used ARBNB before and ARBNB took HIS side without ever inquiring with me or discussing the matter. For 4-5 days my account was suspended, then miraculously it was reinstated. No contact, no investigating no communication. I called and messaged at least 20 times. I finally had a floor supervisor message me as to when was a good time to call. I immediately wrote back “now, 3 o’clock in the morning, ANY TIME”! Never heard from him. For days I messaged him PLEADING for him to call me. Today at the end of my message they wrote “ closed”. How does a hospitality industry company treat their “ Superhosts” like this? I wouldn’t treat my enemies like this.. ( I have none, btw). It was bad enough that these guest totally disrespected my home-  I was traumatized, heartbroken, and furious at the same time- and what made it far worse was the lack of support ( non existent) that I received from ARBNB. Shame on you!

I ask- How do you speak to the Wizard???

[Huma0]

@Gayle148 

You can try tagging Head of Hosting @Catherine-Powell , but I don't think any of us know how to speak to the Wizard.

The problem is, I see stories like yours on this CC pretty much every day and no answers from Airbnb about what is clearly a serious and frequent problem (who knows how many other hosts this has happened to who have not posted about it here).

Airbnb's Trust and Safety department (or whatever it's called these days) has a policy of 'guilty until proven innocent' when it comes to hosts. So, if a guest claims there are hidden or undisclosed cameras, the host gets suspended. If the guest claims there was a gas leak, the host gets suspended. It's then up to the host to prove the non-existence of something. Even more annoyingly, sometimes the host is suspended and told they need to fix an issue, but Airbnb won't tell them what the issue is!

Then there are the hosts who are suspended for something the GUEST did, e.g. the guests had a party or flooded the listing and the host gets suspended instead, plus has their damage claim refused. So, they are getting penalised for something the guest did but, at the same time, told they are not getting reimbursed because apparently the guest did not do it?? What the???

Meanwhile, you can't get hold of a logical person to speak to, if you can speak to anyone at all. Or, they call you at 3 or 4 am, or they don't call you full stop. 

I would like to see Airbnb compensate the host for loss of earnings and other associated costs EVERY time Trust and Safety suspends a listing erroneously.

So, for example, guest claims there was a gas leak, gets refund and host's listing is suspended even though the host says there is no gas supply. Host hires gas engineer to visit property and issue report that there is no gas supply. Airbnb pays host for lying guest's full reservation, any other reservations that have been lost due to the suspension and for whatever the average amount of bookings that host normally receives in that time period, plus the cost of the gas engineer.

Of course, that's never ever going to happen. I am just day dreaming here, but wouldn't it be wonderful if Airbnb had to pay for their own mistakes? I'm sure they'd be less gung-ho about these suspensions.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gayle148 when a future guest reads your response to Mr Kim's review do you think it will help you get future bookings?

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

While I would normally advise other hosts against such a response, in this case I don't mind it at all because this guest sounds like a complete nightmare and really stupid to boot. That's the impression I got when reading @Gayle148 's response. Perhaps I am just seeing it from a host's perspective, but as all of her other reviews are clearly glowing, as a guest, I would be inclined to believe her and not him, and actually, if you read his list of complaints and then her point by point answers, he is the one who comes across as an idiot. 

If that response puts off a few guests, I would imagine those are exactly the kind of guests you do not want, i.e. those who are incapable of understanding why it's stupid to hit every switch willy nilly causing repeated outages, turn on underfloor heating and keep rubbish stored inside in high temperatures, or be affronted by recycling.

I'd be happy to scare off a few guests like those.

[Gayle148]

I loved your reply. It made me feel better that someone neutral could understand and agree with what I was saying/ feeling. My instincts were right about this guest and family right from the start. One lesson I learned was never host someone with no reviews. Need to scrutinize prospective guests more. I’m also concerned about having kids stay in my home. Unfortunately some few bad parenting guests ruin it for other guests with good behaved kids. I also think that three weeks is a long time not to be able to check on what’s going inside your home. I’m wondering if ARBNB allows you to require a weekly cleaning for more than a weeks stay? I finally did get a call from ARBNB a full week after the suspension first occurred. I was able to send whatever pictures I took of my home and how bad the condition of it was, as well as write a complete understanding of what took place inside. They reviewed in one day and agreed to cover the extra cleaning fees I had asked the guest for. I’m not sure if they covered  it themselves or were getting it from the past guest, but I am hoping the latter so maybe next time he will stop and think and be more respectful and considerate of another’s home. I’m glad I finally got to speak to someone, feel SO much better! Had they just contacted me from the beginning and just let me know they were working on getting to the bottom and resolving this case the wait would have been so much more acceptable.

[Huma0]

@Gayle148 

I'm glad you got it resolved, but I really disagree with Airbnb's stance of guilty until proven innocent and their habit of suspending hosts without evening giving them a chance to tell their side of the story. It is ridiculous that you had to wait a week for a response. In my opinion, they should reimburse you for any lost income, but of course, I know that's never going to happen.

As for hosting guests with no reviews, I have done it plenty of times and mostly the guests have been delightful. Everyone has to start somewhere. I have also hosted guests with lots of positive reviews who turned out to be a nightmare. If you had some other instincts about this guest from the start, you must in future trust those instincts. Whenever I ignore my gut instinct about a guest, it always backfires. I am still learning...

Re the cleaning. Yes, I believe you can do this. You just need to make it clear on your listing and maybe remind the guests of this before they book (or as soon as they book if you use IB) and confirm the time of the visits inn advance. I think I would definitely do this if I was hosting  longer stays in a complete unit. 

[Gayle148]

Totally agree with you on the stance of guilty until proved innocent, that was a sticking point with me when corresponding with ARBNB. Plus the fact I am a Superhost ( have they any loyalty?) and they could have checked my reviews or even gone through the many messages that occurred between myself and the guest. I am grateful in the end they made a judgement in my favor to get reimbursed for the cleaning fees. At least I felt I had SOME sort of redemption. I told them I hoped they were getting it through the guest and not paying out of ARBNB monies but never got an answer. If not directly from the disrespectful guest, how is he going to change his bad behaviors if he uses ARBNB again? As far as booking to zero reviews, I already accepted another this morning, 😳 I agree, you can’t really judge on that alone. He was very courteous with his request and sounded very considerate, but hey, I guess you can never really know. I figured for a weekend, how much could happen? 

I appreciate your response, and in the future I WILL include cleaning for anything over a week, I think I learned my lesson on that one..

[Huma0]

@Gayle148 

I am not sure if CS ever tell you whether they claim the money from the guest or take it from their own coffers. I've only once put in a damage claim. The guest didn't want to pay, but Airbnb policy is that you have to ask the guest first, so I did. After he refused, it got escalated to Airbnb and they paid, but there was no indication as to whether they charged him or not. I guess the only way you know is if you then get some kind of retaliation from the guest who is angry at being charged. 

Good luck with your new guest. It's true you never really know, but I try to ask enough questions to make me feel comfortable, whether it's a newbie or not. Guests sometimes give away something in this process which makes you realise they would not be a good fit, but sometimes there are no red flags. It is always a bit of a gamble. 

[Gayle148]

Well yes, I do. But mostly they will see the other 20+ positives reviews opposed to this one bad review and I would think make up their mind that way..

[Gillian166]

@Gayle148 @Mike-And-Jane0 
yes it seems a little heavy handed, i might have waited a day to calm down, but it needed a response to address the camera issue at the very least. i might have shortened some of the other stuff but clearly this guest vexxed you and it's fine, it shows you are a strong host not to be trifled with, hopefully it deters future complainers to go elsewhere. 

If the camera isn't operating and it's inside, highly recommend you remove it. You didn't dispute the location of the camera in your response. ABB will shut you down over that. 

I think the guy comes across as stupid, and the "kids caught a cold" (by having a cold shower in summer?? LOL) thing was hilarious and also SO scientific! And I don't know what it is about our dear Asian guests but they all have a few idiosycrancies in common: using all the hot water and being clueless about how hot water works (oh we just had 1 shower and a bath, and now i'm drying my hair, while my partner is using the kettle and the toaster and has the fridge open and we've plugged in a bunch of devices....) and then, the power trips.  I cannot fathom how they manage this, and a tradie once told us a funny explanation that makes us laugh each time, so we don't get mad.  I have to say i actually giggled during your response cos that's happened to us too, they went to the power box and played with it. why??? I don't want to have to tape the box shut. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Yep, the kids getting a cold from the shower made me roll my eyes...

Agreed that it's better to just get rid of the camera. 

[Gayle148]

Firstly, the camera is down! Even though it was clearly unplugged and not operating, I realize now that it was a mistake for me to leave up. I never even thought of it, but I guess I should have. The problem I have is ARBNB said their trust dept would get in touch with me ( while my account was suspended) They never did! They never asked any questions, inquired about it. So my account was suspended for four days with no notice or explanation, but they were still allowing 2 sets of different guests in my house, not knowing if the camera was working, still up, or taken down. If they were concerned it was up, why would they allow other guests to enter my home? That’s another point that makes no sense…then like I said, 4 days later they reinstated my account without ever speaking to me. SMH. 

[Gillian166]

@Gayle148  what's really funny is that if someone wanted to have a camera inside, surely you'd have one of those sneaky spy cameras hidden in another device? (a quick google shows you how scary that is). 

either way this is another story we see here all too often where CS shows us how poorly trained they are, and how they side with the guest without cause. I'm glad to hear it's resolved but they've a long way to go to earning back your trust (and loyalty). 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gayle148 One thing that is apparent from many posts is that you cannot Trust the Airbnb Trust and Safety department. Perhaps they should be forced to rename it under advertising standards.

[Gayle148]

Not sure I get this question???