HELP WITH "AWAITING VERIFICATION" TO "GUEST WITHDRAWN"

[Stan-And-Juris0]

 Hello everyone,  A guest new to Airbnb has been trying to book our guesthouse for 2-3 days now for July-August;  for 47 nights. He is an 82-year old guy who reached out to us expressing frustration about difficulties submitting his selfie photo to complete the verification process.  We called "Support", the 25th for help to facilitate the process, and was told the same thing as what the guest got from Airbnb "support ambassador (?)" which was to wait about 10 hours.  This time, the dates were already blocked off for the guest.

The following day, the 26th, we were surprised to find out that the status of the booking changed from "awaiting verification" to "guest withdrawn" and dates were unblocked; available.  We emailed and asked the guest if he has withdrawn his booking, and replied "NO...".  So called Airbnb... went over  the story again.  This time, we requested for the agent to call the guest to explain what was going on and kind of give them assurance.  Support team said they can't do it because they have no access to the guest (thank you support team!).  So before I messaged the guest, I went to his profile page and states there "verification completed".  I went ahead and delivered the good news to the guest that the verification is completed.  However, that night, he said Airbnb called to say that he has to wait another 10 -24 hrs or so (at this time, I am about to pull my hair, but decided to give it more time). 

Again, status was " Guest withdrawn"  I called again Airbnb to no avail...same frustrating line, "waiting period expired before guest could complete requirement. Wait 10 hrs or so"  I could not believe this is happening.  It almost sounded like the replies are being read to me or they are very fast at sending a link for us to figure out what to do.  Isn't this part of the service fee we are paying so we can get support when we needed it? 

Whatever happened to the previous group of Support Team who can either give you a sensible answer to your question or are very eager to help and willing to call guests/hosts to walk them through to resolve these  kind of issues.  

Earlier today, I checked and status remained at  "guest withdrawn".  As I was typing this message, a message from the guest came in:  

              Joe2:29 PM

              I give up. Just cannot complete the reservation. Have never had this problem with (Hidden by Airbnb) or TurnKey. My wife says she                      may try again . We never did find a phone # for Airbnb. Sorry we could not make it to your place. Reaally would have be great location                for us. Joe XXX

Can somebody from AIRBNB, please resolve this case....PLEASE!!! If I lose this booking will Airbnb cover for this or are they gonna come up with some lame excuses again.

[Helen427]

hello @Stan-And-Juris0 
That's beyond belief and it shows how out of touch some are in the Tech world.

The world has gone mad.

To expect a gentleman of that age to have to use Facial Recognition technology to verify his ID which rarely seems to be accepted as one and the same person is madness.

I recall there's many related Topics on the failures to verify ID & at one stage one was penalised for several months if one tried to verify with ID & then try remove it.

Have a read through CC using related keywords in the search box how others have addressed these similar issues.

As an alternative, does his wife have an account?

Maybe he could tag onto hers as a couple and just do the booking that way, without using photo ID but an alternative form.

Wishing you all the very best and it's lovely to see an 82 yr old planning to do some travel and hopefully enjoy their twilight years.

@Catherine-Powellis this something you can help @Stan-And-Juris0 sort out for peace of mind of this upcoming guest?

[Stan-And-Juris0]

@Helen427 @Ann72 @Julieanna0 @Emiel1  Thank you all.  Apologize for late reply.  We continued reaching out to Airbnb, calling and on hold for about half hour at a time, until the line is cut off  (never experienced this long wait) .  Finally, when call was answered (surprise!) got the same response...Ask guest to call Airbnb; guest could not get a hold of them. But why do they still need to call Airbnb when the guest is already verified according to guest's profile? Then we go back again to....the same response all over again.....it expired.....

We messaged the guest again, but had not replied anymore since yesterday.  I spent most precious times working on this issue on top of the 10,000 other things I need to be doing and realized, the next guest was checking in yesterday.  Had to finally give up and did last minute work on the unit before guest checks in, in about an hour.  Sooo glad we started the major cleaning 2 days ago after a 3-month stay (it needed a major general cleaning).

We tried to reach out to @Catherine-Powell but message won't go through.  If this message gets to @Catherine-Powell this time, we would greatly appreciate it if you can shed light on what happened to this case.  The supposed to be reservation was for July-August for a guest named Joe.  Do we get any compensation for this, probably (still hoping) lost income?

Again, thank you all for your attention,

Juris

[Lorna170]

@Stan-And-Juris0   I concur with what Helen has said above.  I have had guests who find the OTA websites and/or the internet very frustrating, and if they are able to reach me by phone, have dealt with me directly.  I do try to work within the platform that brought them to me, but it is sometimes impossible, even with CS stepping in.   I hope that you are able to reach out to this gentleman and confirm his booking somehow.  

@Catherine-Powell  There has to be some solution to this issue.  Both parties seem very sincere about wanting to book via Air.  

[Julieanna0]

@Stan-And-Juris0

I think I have learned that the “support ambassadors” are unpaid people who may or may not be hosts on the Airbnb platform.  I too have about pulled all of my hair out dealing with what I call “non-responsive” answers from them.

If I could give you one helpful bit of advice, it would be this:  insist on speaking with a supervisor or “someone with the authority to resolve the matter.”  Granted, this may not be speedy, (I’ve been waiting since December for resolution), however, it has cut out a lot of unhelpful and truly ignorant “support ambassadors.”   You will, most likely be told that one will call you back or reach out to you.  The support ambassadors are working remotely and usually have no way of transferring you to a supervisor.

If someone does contact you, make sure you ask right upfront if they are a supervisor and have the authority to fix the problem.  (It took me many hours of frustration to catch on to this diversionary tactic, i.e. it was just another support ambassador “having a go” at the problem at the expense of my time!)

It continues to mystify me how/why Airbnb expects us as hosts to “stay within the platform” when things could be so easily handled if we did NOT have to deal with the appalling lack of knowledge and ability to resolve what should be basic issues relevant to any travel platform.

Was told by @Catherine-Powell that she does not have access to my account, so she cannot directly help in my case.  (A familiar refrain.)  I’m not trying to be rude, but how many hours have both hosts and guests wasted now due to “support ambassadors” meddling in matters that they cannot resolve?

What a wonderful opportunity for another platform to step up and do exactly what @Airbnb does, except provide sterling, top-notch customer service and satisfaction.  I have an idea Airbnb would become nothing more than a bad and distant memory in the review mirror!

In the meantime, I hope you are able to directly contact your potential guest again.  You have probably already seen this, but if not, here is the link to troubleshooting re submitting ID:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1237/. If you haven’t sent this to your potential guest, I would go ahead and do so even if you are seeing on your end that it says their ID is verified.

I have recently learned 2 things:  1) even though the ID shows verified on the host’s side, this does not mean the guest will be permitted to book because 2) there are different levels of verification.

I hope this helps you, and more importantly, I hope you don’t miss this  opportunity due to Airbnb’s incompetence.

[Stan-And-Juris0]

@Julieanna0,@Lorna170, @Helen427, @Anne72,  We greatly appreciate  insights , and are happy to let y'all know that the reservation finally went through.  The last message we sent to the guest was on Friday asking them to kindly resubmit their request to book (as it again showed "identity verified" on the profile).  We never got a reply from them, and just thought they got tires and went to the other rental place...a big boo-hoo!  Saturday, lo and behold, when we checked our listing, it states that the reservation is confirmed!!!  Sooo happy about that!  However, we didn't hear from Airbnb, so don't know if it just ran its course...and just so glad that they tried to resubmit their request to book.  All is well, and we greatly appreciate your support; it helps to know someone, somewhere out there cares....THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!