Community expert tells me blatantly wrong information

[Susan1188]

I recently contacted client support via chat and got a "community expert".

I asked about the Extenuating Circumstances policy, as I have a guest who booked non refundable.
Experienced guest.  Type of profile I have had abuse the "extenuating circumstances" policy before.

The "community expert" tells me that the guest can cancel for illness, injury or personal situations - this is the policy BEFORE January 2021.

People can no longer cancel for personal situations *EXCEPT* being diagnosed with Covid themselves or being required to isolate and providing proof of the positive test or isolation order.

When I dispute that and express my astonishment, he digs in, confirming it is true.

Only after *I* go in the TOS and dig up the *new* extenuating circumstances rules, does he realize he is telling me something completely wrong.

So a word of warning:

When you are on Airbnb support chat service, talking with a "community expert", you are basically talking with another host as if you were here on the forum.

You might get some insight and help, but you might also get some false information.

Having said that with another more serious situation I was assigned a CS person who followed my case and called back mutliple times, so that was good.

Good luck everyone!

[Colleen253]

@Susan1188 “Make your listing super clear so you don't get requests or interest from undesirable renters, which, in effect, is wasting Airbnb marketing money”.

We can all make our listings crystal clear but it matters not because Airbnb makes a dogs meal out of all our hard work with what has become a very user unfriendly platform. 

For starters, listing descriptions are chopped up, with every section just showing a tiny bit. One must click endlessly to expand, which is super tiresome. Then, the most important info is well hidden so guests are already tired from clicking, and have moved on before they’ve even found it. The app is worse than desktop even, and very different. I’m pretty sure it’s all by design, geared to quickly drive more bookings to pad Airbnb pockets. They care not about the increased headache and hassle for hosts. We are left dealing with the fallout. 

[Sarah977]

@Susan1188  When I was first listing, I wanted to know if and how I could list 2 rooms, with one becoming unavailable if the other got booked. 

I got responses from 2 "community experts". One told me there was no way to do that, the other told me of course you can, and explained how.

[Susan1188]

@Sarah977 
Thanks for that...
So for everyone here, if you think you are talking to an airbnb employee when you go on help chat:

if you see the words "community expert" 

You may be talking with somebody on the other side of the world with no knowledge of your market and less experience than you have yourself.

This would be fine, if it were transparent.  Unfortunately, the responses arrive thru airbnb supprot chat so you think you are talking with an experienced trained employee.

I don't mind the concept, if its transparent.  You are talking with a peer who has no clue about what's going on, more than you do.

[Ann72]

@Susan1188  Thanks for posting.  Many, many hosts are unaware of this fact.