Airbnb CS is causing havoc by giving guests incorrect information

[Priyanka7]

I had a semester abroad student booked with me for 6 months- he had to leave half way through his reservation and his reservation was not covered under the Cover-19 EC policy as it had already begun. Nevertheless, I could not ethically withhold 3 months of rental from him so I agreed to refund him for those months. We did the cancellation together and sorted out a refund via the resolution centre. I was meant to get a payout on the 22nd of March, but he had lost his credit card and so the payment was delayed- he eventually sorted it out and I got the email from airbnb stating that they have successfully collected payment. To this day I have not been paid out since feb for this reservation, the case manager assigned has not contacted me for over a week despite me leaving numerous email and messages asking them to contact me. My guest independently contacted  airbnb and they told the guest not to make any further payment- this has led to airbnb withholding all of my payouts because some CS person gave them the incorrect information! This is extremely frustrating and has serious implications. It makes it seem like I am trying to get money out of the guest and has damaged our relationship. 

[Susan17]

@Priyanka7

I'm just going to tag another host/Community Centre contributor in here who has also had major issues recently with long-term booking cancellations, who may be better able to advise, or at least give you some moral support! Best of luck to you!

@Huma0 

[Huma0]

@Susan17  thanks for directing me to this post.

@Priyanka7my situation is different from yours in that my long-term guests were refunded under the COVID-19 policy, even though they didn't qualify, but I am not sure if that is the case with your guest of if your case has gotten into the mess due to the current chaos at customer services.

Could you clarify a few things?

On what date did your guest check in and what date did he cancel/leave?

If I understood correctly, he left three months into a six month stay. According to the long-term cancellation policy, you should have therefore received the next month's payment and he would not have been charged for the last two months (so you would not have been withholding three month's rent from him, only one). However, you agreed to refund all three months.

I therefore don't understand what the payments are that you refer to. With long-term stays, the host's payout is supposed to be issued the day after check in and the following payments monthly. So, you should already have been paid for the three months he stayed. If, when he cancelled, the long-term policy (not COVID-19 EC policy) was applied, he would have been charged an additional month. I assume this is the refund you mention that you did via the resolution centre? So what was the payout you were due on 22nd March? Are you saying you issued the refund for the fourth month, but never received the payout for that month?

Sorry for all the questions, but it's hard to get a sense of what happened without the dates of the stays and the dates of the payouts you got/were meant to receive. If I can get that clear in my head, I might be able to offer some advice.

[Priyanka7]

Hi Huma, 

Essentially, the guest checked in in January and checked out at the end of March (I received payments for Jan and Feb) and I was meant to be paid on the 22nd of march as he only decided to leave on the 30th- there was an issue collecting this payment but eventually got an email form airbnb saying it had been collected successfully. 

For some reason the airbnb app told him he would get a refund of zero (0) if he cancelled (even though he had 3 months remaining). For this reason we worked out a resolution via the resolution center. 

This prompted airbnb to ask him to pay for the entire reservation in one lumpsum which he did not do (meaning the payout and resolution adjustment on my transaction history has not gone through) because an airbnb CS expert told him "just don't pay". They have therefore frozen all payouts because of this

[Robin4]

@Priyanka7 

Airbnb are in a world of pain at the moment but, they still feel they have something to protect. The issue is many of the CX phone pool staff are 'shooting from the hip'with the advice they are giving at the moment and are not treating tickets with the required responses they deserve. It's human nature when you think about it.....none of us like to get our heads ripped off call after call every day, it wears you down....I know all about that!

You are not going to get anywhere with the current line of communication you have with the company, this is what I suggest you do. Message CX once more and ask the agent you have been dealing with to close the current ticket you have with this issue. Be pleasant and just say "Thanks for your help you can close the case now"!

By doing that you will stop further activity on your claim being directed to that agent.

I then suggest you open a new ticket via Twitter! I am lead to believe the staff who man the Twitter feeds have a higher level of expertise than the phone pool. Now I don't personally have any experience with Airbnb and Twitter but many I have come across, both here on the CC and elsewhere have, and will verify that.

You are possibly experienced with the use of Twitter, but just in case you are not proceed as follows....

Step 1: Log into Twitter

Step 2: Search for @Airbnbhelp and choose "Follow" them

Step 3: Send a Direct Message (DM) explaining your issue and wait for their response.  They may ask for information such as your listing and other personal information.....but always provide it over DM so it is not public.

Priyanka, I am sorry you have been stonewalled by the company here but if you proceed as I have advised above you may be able to get some speedy resolution to this payment issue of yours!

All the best.

Cheers......Rob

@Susan17 

[Susan17]

@Robin4 

Well it's worth a try, I suppose Rob. I'm not sure people are grasping just how much of a meltdown CX is in at the moment though. I'm having screenshots, emails and stories of both hosts' and guests' experiences with CX sent to me 24/7 for the past several weeks and a lot of the stuff I'm seeing is truly shocking. Nobody knows what's going on, nobody knows what they're supposed to be doing, and for sure, nobody knows what the policies are, from one day to the next (and not for one minute am I putting the blame on the CX agents for that - these abject failures are coming straight from the top) A total and complete shambles. The whole system feels like it's about to collapse at any moment. 

[Priyanka7]

Thanks Rob,

perhaps I should have clarified. It took over 10 days for a specialist to be assigned to my case as the ‘normal’ CS rep said they could not help me. This was confirmed in my last phone call when I had asked for the CS rep to take over my case and they said unfortunately the person dealing with it is in a higher department. I’m worried that if I ask to close the ticket this will take another 10+ days for someone to get to it. It’s extremely frustrating to have a lack of communication and transparency from Airbnb. I cannot understand why CS reps will be telling guest not to make further payments when they know Airbnb will still send them emails asking them to make payment. 

[Sarah977]

@Priyanka7 One thing you might try is to ask the guest to contact Airbnb to ask what happened to his payment, that the money was charged to him, but his host has not received it and it was supposed to paid out on March 22. One host posted that they hadn't been paid for months for 6 finished stays. She contacted the guests, they asked Airbnb why it was hanging on to the money they had been charged instead of paying out the host, and the next morning all the payments showed up in her account.

Airbnb doesn't like looking bad to guests. With hosts, they don't care.

[Priyanka7]

Thanks @Sarah977- I’m a bit hesitant to contact the guest as I have messaged him about 5 times after his departure. He has mentioned he feels uncomfortable because the CS rep has told him not to make payment and I keep asking him to make payment. I’ll wait to hear back from the specialist- and maybe pop him a message then.