New HAB members , you probably know but there is a CS problem at AIrbnb

[Melodie-And-John0]

Dear HAP Members (who are hosts (and Hosts that hang out here!),

Hosts here on our beloved CC have overwhelmingly rightfully pointed our fingers squarely at Airbnb's Customer Service system as broken and often the bane of our existence when we are in need, its in need of a Rehab ASAP.   I think others would agree that we as hosts do not get treated as priority customers anymore and have to wait way to long to find out that we were not listened too or understood and either we or our guests (or both) are gonna get a failing grade because of that.   

As highly rated  hosts, it would be reasonable to assume many or all of you have encountered the same issues dealing with the new CS departments as we do.   Modern day Inn Keeping is a 24/7/365 day a year constantly changing and evolving situations, our CS needs must reflect an urgency and transparency commensurate with job at hand.   Its been a year since Covid hit, claiming EC as the reason the CS teams are still not firing on all cylinders doesn't work for a million or so hosts that if they are still receiving Airbnbs guest bookings with open arms (At a social distance of course  (Haha ), we  have moved beyond that roadblock long ago.    

My purpose  for writing this thread is to see if I can spawn some type of consensus between Hosts and HAB's that almost nothing that doesn't focus squarely on making the CS Shops more responsive to hosts needs is worth pursuing cause the CS department is responsible for effectively supporting its hosts wide variety common and not so common problems.  Many of us that found ourselves in situations that the CS was sucking bad at dealing with unexplainable issues that were in need of urgency and   @Nick , @Liv,  @Quincy , @Katie  and @Lizzie  and others  (Lizzies angels (ha ha) have swooped in and often saved the day and our bacon for us.  The thing is, they already have real jobs keeping this CC alive and functional, we really need the CC to do what they once did better than most help lines, help hosts and guests when and where they need it.   

Anyone second my feelings that this is our #1 most common problem area hosting?   Thanks in advance for listening and sharing BTW, stay well, JR

 @Anna1403 , @Bez8,  @Antonella78, @Susan208, @Till-and-Jutta0,  @Nutth0, @Norma17, @Peter1, @Merredith0, @Pascale144, @Omar202, @Pooja30, @Tiffany204, @Vinicius0, @Shinya0, @Ningyi0, @Samuel604

[Laura2592]

@Melodie-And-John0  I agree that hosts are not priority but its not ABB's business model for them to be. 

ABB needs guests more than hosts according to the way its structured. Guests trust the site or cancel it. Hosts can come and go but guests are the money makers. I read somewhere that ABB needs 10 guests for every single host on the platform to sustain any semblance of profitability. Therefore I don't think that their customer service will improve anytime soon. There just aren't resources for it. The agents are terrible and the guests often prevail with spurious complaints. 

I sell on Etsy and Ebay. Two different business models. Etsy protects the sellers ALMOST as much as the buyers once you hit a certain sales threshold and have 5-star feedback. You get one complaint it lowers your "value score" and your shop is in danger of being suspended if you don't make them enough sales and have a track record of success. Etsy will back you up...to a point...but it will take you a few years to be successful enough where they notice you. Their corporate culture is a lot more touchy/feely and they do make an effort to be seller friendly whether or not they always succeed. 

Ebay has farmed out their CS to India, Ireland and who knows where else. The quality is about what you expect from ABB-- people who have no idea of their own policies. You typically have to call back several times to get a human who understands what you are saying. They are getting slightly better but still pretty bad. I keep most of my business with Etsy as a result though I started out on Ebay. They were the only game in town for a long time. There is a lesson here. 

I think the challenge for hosts will be to find a platform which is more supportive and start "voting with their listings" by moving there. As long as ABB is the most popular booking site, there will be no threat from hosts and no changes made. Until Etsy came along, Ebay was even worse than they are now. And the same model applies with STR websites. ABB has to decide which direction they want to go and I think they already have. We can protest or ask nicely but I don't see much changing unless they really get a cultural overhaul.

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Laura2592, thanks for your thoughts, your experiences with ebay and etsy are definitely interesting as well.  I think the formation of the HAB team is proof that Airbnb realizes the great worth of the  host with lots of great reviews on their team otherwise the focus would have been called the GHAB, the hosts being underrepresented by the CS groups is evident.  If it doesnt change things, many of us will probably be looking for alternatives and sooner or later, opportunity opens doors for competition to rise up, I vote for the first choice, a better Airbnb not start all over again with someone else. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Melodie-And-John0 You said 'I think the formation of the HAB team is proof that Airbnb realizes the great worth of the  host with lots of great reviews on their team otherwise the focus would have been called the GHAB, the hosts being underrepresented by the CS groups is evident' . Very sadly I fear it is just a PR exercise. Its been 2.5 months now and nothing has happened except that in one HAB member intro there was a list of things to talk about. Even this talking shop list didn't address any of the real issues faced by hosts. I do hope I am wrong........

[Laura2592]

@Mike-And-Jane0  I agree. ABB has a history of making broad statements (forbidding parties? verifying every single listing?) and then doing a really half hearted effort to back that up. I think it comes down to numbers. Talk is cheap. Action costs money.

We have so many great suggestions on these fora daily. Take the need for a pet button on listings. How difficult would that be to add? Or updating the definition of "child" and "infant"?  Two very simple programming fixes for the site. Yet though they are suggested over and over there is no action. I think trying to re-train the CS reps is a much heavier lift than some of these simple things that would make hosts lives easier immediately. 

[Anonymous]

@Melodie-And-John0   There are major changes on the horizon for corporate customer service operations, but almost entirely in the direction of automation.  The concept of training human staff to interface with customers and solve complex problems is already considered ancient history in Silicon Valley - now, there's a gold rush for more sophisticated AI to approximate the subtleties of human communication and judgment.

Putting aside the dystopian "Blade Runner" element of never knowing whether the voice on the end of the phone is human or machine, this will probably be something of an improvement over the current state of affairs. At least the machine will know what the actual policies are.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Anonymous Sadly machines are programmed by people. Given that Airbnb's programmers seem to cause untold problems when they 'upgrade' their website I fear a human programmed machine will likely get the policies wrong as well.

[Anonymous]

@Mike-And-Jane0  Very true, which is why it's so important for those policies to be as clear and well-articulated as possible. And it's also why I'm always begging for them to consult the people who will be affected by the policies before changing them. Unfortunately these decisions are often being made by people who lack the perspective to anticipate the real-world impact they're going to have once enacted; they're usually more focused on how it's going to sound in the press release.

Of course, I have the same complaint about politicians, but at least I have a vote on that matter.

[Sarah977]

@Melodie-And-John0  Yes. It's one issue for Airbnb to have guest-centric policies, as we know, they are more interested in keeping guests than hosts.

But even guests are posting here about receiving horrible customer service. Used to be if a guest arrived to find the place dirty, or a bait and switch, etc, Airbnb would be quite responsive, trying to find them an alternative place right away. Now it seems even guests are getting the run around and waiting for responses which never materialize.

Ill-trained outsourced CS reps, many of whom have a poor grasp of English ( for English speaking users), who give out false information, don't even know Airbnb policy as well as hosts do, give confusing or complex answers to simple questions, take forever to respond, lie about calling back, who are uninformed about system-wide glitches, and many of whom are lately reported to be downright rude to users, is totally unacceptable.

The abyssmal customer service is the main cause of user complaints and sites like Airbnb Hell. 

The company really needs a major overhaul in the CS dept. As it stands now, both hosts and guests are left feeling totally disrespected.

[Melodie-And-John0]

I actually don't have an issue with guest centric focus cause the age old rules that say the guest is always right generally serve everyone well as long as the default arbitrators (the CS shops) at the very least understand and follow their own rules.   

Second, we are customers also and deserve the same fair treatment our guests receive (in line with published rules and policy).   If Guests, hosts and Airbnb CS are having a hard time deciding what the actual rules are, the mothership needs to rethink them so they are clear then stick to them.   

Lastly, I would bet that most super hosts know their rules, Airbnb's and their localities far better than nearly every CS phone answerer or guest that may show up at their door, its reasonable to start any trouble call with us as "Innocent until proven guilty" and if your gonna accuse us, do it fast and make sure you get it 100% right or support us 100%.   Just my 1.5 cents, Be well, JR  

@Sarah977 , @Anonymous , @Laura2592 , @Mike-And-Jane0 , @

[Lee386]

@Melodie-And-John0 

I actually feel that I know what the response will be before I even contact CS, because they have a set of standard sugary replies that are guaranteed to wind me up.......... I understand how you are feeling, BUT.......

these sort of robotic replies are used by people who really are not 100% familiar with customer service and in fact the policies in place. From where I live, calling CS is out of the question as would cost a fortune so I am left with the robotic chat box 

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Lee386 ,  @Sarah977 , @Anonymous , @Laura2592 , @Mike-And-Jane0 the same themes seem to run through the CS system and it seems  the new HAB might be the perfect group to express hosts frustration to the mothership about the lack of quality responses from urgent and non calls and chats.  For a company that says it values 5***** reviews of our STR's quality of stay, its delivering us 3*** quality of services at the CS and charging us for the privilege in every booking.  It really wasn't always like that nor was it long ago (relative to my 4 short years of hosting).   CS agents must be experts in the field and know the rules better than hosts or guests, anything short of that and I might rather be speaking with the AI Borg voice Andrew mentioned, at least it would know its own rules.   Stay well, JR

[SandyAndGreg0]

What is HAB?  

[Anonymous]

@SandyAndGreg0  "Host Advisory Board"

[SandyAndGreg0]

thx.  Trying to find AirBnB resources to make sure local regulation tightening is done fairly.  Hoping to find ways to coordinate with other area hosts.  Again, thx.