Former guest upset about being asked to donate to me!

[Laura2592]

I am late to the party on this "smile card" or well wish/donate to your host thing Airbnb has going on. We are in the middle of a move and its been all we can do to keep up with check ins  and unpack a sea of boxes in our new place. So part of this is on me for not noticing what was happening.

Last night around 10pm I got a text from a former guest who we had hosted a few times, detailing how she lost her job/financial and health issues and resented that we were "asking for a donation" from Airbnb, calling us "tacky" and saying that we must be "doing well" to own such a nice second home and that it was in poor taste to ask others to fund it/that she will not be coming back. Having no idea what this was about I got online and figured out this was happening. I am SHOCKED. It's one thing for guests to send hosts a nice thought, another thing entirely to ask for funds when so many people are struggling. 

We ARE lucky to have such a charming second home and we in no way want anyone to pay us anything, other than their fee for their stay. We lost a ton of reservations and potential income like many others, but it is ALL potential income until its in the bank and stays are complete. I can't believe this is happening. Figuring out how to opt out. 

Anyone have any thoughts on how to respond to this guest (if at all)? We have had a good rapport up until now. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Pat271 

Ah, "Offhandedly sending a kindness card" as opposed to " a donation offhandedly presented".

Thanks.

[Christine615]

@Pat271 

I am hard pressed to believe that out of the millions of guests the platform has processed annually that a substantial percentage of them reached out to Airbnb to ask how to help hosts. Even the word "unprecedented times" sounds scripted. Show me the millions of guests banging on the door for this opportunity and I'll take my words back. But lets not base policy on .00000001% of the group.

Airbnb has no right to send out those kind of notices which tag hosts without it being an "opt-in." It is stupid (and I say that having been a corporate manager for years) and smacks of a management structure that even in Kansas City is often cited as lacking empathy and maturity. 

Airbnb needs to stay in its lane and work on it's obvious flaws.

!. Kick of all the illegal unregistered Airbnb's on the platform.
2. Work on the bonehead "hide and seek" identity game they play with hosts and guests.
3. Honor host guarantees without making hosts leap over impossible hoops when damage is obvious.
4. Provide a full accounting of how guests AND hosts are vetted before being allowed on the platform.
5. Stop changing the terms of service every time the wind blows.

If these programs were "opt-in" no one would complain (we might still call them stupid, but we wouldn't be subject to them).

The guests with whom I have an ongoing relationship reach out in other ways, Facebook, private messages on Twitter, etc.

[Pat271]

@Christine615  I agree this should have been an opt-in.  Airbnb probably thought few people would be inclined to go to the platform and opt themselves in. 

This is very similar to the way other businesses add you to their mailing lists.  I spend an annoying amount of time opting out of emails sent without my buy-in.  These are not only emails from some website I visited, but emails from the hundreds of “partners” to which those companies sold my email address.  Maddening.

I likewise feel like those emails should be an opt-in, but we all know how that would end up.  We live in a very manipulative society.

[Christine615]

I thought I "opted out" of this months ago. But I am also a guest so I got that stupid email asking me to send donations to my hosts and I thought, IS ANYONE LISTENING TO US?

I sure hope that my "opt-out" took hold on the host side and my guests aren't getting those hairbrained emails. I have hosted several families who are in distress, people who are cancer survivors, people with young children, etc.   I know all the stories and some of us stay in touch.

Airbnb also KNOWS that a lot of guests got laid off in the pandemic and have no source of income! None! What is Chesky doing to make sure THEY are okay? They aren't thinking about the host they stayed with one time any more than I'm thinking about sending a card to the Hilton Hotel.

There are 35 MILLION people who haven't seen a single unemployment check yet dating back to March. Can't make the rent. Are in danger of losing their cars which means they can't get to a job if one opens up, or have loved ones sick with Covid-19. We have people who can barely find masks and sanitizer. Others are needing to access food pantries. They don't have healthcare and they sure as heck don't have Airbnb stock options.

What on Earth is Airbnb thinking even doing something stupid like this?

Airbnb is not Hallmark (when you care enough to send the very best). Airbnb's  job is not to get in the middle of our relationships with our hosts and our guests. They are a booking service. Period. A middle-man to facilitate a transaction. And a lot of us are getting fed up with the immature social engineering coming out of that top office.

Btw - I know that excuse about "we have connected with many hosts outside of the community boards to get their opinion.  I've worked for several corporations that told the same lies. It means "I asked my neighbor in my gated community what they thought during a white tie dinner party and the all agreed with me."

Airbnb would work more efficiently if fifty percent of their advisory Board was composed of a rotating set of vocal hosts elected by other hosts to represent us.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Christine615 

Nobody is listening. Even in the 'Listening Groups' designed for listening, nobody listens.

All that 'Opting out' will get you in this crazy initiative is the refusal of donations from your guests to you. It will not 'opt you out' of your details being sent to past guests, and it has not been proven that because you 'opt out' of donations being sent to you that your guests will not be offered to donate. What is certain in that respect is that you being 'opted out' will mean you will not receive such, if any guest donation, then.

@Helen350 had a guest in this position send a card, but has not yet established what was presented to him by way of any donations.

[Emilia42]

@Christine615 "Opt-out" means that guests cannot send you donations but they will still get the invitations to send a "smile card." At least in my experience.

[Colleen253]

This is so infuriating. Any time Airbnb wants to do ANYTHING 'on behalf of hosts' they need to notify us first and require us to OPT IN to ANY of it. FULL STOP!

[Brenda328]

@Emilia42   Actually the problem is that to my knowledge there are not two different invitations.  There is not one invitation that allows the guest to send the kindness card and does not reference the donation and a separate invitation that allows them to send the kindness card and include a donation if they would like.

Especially from what I have seen so far, which is the guest does not receive one invitation for each host.  If the guest has stayed with multiple hosts, all the hosts are listed on the same invitation and the guest can select which hosts they would like to send a card and/or donation to.

My understanding is that the only thing that opting out does is prevents Airbnb from sending you the donations.  It does not prevent Airbnb from soliciting or receiving donations on your behalf.

If this is incorrect, I would appreciate seeing the various templates that are sent out.  Being in the software industry myself and having used the Airbnb platform and seen the plethora of programming errors and 'glitches' on it, I doubt the programming staff has the bandwidth or ability to check whether each host has opted out and determine which invitation (donation or no donation) to send to the guests.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Emilia42]

@Brenda328 

The e-mail is a template that is sent to guests but I was under the impression that if hosts opted out then their guests would not see this final step before the card is sent. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Brenda328 

A past discussion was whether the template being used would send a database query to the host in questions profile to establish whether that host was opted in, or out and then as to whether the donation button should be presented. The omission of such a query could in fact be considered a 'glitch' should it be necessary, the omission then causing a donation to an opted 'out' host. What then happens to the donation?

Far simpler, to just not include the opted out hosts in the mailings. But that is not the case.

[Debra300]

@Christine615,

The opt-out is only for receiving the contribution, and doesn't stop Airbnb from sending the invitations to your guests and accepting any funds received.

[Ann489]

@Laura2592   well, this clearly backfired.  They wouldn't listen to us hosts when we told them that this was a bad idea.  Now it is all over the news.  Maybe they will get the hint now?  😉

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/hotels/2020/07/15/airbnb-sends-guests-kindness-card-email-dona...

[Colleen253]

@Ann489 'Maybe they will get the hint now?'

Oh, it's lovely to dream though, isn't it? 

[Christine615]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0and @Emilia42 Why am I not surprised by that. 😞

[Colleen253]

@Laura2592  Just tell her the truth, that you're very sorry, but you had no idea this was going to happen, and it came entirely from Airbnb, not you.