Not Feeling too "SuperHostie" :(

[Don_Michelle0]

Sooo I just needed a place to vent and I guess that's here -- I just got off the phone with AirBnb support where I was thanked so warmly for being a super-host... well -- the reason I was calling was in fact to provide 'super host' level of customer service to our guests that are booked for tomorrow!

The problem?  I live in Bellingham Washington - and just finished watching our town on the US National News (not that I don't already have an upfront personal view of the problems 🙂  We, personally, and our property and guesthouse are fine -- in fact our 'road' from town is also clear. HOWEVER guess what? There is not a single way to get here from the south of us via Interstate Hwy 5 (a huge freeway) nor from the two alternative side hwys  -- two are blocked from rock and massive mudslides (that's I-5 and Chuckanut Drive) and the other they are not allowing any through traffic other than residents of the immediate area.

In short, our guests can't get here.

So I told them hey I completely understand and of course we'll fully refund you and I'll take care of the cancellation for you.

What did airbnb support have to say? Well, they don't allow a cancellation just because a guest can't physically arrive to your location -- I guess they're supposed to helicopter in... she suggested that if we cancel we'll have to absorb the cancellation penalties and the 'ding' against our superhost status.  If the guest cancels they have to pay the cancellation fees to Airbnb and it's up to us if we want to refund them (which of COURSE we would).  She suggested that we could request forgiveness of the penalties and ding but that they couldn't guarantee it as again 'there is nothing in our rules that would cover this kind of cancellation'.

Wow - just WOW is all that my head can say about it right now!

Haha I just got the 'after support call' message about how she hoped she solved my problem! OMG 🙂 Reminding me that there's stiff penalties to our superhost status for cancelling a guest.

Anyone out there have thoughts or suggestions?

Michelle of Mace Medows

[Sarah977]

@Don_Michelle0  Here is the section of the Extenuating Circumstances policy that applies. The CS reps are clueless robots. They're sitting at home in the Phillipines and have no idea that highways have collapsed, flooding is extreme, people are being evacuated, and that entire areas are cut off with no way in or out.

"Natural disasters. Natural disasters, acts of God, large-scale outages of essential utilities, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other severe and abnormal weather events. This does not include weather or natural conditions that are common enough to be foreseeable in that location—for example, hurricanes occurring during hurricane season in Florida."

What is going on in the Pacific Northwest right now does not fall under the exceptions in red above. The flooding and road closures are due to extreme and unusual weather.  You can try again and don't ask them for help. Tell them this falls under the EC policy and quote them the section. 

The other alternative is to tell the guests to do this, as Airbnb is so guest-centric.

Or just tell the guests to cancel and you can refund their money through the resolution center after you get paid for the booking. But they won't get the Airbnb service fees back.

[Don_Michelle0]

Sarah,

Thank you so very much for this info!! I'm bookmarking it right now.  I think we can expect to revisit this issue again at some point and this well be super helpful for myself and our guests. 

I think if we all could just get one sincere message out to the Airbnb (especially superhost) Support Division it would be that to empower us (and their support staff) to be able to provide the best and most reasonable solutions to our and their guests would be the most powerful way to enhance their own bottom line.  'The Disney Metric...' of taking care of the customer creates a word of mouth marketing machine like no other.

I truly appreciate the time you took to reply to me and with this helpful resource!

Con mi sincero agradecimiento,

Michelle

[Mei-Yu0]

If guests cancel under the Extenuating Circumstances, I think they can get a 100% refund including the AAB service fees.

[Anonymous]

@Don_Michelle0  This situation is exasperating, but @Sarah977 is totally right. And this is the kind of Extenuating Circumstances cancellation that only works out easily when the guest initiates it. I know you're trying to provide good customer service and help them deal with a bad situation, but Airbnb does not want you to be the judge of whether your guest can forge a mudslide to reach your home. They're much more generous with your payout when the guest contacts them. 

They may or may not get their service fees back, but that's going to have to be their battle to fight. Alternatively, if they are willing to accept a date change (presuming that your roads will be built back better), that could save a few steps.

[Don_Michelle0]

Andrew,

Thank you so much, I'm realizing that you are quite right... the guest would have the best possibility of a favorable action by ABB so I am going to keep that in my thoughts when anything like this comes up again. And doing everything I can to make that as easy as possible for them to do. 

We happened on some very good luck this morning hear that the northbound highway was reopened late last night! So guests are now enroute -- and there's a bit of blue sky here too-boot! So, the storm has passed for this moment.

Danke sehr,

Michelle 🙂

[Laura2592]

@Don_Michelle0  yes I feel your pain. I was picking up supplies last week near our ABB and was chatting with someone while waiting for a case of wine (tempted to drink it all myself these days.) It was a frequent guest on ABB who described a similar issue. There was a disaster where they were set to travel and it took 2 hours on the phone with ABB by the host for the verdict to be "guest has to cancel and maybe not get money back." The guest did and the host wanted to fully refund but ABB botched the payment and the guest had several weeks of haranguing to get it back. Its a familiar tale. ABB's CS leaves much to be desired and I have zero confidence in the bots that run their payout algorithm. If we judge by this guest's reaction, many may be leaving the platform in frustration too (he will only book VRBO or directly with owners. I gave him my card.)

I would just message the guest and say "I am so sorry but when I tried to do this on your behalf, I was advised by ABB that you as the guest had to initiate the cancellation for a refund. I am happy to provide a refund as I mentioned. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist with. Thanks for understanding."

[Don_Michelle0]

Laura!

Howdy 🙂 and, your tone of messaging was exactly what I needed (and what I couldn't find within myself in the shock of the sheer absurdity, not too mention the insult, of ABB's policy last night).  I'm actually copying and pasting your 'response' to save in my text file of messages I keep in reserve! It's beautifully stated and you get the 'best customer service award of the day!' -- I'd happily join you in polishing off that case of wine! 🙂  

I think we can all agree (and definitely those of us who grew up in the age of 'the customer is always right' -- or -- 'go above and beyond the customer's expectations') that one very serious thing that is missing these days is empowering employees to truly provide good customer service instead of being tied to 'bot' messaging.

Well thankfully as of this morning Interstate-5, northbound, in Washington state is OPEN so our guests are headed up and expected to arrive around 4pm.  They have no idea what I went to bat for last night for both them and us ... and that's just fine and the way it should be!

Take care and I wish you a very smooth glide into 2022!! 🙂

Michelle

Mace Meadows Inn
Bellingham, Wa

[John2406]

@Sara977 thank you so much for your answer to the problem, although when you said "Or just tell the guests to cancel and you can refund their money through the resolution center after you get paid for the booking", why wouldn't the Guests be refunded by Airbnb when the Guests cancelled in such circumstances?

On the rare occasions a cancellation is required due to "circumstances beyond anyone's control" I always ask the Guest to cancel with Airbnb because we don't receive any monies paid by the Guest until 24hrs after the Guest has arrived at our place - whilst when CS contact me, I always let them know I want the Guest to be repaid in full (well, I haven't received anything, so in a sense it doesn't "hurt", as I'm not having to reimburse out of my own pocket!

Doing a refund that way - I would have thought - would considerably shorten the time involved for a payback rather than having to go through a resolution centre? Just a thought.

[Sarah977]

@John2406  What I meant when I said ask the guest to cancel and refund through the resolution center was if Airbnb refused to consider it an extenuating circumstance, issuing a full refund including service fees.

[John2406]

It's very rare that I use "extenuating circumstances" for cancellations, the last time I did that was just after the pandemic began, when Guests were going to come from abroad.

These days if something happens, I just ask the Guest to cancel, and when CS contacts me, I just tell them as it is.

That I always ask for the Guest to be refunded in full might be one of the reasons  they just do!?